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Nexus - Its not all fun and games but still worth it!



Yesterday, in the driving rain, I was firing up our Genset to charge the batteries, and noticed the water coming out of the exhaust was not the usual prodigious amount and the Genset was running 10 degrees hotter than usual. On further investigation, the raw water impeller on our genset decided to shed many of it's little arms and needed to be replaced. This is a normal maintenance item that is supposed to last 1000 hours, however when sailing in big waves the intake frequently sucks air in, which is hard on the impeller. So there I was, curled up on the floor of the back corner of the aft hull compartment under the stairs, next to a warm generator and underneath a swinging rudder quadrant, replacing the impeller and cleaning the missing blades out of the heat exchanger whilst the boat tossed up and down in the waves. Laurie would periodically open the hatch to pass tools or parts to me, whilst whatever rainwater collected around the hatch dumped on my head. The operation was a straight forward and a success, but as I emerged 30 minutes later dehydrated and a little light headed, I thought to myself "its not all fun and games out here, but its still worth it." I love the adventure and the unknown challenges that pop up, but I though I would share that story in case you think we all sit at the helm all day enjoying sun and lemonade with our feet up on the dash!


On the lighter side, when I came on watch this morning, I heard this periodic "thump, thump, thump" then silence, which repeated from time to time. It was still dark and I kept looking around for a loose reefing line or rolling object that may have come loose during the night. The puzzle persisted for about an hour, until first light started to faintly illuminate my surroundings. I then heard the noise again, and looking up through our hard top, I saw a large pair of webbed feet standing on the glass window above my head. The next window over revealed a copious amount of bird poop. Apparently we had a large Booby for a passenger all night! Later in the morning, I saw a sail on the horizon on our port side, which turned out to be Chika-Lu, less than 3 miles away! It still is a thing of wonder, that two boats leaving the same harbor 470nm ago, would have a chance crossing at sea less than 3 miles apart, three days later! It's great to see friends out here in the deep blue sea!

Russ and Laurie on NEXUS at 11:00 10/2/2014 15 20.7'S;89 01.2'E 


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