Adagio - From Adagio (U.S.) #7: 11/30/2018

#7: 11/30/2018: Friday

Got to wear nearly all my hats today ... We'll call this an 'eclectic' Friday.

Sunrise was logged as 'sliding up through layers of clouds' and the day progressed as partly cloudy to occasionally overcast. It is a bit warmer in the breeze but the sea state is persistently sloppy. Ah well, another day, another 'bouncing around the inside of the boat'. I'm thankful for the insightful layout of hand holds throughout Adagio.

So .. my first hat was 'mechanic/electronics tech' as our AIS (Vespermarine Watchmate) has taken to randomly starting to flash the entire screen off and on rapidly. The first obvious attempts to fix it were connections, power measurements and the cable to the antenna. Everything checked out well (power supply and VSWR) and I cleaned all the connectors for good measure. It's still working fine , and we all have the wifi App that lets us see the screen on a mobile device but it's a weird manifestation.

Later in the troubleshooting process we discovered that the screen does not flash in any mode except full screen "Radar" type display. It also does not flash in night mode, or in reduced brightness settings. So .. good enough for now. We'll have the factory take a look at it when we get back. So much for that that.

Next ... the dreaded report from the crew that the toilet "kind of had a lot of water in it this morning ...". OK, on goes the plumber's hat and a few minutes later a new joker valve is installed. Solved.

Number three for the day is the electrician's hat, and it involves wrestling the motor away from the watermaker's base assembly. I did succeed in freeing it from its base (wow!, that is a ~tight~ fit...) and connected it up to power to bench test it. With fire extinguisher by my side and with my wedding ring safely in my pocket I connected the motor directly to 24Volts ... and ... nothing. OK, when I spun it by hand it 'coughed' once or twice but it would not spin. Well .. cool! At least I was not going to be trying to dissect a high pressure water pump today.

Once I got the covers off to the brushes I could immediately see that the build up of soot and grime inside the housing was a big mess and that ~maybe~ it might be interfering with the connectivity inside. So .. using canned air (everybody carries that aboard,they??) and piece of 'scotch brite' and some spray "Electrical Component Cleaner" (wait... that too??) I cleaned as much of the soot and grime out of the motor housing as I could. Now, this all happened on a hobby-horsing cockpit floor and I'm still trying to clean up the mess it made to blow that carbon powder around in the wind .. oops ...

Finally it was all cleaned and put back together and I took it back below and reconnected to the power ... and ... it nearly leapt out of my hands due to the torque. OK!! YAY!! that is a good fix, even if only temporary. It then took the better part of two hours to reassemble it all. The belt had to be held to tension while bolts were inserted in the mounting plate. A winch handle served as a makeshift crowbar to spread the two devices (motor and pump) apart and I finally got a couple of bolts started. I clipped the connecting wires and installed new crimped connectors and got the project finished just at dusk.

I was dirty, sweaty, bruised and got two small 'boat bites' in the process but by golly we had a working watermaker running about an hour later.

Time to take showers everyone!!

My final hat, albeit only for a few minutes and for a minor job was as 'Rigger'. But the story is anything but minor ...

KA-BANG!!!!! The noise was just huuuuge and the entire boat shook as if it had been hit by a cannon. It was dark, and we were flying along at 8.7kt or more when it seemed we'd been struck by a giant baseball bat.

What had happened was that a Lewmar block that retained the forward guy line to the whisker pole basically exploded. When it failed, the forward guy line was suddenly free and the whisker pole itself had nothing holding it forward .. except for some tension along the genoa sheet.
So, being free of constraints, the pole made a rapid bee-line aft.
Now, the Amel design has the whisker pole attached outboard of the main spreaders and articulated to swing in all directions. Since the topping lift, downhaul and aft guy were still attached the pole swung on its pivot point and crashed into forward-most mizzen shroud. The noise and the shock/shudder really scared everyone as we briefly entertained a rigging failure of some kind. We got the boat lit up immediately and found that big pole peacefully nestled against the shroud while the genoa was just flogging away out in front of the boat. I grabbed and restrained to pole, lashing it to the shroud and containing all the loose control lines.
Robin furled in the genoa without incident and the sheets both came cleanly aboard. Now we were trying to figure out the why of it and Mike noticed that the blue control line (forward guy) was still cleated properly to the boat and was still attached to the pole .. but .. it wasn't routed through the forward block any more. Getting a light on the block showed that it had failed.

So, all suited up and clipped in I replaced the block, re-ran the control guy (it showed no sign of chafe, actually) and Alp. Mike and Robin all worked to get the pole reset, the genoa re-deployed and we got underway again. Technically, it was a simple failure from an old component under a good deal of stress. The retaining rivet showed corrosion but it was not readily visible from outside inspection.

The weird part .. actually very sobering ... is that the Ka-Bang part of having that pole hit the rig was a stunning reality check that anything can happen and even of you are very secure in your setting it pays to have a plan and to understand how the systems work aboard.

I am again thankful for the design foresight... The articulating pole stayed under control, the length of the pole and the set of the rigging prevented damage to the cockpit dodger and transferred the impact through the rig. While it was loud and scary, it was basically harmless. .. Just didn't sound that way at the time :)

OK adrenaline rush is over, time for a hot chocolate and a nap!