Cruising is Maintenance in Exotic Places

A Rash of Maintenance Issues: "Cruising is all about doing boat maintenance in exotic places."

We stayed two nights in rainy Klawok, to fix a number of issues.

1. The stuffing box (needed for cooling the drive shaft) needed to be tightened.
2. While working on the stuffing box, Urs cracked the vacuum pipe for my toilet; a couple of layers of silicon fixed that problem.
3. There was a small engine coolant leak; fixed with high temperature and high pressure silicon.
4. Bow roller (for anchor chain) was stuck, making it difficult to put the anchor down. Taken apart and fixed with a grease gun.
5. Judy's iPod, that had fallen into the sea earlier and flushed with fresh water, is now dry and works with an external power source. Needs a new battery.
6. Judy fixed the hood on her rain jacket so that it no longer covers her eyes.
7. The Sirius radio transmitter worked only if we avoided touching it. Urs soldered a loose wire.

And then we thought everything was fine. Judy did two loads of laundry, as we had power and water. But the washing machine didn't drain at the end of the second load. After much hassle draining the water and dirtying the towels from the first load, we found a handkerchief and a piece of plastic in the drain. With that clog removed it worked fine again. What a relief.