More Travails!

 

That's a segment of the cable that runs from the Raymarine chart-plotter in the cockpit, through the boat, then up through the deck near the mast, then up the inside of the mast to the radar dome. It's normally hidden under a wooden cover. As you can see it's completely burned through which accounts for why the chart-plotter display can't connect to the radar dome. My major frustration is that I only discovered this AFTER I had concluded that the problem must be with the radar itself and had therefore risked life and limb and climbed the mast to remove the radar. Somehow I managed to get it off and back down to the deck without breaking or dropping anything. Then I bought a secondhand unit on ebay and after testing it, attempted to fit it. That proved impossible on my own however and so back down the mast I went. On my return to the deck I just happened to glance down at the various between the deck plate cover and the base of the mast and noticed a little nick in the radar cable. "I'd better tape that up" I thought to myself. It would be easier to make a good job of it if I had access to more of the cable and so removed the cover and that's when I discovered the above. Clearly that part of the cable had suffered damage previously because as you can see it had been taped up. I must have noticed it when I took the mast down in St Peter's in August 2024 and may even have taped it up myself then. But whenever it was done, water must have finally penetrated the cable and caused it to short out. That probably happened on the crossing from Greenland back to the UK last year, but I don't remember when I last used it. So now I'm left with two radar related jobs instead of just one; repair or replace the cable (neither of which would be straightforward) AND refit the radar dome up the mast!

Travail number 2 - the engine. A few weeks ago my only outing on the boat since returning her to Hoo, was a short one down the river to Stangate Creek where I spent a couple of days at anchor doing a few jobs. On returning to Hoo the engine failed and I ended up colliding with a moored boat. Fortunately no serious damage was done and thanks to a very helpful chap who happened to be out in the Medway Cruising Club launch, I got towed back to my mooring. Since then I've checked the fuel lines and replaced the lift pump but the engine would still not run reliably and most recently will only run unevenly for a minute or so before stopping. After talking through the symptoms with Steve, an air leak in the joint between the fuel pipe and the water/fuel separator filter (which is before the pump) is the main suspect and so that's the next thing to check out. When Rob helped me deal with similar symptoms in Bermuda in June 2024 he warned me that was a trouble spot. I just hope it is an air leak and not a problem with the injectors or the high pressure pump which was the problem that Gary had in Bermuda. That will be a more expensive problem to rectify!