Changed Marina
The new year started with a big cleanup session. Our last sailing had been almost four months ago – early in September. All that time we had worked hard to get the ETERNAUT ready. And we had bought a ton of spare parts. At least it felt like that. And all those spare parts had be stowed!
Lantau Yacht Club
An exclusive club
Well, Lantau Yacht club, also known as DB Marina, had accommodated and tolerated us for months. Our pleasant stay had been interrupted from time to time.
The less pleasant surprises were WhatsApp messages which kept saying that work on the dock is not allowed. But how could I add the distance markers onto the newly purchased chain? How am I supposed to work at the anchor bracket. Or even mount the new anchor?
The marina also wanted to earn some extra cash with my oil change: Just last month I had changed the oil of engine, gearbox and genset. Shell had charged me around HK$30 a liter for Rimola R4 15W-40. DB Marina asked HK$50 a liter to call the disposal company. A small levy would have been fine. But paying more for disposal than for new engine oil is surely too much.
A marina not for everyone
For Rita the marina caused a lot of work as the management had not updated their status with Hong Kong postal service: There was a time when Discovery Bay Marina wanted to get rid of all live-aboards. So they stopped accepting any mail from HK post for their inhabitants. Worse, contracts and debentures had not been extended which lead to huge losses of boat value. For many families it was a tragedy.
A tragedy which affected even us even though four years later: Rita was on the phone for days to prevent our spare parts being shipped back to Europe.
A change was due
Despite having had huge progress to get ETERNAUT ready for the ocean crossing, extensive sea trials were still due. Also we would have liked to wait for the end of the winter monsoon with it’s Force 7 to 8 winds.
So it was late December when we requested to extend our stay with Lantau Yacht Club. The acceptance letter arrived straight away. Unfortunately with a price increase of 30% saying: “For the good service”. Even if it meant a temporary good bye from Ed and Christine of MV Destiny: the rental fee was over our budget.
At first we had thought we would have to resort to anchoring out straight away. But luckily I had not cancelled my membership at Hebe Haven Yacht Club. These days you might find us at the guest dock if we are not undergoing any sea trials that moment.
At Hebe Haven I was also able to dispose the old engine oil properly and free of charge after carrying the oil drums all the way at the stern of the boat.
Refueling
On the way from Discovery Bay (Lantau Island) we stopped near Yau Ma Tei typhoon shelter. One of the many barges for bunkering is on a mooring at that place. I had scheduled the refueling and agreed on details like amount and price by WhatsApp a few days before. We were allowed to pay by bank transfer after receiving the official invoice. It was much cheaper than my last refueling and this time there was no need to visit several ATMs beforehand. Curious how many people had earned some pocket money on my previous trip to a tanker barge.
We still had 700 liters of diesel fuel in the day tank. Thus we made the decision to fill only the four main underfloor tanks. We paused the refueling many times to set quantity markers at the tank gauges. It took us two hours to fill those tanks with 4,00 liters of diesel. The exact amount as predicted and calculated by the shipyard.
Afterwards we continued our journey through Victoria Harbor to Hebe Haven.
A lot of work
There is no time for boredom at the new berth either. Actually we have never been bored since we own ETERNAUT. If you are planning to purchase a boat as your retirement plan be aware: You might become as busy as you have never been before!
Some of the items which kept me busy last four weeks:
Address engine cooling circuit
The engine cooling circuit had a small leak since I own the boat. I knew it for long time. And I knew it would be a difficult task. Even Wan Marine had not managed to fix it, although they had wrongly claimed so.
But I knew: Before doing any long distance cruising I would have to stop the leak. Culprit was a D- hose clamp which was too large. As so often, Seahorse Marine did not install the properly sized item: whatever the worker had on hand was installed, whether it fitted or not.
And to make matters worse, the inappropriately sized hose clamp was installed in the area most difficult to see… and reach.
At first I disconnected the charge controller and the battery master switch of the engine start battery. Then I unmounted those to move them out of the way. At last I managed to change the affected hose clamp. While working in that area I installed a second set of hose clamps… as it always should be!
Below are a few pictures. You will have to look carefully to find the hose clamps underneath the gearbox heat exchanger.
Generator cooling circuit connected to water heater
Speaking of cooling circuit: I also used the last days to connect the generator cooling circuit to the water heater. Work I had assigned to Seahorse Marine to do. By this time I should have been accustomed that the shipyard did not fulfill their tasks. But maybe this time it was good that they did not attempt the job. Last month the water heater nearly exploded due to wrongly connected hoses.
Unfortunately the local dealer for Northern Lights did not know how to divert the cooling circuit to the calorifier coil. Thankfully Ed from MV Destiny owns the same generator and he provided me with photos how it is done on his boat.
The top of the cooling circuit pump has a fitting to which I installed a small valve, elbow and 15mm hose connector. This is where a small portion of the cooling liquid is diverted towards the calorifier.
The heat exchanger housing has three possible connection possibilities underneath the seawater inlet. One of them is used for the overtemp alarm switch. You can use either of those to fit valve (with elbow and 15mm hose connector) for the return line.
Last but not least: do not forget to refill coolant after short runs of the engine. This is important to allow for coolant volume of hoses and calorifier coil.
And voila: From now on the cooling circuit of the generator heats up the shower water. Less energy wasted 🙂
Test rides
Since we have moved our base to Hebe Haven we have done a couple test rides and a few nights at anchor. As always we find items where work will have to be done and things which require improvement. But at this stage there aren’t any items which require immediate attention. For the first time we dare to say:
ETERNAUT is seaworthy