Temptation and Fresh Water GALORE!!

Sunday September 16, 2007 Matthews Point Marina

Today began cool and refreshing – finally a break in the heat wave that set records in August and September –

The morning started with the inability to connect to the internet – this happens in about one in three trips with this Beacon WiFi. Oh well – just the motivation I need to start on the chores. After my usual breakfast I went ahead and shortened spring lines and moved fenders to move Temptation about 1 foot backwards in the slip. It looks like in real shallow water the anchor/bowsprit might hit the dock – not now. Whew – worked up a sweat early today.

Well the water system had worked flawlessly since yesterday. I was now drawing directly from the FWD tank. I reconnected the FWD tank to the selector assembly and tried it again. This is easier said than done. That damn fitting is between major hoses and no room to swing a wrench – took more than 20 minutes to reconnect.

Well it seemed to still work just fine. Not bad considering all I did was blow into the tank after emptying it – I guess this needs more study.

I was curious how much water this tank held so I tried the inverse approach to measuring the capacity. I timed the number of seconds to fill a gallon jug – about 7 seconds. WE then emptied the tank and filled it while timing – wow – 15 minutes 54 seconds. That worked out to some 119 gallons!! We thought it was another 75 gallon tank. Thus between the 2 tanks we are carrying 200 gallons of water when we thought it was only 150. Nice surprise .. Now can I reliably pump all that water??? Time will tell.

I filled the AFT tank but played no more with it today.

Another discovery today!! While waiting for the tank to run dry I was inspecting the engine and I found the alternator belt VERY LOOSE. I mean so loose I could turn the pulley under it by hand. Hmmmm this might explain why the alternator did no work when we left Wrightsville Beach a few weeks ago but then worked the next day when we left Morehead City Yacht Basin Marina… Think about it. When I left Wrightsville after spending a long day/night on the hook the batteries were deeply discharged. Thus probably why the alternator did not generate electricity – too much load for the slipping belt -- WOW great luck it was so loose it didn’t burn up!!!

Now when we went into the Marina to charge batteries all night there was virtually no load on the alternator in the morning – thus it charged some. Makes sense at least.

The belt adjuster was all the way out. Nothing left. I removed the belt and found the mounting bolts all loose!! The belt did not look very good. I found a new replacement and installed it. A new belt gives 1 inch of remaining adjustment. We fired the engine up and tested and it looked good. The belt got pretty warm so it might still be slipping a bit but man it felt tight. Something else to monitor.

I was on a roll. So I dug the silicone gasket out of the port side salon hatch and replaced with fresh clear silicon. Hopefully this will stop the leak without having to remove the entire Lexan lens.

We had a hurried lunch then packed and left the Marina just before 1pm to catch the Ferry to Oriental – need to check on Luna Sea and remove a few things. We went the back way and just as we reached the gravel rode we say a 4 wheeler stuck in the mud at the entrance. There was a huge pool of water in the road and he had tried to go around and got stuck in the mud. We turned and went the long way – rather quickly – it was going to be close. Wow we got to the Ferry at exactly 1:13pm and they had already loaded. They were just about to remove the ramp when they loaded us last. Then one minute later they left – actually a little early by my calculation.


It was a fine ride over with a beautiful clear blue sky and nice cool breeze.. We visited Luna Sea. She is doing fine but oh so lonely. I feel bad but what can you do.

We had a nice ride home and planned next weeks outing… A big Raft up at South River next Saturday to celebrate Ralph’s birthday. Hey any excuse is a good one for a raft up. We plan to play next weekend – enough work for a while.

Fair Winds You All..