189: Don't buy a TRICKED OUT WATER MAKER...it will cause nothing but problems!

Owning a boat is doing boat work in beautiful places. We love the fact that you're so sensible. This is going to be impossible. Salting somebody's chest open to get to the heart. You gotta be freaking kidding me. I'm way out of my wheelhouse here. We are planning to head out north before the next big blow comes to get ourselves situated for the arrival of my family. This is our first successful attempt at wing-on-wing and it's working pretty well. Hopefully we've done it correctly. But it looks good and we're moving at six and a half knots. So as long as it looks good. Wow we're coming into Williams. This is so close to the rocks. After checking out what boats are there we decided to head up to Lee Stocking to get better coverage from the wind and the big blow that's coming. So this will give us a little bit more protection. We're rolling into Lee Stocking Island here and hoping to find a good resting place to stay for the next few days where we get this blow coming in and have decent protection here. We got west protection, northwest protection, north, northeast and a bit of southeast too. But we're gonna get hammered on the south and southwest. Hey guys good morning. We had a batten receptacle snap on our sail and the O'Kellys are providing a replacement for that out here in the middle of nowhere. From their old sail, from the old Clarity sail. How fun is that? So it's so cool that you know they're, we're helping them, they're helping us. Which is really one of the best things about the boater community. People just follow over themselves to help each other between all of our stores and both food and extra parts and hospitality. We've got the world lit, don't we? Speaking of helping, they might need some help. Looks like their dinghy isn't starting. I know. Oh they're doing a little. Oh they're doing a little video. Yeah yeah they're doing a little video. So they're gonna video us and we're gonna video them. We have a nice little breakfast right here. Ready to go. The orchids in full bloom. We've got all the wonderful hot sauces. We have my mom's napkins. Hoopy's napkins. Gone coastal. I like that. That's better than gone postal, right? It's the tropics. What are you doing? I was talking to my mom last night. My mom's like, yeah it's really warmed up. It's sunny here in Worland. It's 47. And I'm talking to my speaker phone. I'm actually in the salon like this. And I'm like, Megan, how warm is it? The temperature's like 78. We love it. We love the fact that you're so sensible. In so many ways. Oh my gosh. You guys are awesome. I'm glad I could return the favor. You guys, let us know. Let us know if you need anything. Yes, please. I know. And we are very needy also. Thank you, Megan and Nick from Clarity. Brought us a new receptacle from their old sail. How fun is that? That we now are going to have a piece of Clarity flying on our boat. And I am going to change that out today. I've got to harvest some of the hardware and install the new one. Owning a boat is basically doing boat work in beautiful places. And look at the view that I have as I'm taking off this batten receptacle. Pretty amazing. So we have successfully changed the receptacle. Brown's just tightening them up again. Huge thanks to Megan and Nick on Clarity. There's Clarity right there. Oh man, our new hardware. Amazing neighbors to have. This is so awesome. I can't believe this is fixed. That's amazing. Thank God for the cruising community. What you doing soul girl? So girl. Excuse me, not soul girl. I am sewing the towels a little color on the side. So that when a person, because all of our towels are the same color. But when a person uses their towel, they will know this one's pink. I've done red and I've done blue. So when they hang them out on the line, there's no confusion as to whose towel is whose. You know, that's why they call her the Admiral. I'm just the captain. Go figure. You know, she's got skills. We have been at this beautiful Anchorage fleece docking for two days now to wait out the big blow. And we have been working our tails off, preparing for our visitors, which has been great. But we just need a break. So Brown's taking the diggy down and we're going to head over and explore the abandoned research center apparently. It's supposed to be very cool. Did you ever watch the series Lost? Yes, this could be the final episode. This could be Lost in another dimension and time. If we see that logo that they've got, I'm running. It is literally abandoned. Such a pretty property. In 1957, billionaire publisher and soon-to-be oceanographer John Perry bought Lee's Docking Island. In 1984, he established the Caribbean Marine Research Center. For 28 years, the laboratory studied the Bahamian marine ecosystems under NOAA. It specialized in studying conch, spiny lobster, and stomatolites, which are three-billion-year-old microbial reefs. When in 2012, the NOAA funding dried up, the center closed abruptly, leaving the buildings, equipment, furniture, and even personal belongings behind. It's like visiting a post-apocalyptic movie set in which you expect to see ghosts of scientists still at work. This time tomorrow, the family arrives. So we've got a hangar and a really nice runway. It's huge. Check it out. It's crazy, isn't it? So we have an issue with our water maker. What is the issue, honey? It's the boost pressure pump part that's on the absolute pressure sensor that's on top of the unit. But it's preventing us from making water, correct? Yep. And we've got to clear it out. But the problem is, it's on the top of the unit, which is right here. And the top is totally inaccessible on this. And I don't know how we're going to get this bolted to this side wall. I'm wearing Hopi's leopard reading glasses right now. I only bring these out. Hopi's my mom. I only bring these out when I really need to focus. And right now, I really need to focus. What I'm going to do is take these bolts out and get at the front of this. And hopefully, I can access what I need to access. All right. Last one. Last of six screws. Got the front panel off, which is what we need. I've got to get a wrench in here. This is going to be impossible. Hold on. I can't. This is stuck back there. Now, I've got to get into the back. You can't even see it. We just talked to the tech. At Spectra. And he says he doesn't have good news for me. So, he checked with one of the manufacturing people. He's basically saying this is the equivalent to open heart surgery. So, I'm not a doctor, but I need water. But this area is so hard to get into. It's either unplug like 13 hoses from this thing. Then trying to get them back on. You got to get the right ones to the right hose for this manifold. And make sure they don't leak. The reason you can't get at is because this thing's so long. You can't turn it. Let me tell you. You can never have enough tools on the boat. Never have enough solar. Never enough tools. And we're throwing a Hail Mary here. We're creating a special tool from something we have. And hopefully, we can cut through this without a whole lot of trouble. Otherwise, something's going to get hurt. Yeah, I think I cut through the thing. Yeah, that's totally true. All right. So, we've got the tool now. And let's hope that that's the only... Special tools. Special people think it's too small. This is definitely going to do it, but it's the wrong size. Yeah, I think I cut the wrong tool. We've cut another tool. This time, an Imperial. And we are hoping that it fits. Two tools gone. We're hoping 11 16ths can solve our problem. Oh, yeah. Is it working? Good. So, I just took off the wire housing. Look how ridiculous this is to get to. Now, I've got to take this one right here. And I've got to screw this one out. Here comes the first one. Look how easy that is to get to. Maybe the other one. Please don't do this. Exhibit number one. And we're going to put these pumps and plumbers tape around this and then get them back in there. I'm way out of my wheelhouse here. Hopefully, we can get this fixed. Ron's now putting the whole system back together again. And then we're going to put some new pre-filters in. And then we're going to recalibrate them. I have to set the system so it recognizes them as new filters. And then we're going to try and make some water. It's been a long day. All we're going to do is now there's going to be an O-ring. Yep. And they're going to be able to remove the spring. And then the check valve itself. Yep. Okay. And now at that point, it's completely disassembled. Just get all the big stuff out. Okay. And you're going to put it back down how it was. You either have to place the O-ring on the bottom piece. When you twist it on because the O-ring may not stick. I think we're good. I think the O-ring is clean. He's putting it back together again. I think that little shell, that was like a little oyster shell. Now I'm going to have you install that back into the boost pump. Stefan, we're going to go ahead and start the system here. Okay. It's making water. You are making water. Yes. 12.4 is boost pressure. 12.5. That's what I want to see. Well, our water maker has an issue and we need to get parts. And believe it or not, someone in Georgetown had parts that we could have. It's Ryan. Ryan is one of the dealers. So we're going to go grab that from them. But talk about an amazing sailing community when they can do this in the middle of nowhere. It's awesome.