LESSONS LEARNED WHILE CRUISING Jamie & Behan Gifford
Early Warnings
Several years ago on a weekend
away from the dock, we were tucked in
for a quiet night on the hook at Blakely
Harbor, one of our favorite spots. Just
as dawn was breaking, an odd clicking
sound broke into our sleep. We quickly
knew the clicking came from our solar
panel voltage regulator. Why the
device was working so hard with so
little sunlight was puzzling. Jamie got
up to investigate and found that our
house and start batteries were badly
discharged.
After shutting down our electrical
system and troubleshooting, he found
that our LPG solenoid had shorted
out. The solenoid was so hot the
housing was melting; a bit worrisome
The Gifford and Booby families.
considering propane goes through
the middle of it! Further, we learned
Listen to Your Boat
that the house and start batteries were
not isolated as we had thought. We
Is your boat trying to tell you something?
disconnected the solenoid, and the solar
panels recharged our now-isolated
start batteries enough to get the engine
going for the windless trip home. The
In the spectrum of skill sets useful and location of different sounds. With lesson learned: odd sounds, even if
for cruising, many seem difficult younger kids onboard, this can be a only slightly off normal, can be a clue
to acquire or intimidating to those fun learning game. Our kids would to potentially catastrophic problems.
to whom these skills do not come call out “pump!” and then I could press Don’t delay in investigating.
naturally (i.e. diesel repair). But one of them on which pump. They learned to One night we were enjoying dinner
the most useful skills of all is natural distinguish between a surprising range in the main cabin when we noticed
and easy for most of us: listening. of equipment by sound only. There the faint sound of water. It wasn’t
Tuning into those sounds consistent is great satisfaction in having your much and could have been chalked
with a well-performing boat can help four year old daughter come up the up to a variety of sources – especially
alert you early to problems. companionway saying that the fresh considering we were in our slip,
It’s not a skill you can sit down water pump is making a funny noise. adjacent to several fellow liveaboards.
and learn from a book; Checking for sources,
there’s no test to pass we eventually found a
or certification, but it is
“Totem” and “Wildflower”
hairline crack in a plastic
one that every boater
anchored at Isla Isabella.
elbow connector, a part
can benefit from. It’s no of the freshwater supply,
more complicated than located in our bilge. This
spending time on board system is under pressure,
and being conscious of so water sprayed from
surrounding sounds. the connector across the
The aggregate of “noise” bilge. Had we missed
comes from numerous this and gone to bed, a
sources around the considerable amount
boat: engine, pumps, of water could have
rigging, water around drained from our tanks;
the boat, shifting stores, instead, we were only
squeaks and rattles, etc. inconvenienced by the
Everyone can practice three minutes it took to
identifying the source replace the elbow.
48° No r t h , Fe b r u a r y 2010 Pa g e 38
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