With plans to enter the Pacific Ocean on the horizon, we decided to clean our fresh water tank on the boat. Neither my husband, Simon, nor I knew how to clean a boat water tank but we knew that we’d eventually need fresh clean water coming from it! The first step we took was to[Read More]
Maintenance
Marine Diesel Engine Starting Problem
If you’ve never worked on engines before it’s quite a steep learning curve when it comes to troubleshooting. For over two years, and after a major refit, our trusted Westerbeke Generator has never failed us. That is, until recently! Unfortunately, we experienced a marine diesel engine starting problem. After pre-heating the starter and then turning[Read More]
My top 15 sailing maintenance tips, tricks and little known secrets
During our first year of living on our sailboat I kept a running list of sailing maintenance tips, tricks and little known secrets. Some of the items noted are big-time money and/or time savers and others are simply common sense that isn’t common when you’re a newbie sailor. Considering that this has been our first year living[Read More]
Teak Deck Maintenance using Boracol
After years of asking marine professionals and long term live aboards how to best maintain our teak deck, time after time we’ve been told to use Boracol. Boracol is a chemical that can be used for the management of mold, fungal growth, mildew, slime, dry rot and insect attack. Before being a boat owner I[Read More]
How to Fix a Gebo Portlight Window Knob
Over the past couple years we’ve experienced two main issues concerning our Gebo portlight window knobs. One issue is frustrating and the other is potentially a serious problem. This article and accompanying video explains the issues and demonstrates how to effectively fix them. Watch the video immediately below and for further explanation, read below for[Read More]
How to use Spartite to reseat your mast
If you told me a couple years ago I’d be writing an article on how to reseat a sailboat mast, or how to use Spartite, I would have said, ‘What’s reseating,’ ‘What’s Spartite,’ and ‘who’s mast are you talking about?!’ But let me back up. A couple weeks ago we left the Greek Ionian Islands[Read More]
How to fix a topside hatch from leaking
As we have quickly discovered, boats leak from all sorts of areas – and often, the water enters a spot nowhere near the apparent leak. While preparing for a 850+ mile journey from Gibraltar to Malta we discovered a minor water flow coming out of one of our cupboards. At first we thought the water was making it’s[Read More]
How to change a grey water drain switch in the head
How to change a grey water drain switch in the head The grey water drain switch is used to empty the grey water tank after using the sink or during the use of the shower. Grey water is used water from the sink/shower whereas black water is from the toilet. All boats have pumps to[Read More]
Our fresh water pump keeps running even when we’re not using water and it’s driving me nuts!
Imagine enjoying a nice book while curled up on the saloon sofa and having to hear brrrrrrrrrrrip every twenty minutes? Consider what it’s like when you finally start to drift off to sleep and the low murmur of brrrrrrrrrip echos through the boat? For several months I’ve been enduring the annoying sound of brrrrrrrrrip throughout[Read More]
When I thought things couldn’t get any worse, they have – looks like we might have fried our propeller shaft
Right now I’m full of anger with myself. Looking back, I didn’t do enough. I didn’t pay enough attention during my Diesel Marine Engine Course and I didn’t research the most important things to know before taking over a second hand boat. Yes, we had a 35’ Moody sailboat for a couple years but the[Read More]
