May 2, 2021
After the completion of major projects, a shakedown cruise is a good idea. Actually, after the boat sits in a marina for a while, used only as a floating apartment, a shakedown cruise is a good idea. Nothing seems to break things on Legacy as fast as disuse. We fall under both categories: disuse, new stuff, and a third category as well – we’ve forgotten how to use most of the stuff on Legacy and have some relearning to do.
The breakdowns started minutes out of our Auckland berth with no autopilot control at the helm. Actually, it turned out to be no NMEA 2000 signals to our chartplotter. I tried all the usual solutions including multiple restarts to no avail. It’s OK, we can use our remote control. It’s not as convenient but it does the job.
The next day, we found our next issue: a bad watermaker fresh water valve. As these electric valves are my own design, I know who to blame for this failure (though knowing this doesn’t make me happy). No worries mate, I made it so it can be operated by hand.
Next up: leaking gas (petrol for you kiwi blokes) from our outboard. We put it on the dinghy and I started pulling the starter cord. It sputtered to semi-life and died. I smelled gas. Oh, I must have flooded it, but what’s all that stuff running out of the bottom of the engine? Gas! With the valve shut off again and the engine back aboard Legacy, it was time to go to the backup plan for that: oars.
All this hasn’t dampened our fun though. It’s all easily fixed and it’s great to be out on the boat again, with quiet, dark nights and sights to see. As I was writing this, a very playful dolphin pod made an appearance off the bow and a few minutes after that, a whale surfaced right behind us. -Rich
