Tag Archives: leaks

Massive Repairs in Savusavu

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I return to Savusavu after a quick trip to the states to pick up all of our boat parts (see blog “Life as a Pack Mule“).  Now, Matt is ready to begin working on the lengthy list of repairs.

He tackles the most important jobs first: Port Engine and Starboard Steering

Port Engine Timing Belt

An engine cannot run without its timing belt.  We lost the port engine timing belt in Tuvalu which rendered us short one engine.  See Failures Bring on Frustrating Times.

The new timing belt was a lot tighter than the original.  It took Matt a few tries to get it on.  Once it was on, Matt triple checked everything before attempting to start the engine.  And….it would not start.  He worked on it all day before he finally asked a fellow cruiser (Michael from sv Promises Kept) to take a look.  They bounced a lot of ideas off each other and worked on it for several hours.  Still nothing!  It would try to turn over and it sounded like it was almost there.

Finally, Matt took it apart again and triple checked everything again.  Hoping that all of the pieces were aligned and “in time.”  He moved one piece a few cm over and tried to start the engine.  It was the most beautiful sound to hear that engine fire up!  And we are back to being a two engine boat!

Starboard Steering Gear Box

This project is a little trickier as we require a machine shop to press the bearings out before Matt can finish this project.

Matt was able to get one of the small and one of the large bearings out using his new tool kit.  The Orion Motor Tech Blind Hole Collet Bearing and Seal Puller Extractor Kit.  This heavy tool kit was part of the reason my check in bag weighed 66lbs!

So we had two of the four bearings/seals out.  The other two required a machine shop.  

What we learned:

  1. The small bearing is completely missing its seal.  See old vs new bearings in the photo below.
  2. The large bearing and seal are workable but since we are taking it all apart we will replace them too.  

In the photo below, Matt uses the extractor tool to remove the bearing (green arrow). 

The red arrow shows the spot where the bearing came from out of the gear box.

We also noticed that there are a few teeth in the gear that are “worn.”  This wearing is at the center position (when the helm is centered) which is the most used position.

Finding a Machine Shop

We need to find a machine shop that has a large press to remove the gear. This would give us access to the two bottom bearings.

Stay tuned for a follow up blog post on our trip to Labasa to find a machine shop.

Wash Down Pump

The wash down pump is located at the front of the boat by the mast.  We use it to clean off the ground tackle and the boat.  We can use both fresh water and salt water through the same pump and 50′ of hose which makes it super convenient.

This poor pump is constantly exposed to salt water as it lives inside the anchor locker. 

It stopped working as we were lifting the anchor up to leave the Marshall Islands.  Which was a real bummer as the anchor chain was really dirty and needed a good scrub.

Matt thought he could repair the pump. 

However, when he took it apart he realized it was too rusted to repair. We ordered a new one which I brought back with me from the states.

Matt got it installed with little effort and ow it is working perfectly.

Leaks at the Bow

It is never good to have a leak on a boat and we had 2!  At least both leaks were contained to the bow peaks.  

We use our two forward bow peaks for storage. 

The port bow peak houses (5) A4 and (8) F4 fenders, a passerelle, SUP, and (8) PFD’s. 

Starboard houses (3) spinnakers, (2) large bean bags, (4) empty large water bottles, and some fun floats and noodles.

Both lockers were getting wet and it was a challenge to find their source. 

Matt discovered that the starboard leak was coming from the outside cleat. 

First, he had to remove everything from the locker and to clean it out. 

Then he took apart the cleat fittings, cleaned it, and sealed it up.  No more leaks! 

It does look like we need to repaint the interior of this locker at some point.

The port leak came from the outside rub strake. Matt removed the strake.  The water dripped in through some of the old holes were never filled in.

Matt fixed the leak by filled the holes and applying lots of 5200 (extra strength adhesive).

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual events.  Matt worked on these projects over the month of May 2025. 

How did we get all of these new parts to Fiji?  Check out my life as a Pack Mule.

Leaks: Drip, Drip, Drop

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Maybe that is a bit of an overdramatization…but we do have several leaks that recently started.  The fun part is trying to determine the source without tearing the boat apart.  But sometimes you just have to tear it apart to put it back together.

Same problem causing multiple leaks.  We were seeing leaks at each corner of the boat.  Originally, we thought it was caused by the seam between the deck and hull.  Then we thought it was where the stanchions meet the deck.  Next, we checked the drain area where our lines originate.  Ah ha!  There it is.  The angled 90° drain, that connects to the drain hose, needs to be replaced in all 4 corners. 

It took Matt months to find the right size angled drain that fit the 19mm hose and had a 31mm drain opening.  He ordered 4 and replaced the largest leak at the starboard bow first while we were in Fiji.  Being in New Zealand during this unusual rainy season has moved the leak project up to the front.

The top white drain is the original defective drain.  The larger white drain is the replacement that works in the two bow locations.  Unfortunately, the larger white drains are too tall for the aft cabin drains so we went on a hunting expedition to find new ones.  We tracked two new drains down in the South Island and had them shipped up to us in the North island (grey drain).

Both angled drains are leaking in the back and both are over beds.  The one in the master leaks right over Matt’s head and the one over the office leaks over the corner bed.  Fun!  These two locations require us to tear down the ceiling panel to access the drain.

Master Cabin Leaks

We removed two of our ceiling panels and found three leaks.  The main leak from the drain, then another leak coming in from a new solar cable we installed a few years ago (they didn’t seal it properly) and the third leak was coming from the ignition panel.  The good news is we could access all of them.

Cyclone Hale

Just after we removed all ceiling panels, we learned a cyclone was coming.  This is good and bad news.  Good in that we will see exactly where the leaks are coming from, but bad because it’s a cyclone for goodness sake!

For those of you who don’t read weather systems, here is another visual of the flooding.

Cyclone Hale changed directions a little bit and ended up over Coromandel.  Basically, we received a lot of rain and winds of about 40kts.  We are pretty protected in the marina so we felt relatively certain we would be ok.  Dressed in our foulies.

But other parts of New Zealand (like Coromandel) did not fair as well.  Once Cyclone Hale passed, we resumed our leaky project.

We replaced the angled drain and put epoxy all around it.  We then resealed the solar cable and we resealed the ignition panel.  All three leaks in the starboard master cabin are considered done!

Port Office Cabin

The port office cabin leak is the same leak as the master bedroom cabin  Ah ha!  There it is.  The 90° angled drain.  So, we removed more ceiling panels to see the source.

Wowza, evidently there has been a slow leak here for awhile as it was pretty moldy and gross.  Matt had to break away the thickened epoxy (without damaging the hoses).  It was a dirty job that is for sure.  Once we replaced the drain, resealed everything back up and called this project done.

But don’t let me over simplify everything.  These projects took months to complete.  Partly because we had to wait for spare parts or wait for things to dry (as it often rained in Whangarei).  But mostly because these were all really huge jobs.

Also, the removal and replacement of the ceiling panels is a massive job.  It takes great patience to remove a single panel (to ensure you don’t damage it) so we can use it as a pattern to make the new ones.  Then it takes several days to remove all of the old glue and glue residue from the ceiling so that you can adhere the new panel.  The glue and glue residue all have to be removed if we plan to reuse panel.

I thought about doing a blog post on the ceiling panels as it is such a huge job but man that would be boring!  This is what our poor forward cabin looks like as we do all the work in the office.

Cyclone Gabriel

Seriously, we came to New Zealand because it is “out of the cyclone zone” but here we are – again faced with a much larger cyclone aiming for the north tip of the north island  – right where we are located.  Evidently, this is the fist cyclone to actually hit land (cyclone skirted around NZ, but never technically hit land).  The bottom image is the wind speed that Matt tracked during the cyclone.  Topped at 55kts which is the worst winds we have ever seen.

Everything flooded all around us with the tides rising over 3 meters and covering the streets, walkways, and pontoons.

Roads were shut down with damage, collapse, landslides and fallen trees.  A week after the cyclone over 400 people are unaccounted for and the death toll is climbing.  We were lucky in that we had no damage, but Matt was well prepared.  We removed anything that could be ripped off by the winds and stowed it all inside.

Events from this blog occurred in mid-January 2023.  Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual events.  In our last blog post we rebuilt the windlass – do you know what that is?