Water maker, 2017

January 2017

2017 was supposed to be the year we left Fiji and headed home again.  Seven times we left and seven times we came back.  One thing after another was not working.  The main problem was the water maker.  We had not run it for 6 months because the water in the marina  is too dirty and clogs the filters and once we start it it has to be run every 3-4 days.  So at the start of cyclone season we “pickled” it.  The marina supplies free water and it is very good.  It is Fiji water, after all. 

The main problem is the generator.  We bought our little Honda generator in Mexico and it has sat on the deck for 4 years.  Even with a waterproof cover, it has taken a beating from rain and waves, including being knocked over on it’s side at one point.  So it finally was deemed unfixable.   Like most things in Fiji the search for a new one was frustrating.  The water maker is 110 volts and everything here is 220.  Rather than have a new one shipped in Alan decided to rewire the water maker to run on 220v.   Even having done that the search was difficult.  Almost every hardware store sells generators but they are all either too small or too big and heavy and none of them had a good cover.   Finally one store had what we needed at a reasonable price. Unfortunately,  when Alan asked them to test it before he took it, it would not start.  After messing with it for an hour, finally offered to have another one brought up from Suva.  We were scheduled to leave the next day for the photo shoot in Rakiraki so he gave up and left .  Late in the day he got a call saying that they had fixed it and would deliver it to the boat. We should have said no right then but we said yes.  We tested it when it was delivered and it started so we loaded it onto the boat

Next morning we left to meet up with the movie shoot so we did not have a chance to run the water maker  until we were there and settled.  Lo and behold, the generator would not start!  That was when we discovered that it had an electric starter with a key in addition to the pull cord and apparently that battery was dead   Alan finally used a portable jump starter to start it and let it run for 8 hours to see if that would charge the starter battery but no luck.  8 hours later it still would not work.  We eventually got the mechanics from the movie shoot to take a look at it and they could not make it work either.

The one day movie shoot ended up lasting over two weeks but eventually we were back in Vuda and ready to deal with the generator again.  Back at the store, he discovered that the only mechanic who maybe knew how to work on it was in Suva.  They could send it there, have him come here, or order a new battery from New Zealand.  After several more days of run around and broken promises, I finally decided we had had enough of this.  Alan is just too sweet and hates to upset people.  Sometimes that works but not in this case.  So off we went together to confront the store manager.  After about 10 minutes of bluster on his part and firm insistence on mine, we were offered an different and more expensive generator for the same price.  No way were they going to give the money back.  I made Alan go and research the offered generator before we accepted the deal. After several hours on the internet, he said that all the reviews were positive and it is a reputable company so we accepted the offer and arranged for it to be delivered.  The new one is actually slightly smaller and lighter which is good.  We tested it several times and it started up and ran great.

By this time it has gotten too late in the year to leave Fiji so it is time to do the Futuna run again.  Our friend Bev on Kokoh is also going and she is ready to go now so  with our new generator on board we set off.  Since we got a late start we stopped about 2 hours out for the night.  Time to finally run the water maker.  The generator starts right up but when we start the high pressure pump on the water maker it dies.   Now what?  No time to mess with it now.  We are full of water and can easily make it to Futuna and back.  Meanwhile. Alan sets down with the manuals and tries to figure out what the problem is.    Eventually he figured out  that the generator is 50 hertz and the water maker needs 60 hertz so the water maker pump was overloading the generator.  An email to the manufacturer confirmed this.  Too bad we had not caught this piece when we were shopping for a new generator.

Once we were back, Alan began talking to mechanics to see how our problem could be fixed.  Everyone said that it should be possible and fairly easy to either adjust the generator up or the water maker down so that the hurts matched, but no one could actually see how to do it.  Then we decided that we could replace the motor on the water maker.  That turned out not to be possible either.  It is now December and we still have not resolved the problem.  Since we have not actually been able to run the water maker yet we do not know if it really works or if there are other problems.  At this point it seems our best bet is to get a new 110 v generator and rewire the water maker back to 110.  We are heading home next year and do not need to be stuck with a 220 system when everything else on the boat is 110v.  Our options seem to be to order a new one from New Zealand, wait until we get to American Samoa and get one there or fly home, visit the family, take care of income taxes and bring a new one back as excess baggage.   To be continued