Preparing for departure

Firstly the most obvious issue once I arrived back on board, was what I'm guessing (hoping),  is a leaking seal on the toilet in the main bathroom. I had left the toilet bowl full of fresh water and the bowl sealed over with gladwrap- not for party night tricks, but to preclude evaporation. Toilet bowl was now  completely empty, and a tell tale water mark was a dead give away. Oh joy! I knew it would come to pass to one day. Good ole Google came up with the manual for said model of 'quiet flush toilet' flushing mechanism, and my darling sister will arrive with the required service kit bits next week. Until then I have just decamped to the other hull and will use the the other toilet! Can barely wait to get into that job!

Secondly and of far more concern is the AIS (Automatic Identification System) is not talking to my chart plotter system and therefore I can see no target ships and nobody can see me. I know that Magellan and Christopher Columbus and even Cheng Ho, didn't have such mod cons, but it sure is handy , not to mention mandatory these days, in many countries. So that will need to be resolved.
It appears to be working, correct lights flashing, but patently isn't.

Thirdly, starboard electric bilge pump not playing nicely. Dr Google and Youtube  to the rescue again, to find a manual and see how it comes apart. That done, still not working. Skype a friend- ( Steve)- and he suggests that I have done what he would do, so before investigating the pipes etc , just try submerging it totally in water and give it a whirl again. Success! It just needed a real drowning to make it realise what it's true purpose in life was!
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Next , change the charcoal filter in the water maker and fire up water maker , for future use. All good no leaks drips etc.

Talking of leaks, there is no sign of water anywhere. Which is excellent, the 'usual' suspects are all completely dry. Either it really is fixed or there has been no rain, and definitely haven't been using the fresh water deck wash, which is totally taped up and secured. I do have a replacement one for that, which I flew up with, in my baggage (20.35kg, plus 'cabin' baggage weighing exactly 7kg, plus every pocket on my multi pocketed cargo pants and my fleece stuffed to capacity (1 kg ), although why I bother to be so meticulous about the weights of my cabin baggage, when you see that some folk arrive with apparently the entire contents of their house as permissable "cabin baggage”)- anyway, just need to fit  the new deck wash hose at some stage. Probably an easier plumbing task, than the toilet!

Tested the EPIRB, Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon- all good.

Turned on the HF radio- can hear radio Australia and the BBC- wouldn't mind finding someone to actually talk to though, so that I can see it transmits ok. Trouble is I dont really know many people up here or if they are sailing or in port.

Re ran all the sheets and halyards which had been totally derigged and secured away in the sail bag out of this incredibly vicious  equatorial sunlight.

That folks, has taken the best part of the last three days. Also watched  a gentleman, Mark, as he investigated the missing AIS, by using a diagnostic program on a computer- Stay tuned for the outcome on that front. Sooner rather than later I hope.....also getting feed back from back at home as Peter and Peter from the Vietnam delivery trip, are googling up information as to possible causes of the lack of AIS.

Then yesterday, amused myself by debagging the props and saildrive legs, a task not made particularly easy by the murkiness of the water, due to a heavy downpour on Saturday , complete with spectacular lightning display, which always make me nervous as they get closer. Couple of definite cracks exploding  over the marina, but everything electrically significant checked out ok again, after it had  passed- except of course the AIS. The lightning didn't scare it back into life  unfortunately!

This morning it was time to do all the engine checks, and start them up. All appears good and functioning as expected, which is excellent. Got 100lts of diesel (spare) , so now at capacity of diesel,with both tanks full, plus a total of 125 lts spare for the engines and 30 litres of petrol for the outboard, which should last a while! Not sure where or how easy or how clean the next fuel might be, as not entirely sure where I will be re fuelling next.

Major tasks left are  bending the jib on again , uncover the dinghy, clean the couple of extra lines which were run on my outboard side to hold me off the wharf  for the last few months, which have a small build up of slime on them, give the bottom of the fenders, which have 'just' been sitting in water for the last 3 months a clean off and await the outcome of the AIS saga.