The weather's been incredible over the past few weeks with no end in sight (or at least in the five-day forecast). It's a big change from last year which, by all accounts, was very wet. Dry weather means a lack of water up in the islands where they use catchments, so David's been working on commissioning the watermaker -- a much more complicated and frustrating process than the preceding sentence implies.
After three weeks of false starts, emails, and phone conversations he was able to source the proper chemicals from Kent, Washington and the parts from the UK he needed to begin. It took several days to clean and rebuild the raw water primer pump only to find out that it has seen its last days and needs to be rewound. We weren't able to find a comparable or an adequate replacement in the US, so David had to order a new one from the same company in England. They've been very responsive and helpful, so it should only take a few days to arrive (a very different experience from our 48 day ordeal in Pillar Point last year).
While we wait, we decided to sail down to Gig Harbor for a few days to see friends and try to get a picture of the boat with Mount Rainier in the background. By Friday, the winds are forecasted to turn southwesterly, so we'll sail back to Poulsbo then to pick up and install the pump. There's no guarantee that the new pump will fix all the problems, in fact, it could merely be the first of many issues to surface, so...fingers crossed!
