Day 2 – HOT WATER – we were plugged into shore power, NO HOT WATER?? Run the engines, ahh ...hot water on the starboard side? Um, firstly where are the hot water tanks?
One thing we were looking forward to in the Lagoon570 was NOT having to get under the bunks to access things. Where were we on Day 2 ?, under both starboard and port aft bunks. Both with 60 Litre Vetuns hot water tanks fitted very neatly below the aft bunks, but obviously they had not been removed for a very long time and to get at the heater element in the port side the tank would have to come out. At this point it may be useful to describe my gauge of how things are going……
John has three modes of frustration: (SPB)
· "SHIT" – this is getting annoying and I’ve made a small mess. Remedy – show interest and offer support
· "POO" – this is getting more annoying and Iam beginning to hate this job. Remedy – needs some TLC, cup of tea, food and more encouragement.
· "BOLLOCKS" – this has gone wrong, cause for concern. Remedy: go help immediately and bring mop up rags and hope the first aid kit isn’t required.
We went through the complete - SPB stages, and eventually out comes the port tank and sits on the pontoon for the next few days awaiting a new 1200w 230v hot water element. This did give us chance to clean it out – YUK: the amount of brown CRUD in there was extraordinary.
On the starboard side – Mr Hand Hardy figured out it wasn’t the hot water element but the valve that controlled the hot water flow. Utilizing the valve from the Port side , a few SPBs later, after several leaking connection we give it a go – hey presto, hot water starboard side, no leaks😊 – TICK job done.
We wanted to go sailing in our new toy and the new 1200 w element hadn’t arrived,- we learnt quickly in Spain it is always (MANYARNA – tomorrow), but they had got a 850w element. With no real options we fitted this, reinstalled the boiler and it worked really well. Turns out it was a forutny turn of fate. Weeks later when we got the super duper solar panels installed we would end up wiring the 850w element into the solar panel capability, something that we couldn’t have done with the 1200w element.
LESSON – 1. Go with the flow, the 850w heater element worked well.
