Getting to know Aztec Dream

Acquainting Ourselves

Being in the river has afforded some time to take stock of all the various equipment and inventory on board Aztec. For the most part many things have been similar to Scarlet Lady but say in the case of the battery monitor, made by a different manufacturer.

Now that we are pretty sure we have fixed the issue with furling and un-furling the main, thoughts turned to why we were having to run the generator so much. Having switched off the separate freezer (as we can shop as often as we like), we felt confident that the one and only solar panel would keep up, during the day at least, with the remaining fridge. Wrong!

We checked our battery monitor and it was evident that the panel's regulator was not passing through the shunt. Therefore, the battery gauge could not show the contribution made by the panel. Having spent some time tracing the wiring back and forth the offending wire was duly connected, still nothing showing up. Next we enlisted the help and expertise of our neighbour Mike from yacht Mistroma, (one of the best examples of a Jeanneau 42DS anywhere) and between us we found that the solar panel was in fact kaput, and some of the settings on the battery meter were incorrect. As the panel will cost nearly £700 to replace if we go like for like, we are going to need a re-think. It was not in a great position anyway on the coachroof, and easily shaded by the mainsail. It really needs to come off but has been glued to the deck, so it just might have to stay in situ.

As the settings on the battery monitor were not accurate, it looks like we had not been charging the batteries fully. With new settings now dialled in and the knowledge that the panel makes no contribution, it will be interesting to plot our daily consumption.
Just for the sake of it we have emailed a Solara panel retailer to ask if we have any comeback, as the panel is meant to be guaranteed for 25 years... we won't hold our breath on that one!

We like the idea of the Solbian make of panels that come supplied with zips, so we could incorporate them into the fabric of the bimini. We would need to add a special controller called an MPPT, which we had on Scarlet. That little lot should come in at just under £2K! is it worth it? Well long term yes, for sure as the generator uses about 1 litre of diesel per hour, and we had been running it for two hours a day.

Aztec came with two very smart stools for extra seating around the saloon table. Fine for use in the marina and maybe a dead calm anchorage, but they had to be stowed when on passage. Or so we thought. Turns out they should come with a special fixing kit that allows them to be 'bolted' to the saloon floor. With no sign of the kit and only a rough idea of what it looked like, we fired an email off to our favourite Jeanneau dealer who said it would be no problem to obtain the parts for £99. Ouch! Thinking they could still be on board, we searched high and low and eventually discovered them in a bag marked 'spare wiring for cockpit instruments'. Once again Mike off Mistroma came to the rescue and kindly allowed us the use of some tools (We need to go shopping when we get to Almerimar!!) and about 3 hours later the job was done. As well as extra seating, the stools are useful as they act as storage containers.

Next up we had some rust staining on the starboard sofa. It came off easily enough, but water was getting in through a portion of the teak hand rail on the coach roof, so when a bucket of water was periodically thrown over to clean the dirt off, some was making it's way inside. It appears to be something we can fix ourselves, but we don't have access to a chandlers here so that job will have to wait.

The outlet valve on the rear heads holding tank has seized solid. This always used to happen on the front tank on Scarlet, no idea why but it will need to be replaced, probably with one of the new nylon plastic types, but it can only be done when Aztec is lifted out of the water next year.

We managed to find a second hand Walder Boom Brake for sale in the UK.  Phill now has this and will bring it out when he next comes over to Spain, which is much appreciated. The broker has also obtained a Yeoman plotter that was supposed to be part of the inventory. Sadly the only one available had been modified by the previous owner, so we are waiting to find out if it can be returned to the original spec. We did email the UK supplier 3 weeks ago, but still no response. Guess we took our eye off the ball on that one so will get back in touch. It will be handy to have as the wiring and special plug at the chart table is all in place. It will also act as a backup plotter, which is always a good thing to have.

The engine still has a slight coolant leak that was picked up on the survey, and fixed soon after according to the previous owner. We suspect the so called 'fix' was wiping it up! Fortunately our friend Tim, who will also be wintering with us in Almerimar, is a marine engineer so we can get stuck into sorting the issue out.

We have noticed there is a chunk of teak missing from the bottom step of the transom, and the gap has been filled in with caulking. We were surprised this hadn't been picked up by the surveyor, so we took another look at the photos he took at the time of the survey. Sure enough, the damage was not there at the time of the survey, so yet again more photos taken and sent to the broker.

We have also discovered evidence of an impact on the hull, close to the starboard saloon window. It is hard to say if the hairline cracks are just in the gelcoat, or whether a more serious repair will be needed. Having examined the pictures the surveyor sent us, Aztec was hard up against another yacht to this side, so if the damage was already there he would not have been able to see it. Of course it could have been done when loading or unloading on the container vessel, but we have no way of telling. We have advised both the surveyor and the broker, but both have our money now and the interest is waning. We also told the surveyor off for not taking off the hatch covers, as he would have seen each lens is crazed and scratched. We can live with this for now and get some more life out of them, plus each one will cost between £200 to £300 to replace, and we need seven of them!

We are going to stop looking for jobs to do!

Another short update to do on river life before we leave, but we have the Cobb Barbecue out again and another chicken to roast later. There is no wind at all today and the temperature is already over 40 degrees C inside the boat. It does cool down in the evenings though, which is a good thing. All you can do when it is this hot is adopt the Med lifestyle... find a place in the shade and have a snooze.