Life aboard Pandion: The Project List

Gary finds he can actually fit inside one of S/V Pandion's cockpit lockers while stowing a sea anchor.

Life onboard a sailing vessel, as anyone who has tried this can tell you, requires dedication to the ever present project list. Things don't always work as expected, and boats require constant care and attention.

It's a tough environment for electronics, engines, batteries, plumbing, sails, winches, galley stove, upholstery, inverter, freezer and refrigerators, without regular maintenance and repairs.

Winches require regular cleaning and new grease.

Entropy reigns supreme, unless we find ways to stay ahead of the curve. Brenda and I  have become reasonably proficient at various tasks on S/V Pandion. Much of our major work was completed while we were moored at Jekyll Island in Georgia for late summer 2018, waiting out the hurricane season.

Since launching on our first cruise to the Bahamas in March 2018, we have taken on:

• Replacing the anchor windlass motor.
• Replacing a broken mainsail halyard, and a masthead light, requiring trips up the 73 ft mast in a harness.
• After frying the control board for our water maker (don't ask), reconfiguring the system for manual operation. 
• Replacing the reverse osmosis membrane on our water maker.
• Repairing solenoid for electric flush head.
• Repairing water tank sensor.
• Troubleshooting issues with our Raymarine instruments that sometimes fail when we need them the most. Depth finder, for example, when we get to skinny water.
• Replacing Newt's outboard engine carburetor, fuel pump and fuel line and primer bulb.
• Running a conditioning charge on our battery bank at 15.5 volts for seven hours, needed to keep sulfates from building up on the battery plates. 
• Cleaning sea water strainers on a regular basis for engines and generator, water maker, and freezer pump (we have found everything from sea grass and shells, to small crabs and comb jellies in the filters). 
• Daily checks on our two Yanmar diesel engines (unless we are at anchor for extended periods), including checking oil levels for sail drives and engines, belt tension, and coolant.
• Sealing small holes in our two Folbot kayaks caused by chafing against our shrouds (duct tape, of course).
• Conducting annual preventive maintenance on our Onan generator, requiring oil and filter changes.
• Replacing the two worn braided nylon trampolines on the forward deck, that Brenda ordered from France, and then following detailed instructions provided to us from Dave and Mary Margaret Leu, a couple who circumnavigated over an incredible ten year voyage onboard a Lagoon 440 (same model as Pandion). 
• Working to keep our CruiseAir A/C units functioning, requiring hired professional expertise in Jekyll Island, Georgia. 
• Replacing sanitation hoses for the master bath holding tank. Not a fun job!
• Refurbishing our worn roller furling jib sail, completed by a sail loft in South Carolina.
• Replacing impellers and v-belts on our Yanmar diesel engines, along with required engine oil and sail drive oil and filter changes. 
• Replacing the dinghy davit straps, and repairing the helm cover, using Brenda's SailRite sewing machine.
• Periodically cleaning the sail drives, props, rudders, and hulls of algae, barnacles and other critters that attach themselves to our boat by using SCUBA gear. We have a regulator attached to a 70 ft long hose that allows Gary to stay submerged working underwater while the tank of compressed air stays in the cockpit.   

Working in the bilges. Removing the floorboards to reach the raw water strainers that provide seawater for cooling air conditioning units and the water maker, that must be cleaned out on a regular basis. 

So far, we have had no major mechanical or electrical issues onboard Pandion, and we hope to keep it that way! 

Our last haul out to clean and paint the hulls, and perform regular maintenance on our two sail drives, was in July 2017. This required locating a boat yard with a travel lift that can handle a catamaran with a 25 ft beam width (not too common). Unless needed for unexpected problems, we are aiming for Summer 2019 to repeat that exercise, since she will need a fresh coat of bottom paint. 

S/V Pandion looking good after her last haul out and hull paint in Fort Myers Beach, Florida back in July 2017.

It may sound like a lot of work, but it's not that different than taking care of your home and your car. Which, when you think about it, is what Pandion and Newt are to us.

Gary, armed with a wrench and headlamp, changing the generator engine oil and filter.

It's all worth it! Staying on top of our project list gives us the opportunity to explore new places and have new adventures, which is why we are here. But we do laugh when our friends ask "what is there  to do all day when you live on a sailboat?"