Saba 50: TIP FOR WATER HEATER MAINTENANCE....

[Helia 44]

Hello Friends, Helia 44 here, now Blessed to be on a Saba 50 !!

Look, a great little Tip for you: At least in the later model Fountaine Pajots there is a Quick B3- Nautic water heater. It has the engine drive element, and the AC Power element...

Mine is 5 years old, and I have neglected it. Guess what, there is a magnesium anode attached to the heating element. Electrolysis must have stuffed up either the Thermostat or the Element, so I am replacing all three.

The new Element comes with a new anode. I am ordering a second anode, because it turns out you are supposed to check it about once a year.. Mine is stuffed, replacing the whole thing.

The anode itself is cheap. Check yours, buy a spare first, or two, and check yours. It is likely to be GONE...

This is just a Maintenance Tip for you FOC.. I have a stack of Manuals on everything, maybe a foot high. It probably says this somewhere, but if you are like me you don't read the manuals until something is broke...

In fact we Australian Blokes don't read instructions or manuals until we have broken something.. Heh he... It is a Blokey thing here in Oz....

Anyway, I hope a help. I am now replacing the whole thing, thermostat and element and anode, and I ordered the spare and will check it next year... or so..

Best regards from Queensland Australia, Cruising the islands of the Great Barrier Reef. Probably one of the most fun and safest cruising grounds in the World.. Loaded with turtles and fish and shells and fun.. !!!!

And here is another Tip if get Down Under: Yes there are sharks. But not on the reef or any reef near the continental islands inside the GBR.. You just don't jump off your boat in 50 feet of water where people have been cleaning fish, and swim the 50 metres to the reef like the Tourists do... You go by dinghy to where you want to snorkel or dive. Sharks don't go over or near reef, they have been poked, stranded, scratched, they stay in the deeper water outside the reef on patrol.. In all my years cruising the reef in dinghy looking around for floats and buoys and fenders and such exploring, never seen sharks over the reef. Only once a couple of little reef sharks that had a parrot fish penned up at low tide against the coral and they fled as I approached..

So, my Tip? Don't be a yum yum Tourist and swim around in deep water near the islands or off deep edge of the reef...