I’ll be the first to admit, I’m no master mechanic or electrician. I can change oil and filters, bleed a diesel injector, change belts, test a battery, install new house or starting batteries, install a chartplotter, change a fuse, trace a wire or two and find a leak here or there and plug it. I’ve even rebuilt our head (which is not nearly as terrible as folks would have you believe, assuming you aren’t overly squeamish) and clear a capillary tube blockage in our freezer and refrigerator (if you plan to own a boat with 12v or 24v refrigeration, you’ll need to learn what a cap tube is and how to unclog them.
There are times when you’ll (and definitely me/us) will need the services of a boatyard or specialty technician of some sort. I don’t have a HVAC license, so buying refrigerant and some other related items are off the table for me. There will also be times when spending weeks or months in a boatyard on a DIY crusade is detrimental to your cruising dream or at least your spirit. Don’t be afraid to enlist the assistance of a professional, especially if you can afford it, you may learn something valuable in the process, adding to your skills and as an added bonus you get more time to “cruise”.
I try to remember that “cruising” isn’t just about the time you spend on the boat. It isn’t a prison sentence. Getting away from your boat and seeing things is part of the adventure, even if you are going to see friends and family and places you’ve seen before. These times away are perfect for enlisting the assistance of a professional in whatever specially has eluded you in your time aboard. Granted, you’ll get the standard “I like to do it all myself” speech from those that end up being so tied down by their boat ownership it hinders their enjoyment of the experience away from the boat to one degree or another. I don’t let that bother me. We do enough DIY’s as it is and that’s the bonus to cruising, unless “that” person is paying your bills they have no say in how you handle the upkeep.
Take today, for example, we currently have a mystery house bank battery issue. Our house bank doesn’t seem to be charging from shore power. Our solar charges fine. While I am passively investigating the nature of this disruption, rather than spending all day with a voltmeter and sweating through my clothes. I decided to set up a minor test of the system that I can evaluate upon our return and then choose a course of action that might include another such test or answer one question about the “current” (pun intended) issue. I also have a backup appointment with a marine electrician on Saturday. We may need a new inverter/charger for our shore power. So, we went to the pool. If I had been in the bilge and testing wires all day to little effect….I would have missed this….
Don’t beat yourself up…sometimes you just gotta call “the guy” hahaha…..
