Boxing Day morning we headed into to town. The shops were packed. People looking for the Boxing Day sales. We found a vacuum and a small pump for the watermarker. All the places were closed that sold starter batteries.
We dropped the car back to Darren. He had given us a pump to try. Back onboard, I started replacing the pump. Of course none of the connections were the same as the old one. Tried Darren’s one it had too higher pressure, but finally the one we bought seemed to do the job.
Eager to go sailing, we jump started the engine and hauled anchor. We started the watermaker and I checked that it was making water. Everything seemed to be alright. After about half an hour I checked again and everything was working smoothly.
About an hour later, half way to Waiheke Island, we were both on deck enjoying the sun ( finally out there!) and dolphins sighting. I went down below to get some drinks and smelled something, a few second later the smoke alarms went off. I quickly turned off the power and saw the smoke coming from the cupboard where the watermaker is. Turning off the power stopped the wiring from continuing to burn and the smoke started to disperse. Thankfully the fire didn’t spread!
We decided to turn back to Whangaparaoa and as we anchored in Okoromai Bay the wiring had cooled and the smoke was gone. That when I could see the new pump had overheated and shorted out causing the wiring to burn.
Reluctant to put the same type of pump back in we have ordered one online. This means we are on tight water until it arrives. Luckily it has rained over Christmas and we have buckets full of rainwater that we can use for washing.