The Best Made Plans

If you follow my Facebook page, you know that I finally managed to take the boat out for a sail over the weekend.  But getting to that point was more time consuming and frustrating than I anticipated on this trip.  One of the issues I had that needed to be addressed before I could move the boat was a broken motor mount bracket I discovered while servicing one of the motors.  On the surface, it seemed to be a relatively simple repair.  Remove two bolts to take out the isolator, then remove two more bolts to remove the bracket, bolt the replacement bracket in place, reinstall the isolator, and align the engine.  Sounds easy enough.

A friend and fellow Leopard 38 owner and I took Rover
out for a day sail. 

I don my bilge rat clothes (sweat pants and a sweat shirt I use when crawling around in the engine room), grab some wire brushes and a socket set and make my way to the broken bracket.  Leaning over the motor, I do my best to clean up the the bolts with the brushes,  I remove the isolator with very little trouble.  I then begin working on the bracket bolts themselves.  After cleaning them up with the brush it looks like the bolt heads were welded to the bracket.  I thought this couldn't be, why would someone do that?  I get a cold chisel and attempt to knock this bit that looks like a weld bead off the bolt heads and it comes off.  I guess it was just a combination of corrosion and old paint.  I do my best to clean up the bolt heads and then attempt to remove them.  No luck, the bolts won't budge. Several attempts to clean and then remove the bolts with either sockets or bolt extractors over several days failed to budge the stubborn bolts.

I finally gave up and decided to call one of the marine mechanics in town, Snyder Marine, to come deal with the issue.  Hopefully they had more tools than I and a few tricks to extract the stubborn bolts. This would allow me to continue to work on other projects as I only have a limited amount of time on this trip. The mechanic came out and took a look at the project.  He said it would probably take about 10 hours of work if he could get the bolts out with an extractor and he wasn't sure how much longer if "other" methods would be required.

The mechanic arrived the following morning to start work.  After a short period of time he emerged from the engine room and told me that indeed the bolt heads were welded and that he would cut them off.  Unfortunately he forgot his grinder and had to go back to the shop and get it. He returned after lunch and spent another hour cutting one of the bolt heads off and was about half way through the other.  Before he left he told me he would go look into the replacement part.  Since I had already done the research on the part, I gave him the original part number from the parts manual as well as the number of the part that superseded it. The next day he returned and spent about 40 minutes in the engine room cutting the other bolt head off and freed the bracket. He then attempted to remove the remaining part of the bolts from the engine.  He again emerged and this time said he was having problems with his stud extractor and would have to go get a replacement. He returned a couple hours later and within 40 minutes had the now headless bolts removed.

The mechanic informed me that he called his supplier and was unable to source the replacement bracket, but had a guy in town that could make me a bracket that would likely be cheaper and better than the original part.  I told him to let me know how it would be made and what it would cost and I would decide from there. He responded the next day that it would be constructed from welded stock and painted and would be about half the price of the OEM part. He also said he went ahead and had them make the part, but if I wanted to source the replacement part myself that they could go that route. I went ahead and told him to use the custom part and he said he would be out tomorrow to finish up. I waited for most of that day for the mechanic to arrive, but he never showed.  I finally called and was told that he was waiting for the paint to dry.  It was a Friday, so he said he would come out the next week to complete the job.

It was about a week later when he finally showed up with the part.  I took a look at it and it seemed well made, but the mounting holes did not appear to be offset like the original.  Sure enough, after about 20 minutes the mechanic confirmed that the holes were in the wrong place and the bracket would have to be remade....but not to worry as I would not be responsible for the incorrectly made part.  He would have to go back to the welder and should have the correct part ready to go the following day but with paint it may be the following Monday before it was ready to install.

Nice bracket, too bad the holes were
in the wrong places.

I waited around a couple hours on that Monday and the mechanic didn't show up.  I called and was told that the mechanic had the day off but would be out the following day.  He did arrive on that Tuesday and this time the holes were in the correct locations.  After 20 minutes the mechanic again emerged and told me the bolts he brought were too long and would need to be cut down.  He left and came back about an hour later with shorter bolts and completed the job.

Given my past experience with "marine professionals" I am always a bit wary of new-to-me service providers.  Part of my process now is to track the time spent on a project.  In this case, I tracked all the time from when the mechanic arrived at the marina to when he left.  The total time spent at my boat came out to 7 hours and 20 minutes.  Now, I know that there was some time spent cleaning up the isolator that was removed, talking with the welder about making the bracket, and travel time to and from the marina.  I figured that we were still pretty close to the original estimate of 10 hours.  At this point I was reasonably happy with the work done, if not the timeliness and communication about when the mechanic would actually show up.

Naturally, I received a bit of a surprise when I received the invoice.  The parts and supplies charges were all reasonable, but it listed 19 hours of labor.  So, in addition to the 7 hours and 20 minutes spent actually working at the boat, they somehow came up with another 11 hours and 40 minutes on the bill.  That is a pretty large sum at $109 per hour ($1271 to be exact). Like I said, I expected there to be some time added for travel (shop is 12 minutes away) and work done away from the boat.  But the idea that they spent more time working on my project away from my boat than actually at the boat in the process of replacing an L shaped bracket was something I couldn't justify.

I immediately wrote back and asked if they perhaps billed some time from another project to me and if they would mind reviewing the bill and let me know. It took 6 days for them to respond, and when they did they said they actually had more time on my project than was billed (however, it didn't say what they spent all this time on) but would adjust the bill and send me the update.  The updated bill arrived the following morning and they knocked 5 hours off the bill.  Still a bit higher than I would like, but close enough so I paid the bill.

This was when I received an email from the owner of the company. The email again stated that they had more time on my project than they billed.  The only suggestion provided for the extra time was research into the project.  Since I did the research and provided them with the part numbers and I was told they called their supplier and was told the part wasn't available, I'm not sure how much more research could have been done. Certainly not 11 hours worth. The letter went on to tell me how busy and how sought after they are. That is all great, but they never did justify the extra time they claim they spent on the project. And given they reduced the number of hours charged, I can only assume that they did recognize that the time was excessive.

The email then says they normally don't take on work that someone else has started. Not sure what this has to do with the issue, other than my possibly knowing what the issue is and what it should take to fix.  Maybe it is easier to overcharge hours when the customer doesn't have a clue about a problem. Then the note goes on to tell me that the bill is final and overdue.  Now remember that I already paid the bill.  Looking through my emails, the total amount of time, excluding my time waiting for their response to my question, from the time I received the first bill until I paid the adjusted bill was under 12 hours (and a good portion of that was it sitting in my email while I was off doing other things). Hardly overdue.

My initial recommendation was going to be that they did reasonable work and as long as you get firm time commitments, get written quotes, and track the time they spend on your project they might be an OK solution.  But add in that final email and it proved to me that they are not very customer focused and were upset at getting caught over billing for hours they could not justify. I do not recommend Snyder Marine in Southport.

I'm glad the work is done, but why is it so painful to work with many of the so called professionals in the marine industry?

Working through The List

Progress on the "to-do" list has been slow but mostly continuous up to this point. Speed has been hampered somewhat by the current weather pattern.  Not sure if this is normal, but the pattern is either cold and windy or warm and rainy.  I have to admit that this year my joints are not terribly happy with the weather and folding myself up into the nooks and crannies of the boat has been trying at times.  Yet every day the boat closer to the way we left it.

One issue I've dealt with was a minor fuel leak that the caretaker for our boat recently found.  Apparently over the course of the year (or at least a good portion of it) a tablespoon or so of diesel had made its way into the bilge. We initially tried getting a local company to fix the leak, but they were unable to find anything.  The only "problem" they could identify was that the Racor fuel filter "may" have leaked and offered to rebuild it for a pretty hefty sum.  Since I was unconvinced that this was the problem, I decided I would check on it when I came down. I crawled down into the engine compartment and was rather quickly able to find that the fuel supply hose was showing age and was seeping just a bit.  In the process of removing the hose it became fairly apparent it was the cause. The hose was replaced, new fuel filters and accompanying gaskets were installed and the system was checked for any signs of leaks.  None were found.  I checked fluid levels and then started the engine.  Despite the age and hours on the motor, it started right up and ran like a top.  I let it run for a little while and repeated my leak check and it all checks out great now.

Identifying some of the Kidde recalled extinguishers
(image linked from Kidde recall web site)

Then there is the fact that 5 of the 6 fire extinguishers on board the boat were made by Kidde. Just in case you weren't aware, there was a recall of around 40 million Kidde fire extinguishers. Given boats are required to have working fire extinguishers on board and I had no idea how long it would take to get any warranty replacement, dealing with them was high on my list and one of the early things I checked when I returned to the boat.  Fortunately, I found that none of the extinguishers on board were impacted by the recall and the boat was good to go on that front.

The rainy weather helped to point out another issue, a leak on the boat. The aft berth overhead hatch was leaking.  It was the only hatch that I had yet to re-bed, so it isn't isn't much of a surprise that it would be the one to leak. On one of the few relatively warm and dry days I was able to pull the hatch, clean it up, and re-bed it.  Rains that followed tested my work and confirmed that the leak has been fixed.

Failing West Marine lifeline netting

Another item that I didn't expect to deal with was the lifeline netting.  When I arrived at the boat I was quite surprised to see a number of holes and broken strands in the netting.  At first I thought someone had come along and vandalized it.  But after tugging on it a bit myself, I found the netting to be quite brittle.  Obviously this netting, sold at West Marine, is not UV protected and a couple years in the sun has all but destroyed it.  If anything were to fall against the netting, I have no doubt that it would give way and whatever it was supposed to prevent going overboard would end up in the water.  Since it was now useless and looked ugly to boot, I spent quite a bit of time removing all of the netting that we painstakingly added just two years ago.  So, if you are thinking of adding netting to your lifelines, I think I can safely say you should avoid the stuff sold by West Marine.  Given how long it takes to properly install, you will really want a better netting. Look for netting that clearly states it is protected against UV.

So, work continues, in between rain and wind storms.

Getting Things Done

Our trip from Hayes, Virginia, to Southport, North Carolina, in addition to trying to escape the cold, was a bit of a shakedown cruise.  That wasn't really the intention, but as Cap'n Ron said "if it is going to happen, it is going to happen out there".  I guess that is true even when "out there" is motoring along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.  So, since we arrived in Southport, we have been back in fix-it mode.

Before much fixing though, we needed to go fetch our car from the Severn Yachting Center.  We also had a crew member that needed to see a doctor.  Our eldest dog has been battling a condition where one of her ears has sores that don't want to heal (it is called ear margin vasculitis), and a specialist we have been seeing is in Richmond, Virginia.  We decided to combine the trip to get our car with an appointment with this veterinarian.  Our plan was to leave the day or so after we arrived, but a winter storm hit southern Virginia (as well as northern VA, MD, DC, and other nearby areas).  So we pushed it off a few days while I investigated my house battery bank  issue.

On Sunday, we started making our way to Richmond.  We went to visit a friend of my wife in Chapel Hill and stayed with them that night.  The next day we continued our trek to Richmond. Unfortunately, as we were driving, we got a call from the vet.  I guess Richmond was having a hard time dealing with the 10 inches or so of snow and still hadn't cleared the streets after a few days.  As a result, the vet was closed and had to cancel the appointment. We continued on to pick up the car and return both to Southport. We arrived at the marina, said our goodbyes to some friends we made there, and headed back to the boat.

Some of the snow we escaped.

After getting back, the next task was to see if I could locate a small coolant leak in the starboard engine.  I pump the coolant sitting in the bilge into a container to throw away and then look over the engine trying to find the leak.  I find one hose that wasn't clamped all that well and fix that.  Didn't see any other signs of a leak so we clean the engine and bilge, top off the coolant, and test run the engines.  While looking over everything, I start seeing a drip.  Not from the engine or the coolant tanks, but coming from the hose that leads to the overflow tank.  No idea why it wasn't dripping when cold, but it didn't start until everything was warm.  So I drain the overflow tank, pull the hose and check for a leak in the tank.  I didn't find anything so I cut about a half inch off the end of the hose and reconnect it all.  Refill and retest, and everything seems fine now.

While I was in the engine room, I also looked over the alternator.  The tachometer was intermittent at times during the trip, so I checked the connections.  I cleaned the connectors and used a little dielectric grease to help prevent further corrosion, then secured the wires better.  During the test the tach seemed to behave better, so hopefully that is also fixed.  I also took a little time to wire brush and paint the engine and generator as they were showing a little wear and chipping to their corrosion-inhibiting layers of paint.

One of the comments I received from my post on the battery house bank suggested that we might be able to recover the batteries if they weren't too damaged.  I debated this for a while and looked online for information and finally decided to give it a try.  Worst case I figured was that we would still have batteries that needed to be replaced, and best case is we might get a little more life from the batteries. If all it cost us was a dollar or two of distilled water, seemed like it would be worth the risk.  I tried popping one of the dust covers off the battery and find that underneath was a plug that leads to the battery cell.  The plug contains the valve and is sealed with an o-ring so all I had to do was unscrew it.  We added a little distilled water to the cells to see if that would help.  Unfortunately, adding a little water only uncovered the fact that the case was apparently cracked somewhere out of view and the water leaked out of one of the cells creating a bit of a mess.  Guess we will need to replace the batteries before we continue our trip. I'm pretty sure we will go with golf cart batteries, but still debating the pros and cons of AGM versus wet cell versions (as well as trying to figure out how we can source them here).

So, that is where we stand.  Some things we think are fixed, more to go.  At least the weather has improved a bit and is warmer than where we were in Virginia.

Feeling Neglected

After all the time spent building the new hardtop, it seems other things on the boat have been a bit neglected. The salon seat cushions that we have wanted to reupholster because of the ugly blue vinyl have degraded into cushions mostly covered in vinyl fragments. The port side hull, that has no climate control capability, is slowly turning into a mold forest and is in desperate need of some cleaning.  But these aren't the things that are preventing our departure from cold Virginia.  Other systems have started acting up.  In particular, the ones that run on diesel.  Both the engines and the generator have decided to prove that they need a little love too.

When I fired up the generator as a test and part of my semi-regular attempt to make sure oil gets circulated on all those internal, rustable parts, no water was found shooting out of the exhaust.  For those that aren't aware, boat diesels use seawater as part of the engine cooling circuit and said water is ejected via the exhaust.  If no water is flowing from the exhaust, it indicates the raw water is not being sucked up to cool the engine and the engine will overheat.  The lack of water can usually be attributed to a blockage at the intake (including the intake seacock [valve] being closed) or a failure of the replaceable rubber impeller in the raw water pump.

Picture of a raw water pump with the impeller access plate removed.
Photo from Compass Marine (an awesome site for boat repair information).

I check the seacock, and it was indeed open.  I open the inline strainer and pour some water in to see if it will flow out through the intake and it did, so no blockage there.  I then remove the plate on the pump expecting to see the broken rubber bits of the impeller.  Unfortunately, the impeller looked in pristine condition.  None of the usual culprits was the cause, and this is not a good thing.  With the cover removed, I have my wife bump the starter to verify that the pump is turning the impeller.  The impeller didn't move.  Drat.  It is starting to look like something may have broken inside the pump.  I pull the pump in preparation for taking it up to the marina shop to see if they have one.  When I pull the pump, I find that the nut that holds the gear on the back side of the pump is loose.  The result is that the gear would spin freely on the pump shaft. I tighten the nut and viola, turning the gear now turns the shaft which, in turn, spins the impeller. I reinstall the the pump and when I start the generator, the magic cooling water once again flowed from the exhaust.  So, the good part of this story is that the fix was nothing more than tightening a nut.  The bad part is that it took up a few hours that could have been spent preparing for our departure.

While messing with the generator, I noticed that the radiator cap looked like it might be leaking. Fortunately, radiator caps are relatively easy to find and one was procured from a local auto parts store. Hopefully that will resolve that little problem.

The two Westerbeke engines that propel the boat through the water (when not under sail) were also being cranky.  They, not unlike my wife and I, were protesting the cold weather and were incredibly hard to start.  The last time I started them they weren't too happy, but I figured it was due to the amount of time since I last started them in combination with the cold.  This time it hadn't been all that long, but it was a bit colder and they nearly refused to start. It took me over an hour to coax them to life so we could move the boat as the marina requested.  This simply would not have worked at all if we weren't attached to marina power where we could recharge the batteries between attempts. This needed to be fixed before we leave since I'm sure we would have killed the start batteries trying to get the engines started.

Diesels are pretty simple systems as far as engines go.  They run on fuel, air, and compression.  No pesky ignition systems to complicate issues.  But they don't like cold temperatures.  To battle this, they have things called glow plugs, basically little heaters that warm up the combustion chamber for those cold starts. I did some quick checks of the air intake and fuel and quickly focused my efforts on the glow plug system. On the starboard engine I verified that I could hear the click of the solenoid that activates the glow plugs.  I checked for voltage on the wires and it seemed fine. I then pulled one of the glow plugs and checked the resistance and it was just a little low compared to what the book said it should be (1 ohm instead of the 1.2 ohms). That didn't seem bad but we went to see if I could find a local source for them (it was getting late and I wanted to check availability before the stores closed). No one had them in stock, and I would have to order them if I needed them.  The next morning I tested the glow plug I pulled by taking a couple wires and connecting them directly to the battery.  The glow plug worked just fine.  Hmm.  I then hooked the plug back up to its voltage supply wire and attached a separate ground so I could see it work while it was hooked up to the engine.  We pushed the preheat button and nothing.  I re-verified that I was seeing voltage on the wire, and I was.  The only explanation I could think of is that the contacts in the solenoid were old and over time have developed a high resistance. This would explain seeing voltage but not enough power to make the glow plug glow.  I reinstalled the glow plug and then used a jumper wire to bypass the relay.  This time when we tried to start the engine it quickly roared to life.  Aha!

The solenoid causing the starting problem.

So, off we went to try finding a replacement solenoid.  The only diesel shop in town said they didn't have the Westerbeke part but might have a suitable replacement if I could bring them a picture.  I took several pictures and went to the shop to see what they could do.  They took a look at the pictures, walked in back and came back with a solenoid that looked very similar to the OEM part.  I took it back to the boat and installed it.  During the installation I double checked the wiring diagram and the installation on the other engine just to make sure everything was hooked up correctly.  We gave the new solenoid a try...and nothing.  This time I couldn't even hear or feel the solenoid click.  I removed the new solenoid and reinstalled the old one.  I verified that the old one still clicked and that I got the wiring right.  It was right.  Sigh.

We had wasted enough time on this issue and the weather window to leave was getting shorter, so we decided we would just press on using the jumper wire workaround until we got someplace where we could order the Westerbeke part and have it shipped in.  We took the new solenoid back.

Suspecting a similar issue on the port engine, I ran the same tests.  Voltages were fine.  I pulled one of the glow plugs and tested it and it was fine.  I did the test for the solenoid expecting it to be the fault, but was surprised when it worked fine too.  I reinstalled the glow plug and decided to give the engine one more test before I pulled the other glow plugs to see if one of them is at fault.  The engine fired right up.  Huh.  My only guess is the process of removing and testing the first glow plug must have cleaned up some corrosion and now the system is working fine. I'll call that a win.

When doing instrument checks in preparation for departure, I ran across another issue.  The chart plotter was complaining about not getting a signal from the remote GPS.  Figuring this was a connection issue, I pulled all the plugs from the back of the plotter and plugged them back in.  Restart the chart plotter, and it was again happy.  I do like these simple fixes.

When I get to warmer climates I'll need to revisit a few things.  I should take some dielectric grease to some of the electrical connections to help combat corrosion.  I also need to clean and paint the engines...but I'm not sure the paint will even dry at these temperatures.

So, we are a few days behind in our preparation to leave, but with any luck we should be heading out soon.  Now where is that grocery list...

Everybody Talks About the Weather...

...but no one ever does anything about it.  That quote from Charles Dudley Warner seems quite appropriate for a sailor.  I am certainly not the first sailor to have to wait on better weather to travel, it seems that is a very regular occurrence.  Funny, since I had the same issues when flying.  Now if were someone that could do something about it.

My original plan was to depart Brunswick on Saturday afternoon, do an overnight sail to the St. Augustine inlet, and then travel down the ICW to Palm Coast.  But the forecasts for Saturday night through Sunday morning are calling for some pretty rough seas.

The Sunday Windfinder forecast for St. Augustine buoy

Wave height at 6 foot on a 5 second period is not what I'd call a fun thing to do during the night, so I've decided to postpone the trip for a day.  Things are supposed to calm down on Sunday afternoon in time for our sail, so that is the current plan.  Of course, the idea that "plans for cruisers are written in the sand at low tide" also seems appropriate, so we will see what happens when the forecasts are updated in the morning.

I regularly consult Windfinder, as well as NOAA and Weather Underground (and sometimes the ADDS Aviation Weather site) for weather forecasts and information.  What weather sources do you use?

In the meantime I've been continuing to clean and organize the boat.  Or at least I'm trying to organize it.  I have to admit my organizing skills aren't the best and, as a result, a lot more stuff is laying around the boat than safely tucked away in an appropriate storage place.  But I'm working on it.  I've acquired a few more plastic storage containers to try and get some things under control.  Meanwhile, the rear berth in the boat still looks as bad as the garage in my land-based home was.

I did try starting the starboard engine this morning to see if my cleanup of the glow plug connections made any difference.  Unfortunately, it did not.  I've tested the glow plug circuit to verify battery voltage was available when the preheat button was pushed and that the plugs indicated proper resistance, so the search will continue after I get the boat moved.  The engine starts and runs fine if the engine is at least slightly warm, so it shouldn't pose any problems for the trip.

I also made some chili this evening that I thought might sound good for a meal while on a cool evening passage. I start with the basic recipe from The Boat Galley, and then added some additional vegetables to create a reasonably well rounded, one bowl meal.  If seas are reasonably calm, I may decide to make something more elaborate, but it is nice to have an easy to make meal when the boat is bouncing around.

Sorry about slowing down on the posts lately, but I figured I would spare you some of the details of cleaning up from "project mode".  If you need more detail, you can go clean your garage and then your bathroom and that ought to demonstrate the skills I've been using the most the past couple days. And to really get the right effect, you need to store everything in one cabinet in your kitchen or under your sofa.

Making Home Become Transportation

Spent most of the last two days making the boat both livable and ready to become transportation once again.  Ticking off a bunch of little things on the list.

The wild temperature swings in Georgia have taken a toll on the boat interior.  Since two layers of fiberglass and a layer of balsa don't make the best insulation, every time the temperature goes from the 60's to the 40's, condensation starts to develop.  And since my port hull doesn't have anything except fans to keep air moving, keeping it dry is near impossible.  The result of all the condensation, of course, is mold.  Being in project mode for the past three months, stuff gets tracked into the boat too.  So, a fair amount of yesterday was spent with sponges and cleaners (usually vinegar and water), cleaning the walls, floors, and ceilings.

And then there is the Wester-beast.  Since the starting issue only occurs when the engine has been sitting for 12 hours or more, each fix attempt results in a long wait to test it out.  After doing all I could to make sure fuel wasn't an issue, its behavior changed a bit this morning.  Still hard to start, but now there seems to be evidence fuel is making it to the engine.  Once you wake it up for the first time of the day, starting it again a few hours later goes smoothly.  So, I decided to check the glow plugs today (the next item on the troubleshooting list).  Using the procedure outlined in the manual, I disconnected each plug and then tested the resistance.  Each one showed the 1.1~1.2 Ohms of resistance they are supposed to have.  I did note some corrosion on the connections, so I cleaned the terminals up before reassembly...maybe this will help.  Guess I'll find out tomorrow.

Maybe the cause of my motor issues?

While I was down in the engine room, I also replaced the engine zincs.  I think I got to them just in time as they were looking pretty well worn.

Another item on the list was to restitch a portion of the soft bimini top that had come unraveled during the trip down to Brunswick (the flapping piece of Sunbrella material was starting to get on my nerves by the end of the trip).  I didn't want to take the whole bimini down, so I decided to hand-sew this two foot section while it was in place.

Good enough to hold it for now...I hope.

Since my next stop doesn't have free laundry, I also wanted to take advantage of the large capacity machines while I was here.  So, in addition to normal laundry that I'll be doing over the next couple days, I also took some of the larger bedding items over to wash.  While doing the laundry, I was thinking about my recent post on laundry and machines (we are still debating if having one of these small Panda units would be worth the storage space required).

And the reason I didn't get this posted last night like I had hoped was because I was invited to dinner by some friends I made while here at Brunswick Landing.  They made some very yummy Indian food and we had a nice time...to the point that time got away from us and I didn't get back to the boat until well past "cruisers midnight",  They even gave me a plate of leftovers to take along...

Mmm....Homemade Indian.

Thanks for the invite, conversation, and Indian food Chris and Liz! I'll need to get some of those recipes from you.  And if I ever get this boat cleaned up and ready for guests, we'll have to do this again when I can host the gathering.

Now I'd better get back to work cleaning and organizing the boat so I can head south.

Return of the Beast

Spent more time looking at the stubborn starboard Westerbeke engine today. While it was starting a bit better, it is still a long way from right.  So I crawled back down into the engine room with my trusty flashlight, inspection mirror, paper towels, and a wrench.

I looked at all of the fuel system I could see and didn't find any leaks.  I checked every fitting I could get a wrench on and they were all tight.  I ran paper towels over the lines and found no leaks. Since the engine runs fine once it gets running, I've ruled out airflow (which I think would cause black smoke) and compression (since it does run fine once it is running) so that only leaves fuel issues.  But I'm stumped.

Of course, during my inspection, I found that one of the coolant hoses was chafing on a couple of the engine bolts.  So I did find something to fix.  This hose is molded to fit the engine a specific way and appears to be installed correctly, so I don't know if this is just bad design or what. In any case, bolts rubbing through a coolant hose is bad, so I needed to do something about it.

I was able to get a piece of scrap reinforced hose and so I cut a couple patches to act as chafe protection for the hose.  I used some high temp RTV to glue them onto the hose and temporarily secured them with zip ties to allow the RTV to set up.  Please note, if you ever try this, you must remove the zip ties...I've seen them cut through metal aircraft engine mounts so I have no doubt that they would make quick work of a rubber hose if left in place.  Hopefully the added reinforced rubber will give this hose some added lifetime.

So, still no joy on the engine starting issue, but at least I may have prevented, or at least significantly slowed down, another potential problem.  One of these days I'll hopefully solve this little Wester-Beast problem.

Grumpy Engine

I noticed on my trip down to Brunswick that my starboard engine was having some difficulty waking up in the morning. It would take an unusually long time to get it to start. Once it fired, it would seem to run fine and subsequent starts during the same day would be just fine, but that first start of the morning usually took 3 or more attempts to bring it to life. So, the past several weeks I've been looking into the issue as time permits.

The Westerbeke 42b Four Motor

My boat came with two 42 horsepower Westerbeke (or as my friends at the Retirement Project call them, Wester-Beast) motors. They have around 5000 hours on them, so I don't expect them to to be the youthful engines they once were, but the starboard engine should start easier than it does.

Diesel engines are relatively simple systems. When running, they have one less ingredient than their gasoline combustion engine counterparts. The engine compresses air in the combustion chamber. Then, when fuel is injected into the cylinder containing the compressed air, it spontaneously combusts producing power. No separate ignition system (spark) is required. Just fuel, air, and pressure. The closest thing to an ignition system a diesel engine has are a set of glow plugs. These are used to help warm up the cylinders to aid in cold engine starts. So, presuming that there is nothing screwed up in the timing of events (once it starts it does run just fine), the only real issues should be in the supply of air and fuel to the engine.

Combustion graphic from the University of Toronto

One time when I was trying to get it to start I noticed no signs of combustion. I would crank the engine, but no smoke or anything from the exhaust. I stepped away to think about it (ok, to curse at the engine), then came back and tried once again.  It fired up just like a new engine as if there was no problem at all. This got me thinking that I might have a fuel leak and air was getting trapped in the fuel line. Once the air was purged, the engine would fire.

So, I crawled into the engine compartment and looked for leaks. Sure enough, I found one very small fuel weep at a fuel line return fitting. Could this be causing air to be trapped in the fuel line? I tightened up the fitting and tried starting the engine again. This time the engine would not start at all. By sealing the leak, I trapped air in the line and it could no longer bleed out of the leak. I went back down, loosened the fitting again, and got the engine to start. I then re-tightened the fitting to stop the leak.

Feeling pretty good that I might have resolved the issue, I let the engine sit for a couple days to see if the problem was gone. Unfortunately, when I next tried starting the engine, the problem still existed. It might have been a bit easier than before, but if so it was not by much. Since then I've replaced the fuel filters and verified the fuel pump was working, but I am running out of things to try.

Guess I'm starting to see why they call it a Wester-Beast.

Not The Way We Wanted To Arrive In Brunswick

After spending the night at Palm Cove Marina in Jacksonville Beach, we get an early start so we can make it the rest of the way to Brunswick.  The wind is again on our nose, expected to clock around to the northeast in the afternoon...so we might as well just continue motoring up the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). This time was different though, for the first time there will be no captain or instructor or other help, just my wife and I and our Leopard 38. I know I am ready and my wife was too.

We cast off lines, depart the dock, and motor down the narrow channel back to the ICW and we were soon making our way north in the crisp morning air.  The clouds from the previous day were long gone and it looked like it was going to be a better day than the previous one.

Ironically, this part of the trip does provide a little more of a navigation challenge than the previous day, but we got good briefings on the route from the captain as well as my friend and former broker Pete, so we figured we were in pretty good shape.  It is always good to have local knowledge and on this section it would definitely help keep us out of trouble.

Turbulent Atlantic Avenue bridge in the distance.

The ICW is in a pretty wide river through Jacksonville, but there is one area where the most of the flow squeezes under a causeway bridge.  This was the first challenging spot on which we were briefed. Going under this bridge can be a bit tricky if there is much flow...and of course we were fighting the current a bit when we got there.  The boat speed dropped from 7 to 4 knots as we made our way under the bridge and steering became a bit squirrely. I'm glad I was warned about this and the passage under the bridge, other than slow, was uneventful.

Soon the ICW opened up into the St. Johns river and my wife and I were looking at a naval shipyard that had some large military vessel in dock.  We were admiring the ship while allowing a wide berth to anything military (seems like a prudent idea) when it donned on me that we were briefed about this as well.  Sure enough, I check the chart and the shipyard was where we needed to make a turn in order to stay on the ICW.  Glad I caught that before we motored for a half an hour in the wrong direction.  Of course, just after the turn there is also a bascule bridge (fancy term for a draw bridge) that we needed to open (unlike some motorboats, our 59 foot mast doesn't fit under these so well).

Marina at Fernandina Beach

In the confusion of getting back on course, I forgot to check the name of the bridge...but wanting to get a call in sooner rather than later I took a guess and haled the bridge using the name of the street I found on the chart. Now I've heard stories of bridge tenders that won't respond unless you hail them with exactly the right bridge name on exactly the right channel.  Perhaps it was the entertainment of my abrupt U turn or maybe this tender is just nicer than some, but fortunately for me he was more forgiving and simply responded with the correct name.  I requested the next bridge opening and he told me to continue my approach (I knew that the bridge was on-demand and figured this would be the response, but I've also been told to be as nice as possible to the bridge tenders because they can easily make your life difficult...and besides there really isn't any reason not to be pleasant to someone providing you a service).  As soon as we cleared the bridge I radioed back that we were clear, thanked him, and wished him a nice day.

Just like stacking dominoes...only bigger.

The next point that we were briefed on is the submarine base at Kings Bay.  The ICW comes right up along side this restricted area and you need to make very sure that you turn when you are supposed to, or I imagine you will have some explaining to do to with some people that have big guns and no sense of humor. You also cannot cut the corner here because, while the river seems wide, it is very shallow outside the channel markers.

As we motor up the inlet toward the base we seem to once again be fighting the current (the joke about the wind and current always coming from the direction you want to go in a sailboat seems to be holding true) and we were making between 4 and 5 knots again.  I move over to the edge of the channel in hopes that the shallower water might reduce the currents effects a bit and we did pick up maybe half a knot...better than nothing.  We come up to the base and I see warning signs and a patrol boat sitting at the entrance.  I keep a watchful eye for the ICW markers and make our turn right when we are supposed to.  So no conversations with grumpy military officials for us that day. And sorry, no pictures were taken in the area either.

Once we turned onto the ICW, the depth dropped from the 30 or 40 ft. we were seeing back to the 8 to 12 that is more typical of the ICW.  Even thought we were still fighting a bit of a current, our speed did pick up some as well.  We continued motoring up the ICW, meandering through the countryside and enjoying the sun and scenery that floated by.  I did wonder if we made the right decision going up the ICW since it wanders around a bit in northern Florida and Southern Georgia.  Probably best for us newbies to just enjoy the wandering up the ICW though...even if it does take a bit longer.

Eventually the wandering did get the best of me and I noticed that ahead in the Saint Andrew Sound, a little south of Jekyll island, we were going to be close to the ocean in a rather wide sound. The wind was going to be coming close to setting us up for a nice beam reach through the sound.  So, as we got to that area, we pointed the boat into the wind for a minute and raised the sails.  The wind was blowing over 20 knots so we did reef both the main and the genoa.  We turned back on course, trimmed the sails and pulled the engines to idle.  Finally...we were a sailboat...well, almost.  Since we didn't have a long time to sail, I figured it was best to just keep the engines running at idle instead of shutting them down and restarting them a few minutes later.  So, technically with the engines running (even in idle) we were still a motorboat, but we were sailing...and with the reefed sails we were making the same speed we had been with the engines engaged.  It felt good!

The 15 or so minutes seemed to pass by very quickly and we were soon at the point where we needed to turn into the narrow and shallow ICW channel behind Jekyll island.  Oh well...at least we finally got to sail our sailboat...and that was great.  We furl the genoa, engage the engines again and turn into the wind and drop the main.  Back to full motorboat mode again.  We throttle the engines up and with my wife at the helm I was forward to secure the main sail, halyard, and reefing lines.

As I return to the cockpit my heart sank.  I notice what appears to be steam or smoke coming from the starboard engine room hatch and that faint smell of hot metal from an engine overheating.  I quickly check the engine temperature gauge and find it pegged in the red even though engine alarm had not gone off.  My wife, still being very new to the boat simply didn't notice difference and since she was looking forward, she did not see the steam and (probably thanks to her encounter with Zicam) didn't pick up on the hot engine smell.  So, I quickly shut the engine down, grab a fire extinguisher, and go check the engine hatch.  It does seem like steam and not smoke so I slowly open the hatch.  Steam billows out of the engine room...but fortunately there is no fire.

If there is one thing I learned in aviation, it is that redundancy is a good thing.  One of the advantages of a catamaran is that it has two engines and in our cat one engine can push it along at a pretty respectable speed (at least 3/4 of full speed with both engines).  So, we continue to make our way along the ICW on our port engine while we try and figure out what to do. We are perfectly safe at the moment, but you see, this new captain is pretty sure he will have a problem trying to dock on a single engine in a crowded marina.  I've gotten pretty good at maneuvering with the two engines...but this was a bit much to ask of myself.

Not the way you want to arrive at a marina.

We decided to avail ourselves of the services of our newly acquired SeaTow membership (think AAA of the ocean) and get towed in to the dock. They get us into our slip and we get the boat tied up.  I'm sure glad I bought that membership, the "free" tow would have otherwise cost us $600.  I also have to thank the folks at Brunswick Landing marina, even though we got there late, they stayed and helped us get tied up and give us the key cards to the clubhouse/bathhouse before they left for the evening.

Rover sitting quietly in her slip as the sun set.

With all the steam in the engine room we weren't able to assess the situation with the engine even after we arrived.  The next day we rent a car in order to go shuttle my car from Palm Coast to Brunswick and then hopped on a plane back to Denver.  So, assessing the engine will have to wait until I return in a week. This certainly wasn't the way I wanted to end our first trip in Rover just the two of us, but it seemed like the prudent thing to do.

Servicing Diesel Engines

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm having some work done on the engines.  Specifically I am having an injector pump replaced and I'm having the heat exchangers cleaned.  It was also recommended that I perform a basic service on all the engines so I had a known baseline where I can start tracking regular maintenance.  Now I'm fairly handy and know my way around automotive gasoline engines, a diesel on a boat is a new thing for me and I don't want to screw something up. So, while the coolers and injector pump are off getting worked on, I had a guy at the local marina (who has lived onboard for over 15 years and regularly does maintenance for people at the marina) come help me with the service.

Typically, this maintenance includes changing the oil and filter, changing the fuel filters, checking the raw water strainer, changing the impeller, checking or changing the engine zincs, and adjusting or replacing the fan belts.  My Leopard 38 is powered by two Westerbeke 42 B Four engines and I also have a Northern Lights Generator (Lugger Engine) that will need service.  Yep, Not one, not two, but three diesel engines that need service.  This is one of the downsides of a catamaran, they have at least twice the number of engines to service than the typical mono-hull.

Sourcing Parts

When I bought the boat, it came with a number of spare parts including zincs, impellers, oil and fuel filters. The two items I knew I would need and did not have were fan belts and oil.

For the fan belts, you can't exactly walk into your local Advance or Auto Zone and ask for one.  It usually falls apart right about the time they ask you what make of car it is for. "It is actually for a boat"...employee just stares blankly at you. I had found some specifications on the internet for the size of the belt and tried to get one based on that.  Naturally, that resulted in a belt that was too small.  I finally broke down and took one of the belts in and they were able to figure out the size (the part number is 15420 - the 420 is the important part as that is the size so the 15 in the Auto Zone number could be something else at another store).  The next problem is that each engine takes two belts.  As it turns out there was a total of one belt of that size in the three nearby auto parts stores.  I'm glad the belts on the engines are in good shape as that only leaves me with a single spare for the engines.  I haven't even looked for the belt for the generator yet.

For the oil, a few people suggested using Rotella.  So off to the store I go looking for it.  Well, as it turns out, Rotella is the "model" name for Shell's diesel engine oil and there are several variants (T, T1, T5, and T6) that range from a standard single weight mineral oil to a multi-viscosity full synthetic. Since I could only find the 10w30 that was mentioned in the Westerbeke manual in the semi-synthetic, that was the one I picked up.  3 gallons of the stuff was pretty expensive.  Of course, when I showed that to the guy that was helping me, he highly suggested using the standard Rotella T oil and that he's been running 15w40 in his Westerbeke engine for a long time and it will be what I will most likely find when I'm in the islands.  So, the good news is I can use cheaper oil, the bad news is I had to go back to the store to switch it.

Northern Lights Generator

We start with the generator as it is the easiest to access, just under the transom hatch.  The engine has a hose at the bottom of the oil pan to help drain the oil, but I don't have a fitting for it, so we decide to use an oil changing pump that came with the boat to extract the oil through the dipstick opening.  It was a somewhat slow process, but we did get the oil extracted without a mess.  The oil filter change is just like a car...with the usual mess from the fact it is mounted sideways and holds oil.  The oil absorbent pads (they absorb oils and fuels but not water) are a definite necessity for this task.

The fuel filter for this motor is a canister type that looks just like an oil filter and is replaced in about the same manner (including the oil absorbent pad to catch the spilled diesel).  I guess I should also mention that we shut off the fuel supply lines since I didn't want any more diesel filling up the engine room bilges.

Since the heat exchangers are off being serviced, I assume new zincs will come back with them so we don't have to worry about that at this time.  (Note: later I spoke with the guy working on the heat exchangers and he indicated that, due to the design, the zincs are not mounted there.  Guess we will have to go back and look at the generator engine again to see where the elusive zinc is located.) The fan belt seems to be in good shape, so we just check the tension on it and move on.

Removal of the impeller was interesting.  While it slips on and off the shaft reasonably easy, there is a pretty tight tolerance between the shaft and the collar on the impeller so it has to be removed without twisting it on the shaft or it will just jam.  Two flat screwdrivers at opposite sides of the impeller seem to do the trick...eventually.  Installing the impeller is pretty straight forward, but there is one trick I hadn't thought of.  Since the impeller will be dry, they usually come with some lubricant that helps to install them as well as keep them wet until the cooling water makes it to the point where it can prevent excessive friction.  Without this, the dry rubber impeller rubbing against the metal housing would likely destroy the new impeller before the water can get there and keep things lubricated.  Installation is pretty straight forward, you figure out which way it spins and twist it in that direction as you push it into place making sure that the pin lines up with the slot in the shaft.

Westerbeke Engines

The Westerbeke engines are a bit more complicated.  They are larger and take up much of the space in the narrow hulls of a catamaran, which makes it fun to work on.  On the starboard side we have a engine room with enough space to stand up.  The port side is under the berth, so it is a bit more cramped but there is access both via the transom and from a hatch under the bunk.

This time we start by draining the oil since it takes a while to drain cold, thick oil.  While it is draining, we replace the fuel filters...plural.  Yes, each engine has two fuel filters.  There is a primary Racor filter that is mounted on a bulkhead and a secondary small cartridge filter mounted on the engine itself.  The small secondary filter is a 10 micron cartridge and for the primary I have a choice of 30 micron, 10 micron, or 2 micron filters.  We decide to install the 2 micron filters as that will effectively keep the smaller one clean and the larger Racor is much easier to replace if we ever had a clogged filter occur during operation.

We replace the oil filter and again check the tension and condition of the belts.  Just as the case with the generator, the heat exchangers are not installed there is no way to check or replace the zincs at this time.

The impellers ended up being an interesting puzzle.  As with much of this service, I have been using the spares that were left behind by the previous owner and then would go out and get new spares.  We get the old impeller out of the starboard engine without problem, but the replacement impeller just woldn't seem to go in.  After much struggling, we ended up removing the pump so we could better see why the impeller wouldn't fit.  We come to find that, while the spares (different than the ones for the generator) look virtually identical to the impeller we removed, the center shaft of the spare was thicker and could not be pushed into the slot on the shaft.  Fortunately, the old impeller's pin was threaded and could be removed and one of the spares also had a thread so we swapped out the pin and viola, it now fit just fine.  Unfortunately the other two impellers I had on hand had pins that were press fit, so I couldn't repeat this trick for the other engine.  Will need to go find another impeller that will fit.  So, if you have a Westerbeke...or ever get one...pay particular attention to the impeller...apparently only the genuine Westerbeke ones fit the Westerbeke pump.

At this point, I am waiting for the parts to come back so we can finish assembling the engines, add the oil, bleed the fuel system, and get everything running again. It will be nice to see the engines running again...hopefully without the fuel leak or temperature issue.  And this definitely was a learning experience.