New Anchor Wash-down Pump Operating Procedure

It appears the water being trapped on the outboard side of the port engine bed was coming from some loose fittings in the potable water line. The water heater sits on a little platform in the engine room.

It appears that the bilge pump hoses used to be routed under this platform. For some reason the hoses are now routed awkwardly next to the water heater. Need to reroute them under the platform.

Successfully tested the newly plumbed anchor wash down system. Changing the operating procedures to leave the wash down's thru-hull, which is located next to the engine's raw water thru-hull closed. It will need to be opened before using the wash down pump.

Raw Water Flow Rate at Idle RPM is 3 GPM

Replaced the port dinghy davit's magnetic cut-out switch. Ironic as it may seem the old switch was crushed by the magnet--the same magnet that supposed to stop the winch when it comes in proximity to the switch. Bottom line, nothing is more effective than a vigilant operator.

Repaired the dinghy's port fuel tank tie-down; one of the screws had pulled out of the fiberglass floor. Ran the Onan and turned it off and on several times (after a long layoff the impeller is more likely to fail the second time the Onan is run). Measured the cooling water flow rate at the expected 3 gpm.

Bad Fireboy Propane Sensor

The Fireboy S2-A, mounted in the galley and used to turn on/off the propane and warn of gas leaks, has a bad sensor. The bilge mounted MS-2 sensor has been false alarming a lot. Today it quit working totally. Need a new sensor.

About 1/2 gallon of rusty water in the mid-bilge. I need to find a way to drain the water trapped around the ballast. Unless I think of something else, an exploratory hole perpendicular to the bilge may uncover something.

Bow Thruster Fries Battery Switch...Oops

The Cummins heat exchanger was leaking a little from it's aft-facing inspection plate. This is the same plate I'd removed several days ago to see if there were zinc bits inside the heat exchanger. Tightening the plate's attachment bolt took care of the problem.

 The battery switch being used to isolate the thruster/windlass couldn't handle the bow thruster's current draw—we need a new switch that can handle at least 425A. In the mean time one of the switche's studs is connecting together the battery and the thruster/windlass power line.

Tools Down!

Cleaned the bilges. Put several coats of Cetol on the dinghy oars. TSP'd the salon walls, companionway hatch interior, and the Tommy door. Removed the wood mounts in the pilothouse that supported Peter Newman's writing table. Updated the Garmin MFDs to software V7.5. And, finally, after six weeks we put all the tools away!

Draining the Airsep's P-Trap

For the record, all of the following occurred after opening Christmas presents.

Washed the decks with Oxy.

One more bung came off during the scrubbing which leaves three that need to be repaired. Put a new impeller in the Cummins. The old impeller was in good shape.

Drained oil out of the AirSep's p-trap. Need to add this task to the Periodic Maintenance List. It probably should be checked every six months.

 The dinghy tube repair seems to be holding. Yea! The repair methodology was different this time in that (1) toluene was used to scrub the patched area; (2) three coats of contact adhesive were applied with a paintbrush; and (3) the tube wasn't inflated for 24 hours.

Silicone Caulk that Doesn't Set--Not Good

In the immortal words of John McEnroe—"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!" Some of the GE Silicone II used on the three starboard side salon windows didn't harden. Fortunately only the most aft window had to be redone. For the purposes of full disclosure the silicone used was beyond its expiration date, and yes, I did know it. But everyone knows that caulk goes bad by hardening in the tube. Guess I'll have to modify that heuristic:old latex and polyurethane caulks harden in the tube; old silicone may never harden.

Since I was already playing with the windows today, I reversed the opening direction of the salon's port center window. Now the sliding pane is the most forward pane and slides aft to open. This was done to better accommodate the air conditioner's exhaust hose.

There's some unexplained rust-brown water in the forward and mid bilge. In a newly painted forward bilge (the bilge from the bow to the engine room bulkhead) a little brown water worked itself up through several hairline cracks in the bilge's bottom. Wipe the water away and several hours later a little more appears. The same colored water, but in greater volume, is in the mid bilge (the bilge aft of the engine room bulkhead extending to the dam under the refrigerator). The aft bilge has nothing but clear water in it. I suspect that the water has been in proximity to the iron ballast--thus the rust brown color. Like the bulwarks, it doesn't surprise me that water got into the ballast's sealed space. The question now is, how to get it out. With the hopes of draining it I drilled two two 3/8" exploratory holes in the keel. Both went through about an inch of fiberglass before hitting dry metal. Rather than continue guessing where the water may be, the next test hole will be down through one of the hairline cracks.

 Cleaned the dinghy. Sanded and epoxied the dinghy's oars. Nylon tied the dinghy's gas line and sounder wires together. Filled the dink with air. The new patch appears to be holding. Gallons of water were drained from the dink's bilge. I suspect that it's rain water that found it's way below deck. When not using the dink for extended periods it would be best to remove the plug (it's the plug on the outside of the dink and low on the transom).

With the davits' falls all the way down to the dink, I could see an alarming amount of wire deformation on the port davit. The deformation was just below the turning block. This is also about where the starboard davit's wire broke. I'll bet this length of wire is usually just off the winch drum when the dink hits the water. It's then getting crushed each time the dink is raised. We need to replace the wire soonest.

Replaced the pencil zinc in the Cummins' heat exchanger. Removed the heat exchanger's end cap to make sure that none of the old zinc was blocking the tubes. Cleaned the end cap put a new o-ring around it's retaining bolt.

Removed and re-bedded the two studs which connect the Diver's Dream Zinc to Nellie's bonding wires. Ground a slot in the port forward fuel tank's cap to receive a deck key. Didn't like the result--it's still too hard to open. A proper solution is to remove each tank's inspection plate and replace the 2" caps and receivers with real diesel deck plates. It'll have to wait until we get Nellie to Maryland.

RIB Tube Repair Methodology

Painted the bottom with one gallon of Rust-Oleum bottom paint (47.5% copper). Since Nellie will be hauled in October there's no need to do a full bottom job now. (Update: The Rust-Oleum was not a good bottom paint; lots of hard growth--10 May 2014).

Tried again to fix the slow leak in the dink. The process was (1) rough sand the area; (2) wipe it down with tolulene; (3) put three layers of 2-part adhesive on both the patch and the area to be covered; (4) apply the patch and rub it hard into place with a wrench. Letting the patch sit for 24 hours before blowing the dink up.

Had a hard time replacing the 4"x6" Divers Dream zinc. Its nuts were completely encrusted with marine growth. Both studs turned. Got the zinc off but will have to remove the studs and re-bed them before putting the new zinc on.

A year since it was installed the heat exchanger's pencil zinc was completely gone. Need to check it every six months.

That's Why We Test!

Installed corrugated stainless steel gas line between the Force 10's 3/8" male flare fitting and Nellie's 5/16" flared cap (female fitting.

 The good news is that changing out Vacuflush parts is becoming easier and easier to do. The bad news is that I was working on the head again today. I'm pretty sure that the vacuum leak is at the el under the toilet. It's a very slow leak as the vacuum pump comes on maybe once in four hours and then only for seconds. Today I took out the makeshift el and installed a proper PVC one. Had to use a heat gun on the white toilet hose to make it easier to get the connectors in.

That's why we test! After filling the holding tank with water until it overflowed from the deck plate, we found two leaks in the system. Much better to find the leaks now with clean water than later with … ;-) after fixing the leaks a re-test revealed nothing but dry joints.

Relocated all the life jackets from the top of the stateroom's hanging locker to underneath the salon's settee. Still easy access and reduces clutter. Speaking of clutter, the storage location for the the pilothouse's floor and nav table inserts is now on top of the genset. At least while at the dock this keeps the pilothouse bench foot rest clutter free.

Replaced the starboard davit's 4mm wire rope with 3/16" Amsteel-Blue. Reused the wire rope's thimble and wove it into place using a fid made from a 6mm knitting needle ($2.50/pair at Walmart). The needle is hollow and when cut to about 4" long, worked perfectly. Some nylon whipping, from the thimble up the falls 4", keeps the stainless weights from rubbing on the Amsteel-Blue.

Covered the chain-locker-side of the doors at the end of the bunk with an insulated plastic sheet. This helps keeps water spray and odors in the chain locker.

Scraped more loose gel coat from the hull. Started to put black bottom paint on just the bare spots but have decided to go ahead and put bottom paint on the entire bottom. Need more paint.

The stateroom is finished! The mattress cover was washed, air dried and sprayed with a deodorant. The new polished brass lights were re-installed. The new bedspread and new throw pillows were put fashionably in place.

Installed a new bronze Kohler sink faucet. Redid all the cable ties holding the saltwater and water tank vent lines to the back of the kitchen sink cabinet. Believe it on not, the back cabinet is made of teak.

New Force 10 Stove

Installed a Force 10 stainless steel three burner stove. The LNVT has a very nice stainless steel lined stove recess that's 24"(w) x 22" (d) x 22" (h). The LP gas line from the stack is the same 5/16" copper tubing that is used for the diesel fuel system. The LP gas tube enters the stove recess from the top, forward, outboard side. The Force 10 is gimbaled and uses two side-mounted brackets for support.

Ocean Eagle Yachts installed some nice looking teak trim between the recess and the old stove. I'll do the same when Nellie gets to the Chesapeake.

 Finished painting the forward stateroom. Replaced the screening in both ceiling hatches. Polyurethaned the screens' frames.

Polish and Paint

More polishing and painting today.

The stateroom is almost done, just need a few more coats of paint on the boards under the berth.

Finished putting polyurethane on the refirgerator door, undersink cabinet doors and the fiddle.

Polished and lacquered the refrigerator door hardware.

Replaced another 27 deck screws with teak dowels.

Wire Rope vs. Amsteel-Blue

A lot more polyurethane went into the stateroom and kitchen today. Like the pilothouse all the accent wood (frames, fiddles, etc.) is done in gloss. Everything is in semigloss. All the stateroom brass hardware was removed, polished and lacquered. I've heard the lacquer works well to keep the brass polished; we'll see. 

The wire rope supporting the dinghy's bow parted today while lowering the dink to the ground. Fortunately the dink was down when it happened. My guess is that when the weight was off, the wire tangled on the winch drum. The good news is that removing the winch assembly from the Simpson 175 is as easy as removing seven screws. The 175 has 18' of 7x19, right hand lay, 5/32" (4mm), stainless wire rope. I'm going to try some 5/32" Amsteel-Blue in lieu of the stainless. Replaced another 41 deck screws with teak dowels.

Poly and Windows

More stateroom polyurethane. Finished up the last five opening windows.

Thoughts on Window Channel Upgrade

Got the salon's starboard forward and starboard middle windows back in. Black GE Silicon II caulk was used between the inner window retainer and the stainless frame as well as between the outer window retainer and the stainless frame. The same caulk was used between the non-movable window and its retainer (i.e. the outer retainer) to lock the window in place. If the screws holding the retainers leak, water will find its way into the void between the salon's outer fiberglass wall and the wood of the inner wall. This may be where Nellie's port side leak is. Clearly the screws which cause the most concern are the ones that water naturally pools on, i.e. those on the bottom of the window. The inner retainer has no screws on the bottom--just two on the forward side and one on the aft. The outer retainer has three screws on the bottom. Two of these can't be serviced as they're covered by the fixed pane. I caulked closed those two holes and didn't put screws back in them--I fear leaks more than I fear the loss of strength from the missing two screws.

Got the third and last coat of Helsman Spar Urethane on the outward facing edge of the teak window frames.

Cut the water drainage slots through the Trim-Lok U-channels.

Replacement Window U Channel--Trim-Lok

Used a bead of Locktite PL S40 (polyurethane caulk) between the window's stainless u-channel (aka the inner retainer) and the Trim-Lok rubber u-channel. The S40 works great holding the rubber u-channel inside the stainless u-channel. To get the Trim-Lok to form tightly to the window's corners I heated it with a heat gun. This relaxes the Trim-Lok so it can easily be pushed right into place. Masking tape kept the Trim-Lok firmly seated in the retainer until the S40 dried. Once dry the ends of the Trim-Lok, which had been left long, were cut even with the the ends of the inner retainer.

 Got the third and final coats of Helmsman Spar Urethane on the inward facing edges of the teak window frames. I was finally able to get the urethane to flow pretty well. The trick was to dip the brush in urethane and then, starting about four inches in front of the wet edge, stroke the brush back into the wet edge. 

Everything in the stateroom, except the doors, got its first coat of Minwax semigloss polyurethane.

Valspar Flat Dove White Latex on the Walls

Sanded everything in the stateroom that has a polyurethane finish—which is a lot! Put the third coat of Lowes Valspar Dove white on the stateroom's port side wainscoting. Sanded the louvered doors under the galley sink.

Paint on Runrail

Repainted the teak rubrail black.

Grease and Caulk

Filled fastener holes in the stack with polyester putty. Put a new pencil zinc in the heat exchanger. Greased the Bomar hatches, the windlass, and the rudder shaft. Recaulked the wind instrument mount.

New Raritan Water Heater

Finished installing the Raritan 170611 6 gallon water heater. Repaired the small coolant leak at the top of the riser (above the hose which goes from the engine to the hot water heater). Finished painting the rub rail black.

Water Heater Leaks

Removed the the old water heater. Found that coolant had been leaking from the h/w tank's heat exchanger feed point. It was running down along the tank's insulation and then dripping into the bilge. Started installing the Raritan 170611 6 gallon water heater.

Started painting the rub rail black.

New SmartPlug for Shore Power

Installed a SmartPlug 30A receptacle on Nellie and converted her shore cord with a SmartPlug.

Mat finish with high gloss accents

The pilot house is refinished with Epifanes mat varnish. A gloss finish was used to accent.

New Rudder Zinc

Bottom cleaned by Gulfshore Hull & Prop. Rudder zinc replaced (previously done 19 Oct 2011, 165 days ago). 75% left on diver's dream.

Breaker Panel's Polarity Test Light

Replaced the electrical panel's burned out green polarity light and confirmed that polarity test circuitry is working.