Any day that starts with losing your smart phone promises to be bad and ugly. Any day that ends with you sleeping on your boat for the first time in months is good. Today was all of that but whew, was it ever ugly.
I realized walking back to the car after dropping off the first load that the familiar lump wasn’t on my belt. It’s happened before and it’s usually right on the ground next to the car. Nope. I retraced my steps, no phone. I didn’t hear it fall in the water when I stepped aboard, another likely place for it to fall off. Then, I remembered; there was snow on the edge of the dock and I kicked it off so I wouldn’t track it into the boat. The phone fell in the soft snow and I must have kicked it in.
No time to mourn. I moved the boat over to the bulkhead and filled the water tank. Back in the slip I quickly had the fresh water system up and running. I cleaned out the diesel cabin heater, a truly ugly job, and was soon enjoying the feeling of the boat coming alive with the warmth and flickering light of the fire.
While bleeding and flushing various lines, it became clear that the sump pump was not pumping. I disconnected the hose and tried to blow through it. It was blocked completely. I had to check for debris at the discharge end in the lazarette. The hose clamps and nipple were just at the limit of my fingertips.
Some of you may remember this video:
http://www.cruisingonstrider.us/videos/Lazarette.wmv
Well, two years later, I can still do it, over and over. Once I got the autopilot disconnected and removed, everything else out of the way, and the other end of the hose free, it was clear that this old hose, probably in the boat since 1980, was going to need to be replaced.
About this time, the yard mechanic showed up to talk about the engine re-alignment. With some good questions and careful analysis, he talked me out of giving the yard quite a bit of money. You’ve got to like and respect a yard when they do that. There may still be an issue but it’s worth running the boat again with the new shaft zincs to see. That was good.
After a trip up to West Marine to buy a new length of hose, I worked my way into the lazarette again and noticed black rubber along part of the steering line for the wind vane and autopilot. Further investigation revealed that the rope which holds the fuel filler hose away from the line had come loose and the line had worn a groove in the hose. It was within thousandths of an inch of where I would feel that I needed to undertake the expensive and difficult task of replacing it proactively. I re-secured it and installed chafing gear in case the rope contacts it again. If not for the clogged bilge line, I would have been fueling a few months from now and been surprised by fuel in the lazarette. This was very good.
Replacing the bilge line was very ugly, in and out of the lazarette, head down in the seat locker, out again to go in the other way, pushing, pulling, blood running down my hands. Nasty, nasty work. I’d written two or three versions of the “Boat for Sale” ad in my head by the time it was done. The pump now works beautifully. That’s good.
I then turned to straightening out the cabin. All this work following just throwing stuff on berths made it look like Strider had experienced a couple of roll overs in the Southern Ocean.
All is well now. Everything is back to normal except for two large sail bags taking up the V berth space where Dreameagle should be. I’ll get those up on deck and the main bent on tomorrow. Once I hoist the radar reflector and re-provision, only weather will keep me at the dock. From the weather forecasts, it looks like that will be Sunday at the earliest so I have plenty of time to enjoy being home again.
Life is good but it takes a lot of bad and ugly to make it so.
I realized walking back to the car after dropping off the first load that the familiar lump wasn’t on my belt. It’s happened before and it’s usually right on the ground next to the car. Nope. I retraced my steps, no phone. I didn’t hear it fall in the water when I stepped aboard, another likely place for it to fall off. Then, I remembered; there was snow on the edge of the dock and I kicked it off so I wouldn’t track it into the boat. The phone fell in the soft snow and I must have kicked it in.
No time to mourn. I moved the boat over to the bulkhead and filled the water tank. Back in the slip I quickly had the fresh water system up and running. I cleaned out the diesel cabin heater, a truly ugly job, and was soon enjoying the feeling of the boat coming alive with the warmth and flickering light of the fire.
While bleeding and flushing various lines, it became clear that the sump pump was not pumping. I disconnected the hose and tried to blow through it. It was blocked completely. I had to check for debris at the discharge end in the lazarette. The hose clamps and nipple were just at the limit of my fingertips.
Some of you may remember this video:
http://www.cruisingonstrider.us/videos/Lazarette.wmv
Well, two years later, I can still do it, over and over. Once I got the autopilot disconnected and removed, everything else out of the way, and the other end of the hose free, it was clear that this old hose, probably in the boat since 1980, was going to need to be replaced.
About this time, the yard mechanic showed up to talk about the engine re-alignment. With some good questions and careful analysis, he talked me out of giving the yard quite a bit of money. You’ve got to like and respect a yard when they do that. There may still be an issue but it’s worth running the boat again with the new shaft zincs to see. That was good.
After a trip up to West Marine to buy a new length of hose, I worked my way into the lazarette again and noticed black rubber along part of the steering line for the wind vane and autopilot. Further investigation revealed that the rope which holds the fuel filler hose away from the line had come loose and the line had worn a groove in the hose. It was within thousandths of an inch of where I would feel that I needed to undertake the expensive and difficult task of replacing it proactively. I re-secured it and installed chafing gear in case the rope contacts it again. If not for the clogged bilge line, I would have been fueling a few months from now and been surprised by fuel in the lazarette. This was very good.
Replacing the bilge line was very ugly, in and out of the lazarette, head down in the seat locker, out again to go in the other way, pushing, pulling, blood running down my hands. Nasty, nasty work. I’d written two or three versions of the “Boat for Sale” ad in my head by the time it was done. The pump now works beautifully. That’s good.
I then turned to straightening out the cabin. All this work following just throwing stuff on berths made it look like Strider had experienced a couple of roll overs in the Southern Ocean.
All is well now. Everything is back to normal except for two large sail bags taking up the V berth space where Dreameagle should be. I’ll get those up on deck and the main bent on tomorrow. Once I hoist the radar reflector and re-provision, only weather will keep me at the dock. From the weather forecasts, it looks like that will be Sunday at the earliest so I have plenty of time to enjoy being home again.
Life is good but it takes a lot of bad and ugly to make it so.