Bilge! ! ! ! ! ! !

SHIP"S LOG:

While not clean enough to eat out of, the bilge has become much cleaner than it was. Last year, I had this "mysterious" oil disappearing problem which, with the help of Cliff & Chuck, the engineering miracle workers, was solved by left oil way down deep in the bilge. The deep bilge is to "ultimate low point" of the interior of the boat, the final resting place of everything dropped in the boat. Loose anything, and you will eventually find it in the bilge . . .not that you would wanted after it has spent time therein! The bilge on ABISHAG is a little over a foot square and a good foot deep so it collects detritus and fluids quite well. The one bad bit of engineering is that it is also the location of the "show sump"." The Shower Sump is a 1 ft. square box into which drains the flow from the drains in the floor of the two heads. It is intended to trap hair and other such items to keep it from clogging the bilge pump which empties the bilge and keeps the boat afloat. The shower sump has three (3) inflow hose connections and one discharge hose connection. The discharge was intend to be connected to the bilge pump discharge hose downstream from the bilge pump and so exit the boat through the same thru-hull as the bilge pump. The show sump has a mesh trap inside to trap and collect all the nasty stuff that we exude when taking showers or washing in the sink. If you have ever had to unclog a drain in a sink or shower, you know what I am talking about. If you never have, you will one day! The entire top can be removed to that the trap can be cleaned . . not a chore that anyone who willing choose to do!

Unfortunately, somewhere in her past, one of ABISAHG's previous owners, for reason know only to them, removed to of the three hoses bring the nastiness to the sump and disconnected the discharge hose complete. There is, on the top of the shower sump box, a "float switch," a little device that lifted by rising water, turns on a pump somewhere. I am assuming, bad idea I know, that the pump it operates is inside the shower sump. When the water in the bilge rose sufficiently to lift the float switch, the rising water would also activate the regular bilge as well. Thus the water in the bilge and in the sump would be discharged together. However, the float switch is inactive. All electrical leads to the pump, wherever it might be located, are severed and, with the hoses cut, and with what remains of the dischage hose connected to nothing, the sump has fillled with oil and bilge and has been "fermenting" for years. Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of the shower sump?

Yesterday, I cleaned as much of the bilge as I would get to for you see the shower sump just about fills the entire deep bilge making it all be impossible to really clean it out. I hit it with SIMPLE GREEN, LESTOIL, DAWN Dish-washing liquid, and scrubbed with a brush, a scouring pad and lots and lots of Brawny Paper towels. To get rid of all the water, cleaning fluids and gunk, I vacuumed it all out with my wet/dry shopvac. I was able to get the almost inaccessible places in the bilge and even sucked most of "whatever" was in the shower sump out! The fluids I osaked up with two weeks worht of newspapersand dumped them into heavy duty trash bags and hauled them down the dock to the dumpster. It is clear though that the shower sump has got to go! It prevents any chance of really cleaning the bilge and, without cleaning the bilge really, really well, you get that low-grade rotten egg smell. Putting a mesh trap ( what is know for some reason as a "strum box") around the bilge pumps , automatic and manual, will make it a who lot easier. It "looks" as though the "only thing" hold int eh shower sump in place is one hose that wasn't disconnected by the previous owner. Remove that hose should free the shower sump box and open up the bilge.

Don, the magic electrician, is working on my engine. When it was winterize last year, the winterizer found that the oil got "way too hot." Eveidently it partially melted the plastic on one of the oil filters. There seems to be some question about how well or if the oil is circulating through the oil cooler. So at $60/hour, Don is trying to discover what is what. Having Don, the magic electricain, do this is great. He is a terribly honest guy, He trys to do everything he can to cut expenses. And he is a wonderful source for electrical work whose brain I pick when I can. I was having aprioblem with the SSB ( SIngle Side-Band Radio). However the power was turned on, it crackled and hummed and buzzed, not sounds that are indicative of proper operation. I disconnected it and took it to Dockside electronics, a stone's throw across the river, and they tested out the radio. It worked fine, so the problem was with the boat. I went back and reconneceted it and the problem reoccured. Do was able to talk me through tracking down the problem. It turned out to be a loose nut connecting the positive power wire to a fuse between the radio and the battery. Of course, the nut was nearly inaccessible, but I did get to it and the SSB is working just fine now. I 'll pick Don's brain more tomorrow when I see if he can walk me through discovering why the windlass doesn't work electrically.

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

I thought that I was through with bills from the Shipyard but it looks like I'll be getting another for Don's work. Hopefully, it will just be labor and not parts, though parts are usually the least expensive part of any work done. Hopefully, someone will come through at the last moment to, I hate to say it, "buy ABISHAG." Getting dunned again is hard on one's finances especially when one doesn't have any!