Sunday, January 30, 2011

Watch Were Your Drop Your Hook!

SHIP'S LOG:

I had to clear out the "In-Law's Apartment" locker and begin the trace of the hose that ducts the fresh, good air into the engine room and the one that ducts the hot, bad air out. At first glance, it looked like it would be a problem as the hose ran out of a bulkhead and into the flooring and out and into another bulkhead. . . . but no, because there on the aft bulkhead, just before the hose disappeared for the second time was the blower! And it had been there awhile. Written on it in Magic Marker was the date "1995" which I guess was the year it was put in place. I checked the wiring and found that I had 13.5 volts to the blower but it still wouldn't turn. It meant that the motor was shot.To confirm this, I disconnected it and check the resistance and got infinite ohms. It was well and truly shot and had to be replaced. It was also coated on the inside with 16 years worth of oily build up from sucking the air out from around a diesel engine. Yep, it was time for it to go onto the great scrapheap of life.

Dinghied into shore and Jerry and I headed up to West Marine where I purchased a new blower, along with an in-line fuse connection and fuses. The previous blower had been installed without them which leads me to believe that it wasn't original to the boat. I think it was a replacement for the original but that it was set in place by one of the previous owners. If the date is correct, then it was put in by the original owner of the boat in Bermuda. It is a simple fix and a simple location and I will have it up an running on the 'morrow. It was simply to nice a day to spend doing anything like work.

One thing of note: last night after dark, there were 4 of us anchored along the channel of the causeway leading to Faber Cover. A sailboat came in and hunted around for a spot to anchor. He must have been using the charts for he anchored right over a wreak. The charts for this location, and I suppose many other locations, are a bit off. The 2004 Hurricane season devastated the area and filled in a lot of spots that were formally good anchorages. I discovered that when I first anchored here as the depths were no where close to what was on the chart and Jerry confirmed it. Evidently, this had been a place for locals to moor and some boat didn't survive the hurricane and went down near the beginning of the causeway channel. For awhile, the mast noted the location at high tide and when that was later removed, a buoy was attached to the wreak, The buoy eventually disappeared but eh locals knew where the wreak was and avoided it. This poor fellow Last night anchored right over it and was aground on it this morning. Lots of yelling and scream at 5AM low tide. He was not a happy camper but he didn't get towed, though he probably moved, and is still there . . . tempting fate yet again.

No word from Brad. with his brother in town for the weekend, I really didn't expect it and he lived up to expectations. I am still awaiting the return of the "spares box" an d some other items he borrowed and I guess that will have to wait for tomorrow. If he gets out here early enough, I'll be off to Stuart. If not, I will go Tuesday and "suffer" through Monday in 75 degrees of temp and sunny, sunny skies. And I am not sorry or guilty at all!