GOOD NEWS & BAD NEWS

There is good news tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     Well, Eric the Engine Shaman showed up on Friday last and spent a lot of time working on the engine. Good News!

     He didn't get it running. Bad News!

     Well, actually he didn't try to get it to run so much as to figure out why it didn't run. He spent the time tracing the fuel system and checking each part of it to make sure it was working correctly. He didn't get too far before he realized that the fuel was contaminated, that it had a lot of water and dirt in it.It would be necessary to "polish" it or get rid of it, other wise it would continue to mess up the fuel delivery system and the engine wouldn't run. That would make it difficult to figure out where the problem is.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I've got to polish the fuel, run it through a series of filters to take out the water and the dirt. Hopefully, it will not require me to open the inspection port on the fuel tank when it is empty of fuel and scrub out the inside before putting the "polished" fuel back in. That would not be a particularly difficult job, rather it is just  that it is a bit difficult to access the port and do the scrubbing. I am hoping that Friend Fred and I can agitate the fuel as it is being pumped-out and then pumped back in  so that it suspends the dirt nad water, allowing it to be filtered out.  There is probably a good 40 gallons in the tank and I would just hate to dispose of the fuel for which I have paid over $130.

       This project will not be able to happen this week as we are experiencing some nasty weather early in the week and the end of the week will see us feeling the effects of "Florence." My best bet is the weekend. Then again, who knows.

AH, JOYS OF BOAT OWNERSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

NOPE! NOT YET!

       I am hopeful that this will be the week when Eric the Shaman finally has the time to fix the "iron genny." It is really annoying not to be out sailing on ABISHAG. I could get her off the mooring without much of a problem, it is getting back on the mooring. As Shakespeare was won't to say, "Aye, there's the rub."

     The "rub" is stopping at the right spot, the place where I cant get from the cockpit to the bow, grab the pickup stick and pull the pennants on the boat and secure them to the cleats. When you are mooring a boat without an engine, you don't have the relatively instant breaking power and direction control that you do when you have a working engine. One has to manipulate the sails rather perfectly the have her make the correct speed for it to happen.

     To stop a boat under sail and pick up a mooring, one has to know which way the wind is blowing and how hard. ABISHAG weighs a svelte 11 tons and when she is moving has a lot of kinetic energy: ie. she don't slow down quickly, doesn't stop on a dime. If you get too close to the pickup, you will drift by at speed. Try stopping 11 tons by hand! If you don't get close enough, you'll stop before you cna reach the pickup  and drift away.  It gets even more fun when you are dealing with any sort of current. IS it flowing in the same direction as the Wind? Then the boat will take longer to stop. Is it against the wind? The it will stop short. If the wind is blowing from the side, then you will be push away from the pickup and you miss it all together.

     You have to work out all these things ahead of time because if you mess up, when the mooring is not out in the middle of nowhere. It is smack dab in the middle of other moored boats and without a certain amount of speed you are without steerage control and you can easily whack another boat, or two. Unfortunately, ABISHAG, at slow speed, handles like a semi on an icy road and any impact is going to do some serious damage, not to her, but to the poor boat(s) she hits. Across an ocean, in bad weather, in a lot of winds and waves, ABISHAG is marvelous. In a tight mooring field, er... not so much.

AH! THE JOYS OF BOAT OWNERSHIP.

 

NOT QUITE YET . . . DAY #4

     Well, Eric the Shaman has not yet been able to free up enough time to install the new fuel pump and check out the system. I have gotten to the point of accepting that it will happen when it happens and when it happens, that will be fine . . . as long as it is before Columbus Day Weekend when I have to head up the Connecticut River for the winter.

     I was able to work on the bilge pumping system.I found the leak was actually two holes in the same pipe about an inch or so apart. I had to clean the pipe of all grease, oil and dirt, a lot of rubbing and scrubbing with DAWN, the ultimate grease & dirt cutter. Then it was 30 minutes of rubbing 80 grit sand paper on the area around the holes to get it down to the bright and shiny bronze. Once it was sparkling and shiny, I then had to mix up some liquid epoxy and slather it on the spot and let it begin to cure. Once it stiffened, I mixed another small batch and did it again. Hopefully, the two batches will cure completely and adhere to the pipe and so fill and fix the holes. If it is possible to do so easily, I will replace the pipe with plastic hose come the fall haul- out or in the spring before launching. The bronze pipe is old, 40 years or so, and the area around the holes had pink corrosion. Green corrosion on a bronze pipe is OK and natural. It does not affect the strength of the pipe. However, when the corrosion shows a pinkish color, then the corrosion is affect the strength of the pipe, and the the area around the holes in the pipe showed "pink." It will be better to engage in preventative maintenance than to wait for another hole, especially if it is in a less than accessible location.

     I tried to find out when the auto switch on the bilge pump is not function but trying to follow the various wires, which looks like a bowl of spaghetti, gave me a headache. It means that I will have to spend more time doing a "follow the wire" project once ABISHAG is hauled. When I first got ABISHAG, I ripped out yards of wires that served no purpose. Previous owners, when adding new electrical items  or replacing old ones, rather than replacing the old wiring, simply disconnected the old added more new wire. I have hesitated because the boat's electrical system is voodoo for me. Normally, each system on a boat has its own color and size of wire, or is supposed to. However, it is rarely the case. Most people, including yard guys, tend to grab and use whatever is available. This can make following a line of wiring a bit of a mystery. A wire begins as one color, goes through a hole in a bulkhead and changes color at a connection. To make it all the more fun, one is often in a twisted position when trying to do the job.

AH! THE JOY OF BOAT OWNERSHIP!!

 

Getting The Engine Fixed . . . DAY #3

      One of the most difficult things to do when you want something done "right now" is to trust other people or depend on someone else to do it. But such is life, you can't do everything yourself that you want done especially if, like me, you lack the skills. So ti is that do to circumstances beyond my control, ABISHAG is still without an engine with out a functioning fuel pump and so an engine that will not run. SIGH!

     I'll call the Shaman tomorrow while I am at work and perhaps he will show up, install the fuel pump and all will be right with the world. . . . that is if the non-functioning fuel pump was the one and only problem. Whenever the Shaman shows up, everything will be checked out and I just hope that there is only the one problem.

     I found the leak in the bilge pump system. Most of the piping is rubber hoses but there are some sections of bronze. And in one of those sections, after some 41 years, a hole, actually two holes right next to each other, developed in the pipe.To make it even more fun, the water from one sprayed onto an electrical connection. I am not sure which one it is, but quite possibly it is connected to the bilge pump and the bilge pump switch.  The pump won't operate in "automatic mode,"  a new trick it recently learned, so it may be that the electrical connection is connected to the bilge pump switch system. 

     To fix that switch, I first have to fix the leak(s) in the pipe. That will take a fair amount of cleaning of the pipe, sanding it down so that it gleams, meaning that there is no grease or dirt to be found. Then I will mix-up some five minute epoxy, fill the holes, cover the rest of that section of pipe and let it harden. Following that, I'll test it out. If it doesn't leak, all is good. If it does leak a little, or a lot, then I'll apply more epoxy until it leaks no more.

     Once that is all squared away, I'll have to take the time to figure out what the electrical connection is and if the water has done it an injury. And then go after the bilge switch problem. And who knows what other problems may rear their ugly heads. AH, THE JOY OF BOAT OWNERSHIP!

GETTING THE ENGINE FIXED - DAY 2

     There is a good thing about getting a mechanic who's good at what he does and there is a not so good thing about getting a mechanic that is good as what he does. 

     When you find a good diesel mechanic, one that knows what he is doing, the good thing is that he is going to fix the beast. He will check the whole engine out, learn what needs fixing and then fix it. He is not going to fix the doohickey and have you pay for it if it doesn't need fixing. What needs fixing gets fixed correctly.

     The not so good thing about getting a good diesel mechanic is that he name has spread far and wide and everyone want him to work on their doohickey and, as a result, he's busy. Busy! Busy!! Busy!!! 

      When it turned out that problem was not biological but mechanical, it meant that I would run up against Eric the Diesel Engine Shaman's reputation and the demand for his services. Thus it is that as this Sunday passes away, ABISHAG's engine is still not functioning as Eric has been unable to find the time to fix the doohickey. I am hopeful that Monday will be a different story.

AH! THE JOYS OF BOAT OWNERSHIP!!!!!

GETTING THE ENGINE FIXED - DAY1

     Dealing with mechanical things for me is right up there with dealing with electricity. Eric, the Engine Shaman, came by today after deciding last week that the problem was " a biological infestation" of the fuel system.  Dosing the fuel with magical potions  and letting them mix with the fuel should solve the problem. I did that last week and when he was able to come by today, I expected that the engine would fire up with no problems.

     After examining the engine and tinkering here and there, Eric sprayed the air intake with another magic potion, "starting ether" I believe, we made five attempts to start the engine and get it to turn over. No joy, despite many invocations and incantations. This caused eric to do some more tinkering.

     As I mentioned, dealing with things mechanical is not high on my list of fun thing because there are parts, lots of parts. And with lots of part, most(all) of which I don't understand, there is the potential of something going wrong with them. SO naturally Eric discovered that the exhaust system was leaking exhaust. Of course, it wasn't out in the open, rather it was a piece of pipe wrapped in insulation tape. He discovered two wires, unconnected to anything, just there! He thought that possibly, maybe, they were connected to ignition system and were part of the shut down (kill) system for the engine. Turn out not so. We also discovered a leak in the discharge hose for the bilge pump.  It is small and I wiill fix it tomorrow, but when the pump is used, it does spray water in various places. And soooooooooooo that has got to be fixed.

      As I said, lots of parts, and the one I thought was the fuel pump wasn't. Eric finally figured it out and , crawling over the top of the engine, discovered the "real fuel pump" on the unexposed side of the engine. He had to get into the "in-law apartment" ( cockpit locker), lift up the floorboards to get at it. It was/is mechanical ( of course) fuel pump that is at east 20 years old and looked it.  Based on all he had discovered and how the engine reacted, Eric deduced that the fuel pump was shot and had to be replaced. Of course.

     After discussing it with Eric, we decided to replace it with a new fuel pump, electrical not mechanical. He will attach it to the fuel system leaving the old one in place until it is absolutely clear that the old pump is the problem. He will make the attempt at the fix. I am certain it will be fixed as Eric is one of those guys that hates to fail.

AH, THE JOYS OF BOAT OWNERSHIP!

      

IT COULD BE WORSE . . . . .

     We spent a beautiful day on my mooring, enjoying the sun and the breeze and the sea and, of course, not moving except to swing with the wind and the tide. One tends to do that even when on a cruise. After all,part of the reason for the cruise is tyo enjoy wherever it is you drop your hook.

     I took the opportunity to take care of a couple of easy things that needed to be fix. They were not particularly important, but now that they are done, there are less thing on my "to do" list.

     Eric the Mechanic, who works on the club launch, stopped by having been called by several people in the club even before I got the chance to do so myself. After a five minute discussion, he said that the problem wasn't the injectors.  The problem was bacteria. There is some bacteria that lives in petroleum products, like diesel fuel and when pump from a marina's tank into a boat's tank, they go along for the ride. If there is water in the fuel in either tank or both, and there always is some from condensation, it starts to grow and grow and grow. If not biocided it can get sucked up into the fuel lines and  and any piping and hoses the fuel passes through. According to Eric, this is what happen, blocking the flow of fuel from where it needs to go and so it starves the engine. So Eric came up with a plane.

     First, put a large amount of bio-side into the fuel to kill the bacteria and literally melt the bio-masses. Secondly, load the fuel with "CETANE," a fuel additive that raises the octane level of the fuel. Thirdly, use a fogging agent in the air intake and start the engine and keep trying to start the engine until either it starts or we need to charge the batteries. He says that this should work. It should blow out any problems and the engine will run fine. It will be interesting to see if it works.


AH! THE JOY OF BOAT OWNERSHIP!!!!!!