Solving the curious case of the creeping crud

First of all, I do NOT recommend Category 4 hurricanes as a diagnostic tool.  But that being said, we would never probably have discovered this problem without 100mph winds and torrential rains.

Our first suspicion had been hatches, we have two in the general area, but after those were replace and we had a few more tests by thunderstorm, we knew it was still there.

So that means tearing apart the boat.  Shit.

Off goes the cabinetry, the veneer, all of our crap (back berth, our living quarters) and there it was, a little bitty crack in the sealant at the deck/hull joint.  Top sides there was a little bitty gap at our built in chock.

But at least we found it.

Diagram provided by Jorg--boat builder/fixer extraordinaire.

Gap on deck.

From the 'oh, bugger me' files

Our boat has three a/c units. Never do we run all three at once, even with guests aboard.

But, last night, in the middle of the night the breaker to these a/c units kept tripping.

On a boat, if you have something electrical that keeps tripping, be concerned first and then very concerned soon after.

Nothing will ruin a cruise like a boat on fire.

Tim turned on the generator and started running a/c from it (bypassing the shore power breaker).

And yes, no breeze, 90 degrees and mosquitos from hell, we were running our a/c.

So, diagnostics begins.  First start at the scene of the crime....the breaker and whoops, there it is!
Fried wiring on the breaker.  Looks like the connection had worked loose, and when you have a high load situation and loose wiring, it's a gonna heat up in a hurry.  Bad, bad news.

Luckily, (on a Sunday, and a holiday to boot!) we were able to get a guy over to rewire it to get us through this trip and we'll get it totally rewired and redone later.  When we are not here, we don't run any high load items.

Moral of story, make sure all wiring connections on boat are clean, tight and not overheating.

you can see the scorch on the left side of the pic

List from hell update

Generator:
Not as bad as we thought.

But on pins and needles while we waited for Keys Disease to sort itself out with the guy who was to look at our generator.

Finally, our hero and boat guru extradonaire, Boat George tackled the problem himself.  And since he has some serious mad skills---fixed our generator.

There really is not enough money in the world to have this guy in our corner. 

The heat exchanger header was leaking and the bolts stripped.  Previous asshat owner used some sort of silicone to try to seal it and it did not work.  So as it gave out it started leaking saltwater, thus corroding crap until we tested it and voila.  Alarms go off and genset shuts down.

Below are the before and after pictures of what it looked like.

The silicone used instead of proper gasket.  (grrrrrrr)

After soaking and cleaning.

Reinstalled on the generator.  The threads for bolting it back on also had to be fixed
since they were stripped.

And speaking of stripped threads, we had to have the ones on our water tank fixed so that we could properly install the new tank indicator on the one tank.  Got tired of it saying full and then run out of water in the middle of our shower.


We don't know what to do about dear old Zeus.  The marina didn't want it sitting in front of the boat so they placed it in the barn for us.  

List from hell

Here's the list after we took our first blue water sail.  Holy crap.  However, some of this list started before we ever left the dock.  I will address some of this in posts to follow.  See below for what we hammered out.

Generator:  Tim tested it in the dock and it ran for 5 minutes, sputtered and crapped out.  Then we got what every boat owner wants to see:  Water leak alarm on the generator panel.  So, we gots Mr. Generator put to bed.  Just found out today that there was a crap ass silicone 'patch' on the generator that failed and there's a lot of corrosion and dry hose.  So, if we had ran it, we most likely would have set the boat on fire. F*($k. We didn't, but now we have some big B.O.A.T. units to shell out to fix this problem.

OC tender:  To take a line from the musical Hamilton.  "You married a Icarus, and he's flown to close to the sun."  My boy dreamed big, but he dreamed bigger than what the little tender could handle.  So Zeus is dead.  (Pulp Fiction: Zed's dead, baby)  The the combination of the attachment points to the davits and the weight in the dinghy-and possibly the Key West summer heat-Zeus suffered some serious structural distortion.  If we had tried to keep her on the davits, even without the weight of the Torqeedo batteries, she would have shredded on our way to the Dry Tortugas.  Thankfully we didn't get rid of Tiny Dancer or the other Torqeedo yet, so we got them rigged up.

Senders:  Waste tank sender already fixed, it got stuck.  Water sender has bad threading and we can't get it fitted to our tank, so we will get it grinded to right threading or they will send new one.

Stern light: We replaced our nav lights with LEDs just to find out that now, they are always lit.  Long story short-because I am not the electrical guru on the boat.  The diode that leads from the main power switch of the electrical panel to the nav lights went bad, so there was a constant short that provided enough ampage to power an LED light.  Got that? No? Yeah. Email Tim if you want more info.  However, it got fixed after we got back, and Sparky is so proud of himself of that.  I got to sit at the back of the boat like a jackass going, IT'S ON, IT'S OFF, IT'S ON, IT'S OFF.

All things anchor: More details in a bit, but remote is bad, snubber needs upgraded, and where the chain meets nylon rode is not good. As in, jams up the windlass not good.

Propane/stove:  Tim installed new sensors for propane in the galley.  It's either placement or sensitivity, but the damn thing would go off as soon as I tried to cook.  So, I get something started in the oven, start the stove. BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP and it does its job by killing the gas, but then I have to restart everything.  By now, the stove has had a bit of a build up of propane, so I'd open it and it would set off the sensor again.  Newly invented cuss words during cooking on the hook this time.  Generator shot, so no microwave.

I think the one thing is Front spot light, and more on that later.

Window/Port work on Elysium

After a good steady squall through Key West, we discovered that Elysium has a pretty hefty leak in her saloon windows.  After conversations with the fellow Southerly owners across the pond, we determined we were part of the lucky bunch that had inadequate sealant/installation of our glass.

We need to rebed these suckers pronto, so start dispensing more BOAT units to find a repair person.

As I mentioned before we did find a person to do it, and he's been METICULOUS.  Totally against the normal Keys Disease help you find.  So Boat George pulled the first window--which was problematic--to find that it had been rebedded before, but poorly.  So we call the previous owner with a WTF?  He said yes he had it done.

Not very well, it appears.  Our guy discovers after he cleaned it all off that the glass is fitting almost EXACTLY into the cutout it was designed for-which made he and Tim go UUUUUGGGGGGHHHH.

What? What!  So George and my husband (who restored cars in a previous life) explained that if you don't provide a bit of a gap, the sealant can't seal.  Well, duh!  So what do we do?

We need to grind off some of the glass--okay, what do you need I'll go get it.  NOPE.  It's tempered glass, you shouldn't really do that to tempered glass because it can shatter.

Oooooohhhhh.  UUUUUUGGGGGHHHH!

George starts exploring options, he thinks he finds one, but when he takes our window to show the guy, the guy goes UGGGGGGHHHHH, rounded corners?  $$$$$, ain't gonna be what I quoted you. George says, well crap.

Long story short--we finally found somebody that will grind down our tempered windows--they've done it before. Cool.  But they only do it on Fridays.

Finding somebody to do jobwork in the Keys is right up Bob Bitchin's ally--is it an ordeal or an adventure?  We have entertained ourselves with it endlessly--poor George has been our middle man, and he's done well.

George had to cover our window, couldn't leave a gaping hole, so he custom fitted some plywood in there for us.

Elysium looking a little Whisky Tango, renamed her temporarily Ellie Mae.

So, on Friday, the windows were successfully shaved down so that George could work his magic.  And that he did as you see below.

The shim is to allow the window to rest on it, so that sealant can get around the entire window.
Thus, properly embedding it.

Adding sealant.

Right before window is placed.

After window is placed.

Repeating process down below.

After it is done down below.

Check that off our list!

The spouse and I can be SO immature at times.

It doesn't take much for us to get into the giggles and revert to a couple of 12 year old boys.  Think, Beevis and Butthead.

For the last couple of weeks it has been because of this lovely little product that our new friends over in England have suggested for leaks.

However, the name just keeps triggering our inner child and we can't get a hold of the situation.

But hey, laughing makes you live longer, right?

Making a commando maintenance trip

In November, I got to be the bilge rat, mainly because I am more flexible than Tim, and even at nearly six feet tall I can be quite the contortionist.  Although I realize as I get older, my body is starting to give me warnings that if I don't watch out, I'll be staying in whatever contortion for the rest of my life.

This time, Tim's turn.  First, it was getting to Key West.  Tim wants to just take a carry on--no problem, until he shows me what he got.  A little baggie filled with an ICOM antenna, a wiring harness, some crack sealer, and a battery.

Nope, there's been no terrorist activity in the world AT ALL lately, so that's not going to bring any attention at all.  Evidently it didn't, because he made it through.  So, that should tell you something about the rentacops over at MCI.

As we had on Hemisphere Dancer, we are installing an alarm system.  This one has a bit more features than our old one (except for awesome dance music when you open the companionway).  We already tested the preliminary install last time.  It has geo-fencing, so if it goes on the move, Tim and I will get a text (or our boat sitter).  It has the standard motion sensor alarm, bilge alarm, low battery alarm, and it has the ability for a couple of remote alarm so we can run a wire through the lock on the dinghy and if it gets cut, voila.  I believe it can also light up your boat and sound a piercing alarm--but baby steps to get that wired up.  We just need the basics for now.

It's amazing how much more affordable they are getting, and our insurance company likes it.

His other project fall under the category of:  If somebody doesn't want to take your money, then you just might as well do it yourself.  This would be phase 1 of the head replacement.  So, first thing, get the tank monitors working correctly.  Also, he flushed the system with muriatic acid--our heads are sea water and not fresh water, so I am pretty sure we have 12 years of crud there.  He said it's already helped a bit.  He plans to pull the forward holding tank tomorrow to see if there is spillage from the previous owner under it, lucky him.

We discovered through measuring, researching, measuring, researching that there is nothing that will be able to replace the forward head except the newer version of a LAVAC.  Not ideal, but as long as it works.  The aft head has tons of room so we are going to put something different in there.  That will also give us a one manual, one electric set up.

The good part is that it's relatively cool right now in Key West, so that makes boat projects so much easier than when it's baking.

"Head" ache

Elysium is equipped with two Lavac heads.  From the immediate get go, I did not like them. I have used them on other boats before, just don't like them.

Researched a lot, and some people swear by them, say they are bullet proof.

But, I've noticed a lot more people DON'T say nice things about them, mainly seals and valves and pumps failing on them.

Of course, since I'm sure it was one of them many things that routine maintenance hasn't been done on, ours are giving us fits.  Back flow into the toilet, not flushing properly, just annoying in general.

And for those of you who are not familiar with Lavacs, here's what we are dealing with (x 2):

From top to bottom:
Tank indicator (not working)
Top valve indicating to tank or to sea
Handle for flushing (yes, it's a bilge pump)
Bottom valve saying from head or from tank
Toilet itself with rubberized seal

So to flush, make sure valves are in the from head to tank mode (or you will be pumping to sea either from the head or from the tank).  Insert handle, pump 8-10 times, wait 5 seconds, pump 5-6 more times. Yeah, absolutely no problem with that.  Because when I'm underway and prone to seasickness I want to be doing this shit. (no pun intended)

This entire process is run by essentially two Henderson pumps (bilge pump), ideally to create a vacuum.  Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not too keen on using the equivalent of a bilge pump to flush my toilet.  Nope.

Add the fact that they haven't been maintained.....lets say we've had to evacuate ship a couple of times and let it air out.  Not cool.

So, our NEW best friend is Perry, the Head Honcho, Perry is going to assess our head needs and get us something that is effective, water efficient (as in, not filling up the holding tank) and won't drive me crazy.

How much is a 9 ft draft?

A lot, especially when she's out of the water.  Getting ready to have the final paint job done on the keel.

So, the final list of things that were done?
1.  Bottom and keel soda blasted, keel cleaned up and treated, barrier and bottom paint applied.
2. Dings in side of boat fixed and painted (paint doesn't match, oh well) waxed
3. Topsides waxed
4. Generator serviced, engine serviced
5. Fuel filter set up replaced with Filter Boss
6. Power monitor installed
7. Raymarine chart plotters updated and returned for replacement
8. Stereo replaced so chart plotter can act as remote (safety issue)
9. Outside speakers installed
10. Propane valve inside the boat relocated as required
11. Dorades replaced
12. Vents replaced with solar vents with two-way (in/out) control--essential in the tropics
13. Prop serviced
14. Bow thruster serviced
15. Stern thruster installed (talk to the spouse, roll your eyes at him)
16. Pennant for retractable keel replaced and keel fixed to go completely up
17. Had forward hatch repaired for leaks.

..I'm sure there's a lot more things, but I can't remember.

Still to do, overhaul heads and replace nozzles in bathroom sinks so they can act like a proper shower as they should.

Clean, clean, clean, clean.

Replace all of the lights with LEDs.

Eventually we'll get to enjoy this thing!!!!!