Boat Repairs Continue

1/22/2017

The big news for the next two days is the weather with high winds and tornado warnings throughout the southeast! Sleeping through the night became a problem as I listened to all the noises generated on the boat by the wind. I sent Clark out around midnight with a piece of clothes line the first night to tie up our Gold Looper flag. I could hear it flapping like crazy, and besides the noise, I was concerned that the flag would still be there and in one piece the next morning. The other noise that I thought was the fenders being squeezed to death turned out to be the lines being pulled taut as the boat fought the wind.

When we emerged from the bowels of the boat in the morning, we found someone had rescued our U.S. flag and placed it in our cockpit. The previous owner used plastic ties to connect the flag to the flagpole. Apparently they break in high winds. Only one broke, so we did not lose the flag into the water. When the dockmaster saw Clark, he told him that our dinghy cover was about to take flight, so Clark climbed up and retied that. We decided with all the push and shove from the wind that we needed additional lines so we added more all over the place to keep the boat secure.

After that, when we were preparing to go out shopping, we got a visit from a couple we had met at the looper dinner the night before. Immediately I realized that Clark had found a kindred spirit in Al. Al is a retired NYC cop who spent the last 15 years of his career in harbor patrol. Not only did he drive the boats on harbor patrol, he fixed them as well, so he had all sorts of useful input for Clark on the probably causes of some of our engine problems. Knowing that we would see neither Clark nor Al for some extended period of time, I made myself comfortable with Al’s wife, Theresa, in the salon.

When our visitors left, we found it was already time for lunch, so we grabbed a quick lunch before heading out to do our shopping. Clark needed to visit West Marine, and I wanted to go to Jo Ann Fabrics and Publix Food Store. Initially we planned to go to West Marine together, return to the boat, and have me go alone to the other two stores, but we found it convenient to stop at all three on our one outing instead of traveling back and forth.

As soon as we got back to the boat Clark disappeared on his bicycle to go visit Al on his boat. Al has a Mainship model that Clark had not seen before, so he was too curious to pass up the opportunity for a tour.  I needed to store my groceries / perishables. Afterwards I decided that, since it was piling up, I needed to get our laundry done.

While shopping, we did not notice the winds. On the docks, however, Clark nearly got blown away. I later saw on the weather report that the winds were 30 mph sustained, gusting to 50 mph. Following the wind, the rain came in with some thunder to go along with it. Of course that hit the area right when Clark decided he wanted to take a shower. He wisely decided to wait for a break in the storm beforehand.

All through the night we had a combination of wind and torrential rain. We normally sleep with our portholes open, but we closed them to prevent water entering the boat. The rain had a nasty habit of coming down sideways with a lot of force behind it!

1/23/2017

Whether from exhaustion or better work tying up the boat, I do not know, but even with the wind and rain, I slept reasonably well. I got my morning shower and asked Clark for the day’s agenda. A plan to visit parts stores and work on the boat repairs list did not come as much of a surprise.

On route to Fort Myers, a bilge pump switch accidentally got turned off. When Clark went to the engine room to check on an alternate issue, he found our bilge filling up with salt water. Clark turned on the switch and pumped out the water. Later, when he sponged out the remaining water by hand, he found he was fighting a never-ending battle. With some small amount of investigative work, he discovered a steady drip, drip, drip from a pump associated with the stabilizers.

Our first stop today was to a repair shop for pump parts. Unfortunately, they did not have in stock the parts we needed. The clerk helped us by looking up all sorts of information on his computer. I learned everything I never wanted to know about pumps. An hour or more after we entered the store, we departed with a bucket load of information and a lead on where to go to get the pump rebuilt. Unfortunately that place is in Clearwater, Florida about 2.5 hours’ drive north of Fort Myers.

Since the time approached 2:00, my stomach said it was more than ready for lunch, but we decided to stop at the Marine Traders store before heading back to the boat. Although it was an interesting store, it did not have much of what we needed except some rocker switches to replace the broken one on the upper helm. At $1.00 a piece, we bought three – the one we needed and two for the spares bucket.

I made lunch when we got back to the boat. Clark, however, took two bites and then made a phone call. After spending two hours on the phone learning all sorts of “good stuff” about the workings of the boat, he finally ate his sandwiches.

I hung around “on the ready” figuring that as soon as Clark got off the phone he would get back to work. That turned out to be the case as he needed my help to turn things on and off while he did meter measurements, etc. Tonight's project involved research into the alternator problem on the post engine. As a result, I learned how to start the boat and how to rev the engine without making the boat go forward. I also learned which displays to use to check the RPM as I revved the engines and which to use to check the voltage of the batteries.

We worked together for hours, and about 7:30 I realized I had a problem. Clark had eaten his sandwiches around 4:00. I ate mine two hours earlier. I found myself starving while Clark probably would not need to eat for a while longer. Eventually, we got to a point where I could abandon him to find makings for dinner, and he could continue on his own until it was time to eat. My original dinner plans got thrown out the window as I decided that I only had time to reheat leftovers.

Tomorrow we drive to Clearwater, near Tampa, to get a pump rebuilt. Clark found out when he called today that the pump can be rebuilt “while we wait”. The person he talked to said we should drop off the pump, go get lunch, and come back two hours later to pick it up. The good news then is that I get lunch out!

Sadly we have removed very little from the “to repair” list and more and more things get added every day. Even the speakers for the radio are not cooperative as we discovered this evening that one intermittently shuts off and on. I just shake my head in disbelief. How many things can possibly fail before we start to see a turnaround towards a fully operational vessel!?