Work Order

When Renne' and I decided to purchase this trawler, to be honest with you, I was very much less than enthusiastic about the idea.

I had never spent time on a trawler, and consequently, never been at the helm with twin screws.  Of course we took the boat out on a sea trial prior to our purchase, and the broker was kind enough to spend time showing us the ins and outs of the "pleasures" of having twin screws rather than a single!  Out in the middle of Port Canaveral, I played with the systems and then Renne' got into the act.  It was very different.

Under normal circumstances, Renne' handles the helm of the sailboat, while I handle the dock lines and anchor detail.  She is actually better than I at doing that.  Our friend and very successful recording artist, Kelly McGuire, recorded a song a few years ago called "Woman Behind The Helm" with her in mind and that idea in mind as a matter of fact.  I have never understood why men are the ones at the helm and women are out throwing lines and trying to retrieve the anchor.  I know a woman who lost a finger in the anchor windlass.  I just think, for the most part, men are more adept for doing that!

http://redfishisland.com/audio/kingoftheisland/8WomanBehindtheWheel.mp3

(This is Kelly receiving Album of the Year for the Texas Songwriters Association)

So here was our challenge.  Renne' underwent shoulder surgery this past Fall, and I knew we weren't going to be able to manage this trip by ourselves.  First, I barely knew enough to make me really dangerous at the helm, and Renne' knew less than I did.  Therefore, Renne's position would be down at the anchor windlass or tossing lines to the docks if we had assistance, and scrambling down to the dock to tie lines if we didn't.  That wasn't going to work!!

The other, is, the engine in the sailboat is a small 54 horse Yanmar.  Simple in it's approach, and pretty easy to maintain.  The Generator, or Genset, sits just above the engine, and although it can be a pain to get to, I can reach 95% of all the engine and Genset without a great deal of difficulty.

This trawler has an actual engine room!

With two 135hp diesels.  They are Ford-Lehmans, which is the brand I preferred in a trawler, as they are pretty economical, but they are different than the sailboat, and I had NO idea what to do with them other than to feed them oil, coolant, and transmission fluid.  They are HUGE compared to the Yanmar.  Needless to say, I was apprehensive - not ready to make this step toward no sails!

Another issue was the fuel.  Renne' and I had just completed our trip north from Key West to Annapolis and Maryland!  We had had difficulties with the sailboat's fuel system all the way up and back. I think we ended up changing filters like the one below at least 15 times over the 5 months we were out.  Notice all the black sludge on the top!

I could see the same issue on the trawler, but not having any idea how old the fuel was, or what condition it was in, I could see being in the middle of the ICW, or more technically difficult, out in open water moving the boat north across the Gulf of Mexico enroute from Tampa Bay to Appalachacola, Florida, and an engine - or two - shutting down for fuel issues.  Then running down, working my 210lb body around the air conditioner and the engine,

stretching at full length to open the RACOR filter housings, spill fuel, pull the clogged filters out, spill more fuel, get black crud all over everything, put the filters into Zip-Loks, put the new filters in the housing, fill the filter with fuel, and then bleed the engine to get it started again.  All this time, worried about the huge barges and tugs one routinely runs across in the ICW!

And then do the other engine exactly the same way! Did I say I was rather apprehensive?

So the first big items I bought for the boat were rather large, rather commercial looking fuel filters from Gulf Coast Filters that had to be installed.

This included mounting the filters on risers that would withstand major map-treatment from waves and weather,

cutting into the fuel lines and installing inflow and outflow shutoff valves,

then filling them each with the 1.5 gallons of diesel fuel, and bleeding the engines so they would function.  I wanted the HUMONGOUS fuel filters to clog up before the little-tiny Racor filters I am accustomed to.  As a matter of fact, with the big filters in place, I removed the Racor filters, and fuel just flows through the housings now.

Jensen Beach to Okeechobee

12/08/2014 - Departed Jensen Beach this morning with Caroline sicker than a dog.  So she will remain in bed or cuddled up with a cup of tea all day long.  As we left the anchorage, the fog was so thick we could see only about 1000 yards ahead.  The winds were calm and temps in the low 60's.  We are thankful we have a chart plotter, radar, and AIS (which identifies commercial boats by name, speed, and location, and recreational boats if they have transponders aboard).

We made the turn west and then north onto the Okeechobee Waterway,  but found the chart plotter way off.  We were able to see the markers on radar as we were unable to see many of them visually, but our location on the chart plotter appeared to be 30 or so yards off of our selected path.

We had an interesting time when we arrived at the St. Lucie Locks at the St. Lucie South Recreation Area.

This is the largest rise in a lock I have ever experienced.  The water level rose 14' to the level of the Okeechobee.  It was impressive!

From here to Port Mayaca, on the East entrance to Lake Okeechobee, where we encountered our next lock, the waterway reminded us of the inland waterways and canals we traveled through North and South Carolina on the way north to Annapolis earlier this year.

 North Carolina (Sailboat)

Okeechobee Waterway (Trawler)

At Port Mayaca, we passed right through the open locks and into Lake Okeechobee.  By the afternoon, the temps had begun to drop into the low 60's again.  As Warren and I spent most of the day on the upper deck exposed to weather, we were dressed warmly and the ladies would make a quick trip out to make sure we were doing okay!

Of course, with two dachshunds on board, getting them ashore was a challenge.  You don't call this part of Florida Alligator Alley for no reason.  So the dogs either held it, or wandered around the foredeck looking for relief!  Actually from here a, most of the way to Houston was a challenge as the North end of the Gulf Of Mexico suffers from the same issue.

We finally docked at Roland Martin's Marina on the south side of the Okeechobee after an excellent crossing of the lake.

I didn't realize that Lake Okeechobee is the 2nd largest freshwater lake in the United States surrounded by US territory.  When we spoke with the DockMaster, he said that yesterday the lake had been 5-7 foot waves - Whew, that wouldn't have worked for us.

So stop by the boat tonite.  We aren't hard to find.  Come join us for Sundowners - oops, the sun has already set.  We only have 10 hours a day of travel as we won't do the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) after dark.  It is getting cold tonite!

Still At It!

12/7/2014 - We left Merritt Island Anchorage this morning just after sunrise. The fog, although not thick, hung around until the sun began to heat things up a bit. The temp this morning was 64 deg and dew point was 63, with a humidity of 98%. Yup, there was fog.

We were turning about 1900 rpm and doing about 8.2 kts most of the way. Somewhere around noon or 1pm, I checked the bilge. It smelled like diesel, so I called for Warren, and he found ONE MORE LEAK-wrong, TWO MORE LEAKS!  Damn!  There was diesel in the bilge, and Warrwn discovered a leak in the fuel pump on the Starbord engine , of course on the STARBOARD SIDE!  Remember, both Warren and I are still a bit chunky, so getting to that leak will probably take an act of God, or a bigger wallet than we have at this moment.  He is not worried about it, but we have made the decision to add external fuel pumps to each engine.  Hopefully, they will arrive in St. Petersburg before we arrive.

We arrived at Jensen Beach North, and we are anchored just south of the bridge. Renne' and I anchored here in April on our journey north to Annapolis.  We will be out early tomorrow morning.

Oh, the second leak was the genset, which has been running all day today. Warren tightened the hose clamps (6 of them), and it appears that leak has stopped. We relocated the flapper switch for the bilge, and expect that will prevent pumping any residual fuel into the ICW-a good thing.

I know Warren seems to be doing all of the maintenance, but we are so blessed to have someone on board wholives and breathes Diesel engines!  We are crunched for time, so finding all of these issues have been of extreme importance.  Thank You Warren!  By the time we get to Houson, most of our issues will be resolved or identified!

Heading for bed.  Didn't see any of you for Sundowners, so we celebrated Renne's birthday with fabulous Ribeye steaks, sautéed baby white potatoes, mushroom/onion/bourbon sauce, and broccoli. Outstanding.  Happy Birthday Sweetie! I love you!

FINALLY-We've left the Docks!

Dec 6th-at 1420, we finally left the docks of Port Canaveral Yacht Club.  Warren Gloss and Caroline McDonald joined us on this past Monday for the trip back to Houston.

Of course we weren't expecting to leave a week later.  As we left the marina, we headed west through the Cape Canaveral Barge Locks, and the picture above is Warren and Caroline manning the lines as we are hand-tied to the sides of the locks.

As we exited the Locks, this is looking west for the next 1-1/2nm of the barge canal.  This is where the barges came through when delivering parts for the Space Shuttle and International Space Station Assembly.

 In these pictures, we are just happy to be underway!!!  Whew!

I hadn't opened the engine compartment for the two days prior to Warren arriving. When we did, there was so much RED transmission fluid on the deck of the engine room, it appeared I had conducted some ritualistic sacrifice of a human or animal.  Actually I was fortunate Renne' had stuck around- I might have been accused of doing her in!  As it turned out,Warren discovered a serious leak in the starboard (right side) transmission prop-shaft flange locking nut. How this had not been previously discovered we can not imagine!

We spent all day, me being the go-fer and Warren doing the hard labor, he resolved the issue.  That resulted in $120 worth of new tools, but hiring someone else would have been 5 times that!  Following that adventure, Warren was inspecting the far side of the Starboard engine, and found a fuel line in a very INACCESSIBLE zone that had been left without a hose clamp on it!  Someone who had made the previous repair had decided it would be sufficient! WRONG!  Another serious miss on the side of our surveyor!

For the two of us chunky guys, the repair was to difficult, so we hired a mechanic who was much more svelte than either of us to finish the job-15 minutes and $30 later, we had a clamp and no fuel leaking from there!  Wahoo!

So Friday, Warren is looking at the port engine and discovers a leak coming from the fuel injection pump pulsation dampener disc.  That was a large mouthful, and required a call to American Diesel for more information! I think this was our 15th-no Warren's first call and my 15th call to American Diesel!  We had to order one new one, plus a spare.  Damn, another $170. Saturday, Fed Ex delivery.  You know, it wasn't such a big deal when Zimmer, or Dyonics, or Linvatec was paying that bill, but coming out of our pocket added another $65 to that bill! Ouch!

Oh yes, Warren in his typical OCD fashion, when it comes to Diesel Engines, is wiping the engine down with a cloth, and turns asking me to fetch a #3 Phillips screwdriver. I am actually of the belief that Warren is surprised, not only do I know what he is asking for, but have it in my tool bag.  He then begins tightening down the screws holding down the valve covers on BOTH engines. Amazing how loose they are! Gees!

We didn't plan to go far today.  We felt it was better to spend the first night close to Port Canaveral in the event something goes wrong and we have to return to the marina.  So we are anchored just off the Merritt Island Bridge tonight.

Jensen Beach tomorrow-71 nm. It means we have to be out at daybreak.  So with that, Renne loves the boat. We are getting rid of the diesel smell, one issue at a time, so get in a dinghy and meet us for Sundowners tomorrow evening. We may not be as exhausted as today!

Best,

Jon and Renne'
Abrd Sea N' Stars
We leave for

The Saga!!

The last entry was the excitement of purchasing Sea N' Stars in Port Canaveral, Florida.  We closed on the trawler during the last week of September, and immediately had her moved to Scorpion Marine Services just across the slipway.  She was hauled out of the water on October 1st, blocked, and basically was put in storage until we returned to her 20 days later.  I had requested a new bottom job, new Graphite Impregnated Packing material for the stuffing box (which keeps water from leaking into the boat around the prop-shaft), and the tachometers to be fixed so the three (of four) that were inoperable would work when we left right after the 1st of November.

I had several projects I was expecting to complete in the few days left in October, and when I arrived ready to get to work, I found that nothing had been completed.  As we were scheduled to be out on the 31st of October, the yard had delayed completing everything and had planned to work on her just before we splashed at the end of the month.  As I was there, I asked them to begin the repairs while I was aboard, and sure enough, the jobs were completed in time to splash as scheduled.

This is what the hull looked like when we originally pulled Sea N' Stars for the initial inspection:

The pictures below show the great job Scorpion did on the bottom job, and a boat always looks better with the new paint for protection against barnacles and sea growth.

Moving a boat to be splashed always is a wonder to me.  The crane they used, and this one will lift 100 tons, is moved completely by remote control, which I find amazing.  There is a guy with a control panel, like the control box for a radio controlled airplane, who walks along turning the wheels remotely, backing the crane onto a narrow pier until the boat is ready to be lowered into the water.  Our boat weighs in at about 40,000 tons, so it is only about 1/5th of the total weight this lift will hold.

As we had just replaced the packing material in the stuffing boxes for the prop-shafts (arrow points to one of the stuffing boxes),

the plan was to lower the boat into the water just far enough to cover the props, and I would jump aboard and check to ensure the bolts were tight and there was not any water leaking into the boat.

This photo is as the keel of the boat is 6" from entering the water.

You will notice, just to the left of the holding strap, there is a slight defect in the keel bottom.  I had noticed that when the boat was being lifted, the support blocks had been removed, this 4" area had no paint on it.  That is not unusual, as the area under the blocks is inaccessible when the rest of the hull is painted, but I thought it was unusual that this area had been missed.  I asked the lift operator and he immediately got it painted.

"Now you'll hear the rest of the story", as Paul Harvey used to say.

The operator lowered the boat into the water and I jumped aboard.  I got down in the engine room.

I found the packing glands were tight, but there was a 10" geyser from a 1/8" hole in the hull (see where the purple arrow is)

Jumping out of the engine room, I suggested we needed to figure out where this hole came from.  Rehauled the her and discovered one of the screws for the external strainer for the port engine raw-water intake was missing.  The yard denied ever using a drill for the hull, which I accepted, as I never saw a drill in the area.  The only logical explanation was it probably was there prior to the haul out and been done previously.  But the yard did seal the hole and reinstalled the screw, and the boat was relaunched.

I was nervous, as I had only had Sea N' Stars out with the sales rep who sold us the boat, and now I was at the helm by myself.  I have never operated twin screws before, and it took me three attempts to get into the slip correctly.  As it had taken me 15 minutes to accomplish the feat, I jumped back into the engine room to recheck the packing glands.  They were fine.  What I did find was water pouring in under the generator you see - actually it has been replaced with a new 10kw Phasor genset, but there was water still pouring in.  I checked under the genset, but the source was behind it from under the flooring in the aft stateroom.  I immediately checked under the aft bed, where the rudders are located.  No water.  I pulled up a 10" square access panel to the prop-shaft strut on the port side, and found what I thought was the source.  I assumed the bolts holding the strut in place were loose.  I got a wrench and tightened the nuts, but the water continued.  Further inspection, I found leak in the exhaust flange for the exhaust hose on the port side inside of the stateroom.

However, at that point, I also decided the amount of water was NOT equal to what was now coming into the bilge.  The bilge pump was now running about every 45 seconds.  Looking more closely, I discovered water coming from three weep holes in the bilge floor.  Ensuring the bilge pump was working properly and reliably, I jumped off the boat to find the yard manager.  He came down and found it odd there was water entering the bilge there.  He immediately called for the lift, and I returned to the haul out slip.  As we were pulled out of the water, it was evident there was water draining out of the keel from the defect in the keel I had noticed earlier.

We reblocked the boat.  Upon inspection of the defect, it appeared the block had crushed the keel at this point.  It appeared a very poor repair had been accomplished at some point in time previously, as the boat was NOT leaking like this when the inspection was accomplished, but the weight of the boat on the block had broken through the repair.  Our only conclusion was that she had been run up on a coral reef or coral head previously, a fast repair completed, and the boat put up for sale.  That sale was made two years ago to the guy who owned the boat before us.

So the repair began!  When it was all ground down, the defect was about 8-1/2" long.  The hull was left for 4 days and a heat gun used to ensure the hull was dry.

Fiberglass putty was stuffed in the defect.

Bi-axial roving was glassed in (3-4 layers)

Then regular glass was installed over that.

However, there was a drop of water that continued to drain just aft of the repair at the rate of one drop every 2-3 minutes.  We also were concerned there was moisture on top of the blocks (which you can see as the dark area on the block.

In consultation with the yard manager, it was agreed to leave the boat (now November 8) and they would remove about 2" from the repair aft to the heal of the keel, as he was concerned the poor repair continued to the end of the keel.  Then the repair would be completed properly.

So, today, November 16, the repair has been completed.  Our friend, Mike Rooney, who had flown out to Port Canaveral, to assist me in bringing the boat back to Houston, and I flew back to Houston.  Renne' and I are ready to head back after her checkup on Wednesday, and we will bring the boat back to Houston around the first week of December with our friends, Warren Gloss and Caroline McDonald.
So we will see what has happened when we arrive on Thursday afternoon.

From there, the saga will continue.

In the meantime, stop over at Port Canaveral Yacht Club and join us for sundowners.  We would love to have you stop by!

Jon and Renne'

We Have Added To The Family!!

07 October 2014

Well, last week we took on MORE responsibility!!  Renne' and I have added another BOAT to our inventory!!  Doggone, when will we learn.

Let me digress - Back in August, we were racing back to Key West following a wonderful trip up the East Coast to Annapolis and Baltimore.  We stopped in Port Canaveral overnight, and while we were walking down the pier at Ocean Club of Port Canaveral, Renne' spotted a trawler for sale and stated she would like to look at it.  I kinda rolled my eyes, and found the local broker there are the marina.  he put us aboard, and we toured the boat.  When we got off of her, we began discussing the pros and cons of purchasing her.  We arranged to look at her again.  We realized she appeared to be in excellent condition - at least as far as we could determine - so we put a deposit down, signed a contract, and headed south again for the Keys.

Here is what we found:

She is powered by twin Ford Lehman 2725E, 135hp engines with 2500 hrs (+ or - 100 hrs), newly rebuilt transmissions, a new 10KW Phasor Genset (630 hrs), a relatively new water maker (50 gal/hr), and what Renne' really liked, double beds fore and aft with walk around accessibility in both the forward and aft staterooms

 Foreward Stateroom

Aft (Master) Stateroom

I have a bit of work to do on her before we move her to Houston:

New Garmin 4210 Charplotter

New F-1 Gulf Coast Filter pre filters for the fuel

New packing material in the packing glands

Tachometer work to be completed on 3 of the 4 tachs aboard.

We will add to this list as I look at the boat.  For now, we are very excited!

See ya at the docks in Port Canaveral for Sundowners next week,

J & R

We Are No Longer in Harbornation!

May 3, 2014

Jensen Beach, Fl
1600

Windy today, skies still ominous from the thunderstorms traveling across the State of Florida.  We have been in the ICW (Intercoastal Waterway) all day today.  We had just crossed under the bridge going south to north when we began looking at the skies seriously.  Dark, ugly.  We turned to the weather channel on the VHF only to hear expectations of severe thunderstorms, 25-35knot winds, rain showers which would be down to 1/4 mile visibility and sky-to-ground lightening.  With that we chose to turn around an anchor for the day.  A call to our friends Ed and Claudia to let them know we were not going to make Vero today got us a recommendation to anchor on the south side of the bridge with better water than when we anchored on the north side of the bridge three years ago (we were aground at low tide there).  So off we ran to the south side as winds picked up ferociously.  Rain began to come down, so in foul weather gear, I headed to the bow to put the anchor down.  We were looking at 25kt winds directly down the length of the boat.  Although we are in only 8-9' of water, I wanted to make sure we were secure, so I dropped 75' of 5/16" chain in the water.  We are holding fast.  Renne' handles the helm expertly in these situations. 

So much for today,  when did we leave, where have we been, what's been happening since we left?  Let me reach back and share that with you!

April 25
Friday
We departed NAS Boca Chica around 0700.  Now there are those who are superstitious who say one must never leave to go cruising on a Friday.  Ha!  Such fools!  We headed out the channel and set a course for Maryland Shoals, East of the channel and right at the edge of the reef, 12 miles from the mouth of Boca Chica Channel.  Our friends Doug and Susan jumped in their Sea Hunt and ran out to meet us

and we were excited to see them.  We had left so early from Boca, there was no one to see us off, so we were pleased they made the effort to come out.  As they arrived, we were out taking pictures when the engine died.  Damn!  What now!?!? I knew what to do.  I immediately jumped below to check the toilet paper fuel filter - Say What???  Yes, they do exist.  It is a product from Gulf Coast Filters in Mississippi.  It utilizes a fresh roll of toilet paper to filter all of the bacteria that grows in diesel fuel before it gets to the standard "primary" Racor Fuel Filter. 

I released the clamp, pulled out the dirty roll, threw in a new roll, and while I was pumping the manual squeeze bulb to pump diesel back in to the filter, I discovered the squeeze bulb was plugged with a flax like material that had clogged the line.  I was certain this plug had been in the line for many months, as I had changed out the old fuel line a few weeks ago, and could not find the reason the engine kept shutting down the engine the last time we were in the Bahamas.  Renne' got to talk boat-to-boat with Doug and Susan while I got the engine running again, so I didn't get to see much of them.  We wished the well, and thanked them from coming out.

This picture was taken by them with us dead in the water.

This second one is proof positive I think I know what I am doing as we are off again after changing the filter and unplugging the squeeze bulb.

 

After running three hours against the Gulf Current, we decided to head inshore to Marathon, where we anchored outside Boot Key Harbor, and went in for a walk with the dogs to Home Depot for a couple of things.  After walking a mile, the dogs were completely exhausted!  The guy in the nursery at HD was kind enough to loan us the water hose where we soaked the dogs to cool them off and to give them water.  We then put them in a grocery cart an walked them around the store.  On the way back, we dinghied over to the Dockside Café, owned by the world famous Eric Stone and his lovely wife Kim, and had drinks and an appetizers.

 

 

August 26

Saturday

 

We were underway by 0730.  I had wanted to run the genset to use the watermaker first thing in the morning, however, when I hit the start switch, nothing happened.  I dinghied the dogs over to water them and to pick up ice while Renne' was preparing breakfast.  When I got back and ate, I hit the ignition for the engine and nothing happened.  A bit frustrated, I opened the hatch to the engine department and immediately noticed the squeeze bulb was collapsed.  Too much suction pressure.  Hmmmm!  I removed the bulb from the fuel line, and with a little dental pic I keep with my tools, I was able to pull a bunch of trash that was trapped in the one-way check valve.

I cleaned that out, rebuilt the squeeze bulb, reinstalled it in the fuel line, the genset fired right up, and so did the engine.  With that, we departed for Rodriguez Key.

 

April 27

Sunday

 

We anchored of Rodriguez Key and had an enjoyable ride around the island trying to find a place for the dogs to be watered.  No luck.  We figured they would go in the cockpit or on deck.  Nope!  Dinner and bed. 

 

April 28

Monday

 

Up at the crack of dawn again and headed up Hawk Channel for No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne south of Miami.  Ed and Claudia convinced us the trip would be simple with no issues.  In the past, I have been extremely concerned about the depths of the channel.  As it turned out, we had nothing to worry about.  We were very happy with the trip.  We arrived in No Name Harbor and anchored.  Honestly, we felt in the Minority.  It was very Latin there!!  Probably three dozen boats in the harbor.  Dinner was at the Boaters Grill at No Name Harbor.  We split and enjoyed a wonderful seafood Paella and a pitcher of Sangria. 

 

To be continued - we are not on a dock tonite, but if you can get a dinghy somewhere, come on out and join us for sundowners.  Looks like it will be quiet, calm, but cloudy.  More when we reach Vero!  Good night to those of you not here in the area!

 

JonNe'