ANOTHER OCTOBER UPDATE
As
we were keeping a careful watch on Hurricane Nate’s path we had some time (and finally
some pleasant weather) this past week to focus on a few remaining maintenance
and repair items. And as usual those
work efforts led to more interesting “discoveries”.
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| Batt Charger Mounted Directly on the Engine Room Wall |
As
part of troubleshooting our LinkPro battery monitor mystery we went back to
tracing more potential grounding issues; and while James was staring at our
second battery charger it suddenly occurred to us the thing had multiple
grounds – there was its standard and required grounding post, but it was also
screwed directly into the engine room’s metal clad wall. Apparently that’s a no-no in a Nordhavn since
that cladding is connected to the boat’s bonding system ground. We rectified that by fashioning a starboard
mounting plate to place between the charger and the wall. That does not completely solve the LinkPro
issues, but it is one less variable removed from the equation.
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| Batt Charger Remounted on a Starboard Backing Plate |
Next
we went to work sea trialing the latest stuffing box adjustments for the main
engine’s propeller shaft, with Chelle doing all the helm work while the guys
hung out in the engine room. But
unfortunately the sortie revealed little to no progress – even removing one of
the three packing rings to obtain an obscene amount of raw water flow gave no
temperature improvements. While Rick was
shooting the thing with the infrared temperature gun he noticed an odd
discrepancy – the temp at the front of the collar was around 8 degrees hotter
than the reading at the back of the collar….only 3 inches away. That had to mean a misalignment producing
more shaft friction at one end vs. the other.
A closer examination of the shaft’s stern tube coupling hose revealed it
wasn’t quite straight, nor was the propeller shaft’s entry into the stuffing
box. And the shaft’s coupling at the business
end of the transmission wasn’t quite flush either. Uh-oh.
We
returned to the dock, with Chelle at the helm for a challenging docking exercise, and then attacked the
problem again the following day (a Sunday).
After James noodled on it a while we decided to try (a) removing the
stuffing box follower / collar and the shaft’s stern tube hose, rotating the
latter, while also (b) adjusting the engine mounts to achieve a more aligned
shaft coupling arrangement…all without hauling the boat out of the water. That isn’t nearly as simple as it
sounds. It requires some really big
wrenches to handle the torqueing requirements of the shaft coupling and motor
mounts on a 3800 pound diesel engine; and it seriously tests the efficiency of
your bilge pump (lots of water coming in along the shaft through the stuffing
box.)
James: You got a good bilge pump?
Rick: Your guys installed it, you tell me.
James: What’s the depth here?
Rick: Maybe 3 to 4 feet under the keel.
James: So we wouldn’t sink very much.
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| James in the Background Working on the Stuffing Box; Jay in the Foreground Working on the Motor Mount Readjustments |
It
took James, Jay and Rick several hours to get all that done (the bilge pump
kept up), then we headed out for another hour of sea trialing. We saw a 17 degree drop vs. the previous
day’s measurements with no temperature variations across the follower / collar. While only one hour of running time isn’t a particularly
thorough test, it did involve runs at wide open throttle and there was no
vibration….so it was very promising. We
want to improve the temps a bit more after letting the packing rings set in,
but it tells us we may finally be on the right path.
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| James with His Head in the Bilge Working on the Stuffing Box and Shaft Realignment |
We
also still have an intermittent and annoying coolant overflow on the main
engine, even with a new pressure cap installed.
We’re going to replace the expansion tank’s neck assembly next to insure
the new cap has a tight seal.
Unfortunately that’s a special order part that is being shipped from
Seattle, so it will be several more days before we can replace and test that.
On the social front Chelle has been able to squeeze in a couple more rounds of golf, and we enjoyed a wonderful overnight visit from Chelle's mum, Charmaine, who has returned to her winter home in central Florida. She also allowed us to take her out to dinner at the Sandpiper to celebrate her birthday, which was great fun.
As
for the weather: Hurricane Nate moved well to the west and north of us and is currently
soaking the northeast U.S., which left us a few days of mercifully dry and calm
weather for our latest sea trial outings.
While Hurricane Ophelia - now downgraded to a tropical storm - is spinning way out in the middle of the
Atlantic, it is a non-factor for us given its distance and direction. But there is yet another low pressure system to the east of the Bahamas beginning to slowly spool up to and will be headed this
way. While some models develop that into
another tropical system, it doesn’t look all that likely to encounter favorable
development conditions. Still, its
predicted path will bring some wind and rain to south Florida late in the
coming week….so we’ll continue to hang out here for a while longer, with our
focus on conquering the remaining maintenance items.
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| That Low Pressure Trough East of the Bahamas Will Head Our Way and Trash Out Our Weather Later This Week. |
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| Rick Sweating Away in the Lazarette Servicing the AC Strainer Basket. We Discovered That's Required at Least Weekly Given the Rate of Slime and Barnacle Growth in These Warm Tropical Waters. |
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| We Also Mounted a New U.S. Flag on Ghost Rider and a Solar Light to Keep Old Glory Lighted at Night. The Old One Was Pretty Tattered & Weathered. And No, It Had Nothing To Do with the NFL or Pinhead POTUS Comments. We Respectfully Retired the Previous Flag per Accepted Protocol. |
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| But This Is Still the Most Important Flag on the Boat. It Goes Wherever We and Our Ghosts Go. |
