DECEMBER UPDATE
In
the past we have mentioned that “BOAT” is actually an acronym that stands for “Break Out Another Thousand”, and thus we’ve talked about
spending in increments of “Boat Units” rather than dollars. Lately we are considering the acronym may
also represent “Broken Or About
To (be).”
As
we sought some dates early in the month for our sea trial we had to settle for
a single three hour river run in advance of a cold front that was bringing
significant winds and generally unpleasant weather to our part of the Florida
peninsula. (We’ve gotten accustomed to lousy
and untimely weather patterns in 2017….and hoping that 2018 will be
different.) The results of that three
hour test flight were a mixed bag:
The
Good:
- The main engine shaft/prop vibration was gone; very smooth at all RPM following the removal of the tangled crab pot line.
- The Naiad stabilizers appeared to be ops normal; a river run isn’t a great stress test, but the fins were active and effective in the few boat wakes we encountered.
- The main engine oil pan leak also appeared to be under control; after 3 hours Rick noticed only a small seep on the right side of the pan gasket, so he put some more torque on those bolts.
The
Bad:
- The engine-driven hydraulic pump for the Naiad stabilizers was still leaking grease through its aft seal even after torquing down the rear housing’s attaching bolts.
- The Furuno chart plotter in the pilot house was showing the boat’s position as somewhere in the Atlantic off the coast of Miami….although we were in the Caloosahatchee River on the west coast of Florida. WTF.
- The damned stuffing box on the main engine shaft was showing signs of overheating again after just an hour underway…up to 133F. WTF times two.
The
Ugly:
- The dishwasher sprung a leak….we had (lots of) water on the galley floor and under / in the galley cabinets. (Love our wet/dry shop vac.)
 |
| The New Gasket Should Fix This Grease Leak |
The
continuance of the hydraulic pump grease leak wasn’t a real shock. Since we had previously ordered a replacement
gasket for the rear housing, once back at the dock Rick replaced that in short
order without drama….although it will require a more extended sea trial to ultimately
verify the fix.
That
the pilot house Furuno chart plotter seemed hopelessly lost – we were about 200
miles west of where it showed our position, and the heading was at least 90
degrees off as well – was initially a real head scratcher. As it turns out (and this took some
sleuthing) somehow the Furuno’s MFD default settings had gotten all whacked out
and its “Demo Mode” had been switched on; turning that off returned sanity and
accuracy to the display.
 |
| No Quicker Way to Get Navigationally Disoriented Than Accidentally Getting into "Demo Mode" |
As
for the damned stuffing box temps….grrrr.
We had fought this battle for two months earlier in the year, and
thought we had it solved after good behavior during the week long sortie from Palm Beach to Fort
Myers. Guess not. Rick spent over an hour in the engine room on
this last sea trial trying to get it back under control. Ultimately we got the temp down from 133F to
106F (at SST’s under 80F) by drastically loosening the box’s follower collar
while underway (while Chelle ran the boat on the wing engine), but most
assuredly something was still amiss.
Once
back at the dock Rick disassembled and repacked the stuffing box yet again, but
this time using the Gore GFO packing material instead of the traditional PTFE (Teflon)
rings. We had used GFO previously with
success on our N47 to solve a similar issue, so we figured it was worth another
try. This material isn’t without
controversy – it’s expensive, and contains graphite, which is quite high on the
galvanic nobility scale: don’t even think about using it on a bronze propeller
shaft, unless you want to watch your shaft melt away as a sacrificial anode. But it’s as slippery as duck guts on a door
knob, and the Aquamet stainless steel shaft on Ghost Rider theoretically should hold up to it.
 |
| Tearing Apart the Stuffing Box Again |
Stuffing
box surgery is always a bit dicey while the boat is still in the water (recall
our in-water shaft realignment?) because removing the follower collar and
packing rings will get you get plenty of sea water into the bilge unless you
work quickly. (If anyone ever invents a
seacock for shaft water flow, we will buy it.)
Unfortunately the Gore 3/8” packing size was too small – even with four
rings inserted we could not adequately stem the water flow. Next we tried the Gore 7/16” size and found
that too big to fit the groove. So we reverted
back to the original packing yet again – it actually looked to be in good
shape, water flow and alignment looked good as well. We are guessing that the crab pot tangle may
have had an impact – either the vibration itself, or perhaps some debris
ingestion into the shaft gland (hopefully now flushed out.) We’ll know more after the next sea trial.
The
dishwasher leak turned out to be relatively simple to locate – once the lower
access panels were removed we could see water leaking (at an alarming rate)
from one of the pan gaskets for the heating element; its attaching nut was a
flimsy affair with a crack in it and consequently quite loose. Obtaining the replacement part took a couple
weeks, but once it arrived the fix was straightforward, and Chelle is once
again happy with the galley.
 |
| The New Furuno BBWX3 SiriusXM Weather Receiver |
Being
somewhat masochistic, we also decided to tackle a new project while all this
was going on: installing SiriusXM weather functionality for the Furuno navigation
system. We’ve had that (or WxWorx which
is very similar) on the last few boats and have found it extremely valuable to
have near real time weather graphics overlaid on the chartplotter…especially
during summertime cruising when we want to detect frontal and/or thunderstorm
activity beyond the range of the boat’s radar.
When combined with the GRIB file capabilities already onboard, the
SiriusXM functionality would round out our meteorology tools nicely. Furuno uses a black box called the “BBWX3” to
interface the SiriusXM weather antenna to its network and MFDs, so we purchased
one of those, and Rick spent a few deliberate hours getting it installed. That installation is fairly straightforward –
just mount securely with a few screws, hook into a 12V power tap, run the
Ethernet cable to the hub, and then attach the Shakespeare SRA-50 antenna
cable; lastly power it up and activate the Sirius weather account. Simple, right?
 |
| New Network Switch Sitting Atop the Old Furuno Hub |
Not
so much. After four days of post-installation
troubleshooting we still were not receiving any weather data. Only after bypassing the Furuno hub and
connecting the weather unit’s Ethernet cable directly to the MFD did we get
weather data to display. A call with
Furuno tech support revealed they were aware of a problem with their Ethernet
hub, and they suggested we remove and send that unit to them (out on the west
coast) for an update of some kind. With
five other Cat-5 cables plugged into that thing we weren’t too keen about
crippling our nav network, so Rick substituted a standard 8 port desktop switch
for about $25 – and that seems to work quite well so far. That Furuno hub is for now just a backup
spare – although we can buy about 13 Cisco switches for what Furuno charges for
one of their hubs.
 |
| Finally...a Weather Display That Works. |
We sacrifice what is
known as “power synchronization” (turning all other Furuno devices on or off with
a single switch) but that’s a feature we weren’t using anyway. All that's left to do there is test network speeds to be sure we have not accidentally introduced any performance issues.
Finally, Rick also managed to finally find and install a replacement battery temperature sensor (BTS) for our legacy Xantrex charger / inverter unit. That will enable us to re-test the LinkPro battery gauge setup with and without the automatic charge relays engaged, and get more definitive about the cause of the LinkPro undercharge readings.
 |
| Scott, Kaitlin, Kelly & Riley in Party Mode on Ghost Rider |
Despite all of that "boat business" we've still been enjoying the occasional time on the boat during our dirt-dwelling months at the condo. We recently had the pleasure of hosting good friend Scott Schatzle and his young family for a fun evening aboard Ghost Rider (Sangria for the adults, reindeer cupcakes for the kids!) Riley, at just 7 years, seems to be a budding engineer and kept Rick busy with some pretty penetrating questions about the boat's systems. Perhaps she should examine our stuffing box.
And now it's time for some Christmas relaxation and fun. As has become our tradition, we are hosting Chelle's family for the holidays and finally enjoying some very pleasant weather in south Florida....plenty good enough for a 4 hour fishing charter the other day that netted us a tasty haul of Redfish and Spotted Seatrout for dinner.
We hope y'all have a blessed Christmas, fun holidays and an excellent New Year.
No comments:
Post a Comment