THROUGH 21-AUG
It has been nearly a month since we wrote: “While in excellent
condition for a 15 year old boat, we nonetheless have a potentially long punch
list based on surveys, sea trial and our own personal preferences”. Scratch the word “potentially”. It’s a long list.
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| Ghost Rider in Her Maintenance Slip @ OPC...At The End Of a Fairway, It Can Be a Tight Maneuver |
That said, we – with lots of help from James Knight and his gang
at Yacht Tech – have made
great progress. While we occasionally
find ourselves in the not usual see-saw scenario (remove one item from the
punch list, but add another) that lengthy list mostly now consists of things
that have been lined through and are pending sea trial(s) to verify
satisfactory completion. Since we don’t
plan to be hanging out near home port once we cast off the lines, we want to be
fairly certain that the work done on the main engine, wing engine, generator,
hydraulics and stabilizers provides solid ops-normal reliability. And we want to be comfortable in our
understanding of the supporting systems – electrical generation and
distribution, fuel supply, air conditioning, etc.
From a provisioning perspective we think we’re just about
done. Chelle will be complete with the galley
and household side of that this week, and the same is true for Rick’s stockpiling
of tools, boat supplies, generic spares and safety gear. Still to be addressed is building the
inventory of boat-specific spare parts – oil, filters, belts, water pumps, etc.
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| Our 70HP "Get Home" Wing Engine...Ran Great on the Latest Sea Trial |
So that brings us back to the sea trials. On Saturday, 19-August, James and two of his
techs joined us on board at 0900 with the goal of knocking out a fairly long
list of mechanical, propulsion and system testing. We planned to cruise a few miles down the ICW
and then head offshore via the Lake Worth inlet. After sleuthing and solving a main engine
starter problem at the dock (loose wire at the solenoid), we maneuvered Ghost Rider II out of the marina and
pointed south towards the inlet as planned.
Part of the day’s sea trial strategy was to initially run hard on
the wing engine – Rick wasn’t satisfied that the survey sea trial had focused
enough on that, particularly the shaft’s stuffing box. In addition to being the “get-home” backup to
the main engine, the wing is also used to supply hydraulic power to the bow and
stern thrusters, as well as the windlass; thus we consider it fairly critical.
So shortly after departing the marina we shut down the main engine and focused
on stress-testing the wing power plant.
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| The 300HP Main Engine Was a Different Story Without a Reliable Starter Motor |
And that actually went well for the first 40 minutes, with Ghost Rider reaching 4.5 knots (even
with the wing’s tiny two-bladed prop although a following current helped), with
no leaks and overall good health metrics on the gauges and heat gun. The next focus was to be the main engine’s
stuffing box, which in two previous sea trials had run way too hot and had now
been repacked twice.
But we could not get a relight on the main engine…there was no
response at all from its starter motor.
We were still in a narrow stretch of the ICW, so Rick manned the helm to
keep the boat between the buoys while James & Robert spent time in the
engine room troubleshooting. Battery
voltage and electrical connections were fine, but solenoid and starter motor
would not respond. So we made a 180 and headed back to the marina – at a
leisurely pace of 3.3 knots into the current, which gave Rick plenty of time to
think about – and discuss with James – how to dock the beast using only the
wing engine for propulsion.
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| To the Left of the Wheel Are the Wing Engine Controls - Separate Levers for Gearshift (Black) and Throttle (Red). Thrusters Are to the Right of the Wheel. |
Maneuvering on the wing engine presents a couple of challenges,
especially in close quarters. The
shaft/prop is offset from the centerline, so steering straight isn’t a
given. The prop is tiny compared to the
main, so thrust is limited. (Forget prop-walk.) And on Ghost Rider the wing is also used to power the bow and stern
thrusters – but only when its throttle is advanced to something around 1800 RPM
(it idles at 600-700 RPM.) Approaching a
dock in gear at that power setting would be poor form, unless you have air
bags.
On top of all that, Ghost Rider does not have wing engine controls on the fly bridge, so the docking maneuver would have to be accomplished from the pilot house, where visibility isn't nearly as good.
James:
“I can take it if you want.”
Rick:
“I’ll give it a go….but stay
close.”
James: “Just
throw up your hands if you want me to take over.”
Rick: “How
about if I just scream hysterically?”
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| Ghost Rider at Her New T-dock Berth |
We had calm conditions and a protected marina, and it turns out if
you go slow – really slow – you can
spin the boat 180 degrees in a marina fairway and bring it alongside a T-head
dock without casualties. It went
something like this: stop the boat’s forward
motion (reverse); preset the rudder hardover port; throttle to idle; gearshift
to neutral, throttle up to 1800, thrust the stern to starboard; throttle to
idle, gearshift forward; gearshift to neutral then reverse; gearshift back to
neutral, throttle back up to 1800, thrust bow to port and/or stern to
starboard. Repeat until you’ve pivoted
her 180 and are parallel (and hopefully close) to the dock. Having Chelle on headset and providing distances to the aft and side was, as usual, a huge help.
Since the wing engine has separate (mechanical) levers for
gearshift and throttle, it’s a bit like patting your head and rubbing your
stomach at the same time, while walking a field sobriety test line. For most veteran single-screw Nordy owners it’s
a minor annoyance, but it was a first for these rookies. Rick was glad James was there as coach.
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| The Tropics Are Getting Busy With Activity |
At any rate, we got her tucked in and secured, and James went off
looking for another starter motor and solenoid for the main engine. Meanwhile
we headed back to Fort Myers to tend to some administrative and packing
priorities, but will return to the boat late Monday…we have to be ready to move
the boat to another “hurricane hole” marina further up the ICW if one of those
tropical Invests spools up and aims at south Florida.
