Late March / Early April Update
After
slogging up the ICW “ditch” from Fort Lauderdale to North Palm Beach we settled
in for some relaxation over the weekend and began lining up our needed
maintenance appointments with our local experts.
Tue, Wed & Thu, 27/28/29-Mar at Old
Port Cove
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| Alex & BJ Go to Work on the Main Engine's Oil Pan Gasket |
On
Tuesday Yacht Tech arranged for Alex Graham, our diesel engine guru, to come
out to the boat the day after he returned from vacation, and we appreciated the
prompt attention. After examining the
leak points and patterns around the main engine’s oil pan gasket, Alex agreed
that we needed to pull the pan off and install a new gasket. Later that day he
confirmed he had the gasket part in stock and would be out the next day to
attack it. That meant that Rick had to
drain the oil; it was a bit early for an oil change (not due for another 60
hours) but it would be worth it to resolve this annoying oil pan leak.
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| Oil Pan Removed....There Isn't a Lot of Clearance Underneath that Big Lugger |
On
Wednesday we spent most of the day in the engine room….got the pan dropped and
the old gasket removed: it looked pretty
gnarly, probably a combination of insufficient adhesive in some places, then
overtightening that had malformed it further.
Alex wasn’t happy with some of the uneven surfaces on the oil pan lip,
so he removed the fan belt housings at the front end of the engine, slid the
oil pan out from under, and then sanded the rim to bare metal. Then an even
coating of Permatex was applied along with the new gasket. By late afternoon the job was done and Rick then
tackled installing the new oil filter and filling the engine with 6.2 gallons
of fresh oil.
But
we did not run the engine yet….the gasket sealant needed to cure overnight. So it wasn’t until Thursday morning at 0900
that Rick fired up the main engine and ran it for a full hour at varying RPM
settings. Alex was back aboard shortly
after 1000 to make a visual check of his handiwork. All the new absorbent pads were still pure
white, and we could find no seepage anywhere around the new oil pan
gasket. That certainly was all good news
– oh yeah, and done under warranty – although we would need a final leak check
when we got the next opportunity to run the engine under a load while underway. That would come several days later when we
were scheduled to sortie out to take on fuel.
Fri, 30-Mar at Old Port Cove
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| Ray Squeezed into the Small Engine Room Alcove to Work on the Stabilizer |
Next
up was for us to get a diver out to clean the boat below the waterline and
check all the sacrificial anodes. That’s
typically a monthly event, and we wanted a slick hull before setting off for
the islands. Mark from Treasure Coast Diving made time in his busy schedule to
dive the boat on Friday afternoon and after a couple hours of underwater work
pronounced the hull, bottom paint and anodes all in good shape.
Shortly
after that our friends from Stabilized Marine (Ray and Dillon) came to the boat
to asses our stabilizer issues. They
believed the melted grease leak on the pump to be a result of overfilling with
grease, with the recommendation to keep running it, mopping up the residue
occasionally, and waiting for the excess grease to basically burn off. But the oil leak on the starboard side actuator
would require replacing its feedback valve – again. We’d had that done once before about six
months ago. We got on their schedule to
return with the part and replace it early the following week.
And Some Fun Stuff
During
this layover interval we also had the opportunity to make new friends. A few days after we arrived, another
Nordhavn, an N47 named Mari Mi,
pulled in to OPC just a few slips down from us.
We introduced ourselves to Mike and Mari Zimet who had just returned
from six weeks cruising in the Bahamas – coincidentally along a path through
the Abacos nearly identical to the one we were in the midst of planning. Mike and Mari were an absolute treasure trove
of hugely helpful tips and information.
And since Mike also runs a Nobeltec navigation system on his boat, we
took the opportunity to export all his tracks to a USB stick and uploaded those
to our nav system. Now that’s good some
intel to have given how skinny the depth can be over there.
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| Mike & Mari's N47, Mari Mi, Arrives at Old Port Cove |
To
return the favor Rick spent some time aboard Mari Mi to help Mike with some outboard engine maintenance, a wing
engine oil change, and installing some new Racor fuel filters.
As
a bonus we also were introduced by Mike and Mari to their OPC Marina next door
neighbors, Paul and Kris Hickey, aboard their 49 foot Hinckley sailing ketch Irish Tango. They had been buddy-boating together while over
in the Abacos. Of course we also ended
up doing a progressive happy hour, going from boat to boat for snacks, drinks
and tours. Good times and good people.
Week of 01-Apr at Old Port Cove
While
we were in “pause mode” waiting on the stabilizer maintenance Rick attacked a few
of our minor punch list items, mainly to keep that list from getting too
lengthy. That included removing and re-bedding a loose upper hinge on the
starboard side boarding door; a healthy shot of the Rescue Bond XL1 caulk and
some oversized stainless screws seemed to do the job. We had also previously experienced a failure
of some of the boat’s old style fresh water inline shutoff valves (wouldn’t
shut off) so Rick replaced a couple of those, and also spent some time
recalibrating the boat’s fresh water tank gauges.
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| A Disassembled Feedback Valve for the Starboard Stabilizer....Only 4" Long and the Damned Things Costs $550 (Part Only). |
By Monday, 02-Apr, the techs
from Stabilized Marine had located the needed part and a hole in their schedule
to work on the starboard stabilizer’s feedback valve. While not a hugely complex task (for them at
least), it requires quite a bit of disassembling caps, covers and hoses on the
actuator; and accessing that damned thing is another story. Its compartment is tucked under the forward
starboard alcove of the engine room, and to get under that we needed to remove
a lot of gear normally stored there. You
can’t be a big fellow to squeeze back there unless you’re willing to call the
fire department for an extraction rescue when you’re done. A couple hours later the job was done, and
the subsequent system tests at the dock looked good.
It
will be interesting to see how long this new feedback valve lasts, although we
were informed that Naiad recently reduced their already lousy warranty on that
part (which costs around $550 USD by the way) from 90 to 30 days; at this pace we
might just have to get used to living with some leaks. It reminds us that fellow Nordy owner Dennis
Fox once said the best way to practice for owning a complex trawler was to go
to the nearest marina and start throwing hundred dollar bills into the water.
On Tuesday, 03-Apr, we bid
farewell to Mike and Mari (Mari Mi)
and to Paul and Kris (Irish Tango.) Both were headed back north (in spite of the
weather up there.) We hope to visit Mike
and Mari in their home port of Oriental, North Carolina when we head that way
ourselves later this year.
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| Irish Tango Pulling Out of OPC and Headed Back North |
Over
the next few days Chelle also tended to her final knee treatments back in Fort Myers, and upon return the final provisioning of our fresh
goods, while Rick kept up with the regular Wheelhouse maintenance items on the boat. And on Friday, 06-Apr, we took
on 478 gallons of diesel, topping off our fuel tanks so that we wouldn’t have
to pay Bahamian fuel prices should that need arise.
On Saturday, 07-Apr, we
welcomed our good friend Michel Sirois and his wife Caroline back to the USA as
they arrived at OPC aboard their Nordhavn 50, Sea Turtle. Michel was part
of our crew when we crossed the Atlantic last year aboard N60 Relish, and it was great to hook up with
him once again and catch up on his recent adventures in the Bahamas. At about the same time, our very close friends
Dan and Juli Eisenberg drove over from their home in Englewood and joined us aboard
Ghost Rider. We got them settled into what would be their
new “home” for the next 12 days as we cruised through the Abacos together.
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| N50 Sea Turtle Arrives at OPC after Several Months in the Bahamas |
Next Up
Now
it was all about finding a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream. Originally we planned to depart Sunday
morning for the West End Settlement on Grand Bahama, but the forecast was
changing for the worse as of late Saturday, putting that plan in jeopardy….predicted
sea states were getting rough and thunderstorms were starting to pop at both
departure and destination points. Yet
another late season cold front was plowing through the state from the north,
triggering all sorts of unwelcome atmospheric activity.
We’ll
just have to remain ready to go as we closely monitor what seems to be a
constantly changing forecast.
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| Chelle, with Juli & Dan Playing Rummikub on Their First Night Aboard Ghost Rider |
