Happy
New Year! We welcomed 2020 still
confined to port, as poor weather had intervened and prevented our planned
cruise up to Sarasota for Christmas week.
That meteorological mess consisted of a cold front accompanied by gusty
winds and rain for several days, and was enough of a deterrent to keep Ghost Rider tethered to the dock. One of the many nice things about retirement
is the flexibility to pick our weather windows….our car got us to Sarasota and
the planned family rendezvous just fine.
The remainder of our time since our last blog post has mostly been
occupied with out-of-town visitors escaping the cold winter weather to the
north. And Chelle took a side trip back
to the Abacos….more on that further below.
That
also gave us time to turn our attention to a few more boat projects….some
expected, some not.
 |
We Replaced Four of These Poly-planar Speakers
Due to Splits in the Speaker Cones |
First up was replacing some of the
stereo speakers in the boat. Ghost
Rider has three pairs of these (salon, pilot house and flybridge), and both
pairs of interior speakers were in dire need of replacement – the speaker cones
had deteriorated with splits and cracks and the distorted sound was getting
annoying. (We don’t know the age of
these, but strangely the exterior flybridge units are holding up better.) At any rate, it was easy enough to find
drop-in replacements (Poly-planar 6x9 200W on Amazon), and with only six screws
and two wires each were easy to remove and replace.
Having to replace yet another Whale
fresh water T-fitting was an unpleasant surprise. During one routine
morning boat-check Rick glanced at the bilge pump counter and saw “36” – where
normally we expect to see something from zero to five over the course of a day
and that’s only if the A/C has been running.
Uh-oh. After scrambling to check the bilge level
(normal, so the bilge pump was keeping up) the scavenger hunt began….from where
was that water coming? While checking
various under-floor panels we heard the fresh water pump kick on and run for an
extended period; a quick check of the fresh water tank level showed a
significant decrease from the previous day, too. So now we knew we were looking for a fresh
water system leak. We turned off the
breaker for the water pump, and eventually Rick found the culprit, one of the
many Whale 15mm T-fittings scattered throughout the boat….this one immediately
adjacent to, and on the supply side of, the fresh water pump in the engine
room. We carry spares, so the replacement
fix was relatively quick and easy.
 |
The Yellow Arrow Points to the Whale
T-Fitting That Was Leaking |
Then it was time to call out an A/C tech
to the boat once again. The air handler in the master state room had
(again) started to throw “HI PS” errors and shutting itself down. Previously Rick had been able to clear that
error with strainer cleanouts and running reverse cycle heat; but those
techniques were proving fruitless this time.
Using the infrared heat gun we found compressor coil temps reaching 156F
(normally around 120F) and the unit would shut itself down after a few minutes
of runtime. Craig from VIP Marine (LINK)
found a hole in his busy schedule to make a visit and after hooking up his
manifold pressure gauges (finding high-side pressure way above the normal
range) he quickly diagnosed the problem as clogging in the fresh water cooling
loop. We really had no idea if or when
that plumbing had last been scoured out, but in an oft-used A/C system in these
warm waters it’s not uncommon for raw water loops to get sclerotic with
barnacles and other unwanted nasties.
Our
first step was to remove the hose from the thru-hull intake, where we found the
equivalent of a small tree growing; we cleared that out using a long
screwdriver as a rigid drain snake. Next
up was to remove the four raw water manifold hoses downstream of the pump and
run an acid cleaner through those. A
loud “pop” and debris coming from the port side discharge was evidence we were
progressing with removing considerable sclerosis from the cooling loop. After a few hours of effort followed by a
leak check of the reassembled plumbing, the A/C system was pronounced healthy
again. The improved water flow, pressure
and temperature checks confirmed that. Rick followed up with a “Barnacle Buster” soak
over the following days as additional preventive insurance.
 |
When We Removed the Hose and Elbow Coming Out of This A/C Seacock We Found a Small Tree Growing
Inside the Thru-Hull. First Step Was to Unclog That Mess. |
Another project involved updating the
ship’s Nobeltec computer. That device is a Silverstone DC-powered
computer running the TimeZero Professional navigation software; unfortunately
that’s a mission critical system running under the Windows 10 (Pro) operating
system, which is at best only a consumer-grade platform, and not particularly
conducive to high availability needs.
Once huge drawback is Microsoft removed almost all ability to control
the frequency and timing of its software updates, which occasionally can be
quite disruptive. To manage that we
generally keep that PC’s Internet connection turned off, and on top of that we
run a 3rd party utility that effectively interrupts that “phone
home” behavior.
Thus
periodically we need to manually check for OS security updates and functional
upgrades/fixes, but only when we have the time to manage possibly adverse
consequences. And that did not go well – after twice applying updates, and
then rolling back to recover, the computer turned into a brick. It took Rick
three days to recover it – performing a BIOS reset and fresh install of the
latest build for Windows 10, followed by reinstallation and configuration of
our Nobeltec TimeZero Pro navigation software.
At least we were able to recover routes and other data files from our
backups. On the other hand the newer
version of Windows 10 would not recognize the computer’s PCI serial I/O card (which
feeds backup NMEA 0183 navdata to the TimeZero software) even after
reinstalling new drivers. A newer I/O card and driver set finally resolved that.
 |
The Ship's Navigation Computer is a 12 Volt Small Form Factor Silverstone Model. It's Tucked in the Pilot House
Console Locker, a Challenge to Access. This Pic is with Its Cover Removed to Provide Access to Its Innards So
the PCI Serial I/O Card Can Be Replaced. |
Additionally, in the category of “better
late than never” we made an interesting discovery regarding the boat’s LPG
system. Ghost
Rider carries two aluminum 15.8 pound (empty weight) gas bottles to feed the galley’s gas stove
and oven, a common arrangement in long range cruisers – alternative electric units are
energy (battery) hogs. The LPG bottles have been securely mounted (vertically, side-by-side)
in an isolated and ventilated cockpit locker mostly in accordance with ABYC
standards. Suspecting one of the bottles
was approaching empty and requiring a refill, we removed it to weigh it on a
digital scale – and for the first time took notice a label on the bottle that read
“horizontal cylinder.” After researching
exactly what that meant we realized the heretofore vertical installation
violated a rather significant safety measure (and probably interfered somewhat
with consistently reliable operation.)
Rick bought some stainless hardware and drilled new studs in the floor
of the locker to allow for a secure horizontal mount – although only one bottle
would fit in there with that orientation.
 |
The Revised Horizontal Mount for LPG. The Yellow Arrows Point to the Two New Stainless Steel Studs and
Wingnuts that Were Required. The Red Arrows Indicate the Previous Studs Used for Vertical Mounting. |
The
second (spare) LPG bottle got strapped down in the lazarette storage area. The better longer term solution would be two
new bottles designed for vertical installation – but those aluminum things are pricey
and that can wait.
As for Chelle’s side trip…to the Abacos: Not being one
to take the traditional approach to retirement, she has yet to master the skill
of being laid back. After accommodating holiday
visits by her mum, then her sister and entire family, then our daughter,
followed shortly thereafter by four of her gal pals, she headed off to Marsh
Harbor in the Bahamas for two weeks of disaster relief volunteer work. Via the All
Hands and Hearts organization (aka AHAH, LINK),
their gritty manual labor efforts are targeting the reconstruction of schools,
a clinic and library, and teachers’ homes.
For more details on that experience, check out the separate blog entry at this LINK.
What’s next: We’re not
planning any significant sorties until the March timeframe, at which time we
are hoping to cruise around to the east coast for a (brief?) visit to Yacht
Tech’s yard in palm Beach, and then heading off to the Bahamas again. February will be preparation month – provisioning all sorts of supplies and food, along with
pre-departure oil changes and other system preparations. We're also looking into using Ghost Rider as a "mule" to haul needed supplies to The Abacos relief efforts. More on all that in the next blog post.
Once again, we wish all a
Happy New Year and best wishes for a safe, healthy and enjoyable 2020.
