Finally!

This has been the coldest, wettest spring in decades here in the PNW.  There has been absolutely no incentive to go out and sit in the cold rain.

Until now.

We are finally (!) off the dock, anchored out in the San Juan Islands in our favorite anchorage: Blind Bay.  But lest you think the rains had stopped... no.  One of our days out here (day 3) was spent at anchor, listening to the rain pelt down on the deck... for 24 straight, relentless hours.  But that day was bookended by two wonderful sunny days (2, and 4), so it was OK...  we stayed below and read, and cooked.  Speaking of cooking...  over the years our time on the water has been favored with increasingly great meals!  I'm glad our onboard scale has a dead battery.

On day 4, we hoisted anchor...  but wait.  There's a story there too.  Part of our prep for leaving the dock is to run the anchor windlass, to make sure the relay contacts or commutator haven't corroded up over the winter.  We've had to hoist the anchor (66 lb Bruce, 300' 3/8" chain) by hand, once.  And we intend for that to never happen again, thus the test run.  Now, our windlass has a counter on it that shows how many feet of chain have been let out.  When I tested it, I just lifted the chain off the wildcat, meaning that the counter showed chain overboard even tho there wasn't any.  And I forgot to reset the counter at the end of the test.  So, when Jane put the anchor down in Blind Bay the first time, she was baffled by the counter reading.  She was pretty sure that she had put down more than 100', but the counter only showed 25'.  So we put down more, just to be safe.  Hoisting and flaking all that chain into the chain locker was quite the chore...  hopefully that will be one of those lessons that will stick.

Experience is the best teacher,
but she gives the lesson after the test.

So, continuing with day 4, we hoisted anchor and went to Parks Bay on the south side of Shaw Island.  We call this bay "Sunset Bay" for obvious reasons:

We spent two idyllic days in Parks Bay, but the holding there isn't as ideal as it is in Blind Bay, being that it shoals steeply going to the back of the harbor, and to add to the fun, there are a number of abandoned pilings on the bottom in part of the ideal anchorage.  Meaning that Parks Bay is a great place to visit, but not one in which to weather a blow.

So, this morning we hoisted anchor again (just the intended amount...) and moved back to Blind Bay in anticipation of tonight's blow.  Rain and wind (16-22 kt) are expected tonight, and Blind Bay's gently sloping hard mud bottom is ideal holding for our Bruce.

We'll check in again later.

 

Finally!

Maintenance Spring Continues

It seems that every time we have come to the boat this spring, something has required attention.  When we arrived this past Saturday, yet another maintenance item reared its head.  When I turned on the power to the fresh water pressure pump, we were greeted with the sound of... nothing.  No water pressure.

A little bit of diagnostics disclosed that the pump was ok, but the pressure switch was not.  

Since it is nearly impossible to remove the pressure switch assembly with the pump installed without dropping important bits into the bilge, it had to come out.  Now that sounds somewhat trivial, but it is not.  Advanced Class IV boat yoga is required to get a screwdriver on the mounting screws, and the water connections are even worse.

Once removed, I disassembled the pump head and pressure switch assembly.  Delving into the switch assembly, I discovered that the micro switch which actually controls the power feed to the pump had failed mechanically.

The micro switch, shown with a thumbdrive for scale

Since we had a spare pump head aboard, I "simply" installed it and reinstalled the pump, thinking that I'd look at getting another micro switch and repairing the old pump head to keep as a spare.

Ha!

The brand new pump head would not move water.  I presume this was due to the internal flapper valves having taken a set.  It took me 3 more install/removals of the pump to confirm that the new head was not going to work.  I really dislike when new stuff fails to work out of the box.

So for the fourth time I removed the pump, and reinstalled the old pump head but with the pressure switch from the new head.

It worked.  But the pump shuts off almost immediately, telling me that I reassembled the pressure switch incorrectly (I think I know what's wrong).  

So, I took an Ibuprofin and ordered a couple new micro switches via Amazon.  I will rebuild the old pressure switch next weekend. And then I will have to employ the advanced boat yoga one more time (hopefully...) to reinstall the rebuilt pressure switch assembly.  

Then all I will have remaining is to recalibrate the pressure switch so that the pump delivers the desired pressure.  That will only require Class III boat yoga.

Hopefully.

Maintenance Spring Continues

Valves, Oh My!

Eolian's two valves which select which water tank the domestic supply is drawn from have been getting more and more difficult to turn over the years.  This spring, I decided that enough was enough...  before I broke something.  They were bronze valves, and were as old as the boat.

Here's the plumbing tree.  Water supply from the two tanks is at the top left and right.  Feed to the pressure pump is from the strainer at the very bottom.  The small pipe leading off to the left is the supply from the water maker, and the capped off grey pipe is the supply to the fresh water foot pump in the galley sink.

Before

 

 

So, in a fit of activity, I disassembled the valve tree and replaced the old valves with PVC/Teflon ball valves - they are only a little longer than the old ones and there is plenty of room for them.  Also, they open and close like a dream because the seats are Teflon.

And while I was at it, I added a valve in the galley foot pump supply and reconnected it.  (I capped this off back in 1997 because the foot pump flapper valves slowly leaked air back into the system, making the freshwater supply pump constantly cavitate.)  Now we can have the use of the foot pump by simply opening a valve.

After

 

 

Finally as a side note, I do not leave both tanks connected together because by keeping them separate, in the event of a leak the worst case scenario is that I would only lose half of my fresh water.  (I keep both diesel tanks separate for the same reason.)

Valves, Oh My!

No-no Will Be Corrected

 You probably can't tell from the photo, but that is a no-no.

You see, thru-hulls are threaded NPS (National Pipethread,Straight), so that seacocks can be threaded onto them tight against the hull, regardless of the hull thickness.  Normal pipe fittings are NPT (National Pipethread, Tapered) so the connection will bind up solidly when things are tightened up.

In the picture, you see a bronze NPT ball valve threaded onto a NPS thru hull.  This is not good, since the connection between the straight and tapered threads will only be one or two turns.  It could leak (it's not, thankfully) and it is mechanically very weak, meaning a small side thrust could disengage the threads.

This problem exists here because, tho there are 1/2" thru hulls, there are no 1/2" seacocks made - the smallest is 3/4".  So here, a normal 1/2" bronze NPT ball valve  was screwed on to the 1/2" thru hull to make up the connection.  A definite no-no.

I have thought about this off and on for years.  And recently a cosmic ray passed thru my brain and gave me the solution...

I have in my shop at home a set of pipe threading dies.  I could easily re-thread the top of the thru hull to be NPT using one of these...

So: next haul-out when the fitting is out of the water, I will bring the 1/2" NPT die to the boat and re-thread the end of the fitting to NPT, and reassemble properly.  

Problem solved!

No-no Will Be Corrected