Blog 13-
YIPPEE!
The parts...fit
perfectly...and she runs!
We arrived
aboard Panacea after hitching back from Governor’s Harbour with our
box of engine parts, and made a cursory inspection inside the box. Four new
pistons with wrist pins, four sets of rings, four pairs of conrod insert
bearings, one ‘complete’ gaskets set and a single used connecting rod which Bee
Auto had managed to source from a breakers yard in Taiwan.
We sealed
the box and went to the pub.
Early the
next morning I set the last of my worries to rest by opening the engine box and
testing one of the new pistons in an engine cylinder........A PERFECT FIT!
While Susan made coffee, I assembled a few pieces of metal that I had found
around the cove, to create a Iifting rig.
After our
breakfast of yogurt, granola and papaya, we unbolted the engine and
transmission from its mounts and disconnected the propeller shaft. This was
familiar work, as we had installed this engine only a few months ago. An hour
later, we lifted and flipped the engine and transmission onto the floor of the
cabin. The cardboard collected to protect the floor went unused in my
excitement to get at this, resulting in a lot of ‘mopping up’.
The cabin
was getting hot as it does every day by the late morning. After admiring our
handiwork we went ashore for a few beers, followed by lunch and then devising a
wrist pin press. Mr. Burroughs, graciously allowed me to look through his steel
scrap and then, after I had attached a steel band to my ‘puller’, to use one of
the bench vices in his lawnmower repair shop to put the new pistons on their
connecting rods. This got in the way of our usual leisurely afternoon at the
beach. We met Geoff and Jennie of Anna Maria at Da Spot for a drink and
a game of tiles. Geoff offered to drop by on the following day at
mid-morning to help us flip the engine back onto its bearers.
When he
arrived at about 10:00, I was still installing pistons, having had to ‘fit’ one
of the pairs of ‘big end’ insert bearings. It has been a long time since I last
did this kind of project, but my mentor Harry’s voice was in my right ear,
reminding me to measure the rod cap with a feeler gauge and to file the bearing
shell end to achieve the desired clearance.
By 10:45 we
had torqued the connecting rod bolts and installed the sump pan. We were using
Geoff’s torque wrench to test the readings from our own. Our torque wrench
gives inconsistent readings above 35 foot-pounds so we condemned it and did all
of the final torques using Geoffs wrench. We flipped the engine onto its
bearers and slid it aft so that the propeller shaft was in centered. Susan and
I hurried to connect the mounts and shim blocks and to install the shaft
coupling. It was getting hot in there and, in my haste (yes...there seems to be
a pattern here J) I got a little bit sloppy. My
cursory check with the feeler gauge at the coupling reassured me that we had
returned the engine to exactly the same location we had taken it from. This
check was later found to have been too
cursory, resulting in vibration and some excess heat in the transmission – but
– as the sun beat down on the cabin, we decided that it was time for us to move
to the shady breezes of the cockpit.
One of the
finer features of DaSpot was the daily lunch.
A lady comes in daily for a couple of hours and prepared meals to a
limited menu. Shady breezes, food and beer? Our daily routine now usually took
us to Da Spot by noon. And so....off to the pub.
The double
check of the shaft alignment was to remain forgotten until we were at sea, with
an overheated transmission.
The
following two mornings were taken up changing intake and exhaust valve seals.
We had procured some grinding/lapping compound from Mr. Rolle’s NAPA in
Governors Harbour, but had been unable to find a lapping tool. We gently
chucked the stem of each valve in the Ryobi battery drill and spun them thusly.
After setting the valve lash, we installed oil and a filter. This left only the
reassembly of the fuel system and the alternator for the next morning’s work.
My concerns
about the fuel system possibly having picked up dirt were soon allayed. The
engine started and ran smoothly. Oil pressure is higher than before at 65 lbs
cold/50lbs warm/30 lbs warm idle thanks to the new insert bearings on the
connecting rods. There is no smoke or exhaust residue thanks to the new piston rings
and valve seals. We would spend another several days of warming the engine,
checking fluids and fine tuning the alternator belt before our departure.
Facing a
good weather window forecast to extend for three days, we waved goodbye to
Geoff and Jennie as we departed Hatchet Bay for Royal Island. Royal Island is
privately owned and boaters are advised not to go ashore without permission. I
figure the owners must be from the Maritimes. One of the boats tied-up there had
the distinctive look of a PEI (maybe an Egmont?) lobster boat, with the hull a close
match for our Billy Joe B’s back in Canada.
We first
noticed some vibration and heat buildup as we fought the tide at Current Cut
about 10 miles from Royal Island. I had forgotten to switch off the alternator
while running at high throttle settings so the alternator belt getting chewed
had the effect of disguising the other issue. I remained unconvinced that I had
an alignment problem, I looked to other cures, and directed the brine discharge
of the water-maker into the ‘burp’ tube of the dripless shaft seal. This did cool the shaft somewhat, allowing us
to motor-sail the 70 miles to Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands. We kept
engine revs low but did manage to arrive before daylight ended, thanks to a
fairly steady breeze. The highlight of this leg of the trip was Susan’s cry
from the helm as she became aware of a tanker passing Panacea from behind. The
ship passed well to starboard (no thanks to us) as it came in from the
Atlantic. After that
little scare we made it a point to keep looking over our shoulder.
We dropped
anchor in Great Harbour Cay as the
daylight faded, tucked in against the land to shelter us from the wind
for the night. Up early the next morning, the weather window continued fair, with
winds of 15 to 20 knots from the south.
As the sun lifted above the horizon we were
already sailing ‘goose-winged’ and with several miles behind us on the next 70
mile leg. Today’s destination was Lucaya. I was on the foredeck adjusting boom
preventers when an island fishing skiff, piloted by a young man, motored alongside.
Catching my attention, he called out “Where is Little Whale Cay?”. After we
consulted our chartbook, we were able to show him that he needed to steer 15
miles to the south before turning west.
“Which way
is south?” was the next question.
“Keep the
sunrise on your left.” I responded, further asking “Don’t you have a compass?”
“Broken ...”
he replied “I am late for work at Little Whale Cay at the resort there. It’s my
first day. I got lost last night and slept in the boat.”
“You’re
lucky that you weren’t run over by one of those cruise ships during the
night...” I reflected, asking “...Where
did you start from?”
“Georgetown,
Great Exuma” was his reply. “and now I am nearly out of gas too.”
I looked at
his Yamaha 250 hp outboard and commented that the commute from Georgetown to
Little Whale Cay is a three-hundred dollar trip with that engine and asking how
often he planned to make that trip.
“Weekly,” he
said. “”Things were fine all of the way up the Exuma chain to New Providence. I
only got lost crossing to the Berry Islands.”
“Who
wouldn’t?” I asked, reflecting that from sea level with his reduced cruising
speed in open water, he would have been out of sight of any land for a few hours
between New Providence Island and Fraser’s Hog Cay. I listed a few of the
essentials that he was lacking “You need a chart, a compass, spare fuel. What
about a light of some kind so that you can signal in an emergency?”.
“Oh, I won’t
do this again. I learned my lesson last night drifting with the engine off
while the ships went by.” Was his earnest reply.
We gave him
our few gallons of outboard fuel and directions for Bullocks Harbour so that he
could buy more. Our Silva Ranger ‘plans’ compass was mysteriously missing from
the chart table – so he continued on without a compass. It was only when he was
powering away that I realized that I had
been nude (except for my safety harness) for the entire time.
We made the
crossing to Lucaya with fair winds and following seas, sailing wing-on-wing for
the entire seventy miles. We passed close-by a number of cargo vessels and
three cruise ships before approaching the windward shore of Grand Bahama
Island. We arrived well before sundown and checked-in at Ocean Reef Marina and
gave ourselves a self-congratulatory toast to all things that had gone right on
this day.
By 6:30 the
next morning I had re-measured the gap in the coupling bearing. A double-check when
we were doing the ‘bolt-up’ would have found the problem immediately. The
engine had crept to port on its bearers as we tightened to mounts back in
Hatchet Bay. Sue and I returned the engine back to where it belonged before we
made our morning coffee.
When we
stepped up into the cockpit to take in the dawn, we received a surprise.
Sometime after we arrived last night, so did Sorceress! She was at her
dock, across from the Marina. We were going to meet Liz and Rick
(and Gillie) – after all. During the few days that we spent in their company
our eyes were opened to what makes Freeport unique.
Sorceress is a 1960 John Alden designed
motorsailer, beautifully fitted out, that made the cover of Rudder Magazine
when she was launched. I told Rick about
the use of airbags to pressure fibreglass composite and to create a single
layup, multi-layer laminate as I had done on the bottom glass of the Billy
Joe B not so long ago. He was thinking about doing the bottom on Sorceress
so I offered to join the team if he wants to try pressure-glassing the bottom.
I still have a few of the 5’x10’ dunnage bags that I used when Billy
Joe B got her bottom glass.
We are hoping
to link up with Dorothy and Duncan of Hunda. We just learned that their
plans to make the Atlantic crossing and to return to the UK have been put on
hold for this year. Perhaps we will meet-up in Florida.
We were
surprised to learn that Ocean Reef Marina has no refueling facilities. The girl
in the office assured us that the only place where we could refuel would be in
the next channel system, four miles to the west of ours. We were uncertain
exactly how much fuel we had remaining, but we were guessing that we were
closer to empty than full, having logged 185 nautical miles so far on our
25 U S gallon supply of diesel
fuel. We decided to deal with this on our second day at Ocean Reef Marina.
As we left
the cut and turned to the inshore channel which travels behind a submerged
coral reef along the shore, Susan and I looked at each-other and spoke at the
same time. “We probably should have poured our 5 gallons of reserve fuel into
the main tank before leaving...just in case,” said I. Susan advised that she
had been about to say the same thing.
The words
were barely out of her mouth when the engine began to slow, and then stopped.
“Anchor
now...QUICKLY!” I called at her as she ran forward, bouncing over the top of
the inverted inflatable on the foredeck on her way to the windlass.
Moments
later we were anchored in pounding waves, in the center of a narrow channel
before a sandy beach. I went to survey the engine. The fuel pump was empty and
running dry.
It took no
amount of time to siphon the 5 gallons into the main tank. The engine started.
We raised our anchor and went 100 yards before it happened again. The channel
was even narrower here.
We were at
the point where getting the genoa up and sailing our way out of here was
looking like our best option. It would be tricky though. The reefs were on both
sides here and only a few hundred feet apart. The engine started and ran long
enough to let me power ahead while the anchor was raised. The engine died as we
got the sail unfurled and in moments we were rocketing back toward Ocean Reef
Channel.
And in
moments we were too far past the channel to be able to get in.
Grrrrrrr!
“Down anchor
please.” I called to Susan.
When we were
securely on the hook again, I decided to launch the inflatable and go looking
for a tow.
The simple
act of lowering the outboard and securing it to the transom of the tender was
made nearly (but not quite) impossible but boat motion in the rolling surf.
I got a
promise from Susan that she would ride inside the cabin (being thrown from the
cockpit would be more dangerous) if Panacea dragged anchor and beached.
With a wave, I zoomed away looking for a tow boat. First stop was Rick, who
was performing engine checks aboard Sorceress.
Without delay we were in ricks centre console Grew and powering out of the
channel. In mere moments I was back aboard Panacea, steering as Rick returned
us to our dock at Ocean Reef.
Rick later
told me that he had momentarily forgotten that the boat we used for the tow was
practically out of fuel too. And that alleged fuel dock in the next inlet. Rick
told me that it had not been in service for several years. We had left the
security of our dock on a fool’s errand.
In the
security of our quiet tie-up, troubleshooting the problem was simple. The fuel
petcock on top of the tank was original to the boat. When I installed the new
tank, I re-used it. While doing an engine visual check the day prior to our
most recent calamity, I had noticed that the valve was not completely open, so
I reached in and turned it open.
“I remember
thinking how the valve felt ‘loose’, as I did that.” I told Susan over morning
coffee – after sleeping on it.
Moments
later, I went below and confirmed that yes, the valve action was too free. The
original valve packing was probably some version of greasy string. In only a
few moments the tired old valve was out, and the fuel line reconnected without
it. The fuel pump could now pull fuel from the bottom of the tank without
sucking air into the fuel line from around the valve stem.
Lots of
excitement from the most mundane of causes. When I dropped by to tell Rick the
findings, he told me to come with him in the car. He showed me how Bahamians
get fuel for their boats. In a quick trip to the gas station we picked-up all
of the fuel that Panacea could carry, the whole lot being delivered and
siphoned aboard in about a half-hour.
Lucaya/Freeport has a lot to offer for anyone
wanting ato move south. It is like home in the sense that you absolutely need a
car to get around in. Property values have dropped and medium and high end
housing is going at bargain prices. Liz and Rick advised of a two bedroom condo
unit in a nearby building that had a $110,000 ask price, $2000 in annual fees,
and a boat slip at $200 per year. With air and a pool as part of the package,
this is a pretty sweet deal.
The high end
canal home across from their own was said to have had a radical price reduction
– then remaining still unsold. Last years price was in the $4 million
range as I recall it. This years ask
price was said to be between $1 and $2 million. The place has enough seawall to
tie-up several dozen Panaceas.
We are
determined to avoid shovelling snow. This could be a good idea.
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