I’ve neglected writing over the past month and although I’ve been busy with a whirl wind of preparations, the real reason was that I forgot that I had started this journal. I guess writing isn’t as high on my priority list as making sure the engine and sails are in working order…
Let me bring you up to speed from my last entry.
First off, the biggest worry was our newly acquired boat had a bad engine; The problem was “low oil pressure” and after much discussion with lots of people and knowledgeable mechanics, we discovered that our oil pressure was running around 10psi at idle and 15-18psi at full RPM. The manual stated that it should be minimum of 7psi at idle and 23psi at full RPM but the company’s website claimed the minimum should be “1.8 bar”… right, that’s 26psi. I had to look it up. We decided the manual was correct and discovered that the low oil pressure light began blinking at 18psi and became solid at 15psi. So all of this worry was for not! It turns out that for all of this hassle, we had never been in a critical situation… this improper warning light was warning us for no reason.
Having said that, the oil pressure was still below our target values and so I worked with the previous owner to rebuild the front have of the engine and add a new oil pressure pump. All went well, until we realized he hadn’t connected the fuel injector pump to the throttle… d’oh. We had to rip the engine out of the boat and I let the previous owner make a second attempt at it on his own time. Sure enough, it worked like a champ. Our diesel is now running with the proper oil pressure. …. but now the temperature sensor may be off and I haven’t confirmed that the oil pressure/temperature warning lights are working.
Moving right along… We pulled out our sail inventory and brought them to the loft for inspection. It turns out that instead of the advertised 100% jib, and 2 x 120% genoa’s, we ended up with a 100% jib (with hanks), 130% genoa (with hanks) and a 155% genoa (furler)! Well, no wonder the previous owner’s wife had problems in the Atlantic while using a 155% genoa!! Wow. I decided to have the 100% jib re-cut to add the proper luff tape for our furler and I wish I had done the same for the 130% genoa… but alas, one thing at a time. Our backup main sail turns out to be a somewhat mildewed mizzen sail from some random boat… I left it with the loft to see if they could sell it on consignment. The 155% genoa is in surprisingly good condition so it went back on the boat as-is.
I went over all of the systems;
Waste system has an empty tank, new hoses and a new-ish head. Once I primed the pump we were good to go. Literally.
The water system wasn’t so good… the tank was partially filled with glycol antifreeze and the inside of the tank was (and is) pretty fouled with dark spots (mildew?) and crusty/film (hard water deposits?). The access hatch does not permit me to wipe it down and I spent a long while crammed under the foredeck pumping out sediment, antifreeze and murky water. At this point, hose water and javex will have to do and we just won’t use that water for drinking.
Further to the above water problem, the kitchen Whale pump worked like a charm… only the seals had gone on the faucet. Upon further inspection, the previous owner had not replaced the seals with correct seals… he had hand-carved a cork! A new pump is $75-85 and the maintenance/rebuild kits are $30+/- for a few washers. That was way over the top for 3 rubber washers so I did some experimenting with $0.30 washers from the hardware store and we’re back in business. The faucet doesn’t leak, but now we notice the pump handle has a tiny leak. No matter, a little water in the boat won’t hurt us.
We scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. I did some big-brush scrubbing of the deck, Feng did a huge amount of little brush scrubbing on the deck and then she began scrubbing the boat lockers, v-berth and head. We’re making progress and she’s starting to feel comfortable.
We managed to test out the electronics; radios, GPS, autohelm and radar all appear to be in working order. We’ve got a dead light-bulb which I am not looking forward to replacing as it is up the mast about 20 feet or so. Needs to be done.
We began testing the inflatable dinghy, and she inflates and holds air well but the dinghy motor, which is spic&span like-new, did not want to run for more than about 30 seconds. I pulled it apart; Air flow is fine but the spark plug is fouled. I couldn’t remove the fuel line ‘filter’ (screen) so I brought it in to a mechanic to look at… I’m still waiting.
The cockpit cushions were in a sorry, sad state and needed to be replaced. New ones are now being made nd should be finished today or tomorrow.
I took inventory of our anchors and found the chain to be woefully thin. I must go buy longer, heavier chain today.
New binoculars arrive in the mail by end of day tomorrow. And a whole list of new items have already been purchased; $85 for winch handles was a good deal from their original price of $145, a new rigging knife for Feng, jerry cans, tools, toolbox and the list goes on and on… at least 3 pages in my notebook. I should be complete with the purchasing today or tomorrow!
We’re now in our final stage of planning. Feng is working on provisioning, I’m working on route planning and we’re beginning to watch the weather forecasts as they unfold. So far, we’re on a tight schedule but think we can keep to our planned Saturday departure.