Author Archives: Melissa

The Zen of the Engine Room

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Ahh, another successful getaway weekend to Astoria. We’re beginning to develop little habits that make us feel right at home there. We drive down on Saturday morning and work the rest of the day on Andromeda. On Sunday we walk down to the Three Cups coffee shop for a little Thundermuck coffee, some Wifi, and the local newspaper. They are getting used to seeing us there. While the baristas don’t exactly know our names yet, they refer to us as the couple who ‘bought John’s boat’ and say ‘see you next weekend’ when we leave. Soon they will have our order ready when we arrive. We’ll be ‘regulars’. I’ve always wanted to be a regular somewhere. After coffee we might do a little sight seeing before returning to the boat to work a few more hours, then driving home.

Next time there will be coffee on the boat. And I also bought this nifty bamboo cutting board to replace the one that was totaled by years of use. It stores several of these great flexible cutting surfaces. Starting to feel like home away from home!

Today we saw sights that made us feel right at home: Home Depot and Costco. At Home Depot Mike purchased new outlets and wiring, primer for the aluminum oil pan, and tiny paint rollers and pans for the day we actually get to paint that engine room. At Costco we purchased a new coffee maker for the boat because it looks like we’ll want one of these for all the time we are spending at the dock. We can’t spend all our time at Three Cups or we won’t get anything done, although after my first day doing the cleaning in the engine room that idea was starting to sound pretty good.

Yes, that’s right. Mike and I thought we’d mix it up a bit this weekend and divide the pink/blue jobs differently. I got to work in the engine room. Ok, so it’s true I was cleaning. Don’t burst my bubble. I got to touch the room! I got to BE in the room! All. Day. Long. And I didn’t fall into the bilge even once. (Because, hello! That would be completely disgusting!)

Ah, the meditation that is deep cleaning. I could probably use at least a week in this little space, such is the amount of sheer filth. As seen in the photo, all hoses run to this bilge.

After trying a number of cleaners, Krud Cutter saved the day and did the best job. Good thing I have a gallon of the stuff. One day in the engine room completely ruined all the scrub brushes I bought, and I will need to go to the restaurant supply to buy the ‘fun pack’ of green scrubbies for next time. On my wish list is a cleaner that I can spray on the deep walls of the bilge where I can’t reach. It would dissolve the grease and I could rinse it off and remove it with the shop vac. Know anything like that? Or how about some of that bacteria they use to help control oil spills. Can’t consumers buy some of that somewhere?

Still, I made a ton of progress and can sort of see the end of the project of cleaning, sanding, and painting. Today Mike couldn’t stand watching me in the engine room for one more minute, so he took off for Englund’s Marine Supply, right down the street, and bought a gallon of Bilgecoat. I think that should do it.

We got to check off two systems on the list this weekend, making us feel like we are slowly becoming knowledgeable about this boat. The propane system is up and running so we fired up the Force 10 and boiled our first pot of water. Luxury! We’re going to love this stove. It needs some maintenance: Only one of the automatic lighters works, and one of the knobs broke when Mike tried to turn it, but we think these are easy fixes and overall it’s in great condition and very clean inside and out.

Even better than home!

While Mike fiddled with the on switch for the propane, he discovered what turned out to be a great vent fan for the galley, just to the left of the stove. That thing could suck up a dishtowel, as Mike demonstrated by holding a dishtowel up to the thing. Apart from the occasional lost finger, due to the spinning metal thingy inside, this is going to be dead useful. We also have a hatch over the stove, which I think is a grand idea to keep heat and steam from staying on the boat.

This silver knob was one of many things we are still curious about on the boat. Pull it out and the vent fan turns on. Cool!

As we had a bit of a storm on Saturday night (read: wind literally howling, boat trying its best to sail away from the dock), the boat was getting cold so Mike checked out the diesel furnace. It works brilliantly! The boat was toasty warm. It’s like having a little fireplace on the boat, only better because I don’t get along with wood smoke. We are so glad this stove works perfectly. I know our readers in more southern climes can’t relate, but believe me when I say that this kind of heat makes the difference between a cozy boat and bone chilling cold and wet.

Pretty and functional, too.

Here’s what engine room progress looks like:

Not too bad considering the amount of grime I am up against.

And, for easy comparison:

I have to put this in here so I’ll know it’s worth all this effort. This bilge is seriously greasy. Seriously.

It’s hard to work around all the systems still in place, and next time Mike will get in there and remove more hoses. We want to be careful about removing things at this stage, as we still are learning what does what and why. The good news is that I determined that most of the engine room insulation is actually in pretty good condition, even if unsightly. The stuff that was disintegrating was a layer of foam insulation that had been added most recently, and only here and there. It literally turned to powder when I touched it so I was able to use the shop vac to remove it.  Mike is researching what else to put in, and we’ll likely find a product that is lightweight and flexible to go over the older stuff, just to make everything look brighter.

Since my forays into the man cave will take a few more trips, Mike is free to do things like work on a long range Wifi antennae for the boat. Once that is hooked up and working, three and four day weekends can’t be too far off. Then you’ll really see some progress!

A parting shot.

 

Perseverating

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Pop quiz: What do you get when you combine pressure, fire, air and perseverance? You get this:

My husband, winning the game.

That’s right, peeps. After Mike and the transmission had a final ‘come to Jesus’ that included generous amounts of Kroil penetrating oil, a flaming torch in the darkness, and an air wrench, the disobedient hunk of metal decided it was the better part of wisdom to give way. And out she came. (More on this feat of accomplishment later.)

It would have been easy to say that the aforementioned tools saved the day, but I suspect that it was, instead, our daughter, Claire. There must have been some kind of special magic at work as Claire lay on the sole of the boat, holding the light for her dad, handing him tools, and giving him the kind of ‘can do’ moral support only a daughter can give: a daughter who simply cannot see her dad as anything other than a super human. So it HAD to happen, you see. The tranny had no choice but to give way.

Can my daddy beat a group of nasty, rusty nuts into submission? Of course he can!

While Mike and Claire tackled the reluctant bolts, I was busy with a little job Mike suggested for me: removing the insulation from the engine room doors. I would remove the doors and take them to the dock where I would have room to work on them.

It might look fairly good, but take note of that little pile of black powder on the sole.

I suspect he must have known that this would be a much bigger job than I thought it would be. In fact, I suspect this job was intended to keep me out of the way so that I would not see him doing this:

The soft blue glow of a torch heating things up. And fortunately, not burning things up.

That’s right, while Mike used a torch inside an engine room full of flammable things like Kroil penetrating oil and transmission fluid, I was busy doing this:

Very nasty stuff, I can tell you. A couple of hours of scraping and pulling, and 4 ibuprofen, later, I had this door pretty clean and ready to receive something much better than what was there to begin with.

Little did I suspect that inside the boat, Mike and Claire were throwing everything they had at the shaft coupling: Chisels, fire, more air wrenching, more Kroil… You could cut the tension with a sawzall. It was best that I was not sharing the boat with them. I was almost finished with the door in the above photo when I heard shouting. Thinking Mike had hurt himself badly, I jumped onto the boat only to realize they were shouts of celebration as the thing finally gave way to Mike’s persistent will.

The offending piece, subdued at last.

The next thing I knew, Mike had the thing wrapped in plastic and sitting on the bench in the cockpit, with Claire complaining loudly that he was allowing her to do only ‘lady’ activities like handling lights. She is my daughter, for sure. She insisted she would help him wrestle the thing down onto the dock. And so it came to pass.

Like father, like daughter. I believe Claire may have a profession in air tools somehow. Oh, and the shirt? It says ‘Scholar’.

It was quite a relief for Mike to have won this skirmish in the engine room, a battle he will recount in glorious detail later this week. Now he can get in there to clean the oil pan and the bilge area.

And I am going to need to address this hideous stuff that is lining the walls in the room. I am tempted to go down to Astoria myself and spend three days on the boat just taking this stuff out but I’m not yet sure which tack to take. The offending insulation is very heavy, and appears to have a sheet of lead running down the middle. I suspect it is very expensive and was once ‘state of the art’ stuff. The entire foam/lead/foam sandwich is glued on, making the removal pretty difficult, as my hands and elbows can attest. I invested in a new razor scraper, a huge package of blades, and a box of particulate masks for my next foray should I need to remove more panels.

To add insult to injury, the stuff is disintegrating. That’s what the black powder is on the floor underneath the door. Taking it out is a big job and replacing it will be $$$$. I wonder if it isn’t possible to vacuum up the loose stuff and remove anything that is actually crumbling, and then stabilize the rest of the stuff with a magic potion that will somehow strengthen it?  Some long-ago boat owner used silicone everywhere on the boat, including trying to keep this stuff from crumbling by gobbing the stuff on. In some places it’s just a mess. Plus, it’s ugly. We’re going to have a new Beta Marine engine in this space. Seems like we should get rid of this stuff now, but if I could stabilize it and then cover it up with a reflective surface, I’d rather do that. Some of it looks to be in good condition, just unattractive.  Do comment with your thoughts about this stuff and your recommendations for what to replace it with.

See that grayish stuff behind the bungees? It’s gobbed silicone. Needless to say, it’s worthless.

See the black stuff? That’s powder sifting down from the insulation.

True to the experience of boat owners everywhere, our one trip to Astoria this weekend managed to provide several additional items to our project list. The hatch in the salon has a small leak and, upon inspection, I decided it just needs to be completely rebedded and new seals installed. Multiply that by 4, the number of hatches we have. In addition, I discovered that the shelf unit in the little quarter berth cabin is too wide and may have been installed backwards. It gets in the way of the sleeper and will have to be trimmed down, or maybe turned around. Finally, my propane project is not quite finished. I will need an additional connector to make that both safe and easy to take apart when necessary. Between the limited availability of parts in Astoria and the three hour drive, that propane project has turned into a multi-week task. But I will prevail.

Still, it was a very successful weekend in many ways. Claire spent her first night on the boat with us. Mike won his competition with the transmission. The engine room doors weigh one half what they did, and are ready for new insulation. And we brought home a two pound bag of Thundermuck coffee. That alone is worth the trip.

Claire, practicing her ‘couch surfing’ aboard Andromeda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boat Work in Exotic Locations

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They say that the cruising lifestyle is really just learning to do boat work in exotic locations. If this is, in fact, true, then we are well ahead of the curve. We aren’t even out cruising yet and already we are learning to modify our expectations of getting things done, especially when it comes to finding services.  How’s that? Well, we’re moored in Astoria, exotic land of the self-sufficient fisher-people. And this effects us how? Apparently they never need help, unless it’s from the Coast Guard.

The Coasties like to use photos like this to represent the Columbia River bar. This photo for dramatic representation only. Do not try this at home. Or with our boat, thanks.

The issue is this: we need to be towed to the Port of Astoria boatyard. Our boat has no engine, so we can’t get there under our own power. So naturally, being naive and trusting, I called the Port of Astoria to find out about who does these things. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi there! We need to have our sailboat towed to your facility so we can put in a new engine. Who do you know that does that kind of thing?

POA: Well, um, I don’t know. There isn’t anyone around here. I mean there’s really not anyone in Astoria who does towing . Also our travel lift is broken and we don’t know how long it will take to get fixed. Maybe about 3 weeks. We’re having trouble finding parts.

Me (Incredulous): It’s broken? Well, good thing we don’t need it just now. Hopefully it will be fixed in three weeks. The engine is ordered but it will take awhile to get here. Why is it that there are no towing services around? I’m just curious.  I mean, there are all kinds of boats around here all the time! Don’t they ever need assistance?

POA: Well, you know, they are fishermen. They pretty much take care of themselves and if they really have an emergency they call the Coast Guard. I think there’s a guy over in Ilwaco who has a service. I think his name is Capt. Bill. You could call him and find out but I don’t have his contact information on me just now.

Me: Okay, well thanks, I’ll call Port of Ilwaco and see if I an find this Captain Bill. So you think maybe that travel lift will get fixed soon?

POA: We sure hope so, but I don’t know.

Wow. Okay, time to regroup and think about what would happen if we were in Mexico, or maybe the South Pacific and needed to have our boat towed. I mean, we have some experience pushing Moonrise with our dinghy, but I don’t really want to start doing that with a boat I don’t know yet. Plus, I’m pretty sure our little Honda two stroke isn’t going to take this boat anywhere. Not only do we have no engine, we have no steering because that was removed to get the engine out. (Wait, we DO have the emergency tiller, so there is that…) So I called Boat US, our insurance and towing service company. Their website makes it sound like they can assist you just about anywhere!

Except in Astoria. There is no one in Astoria. But they do have Coastal Towing in Ilwaco on their list. Ilwaco, for people who are not from this area, is across the river on the Washington side. Turns out Coastal Towing is run by the same Captain Bill that the Port of Astoria knew about. So I emailed him to get a bid. Seems crazy to get someone from all the way over in Ilwaco to come across to tow us literally about 1/2 mile. But whatever… we have to start somewhere. If Captain Bill comes in at hundreds of dollars, that dingy tow will start to look better and better. Hey, at least we have time on our side! And by the way, the mechanic didn’t know anyone either. He referred us to the port office and to a ‘shack’ down by the boat yard where there is a bulletin board. river chart

Here’s a link to the Google Earth image of this area. See the letter A? Our boat is just to the right of that, third boat down, next to an empty slip. We need to tow it to Pier 3. We’re on Pier 1. So close and yet so far away. Perhaps we could harness some friendly sea lions? They are huge down here.

I guess the good news is that if the travel lift is broken for awhile, that gives us more time to work on the engine room. The engine will be delivered to the Port of Astoria, and we can’t leave it there, but we can have it loaded onto our little truck and bring it home if we have to. See? We’re learning to be flexible already! Your suggestions are welcome.