This is getting old...
Neal will chortle and others will shake their heads...
This isn't a log, just a snippet. I haven't written a log in months, out of disgust and frustration, not to mention lack of motivation. This is a reply to friends in Georgetown, who say the bunch there misses us: I just can't tell you how distressing this past 15 months has been. Every time we move the boat, some gamestopper breaks. On the way to our mechanic in Stuart (ICW, yuck, run from Vero), our 4-154 FWater pump gave up the ghost, leaking coolant until it got down to that level, which resulted in overheating. Limped in, docked, plugged in, mechanic did his work and broke a line getting it off; workaround achieved, and 8 days later, we're back in business. In addition, while we were stuck, I found 3 sources of NEW-from-Perkins, in stock, no-problem water pumps, where the word on the street had been that they were unobtainium. All set for when we get back to Vero. Not so fast, bucko. Our 4 L16HC batterie$ gave up the gho$t at the dock, and will no longer hold a charge overnight. PS our new $ea Fro$t refrigeration is struggling, too, maybe batteries, maybe the water pump with gunge from our grounding. Cleaned out the filter, backwashed the line, bled the pump, restart. Batteries, I sincerely hope, because I don't think I can deal with refrigeration again so soon (total replacement after 4 months of troubleshooting, etc. and 10 weeks of fiddling to get this one installed and set up right, including 2 replacement temp probes, starting over on the evaporator plates, and a replacement constant pressure valve - the only significant component not replaced was the compressor, from NEW). We sailed on staysail alone (did I mention that the furler line failed on the last trip; new line is waiting for us ashore today) to Ft. Pierce where we went aground in the channel under Causeway Island. Lots of shifting sand in there, apparently. No problem, we were going to get a tow to Vero, anyway; let's just do it now. TBUS arrives, we're immediately under way (very soft grounding), and 30 minutes into it comes the NOAA 40kt/tornado interruption on the VHF. Around we turn, and back to the anchorage, scheduling for the next day. Which went well, until we got to our mooring where we'd left the dinghy to assure it was available, on the advice of staff, $till paying for it, and found someone else tied to the mooring with our dink streaming next to it. No biggie but we had to go forward, secure to an open mooring there, get a ride to the boat behind us, remove our mooring line from their boat and the mooring and install theirs, remove our dinghy and returned home. Whether we can browbeat the staff into abating the rent for that time remains to be seen; that was a preferable float and a preferable location, so to require us to pay for the space when we couldn't have it would only add insult to injury to our gymnastics required. And that was just yesterday; the entire 15 months has been like that. See you as soon as we can, but likely not until next season... This, too will pass, but it's very tire$ome. L8R Skip -- Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land. - Dr. Samuel Johnson |
This is getting old...
On 3/31/2014 6:34 AM, Flying Pig wrote:
This, too will pass, but it's very tire$ome. No, it's worse than that. It pulls all the joy out of the experience because it morphs a sail or cruise into a Sisyphean Labor. I never had nearly the issues you guys have had but had one near experience. My BG autopilot died within an hour of leaving Narraganset. I returned to get it fixed. It died again maybe 200 miles south while far out at sea. When I put in, I tried to get it fixed but no fixes seemed to 'take'. I ended up replacing the entire unit which failed again within hours. At that point I gave up on it and decided to make do w/o an autopilot which was annoying for me, a singlehander, but putting the issue behind me allowed me to enjoy the time at sea w/o fretting over broken boat parts. After 1.5 years sailing, I sold the boat and now, if I ever return to the seas, it will be on a bare bones boat lacking most of the systems which even can break. After all, things like rigging maintenance is enough w/o adding another 3 layers of complexity. I don't think I even want pressure water. -paul |
This is getting old...
On Mon, 31 Mar 2014 08:34:06 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote: Neal will chortle and others will shake their heads... Indeed! Skippy, you manage to lend veracity to all my dire predictions about you. This isn't a log, just a snippet. I haven't written a log in months, out of disgust and frustration, not to mention lack of motivation. This is a reply to friends in Georgetown, who say the bunch there misses us: You? Miss you? Ha ha! I doubt it. Nobody wants to see a hairy old man playing volleyball. The probably miss seeing your hawt wife in her bikini! ;-) I just can't tell you how distressing this past 15 months has been. Yes, life ashore is a real pain in the butt. It's like living in a madhouse. Every time we move the boat, some gamestopper breaks. That's your own fault. You just won't listen to me when I tell you that you have too many systems that make you a slave to them. On the way to our mechanic in Stuart (ICW, yuck, run from Vero), our 4-154 FWater pump gave up the ghost, leaking coolant until it got down to that level, which resulted in overheating. You should always carry a spare. Limped in, docked, plugged in, mechanic did his work and broke a line getting it off; workaround achieved, and 8 days later, we're back in business. In addition, while we were stuck, I found 3 sources of NEW-from-Perkins, in stock, no-problem water pumps, where the word on the street had been that they were unobtainium. All set for when we get back to Vero. Not so fast, bucko. Our 4 L16HC batterie$ gave up the gho$t at the dock, and will no longer hold a charge overnight. Batteries are like that. Replace them every three years and replace them as a group. Don't buy anything but old-fashioned, flooded, deep- cycle 12V marine batteries. Case size 24 or 27. Nothing larger. Derive your amperage capacity from getting as many as you require. In your case, probably about 12 case size 24 or 10 case size 27. PS our new $ea Fro$t refrigeration is struggling, too, maybe batteries, maybe the water pump with gunge from our grounding. I TOLD you not to get Sea Frost brand as it's a POS. Throw it all overboard and get an Adler Barbour air cooled unit. In your case you probably need two of them. It's a simple system and quite efficient. Mine's been working like a champ now for over two years since I fixed a hole in the tubing going into the evaporator with electrical tape. Cleaned out the filter, backwashed the line, bled the pump, restart. Batteries, I sincerely hope, because I don't think I can deal with refrigeration again so soon (total replacement after 4 months of troubleshooting, etc. and 10 weeks of fiddling to get this one installed and set up right, including 2 replacement temp probes, starting over on the evaporator plates, and a replacement constant pressure valve - the only significant component not replaced was the compressor, from NEW). Throw it all overboard. You'll be shocked at how good it makes you feel. Go with a couple brand new air-cooled Adler Barbours. We sailed on staysail alone (did I mention that the furler line failed on the last trip; new line is waiting for us ashore today) to Ft. Pierce where we went aground in the channel under Causeway Island. Lots of shifting sand in there, apparently. Haven't I told you many times to lose the wind-up sails. They are an accident waiting to happen just because they are more complicated. Isn't it bad enough that they are unreliable compared to hank-ons but worse yet, they are also less efficient/ No problem, we were going to get a tow to Vero, anyway; let's just do it now. TBUS arrives, we're immediately under way (very soft grounding), and 30 minutes into it comes the NOAA 40kt/tornado interruption on the VHF. Around we turn, and back to the anchorage, scheduling for the next day. Which went well, until we got to our mooring where we'd left the dinghy to assure it was available, on the advice of staff, $till paying for it, and found someone else tied to the mooring with our dink streaming next to it. So many stupid and rude, so-called sailors these days. I'd have simply cut them loose. No biggie but we had to go forward, secure to an open mooring there, get a ride to the boat behind us, remove our mooring line from their boat and the mooring and install theirs, remove our dinghy and returned home. Whether we can browbeat the staff into abating the rent for that time remains to be seen; that was a preferable float and a preferable location, so to require us to pay for the space when we couldn't have it would only add insult to injury to our gymnastics required. Next time just set them free since they were tied up using your lines. They were trespassing and deserve no consideration. And that was just yesterday; the entire 15 months has been like that. You're too passive, Skippy. People will **** all over you until you grow some gonads. You've got to take charge of your life. You've got to simplify. You are frustrated because you went sailing for the simple life but somehow you managed to never divest yourself of the complications. Instead, you managed to bring them all aboard. -- Sir Gregory |
This is getting old...
On Mon, 31 Mar 2014 07:28:15 -0600, slide wrote:
On 3/31/2014 6:34 AM, Flying Pig wrote: This, too will pass, but it's very tire$ome. No, it's worse than that. It pulls all the joy out of the experience because it morphs a sail or cruise into a Sisyphean Labor. I never had nearly the issues you guys have had but had one near experience. My BG autopilot died within an hour of leaving Narraganset. I returned to get it fixed. It died again maybe 200 miles south while far out at sea. When I put in, I tried to get it fixed but no fixes seemed to 'take'. I ended up replacing the entire unit which failed again within hours. At that point I gave up on it and decided to make do w/o an autopilot which was annoying for me, a singlehander, but putting the issue behind me allowed me to enjoy the time at sea w/o fretting over broken boat parts. After 1.5 years sailing, I sold the boat and now, if I ever return to the seas, it will be on a bare bones boat lacking most of the systems which even can break. After all, things like rigging maintenance is enough w/o adding another 3 layers of complexity. I don't think I even want pressure water. Excellent advice, Skippy. Listen to the man. He's got it figured out. An old-fashioned, mechanical wind-actuated, steering vane is more reliable than modern electric autopilots. But, if you are using electric autopilots ship no fewer than two replace- ments, preferably three. |
This is getting old...
On Mon, 31 Mar 2014 12:42:37 -0400, "Sir Gregory Hall, Esq."
wrote: Our 4 L16HC batterie$ gave up the gho$t at the dock, and will no longer hold a charge overnight. Batteries are like that. Replace them every three years and replace them as a group. Don't buy anything but old-fashioned, flooded, deep- cycle 12V marine batteries. Case size 24 or 27. Nothing larger. Derive your amperage capacity from getting as many as you require. In your case, probably about 12 case size 24 or 10 case size 27. === Not good advice in my experience. We're having really good service out of a set of Trojan T-145 heavy duty golf cart batteries. They cost more of course but are much better than the standard Trojans and infinitely better than the Sam's Club variety. We are now at year 5 and they are still going strong. ==== PS our new $ea Fro$t refrigeration is struggling, too, maybe batteries, maybe the water pump with gunge from our grounding. === I TOLD you not to get Sea Frost brand as it's a POS. Throw it all overboard and get an Adler Barbour air cooled unit. In your case you probably need two of them. It's a simple system and quite efficient. Mine's been working like a champ now for over two years since I fixed a hole in the tubing going into the evaporator with electrical tape. === I agree with that. We have two independent A-Bs which I installed myself. I carry everything I need to service them including gage set, vacuum pump, leak checker and extra R-134a. One of the units has never needed service. The second one had a hairline crack at the quick disconnect fitting which was probably my fault. Once discovered, I re-soldered it, and has been trouble free since. We also have an Engel chest type fridge/freezer depending on settings. It runs on either 110AC or 12 volt DC whith automatic fail over. It's a great unit which will keep Hagen Daz ice cream frozen at sub zero. ==== Throw it all overboard. You'll be shocked at how good it makes you feel. Go with a couple brand new air-cooled Adler Barbours. === Skip, check your GMAIL. |
This is getting old...
On Mon, 31 Mar 2014 15:13:56 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote: On Mon, 31 Mar 2014 12:42:37 -0400, "Sir Gregory Hall, Esq." wrote: Our 4 L16HC batterie$ gave up the gho$t at the dock, and will no longer hold a charge overnight. Batteries are like that. Replace them every three years and replace them as a group. Don't buy anything but old-fashioned, flooded, deep- cycle 12V marine batteries. Case size 24 or 27. Nothing larger. Derive your amperage capacity from getting as many as you require. In your case, probably about 12 case size 24 or 10 case size 27 === Not good advice in my experience. We're having really good service out of a set of Trojan T-145 heavy duty golf cart batteries. They cost more of course but are much better than the standard Trojans and infinitely better than the Sam's Club variety. We are now at year 5 and they are still going strong. Six-volt Trojans are good batteries and they do tend to last a year or two than your garden variety 12V deep cycle battery but they aren't cheap compared to the same amount of 12 V amperage. If you've gotten five years out of them, count your blessings and recycle them into a new set BEFORE they start going on the fritz. ==== PS our new $ea Fro$t refrigeration is struggling, too, maybe batteries, maybe the water pump with gunge from our grounding. === I TOLD you not to get Sea Frost brand as it's a POS. Throw it all overboard and get an Adler Barbour air cooled unit. In your case you probably need two of them. It's a simple system and quite efficient. Mine's been working like a champ now for over two years since I fixed a hole in the tubing going into the evaporator with electrical tape. === I agree with that. We have two independent A-Bs which I installed myself. I carry everything I need to service them including gage set, vacuum pump, leak checker and extra R-134a. One of the units has never needed service. The second one had a hairline crack at the quick disconnect fitting which was probably my fault. Once discovered, I re-soldered it, and has been trouble free since. We also have an Engel chest type fridge/freezer depending on settings. It runs on either 110AC or 12 volt DC whith automatic fail over. It's a great unit which will keep Hagen Daz ice cream frozen at sub zero. Good for you - you're prepared. Here's something to remember. If one or the other units starts to act up as in constantly cycling off and on, and running fast as if the fan and not the compresser is working and the voltage indicates little or no draw and the evaporator barely gets cold, then check the gas pressure and if it's right then the chances are great that one or more of the spade connectors on the computerized connection block are making a poor connection. Poor connections can even result it it not starting at all or starting and running for a short while and then stopping for hours. You might even feel a lot of heat on one or more of the spade connectors which will be due to high resistance ane/or arching. Make a color-doded connection chart and then remove all the connections. Clean both the male and female side with contact cleaner (acetone). Crimp the female side a little tighter and, using some dielectric lube slide them back together. They will need to feel very tight. This procedure will probably be the cure. It cured all my oddball problems which I had assumed to be due to too much or too little R134a. Turns out that, when running, 7-10 psi on the suction side works great. At 10 psi the copper tubing commences to feel a little cold about two feet from the compressor just about where it goes into the insulated sleeve and the amperage draw goes up half an amp or so but the box cools faster and more so it's worth it. I'm convinced that if one has refrigeration one must be able to caretake it in house. But, all told, the cold beers on a hot day without having to get ice makes it well worth it. |
This is getting old...
On Mon, 31 Mar 2014 12:52:25 -0400, "Sir Gregory Hall, Esq."
wrote: On Mon, 31 Mar 2014 07:28:15 -0600, slide wrote: On 3/31/2014 6:34 AM, Flying Pig wrote: This, too will pass, but it's very tire$ome. No, it's worse than that. It pulls all the joy out of the experience because it morphs a sail or cruise into a Sisyphean Labor. I never had nearly the issues you guys have had but had one near experience. My BG autopilot died within an hour of leaving Narraganset. I returned to get it fixed. It died again maybe 200 miles south while far out at sea. When I put in, I tried to get it fixed but no fixes seemed to 'take'. I ended up replacing the entire unit which failed again within hours. At that point I gave up on it and decided to make do w/o an autopilot which was annoying for me, a singlehander, but putting the issue behind me allowed me to enjoy the time at sea w/o fretting over broken boat parts. After 1.5 years sailing, I sold the boat and now, if I ever return to the seas, it will be on a bare bones boat lacking most of the systems which even can break. After all, things like rigging maintenance is enough w/o adding another 3 layers of complexity. I don't think I even want pressure water. Excellent advice, Skippy. Listen to the man. He's got it figured out. An old-fashioned, mechanical wind-actuated, steering vane is more reliable than modern electric autopilots. But, if you are using electric autopilots ship no fewer than two replace- ments, preferably three. An even better suggestion is to do as some do. Simply anchor the boat and never go anywhere. Eliminate all the minor giggles like running aground, furling lines breaking, etc. The only thing he would have to worry about would be the ezy-boy recliner breaking. -- Cheers, Bruce in Bangkok |
This is getting old...
On Tue, 01 Apr 2014 06:57:35 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote: On Mon, 31 Mar 2014 12:52:25 -0400, "Sir Gregory Hall, Esq." wrote: On Mon, 31 Mar 2014 07:28:15 -0600, slide wrote: On 3/31/2014 6:34 AM, Flying Pig wrote: This, too will pass, but it's very tire$ome. No, it's worse than that. It pulls all the joy out of the experience because it morphs a sail or cruise into a Sisyphean Labor. I never had nearly the issues you guys have had but had one near experience. My BG autopilot died within an hour of leaving Narraganset. I returned to get it fixed. It died again maybe 200 miles south while far out at sea. When I put in, I tried to get it fixed but no fixes seemed to 'take'. I ended up replacing the entire unit which failed again within hours. At that point I gave up on it and decided to make do w/o an autopilot which was annoying for me, a singlehander, but putting the issue behind me allowed me to enjoy the time at sea w/o fretting over broken boat parts. After 1.5 years sailing, I sold the boat and now, if I ever return to the seas, it will be on a bare bones boat lacking most of the systems which even can break. After all, things like rigging maintenance is enough w/o adding another 3 layers of complexity. I don't think I even want pressure water. Excellent advice, Skippy. Listen to the man. He's got it figured out. An old-fashioned, mechanical wind-actuated, steering vane is more reliable than modern electric autopilots. But, if you are using electric autopilots ship no fewer than two replace- ments, preferably three. An even better suggestion is to do as some do. Simply anchor the boat and never go anywhere. Eliminate all the minor giggles like running aground, furling lines breaking, etc. The only thing he would have to worry about would be the ezy-boy recliner breaking. Says, Bruce at the Bangkok dock (for twenty years) - the voice of experience. I've sailed many a mile already this year. No fuss and no muss. Nothing but enjoying the perfection that is my fine yacht and my finely-honed sailing skills to match. Few things are more enjoyable than short, coastal sailing trips and anchoring out for a night or two in the wilderness. -- Sir Gregory |
This is getting old...
On Monday, March 31, 2014 5:34:06 AM UTC-7, Flying Pig wrote:
Neal will chortle and others will shake their heads... This isn't a log, just a snippet. I haven't written a log in months, out of disgust and frustration, not to mention lack of motivation. This is a reply to friends in Georgetown, who say the bunch there misses us: I just can't tell you how distressing this past 15 months has been. Every time we move the boat, some gamestopper breaks. On the way to our mechanic in Stuart (ICW, yuck, run from Vero), our 4-154 FWater pump gave up the ghost, leaking coolant until it got down to that level, which resulted in overheating. Limped in, docked, plugged in, mechanic did his work and broke a line getting it off; workaround achieved, and 8 days later, we're back in business. In addition, while we were stuck, I found 3 sources of NEW-from-Perkins, in stock, no-problem water pumps, where the word on the street had been that they were unobtainium. All set for when we get back to Vero. Not so fast, bucko. Our 4 L16HC batterie$ gave up the gho$t at the dock, and will no longer hold a charge overnight. PS our new $ea Fro$t refrigeration is struggling, too, maybe batteries, maybe the water pump with gunge from our grounding. Cleaned out the filter, backwashed the line, bled the pump, restart. Batteries, I sincerely hope, because I don't think I can deal with refrigeration again so soon (total replacement after 4 months of troubleshooting, etc. and 10 weeks of fiddling to get this one installed and set up right, including 2 replacement temp probes, starting over on the evaporator plates, and a replacement constant pressure valve - the only significant component not replaced was the compressor, from NEW). We sailed on staysail alone (did I mention that the furler line failed on the last trip; new line is waiting for us ashore today) to Ft. Pierce where we went aground in the channel under Causeway Island. Lots of shifting sand in there, apparently. No problem, we were going to get a tow to Vero, anyway; let's just do it now. TBUS arrives, we're immediately under way (very soft grounding), and 30 minutes into it comes the NOAA 40kt/tornado interruption on the VHF. Around we turn, and back to the anchorage, scheduling for the next day. Which went well, until we got to our mooring where we'd left the dinghy to assure it was available, on the advice of staff, $till paying for it, and found someone else tied to the mooring with our dink streaming next to it. No biggie but we had to go forward, secure to an open mooring there, get a ride to the boat behind us, remove our mooring line from their boat and the mooring and install theirs, remove our dinghy and returned home. Whether we can browbeat the staff into abating the rent for that time remains to be seen; that was a preferable float and a preferable location, so to require us to pay for the space when we couldn't have it would only add insult to injury to our gymnastics required. And that was just yesterday; the entire 15 months has been like that. See you as soon as we can, but likely not until next season... This, too will pass, but it's very tire$ome. L8R Skip -- Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land. - Dr. Samuel Johnson All in a days work. Sorry to year of your problem. it seems they have a way of ganging up on you especially when you least expect them to. Concerning 'unobtanium' parts. I tell people, "well, somebody's got them" But it still comes down to 'seek and ye shall find' There's no magic wand to wave and have them instantly materialize. Yes tiresome, but probably worth it in the long run... |
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