Got a call from Skip on my cell asking for a boatyard in Charleston.

Steering problems this time. The wheel turns...the rudder
doesn't....hydraulics.

They're at Ross Marine on the ICW south of Charleston, tonight. No reports
yet on what the yard has found as they got their late after a long tow in
the harbor and down the ICW.

I've never met a man so patient with anything. His fuse is WAY longer than
mine! I'd have jumped overboard by now.

Ross'll fix it. They fix our boat just fine. Then, they'll put back to
sea, again. Just thought you'd like to know.....

I'll go see them on Saturday if they're still in the yard. I have two sick
church organs needing my expert attention tomorrow. When he called, today,
I was eating lunch in a little diner in Greeleyville, SC, with a couple of
local farmers struggling to make a living after handing their profits over
to the oil barons to run the tractors. Lots of farms are just sitting
unused now. Poor little town is all but closed down, people moving away
looking for work like in the 30's. Rosey economy isn't reality in the
countryside at these fuel prices.

Larry
--
Drove the V-8 diesel stepvan up on waste fryer oil for free. THAT got
their attention when I mentioned it...(c;
I ran it hard trying to get rid of some of our surplus oil from the
warehouse. Didn't make much of a dent in our 1800 gallon supply...(c;

Larry wrote in
:

Got a call from Skip on my cell asking for a boatyard in Charleston.

Steering problems this time. The wheel turns...the rudder
doesn't....hydraulics.

They're at Ross Marine on the ICW south of Charleston, tonight. No
reports yet on what the yard has found as they got their late after a
long tow in the harbor and down the ICW.
[clip]

Larry

Where were they when it failed?

--
-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org

Geoff Schultz wrote in
:

Where were they when it failed?



Just off Charleston.

Two errors found. It's fixed.

Skip left the bike pump on the manual system and the pressure bled off
through the bike pump. The other problem was the autopilot hydraulic pump
motor was loose from the cylinder, allowing the magic lotion hydraulics
runs on to escape. All hydraulics runs on magic lotion which must not
bleed out or the hydraulic objects dies....like a dog. He found some bolts
had worked loose holding the pump onto the cylinder.

It's all working, again, now, but the weather has settled over Charleston
so they'll wait for a better weather window before setting the sea and
anchor detail again. It's raining all day here. You can SEE my lawn
growing!

Report Complete.........
Larry


NNNN (We always put that at the end of important-looking teletype messages
so radiomen know where to tear the paper off over the trash can.)

On Aug 3, 1:23 pm, Larry wrote:
Geoff Schultz wrote :

Where were they when it failed?

Just off Charleston.

Two errors found. It's fixed.

Skip left the bike pump on the manual system and the pressure bled off
through the bike pump. The other problem was the autopilot hydraulic pump
motor was loose from the cylinder, allowing the magic lotion hydraulics
runs on to escape. All hydraulics runs on magic lotion which must not
bleed out or the hydraulic objects dies....like a dog. He found some bolts
had worked loose holding the pump onto the cylinder.

It's all working, again, now, but the weather has settled over Charleston
so they'll wait for a better weather window before setting the sea and
anchor detail again. It's raining all day here. You can SEE my lawn
growing!

Report Complete.........
Larry

NNNN (We always put that at the end of important-looking teletype messages
so radiomen know where to tear the paper off over the trash can.)

From the offices of Ross Marine, Larry's report is essentially
complete and correct. Like all the difficulties we've had and
overcome, this one exposed another item which is better for having
been seen.

The steering is done by something called a scotch yoke, with two
cylinders/pistons. The box which contains that is held in place by
two 7/16 bolts. One of them had worked completely loose, and the
other wasn't very tight. I've concluded that it was the root of the
inability to completely dry out the rudder shaft with the new packing
I installed in January. So, another benefit out of adversity...

Plus, we were still within hailing range of my unlimited tow with
TBUS, so aside from the nervous moment at the dock, ignored when it
seemed to not duplicate later after scrambling back in to check it
out, and the oncoming containership who'd hailed us to let us know he
was coming, when we were NUC (not under command) in the middle of the
channel, it was pretty uneventful.

Minor details are that there was a substantial current running on our
nose as we were leaving, pushing us a bit against the dock, and a lot
in reverse. Pushed off the bow enough to find that we weren't going
to overcome the current. Laid in enough rudder to push the stern in
and the bow around into the current, and off we went. As I tried to
bring it around to go out, it seemed we had no port rudder. A hurry-
up mash with lots of turning of the wheel, to starboard, aiming us at
the dock, hard throttle to get *to* the dock, hard reverse to pull the
bow back out a bit but not enough to bash the boat behind us, more
throttle to use the post and roller on the dock against the bow to
bring us back to the dock, and heave a sigh of relief.

Work the wheel while tethered, and can't duplicate the problem. Figure
it's my imagination, and a current and throttle anomaly, and head out
again. A bit flaky, but not nervousmaking, Otto steers us out the
channel. However, by the time we've cleared the jetties/reefs, it's
no linger even a bit flaky, it's essentially inop. The call from the
freighter (no doubt noting our erratic behavior) focuses the attention
to get out of the channel however necessary. Attempt to go upwind
fails, so pedal to the metal to turn us around (rudder stuck to
starboard), wind and waves and judicious throttle/backing (backs to
stbd so I could use that to swing the bow) push us out of the way, and
we call for the hook.

Got to Ross relatively uneventfully and set to finding the problem.
Pulling the hatch at the reservoir/pump valve, I see a very
substantial puddle of fluid in a sealed location (so it didn't go into
the bilge). That's good, because otherwise one would never believe
it, presuming the problem to be a burst hose, or pump at the helm, or
some other common problem. Likewise, there's a very defined line next
to the pump body, showing, despite all the lines to the bottom where
it collected, that it must have come from there.

A lot of exercising the AP showed no leak. However, the motor body,
on which I'd noted two loose bolts, heaved back and forth every time
it moved. Overnight under pumped up overpressure caused no leaks
after I'd first atttempted to remove the motor and gotten a spray, but
also a look at what looked like a bearing, and then tightened those
bolts, so the inescapable conclusion is that tightening cured it - or
at least would result in such a small leak as to be inconsequential.
That we'd operated the boat for a couple hundred hours without looking
in that area could easily explain that accumulation of fluid, and that
amount could also explain the pressure drop, the ultimate cause of the
steering loss, as, once pressurized, it steered fiine.

However, the steering block heaved enormously under AP, so we loosened
it completely, manually attempted to realign it with the stuffing box
loose, so that it could self-center, and then tightened the stuffing
again. More twiddling, and then tightening down the bolts we'd taken
loose, more major AP action with no movement, and, significantly, no
leaking either from any AP component or the stuffing, and we tightened
a bit more, locked the stuffing, and commenced with cleanup.

Weather stinks right now so we don't know what we'll do for sure. Not
particularly menacing, but continued rain with our weather satellite
pix showing likely a couple more days of the same in our cruising
area. However, we'll be back on track shortly and back away from any
internet contact.

As previously noted, cruising is boat repair in exotic locations.
This certainly is exotic, being waaaay out in the woods, but
otherwise, just another day in the life of the 30-year old boat's
cruising life. How thankful we are that this happened at green 13
rather than halfway to Beaufort!

So, I'm off to pay the bill and see about how to get out of here. We
had a great night's sleep due to the rain, more than I've had for
weeks, and it was pretty relaxed before then, so we're rested and
ready to hit the water again...

Thanks for the interest from those reading. Stay tuned for my
electrical budget manifesto soon to come...

L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog and/or
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to
make it
come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its
hands.
You seek problems because you need their gifts."
(Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah)

On Aug 3, 12:35 pm, Skip Gundlach wrote:


Like all the difficulties we've had and
overcome, this one exposed another item which is better for having
been seen.

Skip
Morgan 461 #2



Hi SKip:

Keep those stories comming !

Bob

"Larry" wrote in message
...
Got a call from Skip on my cell asking for a boatyard in Charleston.

Steering problems this time. The wheel turns...the rudder
doesn't....hydraulics.

They're at Ross Marine on the ICW south of Charleston, tonight. No
reports
yet on what the yard has found as they got their late after a long tow
in
the harbor and down the ICW.

I've never met a man so patient with anything. His fuse is WAY longer
than
mine! I'd have jumped overboard by now.

Ross'll fix it. They fix our boat just fine. Then, they'll put back
to
sea, again. Just thought you'd like to know.....

I'll go see them on Saturday if they're still in the yard. I have two
sick
church organs needing my expert attention tomorrow. When he called,
today,
I was eating lunch in a little diner in Greeleyville, SC, with a
couple of
local farmers struggling to make a living after handing their profits
over
to the oil barons to run the tractors. Lots of farms are just sitting
unused now. Poor little town is all but closed down, people moving
away
looking for work like in the 30's. Rosey economy isn't reality in the
countryside at these fuel prices.


That Flying Pig is run by the biggest bunch of stupid losers I ever
heard about. They give sailors a bad name. I wish they'd just realize
they can't handle it and quit before they end up dead.

Greg Hall

On Aug 3, 3:42 pm, "Gregory Hall" wrote:
"Larry" wrote in message

...



Got a call from Skip on my cell asking for a boatyard in Charleston.

Steering problems this time. The wheel turns...the rudder
doesn't....hydraulics.

They're at Ross Marine on the ICW south of Charleston, tonight. No
reports
yet on what the yard has found as they got their late after a long tow
in
the harbor and down the ICW.

I've never met a man so patient with anything. His fuse is WAY longer
than
mine! I'd have jumped overboard by now.

Ross'll fix it. They fix our boat just fine. Then, they'll put back
to
sea, again. Just thought you'd like to know.....

I'll go see them on Saturday if they're still in the yard. I have two
sick
church organs needing my expert attention tomorrow. When he called,
today,
I was eating lunch in a little diner in Greeleyville, SC, with a
couple of
local farmers struggling to make a living after handing their profits
over
to the oil barons to run the tractors. Lots of farms are just sitting
unused now. Poor little town is all but closed down, people moving
away
looking for work like in the 30's. Rosey economy isn't reality in the
countryside at these fuel prices.

That Flying Pig is run by the biggest bunch of stupid losers I ever
heard about. They give sailors a bad name. I wish they'd just realize
they can't handle it and quit before they end up dead.

Greg Hall

my address is if you'd like to continue this
garbage directly...

L8R

Skip, fixed up and ready to go again

Cruising is Boat Repair in exotic locations...

"Skip Gundlach" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Aug 3, 3:42 pm, "Gregory Hall" wrote:
"Larry" wrote in message

...



Got a call from Skip on my cell asking for a boatyard in
Charleston.

Steering problems this time. The wheel turns...the rudder
doesn't....hydraulics.

They're at Ross Marine on the ICW south of Charleston, tonight. No
reports
yet on what the yard has found as they got their late after a long
tow
in
the harbor and down the ICW.

I've never met a man so patient with anything. His fuse is WAY
longer
than
mine! I'd have jumped overboard by now.

Ross'll fix it. They fix our boat just fine. Then, they'll put
back
to
sea, again. Just thought you'd like to know.....

I'll go see them on Saturday if they're still in the yard. I have
two
sick
church organs needing my expert attention tomorrow. When he
called,
today,
I was eating lunch in a little diner in Greeleyville, SC, with a
couple of
local farmers struggling to make a living after handing their
profits
over
to the oil barons to run the tractors. Lots of farms are just
sitting
unused now. Poor little town is all but closed down, people moving
away
looking for work like in the 30's. Rosey economy isn't reality in
the
countryside at these fuel prices.

That Flying Pig is run by the biggest bunch of stupid losers I ever
heard about. They give sailors a bad name. I wish they'd just
realize
they can't handle it and quit before they end up dead.

Greg Hall

my address is if you'd like to continue this
garbage directly...

L8R

Skip, fixed up and ready to go again

Cruising is Boat Repair in exotic locations...


Nope, I'll just continue to point out your stupidity and ineptitude
here. Some people might enjoy your buffoonery but some don't, myself
included. Your attitude towards cruising makes a mockery out of
something that should be taken seriously.

"Cruising is Boat Repair in exotic locations" only proves your attitude
is a joke. Get serious before you and your crew come to serious grief.
One of these days you'll find there's nobody around to rescue you. You
won't think everything's a big joke then.

Greg

Oh Please! - Not another Wilbur!!!

I'll tell ya what bad boy, I'd rather be in Skip's shoes than your's.

Skip is out Doing It.

All you can do is sit there and criticize.




What a waste of Bandwidth...