Lots of work has been done over the last 3 weeks and most could affect the water integrity of the boat.
Last night when I got here I reinstalled the steering cables. That went better than expected -- the steering is so smooth now. It appears there were two problems affecting the steering. An interference problem at the extreme movements and the overall stiff wheel was due to poor adjustment of the cables -- like everything else I have found -- TOO TIGHT!!!
The marina boys were ready first thing to splash me. I let them take the boat around 9am and I settled up the costs before it went into the water. An archaic marine rule that when some one does work on your boat -- they own it till you pay the damages...
The launch went well. I fired it up and let it warm up while I revisited all the areas that could leak to check them.. All dry. When I came back on deck they7 turned the lift motors off and Don -- the foreman -- noticed my engine was not spitting water -- a necessity. I immediately shut it down and investigated. Damn an air lock in the water intake lines to the engine -- Ohhh yes Al did caution me to close the intake seacock before hauling --- I hadn't. I bled the lines and restarted the engine -- she was spit tin water now.
I went ahead and left and slowly cruised through Minnesott Beach Marina -- very close and tight. I made it out without bumping then checked for leaks again -- all okay.
I motored back to Matthews Point -- no wind and the Neuse was flat calm. It was hot humid and hazy for so early in the morning.
I visually checked the packing on the rudder and prop and both were dry -- that's good but the prop should be dripping about 3 drops a minute. I pressed on.
About a mile from Clubfoot number 3 I checked again. Every thing still dry. Hmmm I wonder if the packing is warm?? I touched it -- yooow it burnt me!! Damn it was hot!! I poured some water on it and it sizzled and evaporated immediately -- that is BAD. I cut the RPMs from 2200 to 1800. Poured more water on the assembly -- still HOT. I checked the temperature with an infrared thermometer -- damn 170 degrees -- not good. I slowed down to 1500 RPM and crept into the marina. I made the slip with no difficulty and tied up. Thank goodness for a calm day.
I shut the motor down and heard a pump running.. What the?? It was the fresh water pump. Lost its prime for some reason. I corrected it. Then sat down to have a celebratory beer at 11:10 am. Hmmm another pump just came on and stopped -- the bilge pump.. Ohh well. 10 minutes later the bilge runs again.. then again .. Ohh boy I got a leak somewhere!!
I check all the areas that had been addressed. When I looked at the packing assembly there was a stream of water coming out from the packing log to brass coupler interface. Damn that heat did something!! I tightened the clamps -- oh boy leak stopped -- but what happened???
I'll write this off to the Friday curse. I know better than to start something new on a Friday but I thought maybe it would be okay today -- always a bad assumption. I tried to launch yesterday but the remnants of Fay came over and dumped 5 inches of rain on the house and there was spotty flooding all the way to the coast. So I launched today and was burnt -- literally.
All seems okay but we won't push it for a Friday. Just clean the boat and relax.
There could be another cause for these problems besides the Friday curse -- hubris...
I was just so proud of how well that packing nut assembly had cleaned up I guess the gods wanted to punish that pride.
Well any way let me show how well it cleaned up:
I just can't help myself and I know I'm going to have to pay for this too.
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