Finally away from Florida and the endless projects completed, we pulled into Chubb Cay on a Saturday evening over a week ago. Sunday morning, we set to the task of inflating the dinghy (after the coffee press, the 12v inflater may be my favorite tool and labor saving device aboard the boat). The engine came out of the Lazarette and went onto the inflated dinghy.
A quick pull or two and it started right up and I was off to sort our customs and immigrations for reentering the Bahamas. Or not... The dinghy engine would run up to about half speed but poorly and only with a rather tedious and constant feathering of the choke. We put up with it for a few days and didn't need the dinghy engine at all while visiting the Island School.
A rather substantial portion of my joy in leaving Florida was due to momentarily thinking that all was ship shape, up to snuff, tidy, tuned, and prepared for the year to come... but alas! My wishful thinking didn't last very long.
After a month and a half of non-use, our dinghy engine, a small 6 horsepower 4-stroke that weighs a ton was grumpy. I diligently did the easy stuff - changing the oil, installing a new fuel filter, putting in a new spark plug, tweaking the idle a tad, adding fresh fuel, and a lot of looking at the engine. All to no avail. We obviously had spark, but I suspected a fuel and air mixture problem.
Yesterday off a lonely and idyllic Cay on a lovely afternoon beneath our sun tarp, with a fair bit of trepidation, I pulled off, disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled the carburetor. From experience with numerous other projects, I took my time, snapped a few photos (only needed one of them to figure out how it went back together but boy did that save me some hassle), and tried to figure out what each little bit did as I took it off and cleaned it.
Deep inside in the bowl is a jet, much like the one on an MSR Whisperlight camp stove. It was all gunked up and elbow grease + acetone + a tooth brush promptly had it looking shiny and new again.
It felt pretty good when the outboard roared to life on the first pull and ran up the RPM's normally with no choke needed. Back in business. In the end, it was not a particularly difficult job and so far the engine is now running well.
It turns out that all the jokes about cruising being just an endless set of projects to be completed in confined spaces, with incomplete supplies, most but never all the tools you need, and with the assistance of poorly written manuals, all occasionally punctuated by a lovely sunset, are just about true.
Each project I complete ends with a little bit of thanks on my part that Sila is actually a pretty simple boat. We skipped a lot of complicated equipment to keep it simple in exchange for fewer repairs and less maintenance. So far, this is a decision we have not regretted.
Once again, all the tools are put away and reorganized after a busy 6 weeks of projects on Sila. Fort Lauderdale was an ideal location for the myriad of little and big projects we tackled, because pretty much anything marine related is readily available. We all put in a lot of long days. After nearly a year on Sila, we had a list of small upgrades, needed equipment and spares, and repairs we wanted to complete before we set off on the next leg of our journey.
The largest and most important project was pulling the engine to replace a bent cylinder rod. This one was beyond my skills and tools, so the folks at Sun Power Marine, a Volvo dealer, did the work. We will never know with certainty the cause but suspect it was a combination of a too low exhaust loop and low anti siphon raw water injection loop combined with an unusual surge we experienced in a marina in San Salvador. This allowed water into the cylinders and 20 seconds later, we were done. The engine now runs like a top, and I raised all the loops well above the waterline. The engine work was stressful in that we really need to be confident in the engine in remote places with rugged conditions. Time will tell, but the repairs, re-installation, and changes all seem to be solid.
Out comes the engine, right through the companionway...
A rather mucky looking Sila comes out of the water for cleaning and painting
A mostly complete list of what we did (and had done) over nearly 7 weeks in Florida:
- Hauled the boat and painted two coats of anti-fouling paint on the bottom
- Removed the Genoa and replaced a few bolts on the furler mechanism
- Removed the Genoa and replaced a few bolts on the furler mechanism
- Brought the Genoa to a sail maker for a few touch up repairs
- Cleaned and painted length markings on the chain every 6 meters
- Reorganized the bow locker and stowed our new shore fast lines, over a thousand feet of line!
- Changed a few and added a few rope clutches to the mast for halyard handling
- Added a second spinnaker halyard
- Rigged a permanent traditional preventer from boom end to forward cleat to cockpit
- Pulled the mainsail and had the sail maker add a fourth reef, and added an eye for lashing the out haul to free up the fourth sheave for the fourth reef
- Designed and had made a sun and rain tarp for over the forward hatches, rain catchment tarp, and additional lee cloth for the salon
- Procured and stowed spare battens (now secure inside the boom)
- Reinstalled our kedge anchor mount and added a very hefty strap to allow the kedge rode to be permanently connected to the rode in a locker in the sugar scoop transom
- Upgraded our person overboard buoy and marker with a better mounting system because a wave had swept our old one away while crossing the Atlantic
- Procured and figured out how to securely stow six 5-gallon diesel cans (a potential 20% increase in our capacity if needed) and two 5-gallon water cans in the aft lazarette adjacent to the rudder post for the rare occasions when we want to carry a lot of extra fuel.
- Completely reorganized the aft lazarette locker
- Reorganized all the spares and stowed it all
- Procured a heck of a lot of food and stowed it all away
- Added oil pressure and water temperature sensors to the engine and mounted the gauges in the engine panel
- Upgraded to a larger alternator, and matching spare, with a smart regulator system
- Replaced the anti siphon valve on the raw water injection loop and raised it much higher
- Replaced a segment of the exhaust hose to allow the exhaust hose loop to be three times higher relative to the waterline
- Changed the oil after about five hours of testing on the reinstalled engine
- Added cleats to one edge and nifty low profile slide locks to every single top down stowage locker on the boat. We are now truly rigged to flip...
- Added a sturdy but removable foot cleat in the galley for rough conditions
- Adjusted hinge inset on a bit too snug locker door above the galley sink
- Installed an additional 12v outlet for a salon fan and a dedicated dual USB charging socket for the myriad of electronics we charge all the time
- Measured all the large bolts on the boat and got every single socket, deep and shallow, that we might need that we didn't already have
- Rigged a permanent traditional preventer from boom end to forward cleat to cockpit
- Pulled the mainsail and had the sail maker add a fourth reef, and added an eye for lashing the out haul to free up the fourth sheave for the fourth reef
- Designed and had made a sun and rain tarp for over the forward hatches, rain catchment tarp, and additional lee cloth for the salon
- Procured and stowed spare battens (now secure inside the boom)
- Reinstalled our kedge anchor mount and added a very hefty strap to allow the kedge rode to be permanently connected to the rode in a locker in the sugar scoop transom
- Upgraded our person overboard buoy and marker with a better mounting system because a wave had swept our old one away while crossing the Atlantic
- Procured and figured out how to securely stow six 5-gallon diesel cans (a potential 20% increase in our capacity if needed) and two 5-gallon water cans in the aft lazarette adjacent to the rudder post for the rare occasions when we want to carry a lot of extra fuel.
- Completely reorganized the aft lazarette locker
- Reorganized all the spares and stowed it all
- Procured a heck of a lot of food and stowed it all away
- Added oil pressure and water temperature sensors to the engine and mounted the gauges in the engine panel
- Upgraded to a larger alternator, and matching spare, with a smart regulator system
- Replaced the anti siphon valve on the raw water injection loop and raised it much higher
- Replaced a segment of the exhaust hose to allow the exhaust hose loop to be three times higher relative to the waterline
- Changed the oil after about five hours of testing on the reinstalled engine
- Added cleats to one edge and nifty low profile slide locks to every single top down stowage locker on the boat. We are now truly rigged to flip...
- Added a sturdy but removable foot cleat in the galley for rough conditions
- Adjusted hinge inset on a bit too snug locker door above the galley sink
- Installed an additional 12v outlet for a salon fan and a dedicated dual USB charging socket for the myriad of electronics we charge all the time
- Measured all the large bolts on the boat and got every single socket, deep and shallow, that we might need that we didn't already have
- Added a shelf to an aft locker
- Procured and stowed five cold water immersion suits (aka Gumby Suits)
- Added another light to the engine compartment
- Emptied, cleaned, and reorganized every single locker on the boat
- Stocked up on all the miscellaneous spares, such as AAA batteries, sunscreen, WD40, etc.
- Dozen of other smaller projects, like whipping line ends, tightening hatches, fitting new bug screens, and getting and stowing a year's worth of charts for South America.
- Christopher
- Christopher
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