Light At The End of the Punch List Tunnel

Reader Note: Be sure to check out yesterday's post, "Free at Last - Palm Beach to Stuart."

Background: Pam and I arrived in Stuart on Monday afternoon (March 24) at 3:30 PM.  Diana and Kodi drove up from West Palm Beach in Pam's car and met us when we arrived.  By late Friday afternoon we were finally settled in after switching from a fixed dock to a floating dock.  Then Pam, Diana and I then adjourned to a lovely dinner at the Black Marlin.

Noteworthy: The move from D-dock to B-dock was the first time Diana and Kodi had been on the boat when it was in motion.  The 200 yard move was their first official cruise.

Guided Discovery secured to a slip B25

Present Moment just across the fairway
We will be cruising to Norfolk with Darrel and Sue

On Monday evening I attempted to write the article, "Free at Last - Palm Beach to Stuart," but was prevented from doing so by the malware that my computer had acquired.  So on Tuesday, Pam drove me to UPS so that I could ship the computer to my support tech team in Chicago.  The computer glitch was just the start of a very difficult week made more difficult be being without my computer.  Speaking of glitches, the computer's arrival in Chicago was delayed by the UPS agent's mistaking a 7 for a 2 in the address.   Oh well.

My goal for this week was to work with Outer Reef to resolve seven open and actionable items on the Punch List and to complete our first round of basic preventive maintenance in preparation for the trip north.

A bit of explanation is required with regard to preventive maintenance.  There is a considerable amount of equipment on the boat and much of it requires some level of ongoing maintenance.  Here are some of the items needing attention since we took delivery on February 10:

1. 50 hour generator oil and filter change and valve adjustment
2. Replacement of the water pump on the 16KW generator (Warranty)
3. 50 hour transmission oil and filter change
4. Correction of a leak at the port transmission sensor (Warranty)
5. Monthly air handler filter cleaning (5)
6. 50 hour zinc inspection on both engines (16 zincs)
7. 50 hours zinc inspection on the hydraulic system (2 zincs)
8. Clean HVAC sea strainer (1)
9. Clean engine sea strainers (2)
10. Clean hydraulic sea strainer (1)
11. Clean generator sea strainers (2) 
12. Pump up Hynautic steering pressure to 25 PSI - as required

On Wednesday Diana (with a little help from yours truly) spent the morning preparing DETAILED instructions to fix problems with the protective covers we had made for the settees in the salon and pilothouse.  The seamstress's' design prevented the covers from remaining in place when we sat on them. We then walked with Kodi to the Stuart Post Office to mail the covers.

On Thursday at 8:00 AM Chris, a technician from Performance Power Systems of Florida, the local Cat dealer, arrived to assess the warranty repairs on the port transmission.  While he was there I asked him for assistance with the zinc inspection, which he graciously provided and even helped me remove some of the zincs.

Explanatory Note - Zincs: Electrolysis happens when two dissimilar metals are immersed in an electrolyte and connected together. Salt water is a powerful electrolyte.  As the current leaves one metal to travel to the other, it causes metal to come off one surface and be deposited on the other like battery plates so the higher voltage metal suffers electrolysis. Electrolysis can also occur when an adjacent structure or boat is injecting DC current into the water and that current goes in one end of the boat and out the other on its way to its destination. On boats a sacrificial anode (Zinc) deteriorates rather than the expensive equipment. 

There are 8 zincs on each engine and 2 on the hydraulic system for a total of 18.  Manufacturers require the zincs to be replaced when more than 50% is eaten away.  The inspection must be performed every 50 hours.

We found 5 problems.  Both stabilizer cooler zincs were shot as were both of the transmission oil cooler zincs.  The zinc on the starboard engine raw water pump was missing entirely.  It had never been installed.

Explanatory Note - Missing Zinc: In a conversation with Mike late Friday afternoon he suggested that the missing zinc may have been deliberate.  The zinc sits atop of the raw water pump impeller.  Mike recalls that Pantropic, the Fort Lauderdale Cat dealer, said that if part of the zinc breaks off kit can destroy the rubber impeller.

Explanatory Note - Impellers: Impellers are water wheels that scoop water into the raw water pump. Loss of an impeller can result in engine overheating and the destruction of a very expensive marine engine. This is a serious problem.  I will be calling Pantropic on Monday.

Next problem.  There were no zincs on board.  My initial spare parts shipment had not arrived.

I set aside Thursday to address items 6-12 on the above list.  Good news: My initial parts shipment arrived on Thursday with a bunch of zincs.  Bad news: Wheelhouse Technology, my parts supplier, had the part numbers wrong on the zincs that I needed.  Surprise surprise.  This has been my story since taking delivery. Nothing seems to go right on the first round.

Next problem: The HVAC sea strainers.

Explanatory Note - Sea Strainers: Sea strainers prevent debris and marine life from getting into the raw water systems of the HVAC, main engines, transmissions and hydraulic systems.  Raw sea water enters at the top in the canister and flows through a basket which filters out debris. The clean sea water then flows up and out the strainer to cool the designated system.

Groco model 1500

Debris collects in the sea strainer basket

Sea strainers get clogged at different levels.  For example, the HVAC sea strainer requires the most frequent cleaning as it runs 24/7; most of it in shallow somewhat stagnant marina water.  The generator strainers are next as they run long hours and often in marinas.  The engines while using the greatest amount of water often require less frequent cleaning as most of their run time is offshore.  However, running is shallow water or kicking up mud can change this instantly.

Back to the story.  During Captain Randy's orientation I took detailed notes on how to clean the sea strainers.  I followed Randy's instruction to the "T" as I cleaned out the HVAC strainer, which after running 24/7 since splashing on February 2 was definitely in need of cleaning.  The last step in the process is placing the gasket onto the screw shaft, installing the brass cover on top of the gasket and tightening everything down with the brass wing nut.  As I did this I began to think something was amiss.  Would the brass nut be sufficient to prevent water from leeching up through the grooves in the screw post?  My answer was IMMEDIATE. ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!  When I opened the through hull valve, water flowed out of the unit at the brass nut.  UNBELIEVABLE.

I immediately called Captain Randy.  The conversation that ensued dealt with whether there was a washer between the brass cover and the brass nut.  I found no washer when I disassembled the unit, which I did very carefully.  Apparently, Tania installed the unit without the washer.  Why it did not leak prior to my involvement is a puzzle. Meanwhile, Randy and I debated whether I had lost the washer as I disassembled the unit. We never resolved the missing washer issue but read on.

Randy agreed to 100 miles drive up to Stuart on Friday to address this issue, the zinc issue and the remaining punch list items.

Friday: This proved to be another CRAZY day.  Chris from Performance Power Systems of Florida arrived at 8:00 AM.  Captain Randy arrived soon after.  Chris performed the transmission service while Randy and I addressed the leaking sea strainer.  Randy brought extra washers and gaskets.  While I will not bore you with all the details, I will cut to the chase.  Randy reassembled the HVAC strainer, this time with the washer, and opened the through hull fitting.

Problem solved?  Surely you jest.  Not with my luck.  The damn thing leaked even with the washer in place. It took Randy four tries before he was able to reassemble the unit without a leak.

At that point I insisted that we open, clean and reassemble the other five sea strainers to assess whether they too would leak upon reassembly.  Four of the five did not leak.  The fifth, the 16KW generator sea strainer on the starboard side leaked.  Randy managed to stop the leak by excessively tightening the brass wing nut.

I would like to shoot the engineer that designed this piece of junk!  It is my opinion that this is a poor design.  Having a screw top with a washer between the brass nut and the cover plate is an invitation to leaking when the screw shaft goes through the cover plate.  Further, the shaft prevents easy cleaning.  What is the purpose of having a glass canister if it is not to allow for visual assessment? Unfortunately, the shaft prevents the glass from being cleaned thus necessitating opening the unit to assess condition.  In my opinion this design constitutes a warranty of merchantability issue.  The purchaser of the Groco sea strainer should expect, AT A MINIMUM, that it would not leak after being serviced.  This was certainly the case on my 48 Sundancer which had a solid cover.  It was fool proof.

After finishing the sea strainers we attacked the Hynautic steering pressure.  Doing it with a bicycle pump as he had previously advised during my orientation proved to be futile.  Fortunately I had a compressor (which Randy had advised me to buy) and we were able to achieve the desired pressure.

Two down, one to go.  Now we attacked the zinc replacement with a trip to West Marine to obtain the missing zincs.

By mid afternoon we were finished.  The score: All maintenance items were completed and the punch list was down to one active open item, a Cruisair reoccurring fault that will be resolved on Monday morning. Nine items remain in pending status and will be resolved overtime.

Good news: My computer arrived with the FedEx 3:00 PM delivery and it worked right out of the box. AMAZING.

Saturday: I resolved a flat tire on my bike and visited Ace Hardware to purchase some final items needed to complete the boat's outfitting.  This was accomplished before a line of strong thunderstorms moved through the area in the late afternoon.

All in all it was another frustrating week but I seem to be in the light at the end of the tunnel.  Hence the article's title, "Light at the End of the Punch List Tunnel."  Finally, after almost two months the 63 is ready to cruise.

Life in Stuart:  We spent a week in Stuart in 2011 as we headed north during our Great Loop adventure and looked forward to this visit.  Stuart is a charming city with a downtown on the Saint Lucie River.  In 2011 we stayed on the north side at the Loggerhead Marina on a fixed dock (read as a challenge for Kodi to get on and off the boat).  To get to town we either walked 1.2 miles over the Roosevelt Bridge or dingied over.  This year we stayed on the south side at Sunset Bay Marina.  Besides being on a floating dock, we were just a 15 minute walk to downtown along a very charming river walk.

Sailor's Return restaurant at Sunset Bay Marina

Sunset Bay Marina

The river walk and the Roosevelt Bridge

Free entertainment along the river walk on Sunday

Sunday farmer market just outside downtown Stuart

When I was not dealing with boat issues, we enjoyed the lovely river walk and downtown including on Friday going to see Mark Russell, the famous political satirist, at the Lyric Theatre.  Mark Russell at age 81 can keep a full house in stitches for 90 minutes.

A beautiful sunset and the end of a stormy day

The photo above and my caption is fitting for this particular week.

Written by Les.