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Old 10-29-2011, 08:57 PM   #1
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Have used Cruiser log very successfully in the past and had some great trips and met some fantastic people? Have changed email address since then so had to re-register, and, yes its been a few years...... Where is everyone? Has everyone migrated to a new site or just stopped sailing?
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Old 10-29-2011, 11:07 PM   #2
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Hardly anyone is "sailing" these days, it's mostly like drifting-chugging along or going like a bat out of hell with a gale behind you, at least that was my last trip's experience from FL to NY/LI and back again. But yes, I did take the heavily sedated ICW route from Norfolk to Beaufort due to weather concerns.

Sorry, I just could not resist replying to your comment...

Ivo
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Old 10-30-2011, 12:08 AM   #3
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it's been a slow week, I guess. So where have you been sailing? Any good stories to tell?
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Old 10-30-2011, 02:16 AM   #4
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Sure. Here's a little one. You really may want to reconsider sailing with me. Look at all the knots and wadding-up I can get my Jockeys into while just sitting at anchor...

Let me regale you with my last night in FL Most of my cruising is actually much more mundane and sedate. Trust me.

.....was able to hit the sack at 4am only, being too busy fixing a little Exxon Valdez type event and then two bilge pumps. These are always nice to have functional. I rather look at the boat floating on the water than looking down at it sitting on the bottom with the Krabbzenheimers a-visiting.

After changing the oil in the diesel generator I for good measure decided to change the oil filter as well. Big mistake! I found two spare filters in their little red Westerbeke cartons and happy-go-lucky filled one up partially with fresh oil, so the oil pump would not need to run dry until it would have filled it. It had a Westie part no. on it, color, size and all looked identical to the old filter, even though that one was a second-sourced one bought at Auto-zone. Screwed it in nice and tight and all looked normal and well.

Start the generator running but see the oil pressure is not coming up immediately, as it should. Switch off, hmmm. I'd replaced the oil and measured it OK. Perhaps there was an air lock or something, like the new filter doesn't fill up that quickly with oil as I'd expect it to do. So, try re-starting again, but still there is no pressure. Now I go and look at the genny, behind me and away from the control board by the pilot berth. As soon as I stick my head into the engine compartment a big black mess of oil greets me. It's all over everything.The source.. where the filter attaches to the engine block.

Darn, it must not have been tightened enough. Cussing, I get out a big wrench and tighten the living daylights out of it now. Check the dipstick... no oil, it's all gone, none even below the lower limit mark on the stick. More expletives and a refill with fresh oil. Start again. The diesel thunders up nicely but... still no oil pressure. Yet more oil is pouring out. Now what in tarnation!?

It is butt-scratching time with a black and oily paw. I unscrew the filter to see if the sealing gasket is missing or damaged. No, all is present and intact. Then I get the old filter out and compare both closely, perplexed and majorly ticked off.

Sure enough, the new one has a very slight offset in the seating level of its O-ring. Screwing it on brings only the metal rim of the can into contact with the bearing surfaces, but not yet the seal. There is either an engineering snafu or the filter is for a sealing surface that is raised, rather than being level and flush. All threads and dimension are similar and at first blush look identical.

These two filters came in the original owners' spares inventory. I did not have a part# on them. Just wanted to cycle through the old stock. Anyway, now the old filter went back on again, another oil refill and it all purred nicely, with the pressure back to normal.

Sheesh, but what an Exxon Valdez mess in the bilge and all over! Trying to soak it all up with kitchen towels, rags, big job, messy and it's late. Plus, if the oil gets outside via the bilge pumps the EPA people will make a bonanza with their fines and red tape. Everyone is looking for revenue now , where- how- and when-ever they can get it. That's why I'm getting all these hassles from the building dept. types for my rebuild, as they need to keep shaking the money tree to see what may drop out for them. It's their job security.

Now comes snaking up the oily bilge pumps, with all their umbilical appurtenances of hoses, wiring, strainers and float switches. All oily black and slicker than sifted snot, unreachable below the engine and requiring elaborate gaff hook maneuvers and the most imaginative invective while lying prone across the diesel. All to simply redo the wiring connections.

Anyway, looking like an oil-rig man coming off-shift after a gusher I row to the showers after a good preliminary wash. Three shower-equivalents later I look quasi modo again. Perhaps I can actually fool TSA into believing I'm not a walking fuel-oil bomb. It's 4am as I set the alarm for 6:20am to catch my flight home.
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Old 11-01-2011, 05:50 AM   #5
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Ouchie, ooohhh so sad! and maddening too! Right after purchasing our Rawson several years ago, hubby dumped 5 quarts of used engine oil into the bilge--similar yucky thing. He loaded up the bilge with several of those oil absorbing diapers and kept at it for a couple days. Then, I flew into town and went after the bilge with SimpleGreen and then some more oil absorbing diapers.

Good luck in getting it all sorted out when you return to the boat!
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