Well, not quite, but very close. Last month, I explained the trouble I had with an exhaust tube being damaged by a poorly aimed pressure washer. The repair worked out well and after getting that done, it was time to scrape barnacles off the running gear, including the rudders and also all the engine and generator seawater intakes. Something I noticed was that the intake scoops had never been anti-fouling painted on the inside. Using my putty knife to clean inside the scoop and between the openings in the grates. That took some time and there was some sizable growth there, so make sure you check yours.
With some well-aimed spraying, I was able to get a good coat of anti-fouling paint inside those housings. I spent some long hours underneath the boat scraping all those surfaces and when I was done, I primed all of them. The next day, I came out and sprayed on a few coats of black anti-fouling on all the metal surfaces beneath the waterline. Hopefully, this will make cleaning the hull and running gear easier when we haul out at the end of the season. Has anyone else noticed more marine growth on their boats last season? While I was under the boat, my First Mate was waxing the hull!
After all that, we managed to get in the water. The engines fired right up and I motored on over to our slip. It took a while to get all the lines squared away, and when that was done, it was time to plug in the shore power and check all the systems. That’s when some gremlins showed up. The a/c voltmeter showed power to both the ship’s power and the separate air conditioning system power, but the cabin refrigerator was not working, no light, no life at all. I tried throwing the switches on and off, looked for a circuit breaker and had no luck. I saw a long day ahead trying to troubleshoot this one and went home to gather my tools for the coming battle.
One thing I did was look at the owner’s manual, trying to find circuit breakers. And I found them, buried up high under the starboard gunnel. The next day, I went out and got right to it. I found those breakers, but they were not tripped. I still flipped them back and forth, leaving them in the on position. I went down into the cabin and opened the refrigerator and low and behold the light came on. I could also hear the motor humming along and it was starting to get cold. Fingers crossed, that was all it was.
Next up, I started to drain the freshwater system, and that took longer than it should have. After filling the seventy-gallon water tank and letting it run empty a few times to get the anti-freeze out, I noticed the head and galley sink faucets running pretty slowly. I used the cockpit sink and it was really flowing. Something just did not seem right. I also saw that the head faucet was leaking a good amount through the handle base.
Again, I left for home feeling like I had moved two steps forward and one step back. I returned again armed with more tools, including the smallest allen wrench I have ever used to get the set screw out to remove the handle of the faucet. Once I got the handle off, I was able to remove the flow controller, but saw nothing wrong with it. I cleaned up the seating areas inside and put it together again. After pressurizing the system again, it still leaked a very small amount. That will not last, so I will be searching for a replacement flow controller, but initial searches found nothing. I may need a new faucet.
Still, I had no flow coming out of either galley or head faucet, yet it was pouring out of the cockpit sink. I removed the aerators from the reluctant faucets and found… they were completely blocked with some crud I can’t identify. With those out there is plenty of flow (yet still a small leak in the head faucet), so I feel like some progress has been made.
Although, before I celebrate, there are a few more problems. The first day, I was draining the water system the sump pump for the head and galley sinks never came on and it leaked a few gallons of non-toxic anti-freeze into the bilge. I have to clean that up. While trying to figure out how to get to that sump pump (only a very small human can get to it), I ran some more water from the sinks. All of a sudden, the sump pump starts working again! Great, but the next day, when I was flushing out the water system, it came on and stayed on. I got it to go off after reaching in and hitting the sump pump box; it went off. Float switch! I poured some bleach down there and hope that it can free it up some, enough to work right.
When I left for home that day, I noticed the engine room lights did not go on. Next time I went out, I switched them on and again, they worked! Gremlins!!!