Mid-Life Cruising!!!

Like one of my favorite R.E.M. songs .. we're "Shiny, Happy People" with our shiny, new plumbing on Nirvana!  After removing all of the old, moldy plumbing hoses and painting the storage areas, we finally have running water again on Nirvana!

After a good cleaning with Barkeeper's Friend, we decided to keep the original galley sinks and just buy a new faucet. It's a bit larger than the ideal size for the sinks, but being from Home Depot .. it was a lot cheaper than a "marine" faucet! The above photo in this post shows the finished installation. We're happy!

Like all of our projects on Nirvana, replacing the plumbing wasn't as quick n easy as it sounds! Pulling n tugging new hoses through holes and underneath settees & cabinets ain't no joke. Hoses to & from the two water tanks, hoses to & from the head, hoses to & from the galley, a vent hose from each water tank, and another from the holding tank .. and they all needed new clamps and screws. Why is it that all of our old stainless steel clamps didn't have stainless screws?! Then there was all those little plastic pieces/parts needed to attach the tiny sink drains to the hose .. elbows, tees, bushings ... I learned all sorts of new words! But, it was all figured out after many trips to the hardware store.

The picture below is a bit blurry, but see all those plastic fittings from the galley sink .. x 2.  We used heater hose for the drainage hoses, and will eventually install a water filter in this under-sink cabinet.

Here's a photo of our shiny, new faucet & sink in the head .. and what's goin' on underneath (more fittings!). We found a great deal on the oval sink from Go2Marine. We bought it during a Christmas sale and with a coupon ... getting it for $26 bucks! Considering how funky the old sink was (Barkeeper's Friend just wasn't enough) and the cheap price on the sink .. this was money well spent! Who wants a funky sink in their bathroom?!  The faucet came from Home Depot ... again, meant for a house but a lot cheaper than a "marine" faucet. 

Notice the vent hose coming out of the left corner of the counter? This is from the holding tank (under the port salon settee) and goes up into the storage cabinet & out of the stanchion on the deck. We used spa hose for this. See those knobs underneath the electric outlet (yeah, we know electricity near the sink isn't safe and we need to address this) .. Ken added that with a shower hose/head for those rare times we actually shower inside the boat.

Here's a photo below of the hoses (we made sure they were potable!) in our storage closet that add water from two deck fill locations to the two water tanks & a vent hose that runs from each tank up to the deck and out of a stanchion. One water tank is forward of this closet in the v-berth and the other is aft of this closet under the starboard settee. (The second hose from deck to v-berth water tank is not in this photo .. and is located on the left behind the cabinet drawer). 

Ken built some shelves for this cabinet, and he finished the shelves just yesterday .. woo hoo! But that's another post soon ...

For those not familiar with boat plumbing .. do ya see why it's not as easy as it sounds? So many parts and tight places. I swear, building a house is much easier!

While thinking of those water deck fills .. we had to buy new plastic covers for them.  Am I the only one that thinks $50 bucks for two pieces of plastic is crazy?!  I think Catalina Direct got us on this one, and I found some cheaper ones but Ken said they wouldn't work? I don't know .. but we need to make sure these are secured and don't go overboard! Oh, and the bronze fill pieces in the deck were a bit green, so I used a tip that I learned from "Women Who Sail" .. ketchup!  The acid in the ketchup eats away at the grime .. just let sit about an hour then scrub with a toothbrush and rinse. It really works!

During all of this, our old water pump was leaking so it was replaced with a new Shur-Flo water pump (#86-8398) from PPL Motor Homes. We also got this on sale for $55.99 .. good deal! A lot of stuff for a boat can be found at an RV store for a lot less money. We kept our original water pump in case we can fix it when we have time. Maybe it would make a good spare.

The macerator pump was also repaired during this project with a new impeller & gasket from West Marine for $41.69. We've since found this repair kit for $26.36 at CE Showroom .. good to know for spares. We were happy with this fix .. better than over $100 bucks for a new pump! Also .. anything with a holding tank or macerator is dreaded ... but it really wasn't that bad. The macerator pump is located a bit higher than the holding tank, so there wasn't much of a mess. Whew .. there wasn't much "pugh"!

With clean water tanks and plumbing, this was exciting stuff to us. Only other boaters could understand my excitement about new hoses n stuff, right!

Since this project, we've installed the refinished teak cabinet drawers & doors that have been waiting for this plumbing project to be finished ... I was giddy! Also, in addition to the storage shelves that Ken just completed, he also created a new cabinet in the head for the new storage area (hole he cut) behind the toilet. Stay tuned for a post with photos .. Nirvana keeps looking better!

Upcoming projects are installing new interior LED lights that we purchased and bringing home our cushions for cleaning and re-covering. Nirvana is close to looking like a home!

Hasta luego ... until then. Mid-Life Cruising!

Ken took advantage of one of the few dry days between Christmas and New Year's to install Nirvana's new shaft.  This meant also installing a new coupling, stuffing box with packing and hose kit with clamps.  Once installed, new zincs and our 3-blade prop were attached.  I took the picture below after the installation to show how much of a PITA it is to get to our stuffing box.  We love our Catalina, but placing the cabinet wall directly over the stuffing box had to be a cruel joke.  Needless to say, Ken wasn't laughing.  

We both can't wait to get out of the yard, and remember our deck painting project?  Well, Ken has repainted the one side section that we don't like TWO more times (with a brush instead of spray) and it's not looking any better ... so many brush strokes!  Of course, this "bad" area is in view from the cockpit and it's gonna drive us nuts until we fix it.  The yard can be a frustrating place, so we decided to move on and address the one "bad" section in the marina at a later date.  

Our new coupling came from a local place that also has a web site, Alario Brothers, and it was brought to the local machinist to make the new shaft.  The new shaft is composed of Aqualoy 17, and you can read more about it on the link that I found here.

We ordered the stuffing box with packing (for 1" shaft) #Z2000 and the stuffing box hose kit #Z3058 from Catalina Direct.  It was tough trying to find the right hose locally, and even after ordering the hose kit from Catalina Direct, Ken still had to cut about a half inch off the hose to make it work.  As I mentioned in a previous post, the new packing is a composite fiber packing material that we hope will be as good as it sounds.

We purchased this 3-blade prop during our first haul-out in 2010.  Yep, we gave up "speed" and the 2-blade folding prop that came with the boat.  Does a sailboat really go fast anyway?  A castle nut on the prop with a couple of cotter pins and two new zincs on the shaft ...

Ken gave the boat a good washing with Starbrite Boat Wash before calling it a day.  The rain came back afterwards, and then the New Year.  This week has been spent catching up on work and hopefully next week I'll be writing about bringing Nirvana to the marina.  Wish us luck!

Hasta luego ... Mid-Life Cruising!

Well, we got the shaft!  Luckily, in this case ... it's a good thing!

I mentioned in a previous post that Ken had to cut out our old shaft after taking a look at it when removing the packing from the stuffing box.  Ken ordered a new shaft from a local machinist, who seemed really knowledgeable ... saying that he makes shafts all the time.  In order for the machinist to make the new shaft, Ken brought him the old shaft and a new coupling that he bought from a nearby marine supply store, Alario Brothers.  Since we were at the mercy of the machinist and his schedule, Ken opted to buy the one-part coupling that was in stock instead of the two-piece coupling that would have to be ordered .. and cause us to put off the machinist.  

Ken picked up the new shaft the week before Thanksgiving, and the machinist said he tried to remove the old cut-off shaft from the old coupling with over 3000 lbs. of pressure .. didn't work.  We definitely did the right thing in cutting the shaft!

Since we were buying a new shaft and coupling, we decided to go ahead and buy a new stuffing box with the packing already in it and a new stuffing box hose kit from Catalina Direct.  We could have also ordered the shaft from them, but we didn't want to take the chance on getting the measurements wrong.  It was nice to be able to bring the old shaft and new coupling to a person for just a few bucks more than ordering online!

The new stuffing box is pre-packed with a composite fiber packing material instead of the traditional flax packing.  It's described as "a high-tech non-asbestos replacement that is impregnated with virgin PTFE in-suspension and internally saturated with a proprietary lubricant.  Sounds good, right?  Anyway, it's supposed to leak only once every 3 minutes instead of two-three times a minute and we're ready to give it a try.

The items from Catalina Direct came in last night, so we're anxious to install our new shaft, stuffing box, hose and coupling.  Fingers crossed that this goes without a hitch .. and maybe we'll be back in the water in a week or two?!

Ken and I spent our "Black Friday" and post-Thanksgiving weekend washing Nirvana and sanding the areas of the deck that needed re-painting after our monumental deck painting project.  With a small brush, Ken touched up the one side of Nirvana that needed extra paint on Saturday.  Sunday morning we paid a visit to Nirvana to see how the touch-ups looked.  We were nervous to see the results, but we were actually happy with what we saw ... what a relief!  The boat still had a lot of morning dew on it, and we didn't want to touch the deck since the paint hadn't fully cured.  We're anxious to get back to the boatyard to see the deck once again and get Nirvana ready to motor soon.  After the shaft, stuffing box and coupling are installed, we just need to wax the hull and give the bottom a quick paint job .. a breeze compared to what we've already done!  Luckily, the thru-hulls and cutlass bearing still look good since being replaced during our last haul-out in 2010.

Speaking of "Black Friday", we stayed out of the stores and in the boatyard but ... I did order a Wonderbag Non-Electric Cooker during a "pre-Black Friday" sale on Amazon.  I'm excited to try this "slow cooker" out on the boat, and I got it for a great price too!  Ken & I got an even better deal during "Black Friday" from West Marine.  We each ordered an Offshore Inflatable PFD that was $100 off ... times two makes a pretty good savings.  Hopefully we won't have to try these out any time soon, but better safe than sorry!  

Hasta luego .. until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

About two weeks ago, Ken removed the packing from the stuffing box.  It was no surprise when replacing the packing in Nirvana's stuffing box turned out to be another big project ... that's a boat for ya, right?!  Since we'd never replaced the packing on our boat, we figured it was in bad shape and should be replaced while on the hard.  The first challenge of the project is getting to the stuffing box ... who decided to place it directly under the galley cabinet?!  This would have been a lot easier if placed a little further up or down.

After a few cuts & scrapes on Ken's hands, he was able to separate the stuffing box with some PB Blaster and two wrenches ... each turning in the opposite direction.  Ken was then able to pick away the old packing with a tiny tool that reminded me of the dentist.  The packing came apart in pieces (first pic above) ... it was definitely overdue for a replacement.  

We were hoping that we'd find a smooth shaft after removing the packing, as we'd like to use the GFO dripless packing.  While we half-expected the brass shaft to have grooves, we didn't expect to see what can only be described as some sort of delamination?  I didn't wanna risk my life by asking Ken to move over so I could take a picture, but I was able to take a quick pic ...

We quickly decided that the shaft needed to be removed, so Ken tried to separate the shaft from the transmission coupling ... not so easy.  PB Blaster and some tools weren't gonna do it.  After doing some research, Ken went back to the boatyard the next day with some bolts to try and pry the shaft free ... nope, that didn't work either.  After more research, Ken ordered a coupler puller from Catalina Direct.  Between moving out of our condo and stressing about the paint job on Nirvana's deck, we were really hoping that the $50 tool would do the trick.  About a week later, we had the tool and Ken was back at the boatyard ... still no luck!  Would you believe that the part sold by Catalina Direct for the Catalina 30's didn't fit?!  

Luckily, all hope had not been lost.  We still had one option that we probably should have done from the beginning ... cut that thing off!  We'd already decided that we were going to bring the shaft to a local machinist to have a new one made, and a new coupling isn't as expensive as we had feared (less than $100) .. so why waste any more time trying to fight this old shaft and coupling?

After spending Halloween weekend getting settled in our new place, Ken went back to the boatyard last week .. with a grinder.  In no time he had the shaft cut and removed .. Hallelujah!  Ken was able to speak with a local machinist, who came highly recommended and sounded like he knew exactly what we needed.  Unfortunately, he was out of town for the week but at least we have a plan ... and plenty of things to keep us busy in the meantime.  We needed to catch up on our jobs, and we ordered some more Interlux paint.  The paint just arrived, so hopefully we can meet with the machinist this week and do some touch-ups on Nirvana's deck soon.

Looking at the coupling and shaft confirmed that we made the right choice in deciding to cut the shaft and replace them both.  The shaft is bent and pretty beat up.

Ken was able to remove the propeller with a prop puller pretty easily, and the stuffing box can be cleaned instead of buying a new one ... about $100 saved.

Look at the shaft in the coupling ... nothing was gonna get that out!  It looks like it's molded in there.

Things like shafts and stuffing boxes aren't where you wanna take a shortcut.  After all, if it's gonna happen ... it's gonna happen out there!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Our painted heat exchanger hanging from a tree to dry.

After soaking our badly corroded heat exchanger, Ken washed it in soap and water then lightly sanded it to get the loose paint off.  He wished that he'd sanded the exchanger before soaking it in Chem-Prime, so he sprayed the outside with Chem-Prime and let it sit for about 15 minutes.  He then rinsed it in soap and water again and let it dry.  The picture below shows our heat exchanger after being sanded and sprayed with the Chem-Prime.  The white areas are caused by the Chem-Prime .. doing its thing.

For those who didn't see the picture below from our previous post about engine maintenance ... it's a picture of our heat exchanger before we removed it, surrounded by some rust.

Then we removed the heat exchanger ... the saddle bracket that the heat exchanger sits in was really rusty, and filthy.

While Ken fixed our leaky tiller head, I grabbed some damp paper towels and wiped off all the flaky filth and rust from the saddle bracket and other areas.  I then lightly sanded the saddle bracket, motor mounts, and anything else that I could reach.  The pictures don't really capture the crusty mess before, but I was happy with the results of my cleaning.

 

After wiping down the area again with a damp cloth, Chem-Prime was sprayed on the rusted areas.   After sitting for a while, some areas began to turn white ... it's doing its thing again.

 

 

A few days later, Ken taped off the openings of the heat exchanger and hung it from a tree in our backyard.  He then sprayed it with a can of Krylon engine paint that he picked up at the local hardware store ... Alpine Green Detroit Diesel.  He also cut some 1/8" rubber gasket material and placed it on the saddle bracket.  This will provide a barrier between the bracket and the heat exchanger.  Another couple of days later Ken removed the tape, added our new pencil zinc*, placed the exchanger on the saddle bracket, connected the hoses, and added the new clamps.  He had hoped to add new hoses at this time, but had trouble finding them (our West Marine sucks sometimes).  He was only able to find one of the three hoses that he needed (from an auto store) ... a red, 5/8" hose that's about 2 feet long and runs water from the impeller to the heat exchanger.  I guess we'll have to find the other hoses online.  We're going to start ordering extras of all these small things, because most of them have to be ordered online and then we have to wait for them to be shipped.  We don't want to have to deal with this when we're cruising ... at least not any more than we absolutely have to.

This green exchanger looks a lot better than it did before we started this project!  We're thinking that with the cleaning, Chem-Prime spray, new paint & clamps, and new zinc our heat exchanger should last for quite a while longer.

The new red hose ...

Another view from above ... so where do we find these hoses, especially the u-shaped one?

View from side ...

and from the top.

 

After the heat exchanger was in place, Ken added a 50/50 mix of water & anti-freeze to the manifold and opened the fresh water intake valve.  The time had come ... to find out if our engine was gonna start!  Aaahhh, the sound of our engine ... we'll hate it when we're motoring for hours instead of sailing, but at this point we loved it!  Then our attention was on our temperature sensor, hoping that we didn't over-heat.  We didn't... yes!

This coming Labor Day weekend should be the perfect time to take Nirvana out and run our engine.  We still have to add our lazy jacks before putting our main sail back on, so although we won't be sailing just yet ... we can't wait to take Nirvana for a ride around our neighborhood.  It's been way too long.

After using Chem-Prime and reading how it removes rust by changing it into a protective coating, we figured we'd try it out on a few other things.  We had a few rust spots on the ceramic tile of our back patio, so we sprayed it on them in hopes they'd disappear.  About 10 minutes later the rust was gone!  We rinsed the areas with water and good as new.  The rusty tool below looks a lot better now too.  We love this stuff!

*If you read our earlier post, you saw the trouble we were having with fitting a pencil zinc into the heat exchanger.  I spoke to a guy at Westerbeke after emailing him a few photos, and he thought that we may have an aftermarket exchanger.  He did tell me not to worry about having such a short zinc, as it should still do its job.  We're just going to check it often.   Perhaps size doesn't matter!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Our heat exchanger ... taking a soak.

As I mentioned in our post about replacing the engine's pencil zinc, we realized that the heat exchanger had a lot of corrosion in the hole where the zinc screws into.  Since there was so much corrosion, we figured it was time to remove and clean the heat exchanger before going any further.  

Ken removed the heat exchanger by making the sure the water valve was off, draining the coolant (not easy when there's no room underneath to catch it), then disconnecting the hoses.  He had containers to catch anything left in the hoses, and towels to clean up the inevitable mess.  The heat exchanger was then unscrewed from the clamps and removed.  The picture below shows the missing heat exchanger.

Chemprime ... and the old gaskets removed from the heat exchanger's end caps.

The hole where the zinc goes was so full of corrosion that a pencil couldn't have fit through it ... now all of that corrosion is gone.  So now we can put that zinc in there ... or so we thought.  Ken bought two brass heads and a few anodes to screw into them for spares.  This will be cheaper than replacing the entire zinc every time it needs to be replaced.  Would you believe that the dang thing still doesn't fit?!  While we have no regrets cleaning our heat exchanger, the zinc is what started this whole project and it should fit.  Ken had to cut one of the new zincs in half ... surely that would do the trick.  Nope!

Ken proceeded to grind the zinc into a pencil ... literally a pencil zinc now.  That didn't work either.  Why won't this zinc fit?  Any smaller and there won't be any protection!  After looking closely at the exchanger, we think that the piece attached on the end of our Westerbeke heat exchanger may have been improperly placed.  If you look at this picture below, the zinc isn't screwed all the way in but it's still hitting the metal.  The same piece of metal on the left side of the exchanger is thinner.  Was this piece put on backwards?  Was it put in the wrong position?!  We'd love to hear your thoughts, and in the meantime I'm going to email Westerbeke a couple of pictures and see what they say.  

Other than the issue with the zinc, the next step is installing the heat exchanger ... or is it?  Ken has been thinking about whether or not he should re-paint the exchanger.  It looks to have been previously painted with a bronze paint, which has started to come off in spots.  After cleaning the exchanger, Ken lightly sanded it and removed most of the remaining paint.  He wishes that he'd thought of sanding the exchanger before soaking it in Chemprime, but since he didn't I'm thinking that he could just clean the exchanger with some detergent, spray it with Chemprime and let it dry.  Tell me if I'm wrong, but it's my understanding that the Chemprime should be enough of a protectant.  Many of the reviews I've read about this product mention spraying it on car parts and just leaving it.

So, the project continues!  I think Ken will be installing the heat exchanger real soon without any new paint and with a really short zinc for now.  He's already purchased the new gaskets and O-rings for the end caps, as well as some new hoses and clamps.  We're anxious to go sailing before Summer is over.  Oh, and one more thing about the zinc ... we've heard that teflon tape should NOT be used on the threads because the zinc needs metal-to-metal contact in order to be effective.  Thought I'd pass that bit of info on to ya.

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

After removing the winch from the sailboat, Ken brought it inside and started taking apart the winch in a cardboard box.  We didn't know how many little pieces could fall, and a box would make finding them much easier.  First step, unscrew the top and remove the top cap, the feeder arm and the two collets.

Remaining drum bearing removed from the shaft and one spindle removed (hole at bottom) ...

Smallest gear ...

Those two little brown parts on the left and right ... that is called a "pawl".  They were removed carefully, because they have springs that we didn't want to lose.  The pawls were also cleaned.

Shaft removed ... 

All the pieces!  Our winch was filthy, giving us hope that all it needed was a good cleaning.

After searching the internet on how to clean our winch, we had our cleaning supplies ready!  Two little brushes for the tiny crevices, a larger brush for applying the paint thinner (mineral spirits), some wheel bearing grease, and some motor oil.  We  learned that "white spirits" are just another term for mineral spirits ... or paint thinner.  This was an outside job!

A light application of bearing grease on the shaft and drum bearings and time to put back together!  Some winches suggest "packing" the bearings with grease, but this particular model says NOT to.  We did lightly grease the inside cover of the winch, often called the drum.

If you'd rather watch a video, I found a great one from www.p2marine.com showing how easy this was.

We were relieved to find that our winch is now quiet and working great.  Whew ... we won't have to beg for donations to buy a new winch!

It's recommended that winches are cleaned annually, and now that Ken knows how simple this is we'll be sure to clean our winches every year.  It's an easy way to extend the life of the winch and save some big bucks!  We have seven winches on our boat ... one down, six to go!

Did you know that West Marine has some great information on all sorts of boating topics called The West Advisor, including information on winches.  It's worth checking out!

We hope this post helps others that are intimidated about cleaning a winch.  If you have any tips we'd love to hear them!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!