Nov 15 - 17 2011 - Time away with Aaron at Bowen Island

With my engine repaired, oil changed, fluids up... we set sail for a short trip to Bowen Island with Aaron in his new sailboat "Serenity Now" as company.

On the sail over, we ran into hundreds of Pacific Dolphins. Dolphins everywhere, going in every direction. While Hank was filming Aaron, he noticed that a sea-lion surfaced at Serenity's stern, dolphins seemed to be all over him. The sea-lion surfaced the second time, with his large flipper exposed, seemingly to ask Aaron for help. He surfaced a third time, then he was gone.

Hank check the web, and found that dolphins do eat sea-lion on occasion. Humm, maybe they were wearing him out before the kill. Wish the sea-lion best of luck.

We moored at our old slip at Snug Cove (A07); the dock was frozen! so a cold night tonight. Hank and Aaron when out for dinner, then watched a movie with me. It took two electric heaters to keep them warm!

That night the winds and rain where very strong... so Hank and Aaron decided not to sail the next day.

I just laid around with Serenity Now, with nothing to do, but wait for the rain / snow to stop

Hank found a few more leaks in my cabin roof... where my old instrumentation wires when through the ceiling. Oh well, he likes working on me :)

Sailed home on Thursday.... as we came into my slip at home, we found it was completely plugged with logs. Hank had to clear out the logs before I could be moored.

Now sitting at dock once again, waiting for my next adventure.

Nov 13 2011 - First Video attempt

Hi all, this is my first video - taken from various locations... Race back from Sliva Bay, around Howe Sound, by passage island

Nov 13 2011 - Anti-Freeze change - Problems!

On a boat, no job is small, what you think should take minutes, could last up to days! Changing the anti-freeze is "normally" around 15 minute job. Well, it has been three days now, since Hank started, and is still not complete. Richard and Arron (Hank's friends) and Hank must of spent over 10 working hours on this.

As Hank was opening the drain valve, it BROKE! right at the engine block. The valve was pot aluminum! why would they install that type of soft metal? the engine block is cast iron!

To get access to make repairs, Hank had to remove the alternator, cooling hoses, electric wiring, and oil filter. To repair this, you have to remove the broken off piece inside the engine block. To make the story short... after a lot of work, they finally got it out by retapping the threads. All better now!

As said before, no job is small... while hank was working in that area, he noticed that the oil drain pump was rubbing against the  rubber cockpit drain hose... wearing down the rubber. Good thing he noticed this as it could of been a major problem, if left unchecked. A simple fix... move the oil drain pump to another location and replace the drain hose.

All to do now is the replace the antifreeze, change the oil, and relocate the pump.






Til next time... more adventures eh!

Nov 08 2011 - on the "Hard"

Some phrase eh..."on the hard"... meaning... your vessel is in dry dock. At first, I didn't like that phrase, on the hard, but now, being a boater... it makes sense to me.
Anyway...
Hank finally took me to the yacht club for my hull cleaning... looking forward to this, as I know I have a few pounds of mussels growing at the bottom of my keel.

Richard Grass came over and helped out... great guy to say the least. My hull was power washed, mussels removed, and they added one additional zinc near my brass propeller. However, they did not paint my bottom this time. Hank could not get any bottom paint, plus it was raining so they could apply it anyway... next time eh!

Hank felt a bit better, knowing my bottom was clean and the all is well down there... zincs secured, propeller good, rudder is strong, through-hulls all looking good.

Hank lowered me into the water, without problems. Just we were going to sail / motor away, Richard mentioned that we should check the dripless bearing... I forgot all about this, as we have to open up the valve to allow the air to escape and water to come into the bearing! If not, 30 seconds later, would destroy my PSS bearing. Thanks to Richard!!

We motored home, tied up .... now waiting for my anti-freeze change over.

Til next time...

Oh ya... did you know that sea-gulls eat mussel whole! Yes, shell and all!!




Tarka