Fri 16 Apr, HHN day 3: Frustration in the engine room over the propeller shaft, fiddling job on the rope clutches and took delivery of our new drogue.
Thankfully, I didn’t wake up crippled this morning, as I had suspected I would do after my Houdini act down the back of the generator yesterday. But I did wake up cold! There is a real chill in the air today, so will be indoor jobs today.
That said, my first task is to the post office to get an estimate to ship our Iridium-Go antenna to Saint Maarten, to an Ebay buyer. The assistant in the PO takes some persuading that a place called Sint Maarten actually exists! $60 estimate. Substantially cheaper than UPS and FEDEX who quoted over $250! Anyway, good to get it sold and out the way. It was another piece of equipment we never used.
And, as they say: out with the old, in with the new. Ray had recently taken delivery of our new Jordan’s Series Drogue (JSD). And I now have the task to get this monster up onto the boat. It’s in a huge box and weighs over 50Kgs! This drogue is essentially a 365ft (120m) long piece of dyneema rope with 176 small parachutes sewn into the rope, spaced equally along it. On the outer end is a section of chain to ensure the drogue stays in the water, while the inner end has a bridle to attach the drogue to each stern cleat.
It’s one of those things you hope to never use, but if you do it could be a boat and life saver if we happen to end up in extreme weather conditions (winds >60-70kts). Essentially, we would deploy it off the stern, secure the helm and go into the cabin and wait out the storm with the drogue keeping us safe. It keeps the stern square to the waves, to stop us getting rolled (rolling happens only when the boat gets side-on to the waves). And, most importantly, stop the boat surfing down any steep breaking waveface which could result in a catastrophic pitch-pole capsize when the bow buries itself into the next wave.
So good to have on the boat, but now I’ve got to work out where to stow the damned thing. It’s as big as a sail and, like all safety equipment, needs to be somewhere with easy access.
Back to maintenance: I check the generator heat exchanger for leaks then put the covers back on, happy that one job is off the list.
Next job will also be a challenging one, and one that I’ve never done before. I need to renew the rubber PSS seal on our propeller shaft. But to do that, I first need to get the propeller shaft released from the Aquadrive. The Aquadrive is a thrust bearing, which transfers the thrust on the propeller shaft from the engine to the boat structure. Without a thrust bearing, the thrust made by the propeller is applied direct to the engine and because the engine is bolted to the boat, the boat moves, but puts a lot of strain on the engine and its mounts. So, there is a lot of force on this thing which explains why it’s built like a Sherman tank, and probably with a proportionately similar weight!
In between the Aquadrive and the engine is a CV joint. 16 very stubborn bolts and the CV is finally removed to reveal the clamp (and its bolts) that grips the prop shaft. I have to release this clamp to get the prop shaft free. But the little bolts that secure it simply won’t budge. I try the impact driver and one bolt pops out perfectly, but the next one I partially strip-out the head. Bugger, NOT good. So I will leave it soaking in Corrosion-X penetrating oil over night and get on with the next job.
Continuing the theme of Houdini style jobs, I make a start to replace the 4 rope clutches. 2 each at the ends of the mainsheet track. The challenge here is getting access to the nuts below deck that hold the clutch bolts above deck. On the starboard side it is relatively easy because the bathroom ceiling panel is removable. But on the port side the nuts are behind the solid head lining and only accessible via a small hole where the mainsheet winch motor resides. And, that motor itself needs to come out (so I can get my arm in, to reach the nuts) and the bolts securing the winch motor are equally inaccessible. What is it about boats? Why don’t designers think of this stuff? Every job you need to be a mouse-sized person with long strong arms, an iron grip, nibble fingers and patience of a saint!
By 9pm I’m done on the bathroom side but can’t face starting the port side. That will be a job for tomorrow.
And in between jobs today, I monitor our YouTube channel. We have been releasing new videos edited from 2019 footage as we sailed the Leeward and Greater Antilles. The last 3 videos have frankly been boring (St.Barts, St.Martin, Saba and Anguilla) and this is reflected in the suppressed viewing numbers. But today’s release is Anegada in the BVIs which we rate as one of our best videos and took a lot of editing. So I’m watching to see how it performs. Feel free to take a look. https://youtu.be/njt5TNUW718
