Tuesday 13 November, Norfolk VA: Admin morning and flush Volvo raw water system with RydLime.
Lapping on the stern was our very early alarm today, not that we were eager to have an early rise. After feeling a bit down with a cold yesterday evening, Glen seems to be better today. He is still low on energy, so it’s very good timing for the weather to turn bad: he will not be tempted to run out there and work on the decks.
Dull day, lots of rain, so we plan for an admin day indoors, in slow motion, and in the warmth. Emails, banking, internet search, video editing, the usual.
Weather forecast still looks good from Friday onward, so we are positive we will be leaving for Bermuda on Friday. We are glad we waited, as this weather front right now is really nasty.
After several hours in front of the laptop, Glen’s patience evaporated. So he goes into his room, to continue with flushing. This time the Volvo.
The jungle of pipes, which look like an enormous octopus, are taking over the space, as Glen makes the setup to flush the engine with RydLime. It’s a rather dark color concoction, and we can’t see if any deposits are coming out of the Volvo. We can only hope it does the job. Same drill as yesterday, using the small bilge pump in a bucket and reversed flow of water.
Later in the afternoon, Gary brings us a delivery. The long awaited and even longer desired connection hoses for the bilge pump. This hose is a bit of a special one. Rubber with metal spiral, so it’s flexible and goes around a very sharp corner without kinking, and also has different internal diameters at each end. Not easy to find a spare one the same. But in America, the land of opportunities, is also the land of finding and ordering anything. We found these houses in an auto spare parts shop.
It only takes Glen a few minutes to remove the old ones and install these replacement. There … done! We’ve only been waiting 4 months to get these special hoses. Seek and you shall find!
Meanwhile the brown Rydlime concoction is circulated around the Volvo raw water system for several hours. When Glen finally stops and flushed with fresh water, he noticed the solution has stripped the I circlip on the small bilge pump completely of its chrome plate! We hope it hasn’t also stripped the inside of the engine too… other than calcium deposits of course. Once cleaned of Rydlime we inspect the inside of the impeller house. OMG it’s not only spotless but the metal looks like new! Brilliant. With the internal zinc anodes replaced and a new impeller, all is put back together on the Volvo and the engine room cleaned back to the usual standard. Then we run both the generator and the Volvo to check for leaks and to ensure both are circulating cooling water OK. All good. Another big job ticked off the long list!
Meanwhile I spend yet another day with my friends, the PC and Adobe Premier Pro, editing videos. Another one is complete and uploaded in the evening. Getting closer now to being caught up. Feels good to be getting back on top of this again.
Shower time then bed! And the rain is still pelting on the decks outside.
