And it rained

And rained some more.  Shortly after we finished our Christmas day walk and it began raining.  It stopped raining 36 hrs later!  In between it rained steady and hard.  So hard that I had to turn up the music fairly loud to be able to hear it over the sound of the rain striking the boat.  And when it seemed like it had stopped, it really only just lightened up to a "normal" sort of rain that calls for an umbrella. The picture doesn't do it justice; it was really coming down in sheets.

The water treatment systems have been overwhelmed by "turbidity", basically silt and dirt in the water. The government has advised people to not drink water from the tap and to boil it before cooking. We had a charcoal filter on the hose for the water we're getting from shore and just added a ceramic filter which is supposed to remove 99.99% of harmful bacteria.

We just spoke with someone who drove through Portobello this morning and reported a waterfall and mud slide right through the center of town. When it stopped raining it started blowing. We've 15-25kts since last night. The normally lake like harbor at Linton has breaking waves; breaking right into the restaurant we're told. Heavy rain is forecast for later today and tomorrow.

Too much wind and rain to do our on deck projects so we're doing indoor projects and making steady progress.

Christmas Day Toucan

While it was nice and cool this morning we went for a walk back into Fort Sherman. The transition from the marina to the jungle is almost immediate; literally just a few hundred yards of walking. Fay had hoped to see one toucan, but we saw many as they swooped in and out of the trees. We also saw huge vultures perched with their wings spread wide and their backs to the morning sun. Monkeys, parrots and numerous birds rounded out the morning walk. This isn't my best photograph, but you get the idea.

Furuno's Christmas surprise

As we were about to prepare a cocktail and enjoy some hors d'oeuvres that Fay had prepared before we headed over to the BYOD Christmas Eve dinner with all the yachties in the marina, we heard a knocking on the hull. Not quite the sound of tiny hooves on the roof, but surprising none the less. Who could that be? I stuck my head out the companionway and saw someone on the dock. I went out on deck and it was the FedEx delivery man. He spoke no English, but held out a box. I looked and sure enough it was addressed to me and "Yacht in transit: New Morning". I signed my name, printed my name, and gave him $3.30 for I don't know what.

Earlier in the week when I took the covers off the boat instruments it was clear that they were severely UV damaged and two of them shattered in my hand. I mentioned this to a contact at Furuno and he said he'd be happy to send some new ones. I told him it wasn't urgent, we could pick them up from a dealer in February in Panama City, but if he wanted to send them I'd give him our address. He sent four new covers and there were delivered to the boat on Christmas Eve. Incredible customer support and service by both Furuno and FedEx!

The cocktails were great and we're off to dinner.

Our home again

Fay and I spent a couple days in Panama City last week, shopping and provisioning New Morning for a couple of months in the San Blas islands. Then we returned to New Morning on Sunday to finish commissioning and repairs, with an entire mini-van full of parts, clothes and groceries. Oh and a couple bottles of champagne, rum and gin!

Each day has been two steps forward and one step back. But today we got New Morning really cleaned up nice. It was such a relief to have six months of "on the hard" dirt and dust scrubbed off her decks. The deck lockers were emptied, cleaned and re-loaded. The deck is now sparkling, the cockpit clean and she's feeling like home.

We still have more projects before we can get underway, but we're making steady progress.

Back in the water and nice words from Chuck Paine

It was never certain, but we got enough time with no rain, notice I didn't say sun, to get the second coat of bottom paint applied.  Then yesterday, with New Morning in the slings they applied a second coat in the spots where the jack stands had been and it started raining again.  It rained pretty steady for about an hour, but it eventually took a break, the wind continued to blow and New Morning was back in the water and into a slip by 2pm.  An hour and a half later I was on my way to Panama City.

On a separate subject, Chuck Paine has said some very nice things about New Morning in a paper posted on his web site.  I've posted it on the Design page, look towards the bottom of the page.

Paint vs rain

Fay is arriving on Thursday mid-day, I depart for Panama City tomorrow afternoon, and we need a place to live when we return. New Morning needs to get into the water! But first she needs a new coat of bottom paint. The bottom paint cannot be applied in the rain and the sun has been out for only 4- 5 hours in the last nine days.

Yesterday it quit raining about noon and the sun never came out, but by 2pm the hull was sufficiently dry to start painting and they got one coat of paint applied. This morning is again blowing a steady 25-35 with intermittent rain. The wind helps dry the hull so that's not as big a problem as the rain. If we can get the second coat on today, we can launch first thing tomorrow morning and I can get New Morning tied up, the refrigeration started, water tanks filled, etc before I depart for Panama City. We just need 3-4 hours with no rain.

Channel surfing in Panama

Still apparently under the strong influence of Rome, there is no happy hour on Domingo; well drinks (the only kind available) are $4. But there is live music, and on the TV (not turned off during the live music) there is widespread flooding, landslides, road closures and a few helicopter rescues, all related by perfectly coiffed news babes in prom dresses. Even accounting for my poor understanding of Spanish, there is still a disconnect there.

As my bar tab hits $12 and I enjoy the only reliable thing on the menu, a cheeseburger, we watch the Bears play New England in a snow storm at Soldier Field; also a bit disconnected when it's 75F at 8pm.

The sun played peek-a-boo today, intermixed with squally rain. If the weather is at least that good tomorrow we'll get the bottom painted and be back in the water on Tuesday. Life on the hard is - well - hard. It would be nice to be back in the water.

Arturo comes through!

The gating item on getting back into the water has been getting the bottom painted. The paint arrived in Panama City, but the crazy weather had closed the road. Yesterday, in a driving rain, I heard knocking on the hull. Arturo had arrived with the bottom paint (and a bunch of other stuff). The normally hour and a half drive had taken him four hours! The road was one lane in many places due to mud slides and conditions were the worst he had ever seen.

But now we have bottom paint, and today there is a hazy sun peeking through the clouds drying things out a bit. Once the bottom is painted we'll wait a day or two and be able to get back into the water. New Morning feels so much better in the water than on the hard.

Plan B1-2-3...

The last 24hrs was pretty wild weather. There was so much rain that yesterday they closed the canal, or more accurately they opened the lock doors, so they could drain water out of Gatun lake. This was only the third time the canal has been closed in its 96yr history. The last time it was closed for weather was in 1915. This was the heaviest rains recorded in the 73yrs that they have kept weather records in Panama. With the canal closed we were temporarily cutoff from Panama. Even after they opened the canal (and the bridge across the Gatun Locks), the road to Panama City was closed and our delivery was turned back.

It blew 25-30 all day and kicked up to a steady 35 for awhile in the late afternoon, but there was not much rain. There is a large breakwater, 4 miles in length, that protects Colon and the Gatun locks from the ocean; large waves were breaking right over the top of it. Shelter Bay is a protected lagoon off of the main harbor and there were 3' waves from the outer harbor breaking adjacent the entrance to Shelter Bay.

The cloud cover and wind kept the temperature down to the high 70's so I continued on with my projects inside New Morning. Yesterday I was able to complete part 1 which was to put the damaged pump back together to be able to use it (though it will be leaking) to limp across the marina after we go back in the water.

Yesterday I also started part 2 which was to separate the shaft seal vent from the engine sea water plumbing. I was able to dismantle the existing plumbing and work out the new solution. In the process I realized that the Lyman Morse plumbing was fatally flawed, it was more complex than just plumbing to the wrong side of the anti-siphon vent. Since the "T" they installed to bring the shaft seal vent into the engine was mounted below the waterline, it would either siphon into the cylinders, or siphon out the impeller cover; two bad choices. Today I ran new hose from the heat exchanger to the anti-siphon valve and then to the exhaust mixing elbow. Unfortunately the location of the anti-siphon valve and the path for the hoses made that much more difficult than it needed to be, but I'll spare you the details. I brought 6' of 1" hose and used exactly all of it; how lucky was that!

Finally I temporarily strapped the shaft seal vent about 10" above the waterline. That should be sufficient to get across the marina to a slip. Fay is bringing new vent line hose and then I'll be able to mount it higher and have a permanent solution.

But the weather has shifted our schedule. The delivery of the bottom paint was delayed by the road closures and it's not clear when it will get through. So we'll be on the hard longer than expected, I'm stuck in the Shelter Bay "hotel" and Fay has rescheduled her flight to Panama. We must be cruising again.

Plan B

Plan A was to replace the pump, but since I've learned that it requires removing an engine mount, I'm going to try Plan B. Plan B is to insert a heli-coil, basically a new set of threads. I'm told the hardest and riskiest part of the job is removing the broken screw.

But first is plan B1, which is to put things back together (hoses and bolts), enough to be able to limp from the haul out slip to our real slip. And this takes us back to the original problem which is that once back in the water we'll be siphoning water out of the ocean and into New Morning through the incorrectly plumbed shaft seal vent. So Plan B2 is to re-plumb the shaft seal vent before we go back into the water.

The incorrect installation of the shaft seal vent by Lyman Morse two years ago has led to an amazing series of discoveries and problems; none of which they consider to be their problem.

Yanmar debacle

Today did not go so well. I bought the service manual. I bought the parts catalog. And then I bought the parts. There is nothing in the Yanmar 4JH4-HTE service manual that says to replace the water pump I need to remove the engine mount! What kind of bogus service manual is that? What kind of design is that. Some engineers in Japan should be fired! Remove the engine mount to change the water pump? I guess they must believe that their water pump (made by Johnson in Sweden) will last longer than the engine, or that engine mounts are easily removed (I was advised to unbolt it from the stringer to avoid changing the alignment)?

Unbelievable!

It makes the canal work

Rain. Torrential rain. Lots of rain today. Steady, warm, driving rain. And wind; a steady 25kts at the masthead, gusting higher. The boat is "shivering" a bit on the jack stands where we sit adjacent the travelift.

Yesterday was a good day. I identified the exact nature of the problem behind the water siphoning into the boat through the shaft seal vent (Lyman Morse plumbed it to the wrong side of the anti-siphon loop), cleaned off all the hard growth on the shaft, prop and prop gears that had accumulated in Bonaire, and replaced all (but one) of the zincs on the shaft and prop. Unfortunately the Spurs line cutter needs a special zinc which I had not identified previously and don't have. It will have to wait until next time. Fortunately we don't spend too much time in marina's so the zinc doesn't look too bad.

Today is water pump day. Last May, when I attempted to replace the impeller in the water pump for the third time, I managed to snap off one of the small bolts that hold the cover in place. Apparently in my previous attempts to replace the impeller, when I did not yet understand that the bad plumbing was the source of the river running through it even when the thru hull was closed, enough salt water got into the thread and around the bolt to cause it to corrode in place. Then I cleverly applied too much force and snapped it off. As usual, an accumulation of errors. So now I need to replace the entire pump. I haven't been looking forward to this job because the pump is supremely inaccessible. But it's a good day for an indoor project and the temperature is a nice cool 79 so this is about as good as it's going to get.

Time to get to it.

Packed for Panama

Just finished packing for a 6am flight out of SFO tomorrow morning. A full day of travel and I should be in Panama City tomorrow night. A little shopping on Saturday and then to Shelter Bay on Sunday.

Next week I've got some critical work to do while New Morning is on the hard, like replacing the raw water pump on the engine. Then the plan is to go back into the water on Friday and then move back on board. Back to the boat means back to boat projects!