Bayside Marina, Islamorada, FL - Steamboat Channel
2:57 PM Underway
4:25 PM Docked Bayside Marina, Islamorada, FL
1.9 engine hours 9 miles
Jonathan, Eric and Eric’s parents Ken and Gail

Hey everybody (Suz, Jon, Eric, doggies and Eric’s parents) let’s take boat ride! I start the engine, but it doesn’t sound right. I check the exhaust and there is no cooling water coming out. STOP the engine. And, it’s down into the engine room to see what’s wrong. Did I leave the seacock turned off after changing the transmission cooler? No, it is turned on so that the water should be coming into the engine water pump. Check the strainer. I just cleaned it. It should be fine and it is. I changed the water pump impeller before we started the trip. So, I doubt it has failed. A light bulb comes on in my head. When you installed the new transmission cooler, did you remove the protective plastic caps? I know I did for the transmission lines because I couldn’t screw them on the fittings if I hadn’t removed them. But the hose water connections just slipped right on. So I didn’t remember and I take the hose off the transmission cooler where the water enters, and bingo, there is the protective plastic cap blocking water from entering the transmission cooler. I pull that one off and Jonathan says lets see if that fixed it. I have my doubts since I figure if I didn’t take the cap off the ‘water in pipe’, I probably didn’t take it off the ‘water exit’ pipe. But, we start the engine and still no water coming out the exhaust. So, lets take off the other end hose clamp. But wait a minute, that’s not so easy. When I was tightening that hose clamp during the installation a weird thing happened. Just as I about got the clamp as tight as I wanted, the screw head sheared off! It was tight enough to not leak. But if I ever wanted to take it off I could not unscrew it. I would have to cut it off. I had double clamped it so it wasn’t leaking. Now trying to hacksaw a hose clamp without cutting the rubber hose is going to be a challenge. I successfully cut through one side. I try to turn the metal like a sardine can and to break the other side of the clamp. But it just holds on. I’m getting exhausted. Suddenly there is blood from my thumb as the jagged metal got me. Not a biggie. I continue working except blood is a little slippery and I have to wipe my thumb off a bit and then a bandaid. Jonathan is on the other side trying with vise grips to twist the metal into submission. Finally, after more cutting the claim snaps off, I slide the hose off the exit end of the transmission cooler. But the protective plastic cap is not there. As, in it got blown off when we tested the engine and now has moved further down stream of the cooling water path. Hum, off with a 90° hose and we can feel it. Jonathan takes over and removes the plastic with a medical hemostat that I use for holding small parts. We put it all back together ( with a new hose clamp ) and start the engine with the water passing through the entire system as it was supposed to do. Yea.

Now lets take the boat ride we started to do about an hour ago.

We had a nice 5 ride out on the Steamboat channel and I ran the engine up hard to check for leaks and operating temperature. All is well and after we docked, all had celebratory docktails.

Today’s picture is the stubborn hose clamp that Jonathan and I successful removed.