Scupper Trouble May 2008
11 May 2008 | Whortonsville, NC
Lane Kendall
Going to the boat is always fun no matter what happens (with the obvious exceptions). The weather in May is typically very nice but very changeable. The bugs are no quite so numerous or hungry. We didn't have a plan for the weekend except to float and enjoy being on the water. As it turned out, it's a good thing we hadn't planned a sailing trip because boat maintenance took precedence.
Friday May 9, 2008
It had been a difficult week at work. Deadlines are looming and not being met due to circumstances beyond my control. Getting away was very important. I wasn't able to leave until my usual "quitting" time but Judy had everything ready and we were able to actually pull out the driveway before 5pm. I realize that I write a lot about weather in my log entries but I suspect any ship's log would contain weather related information because it has such a direct bearing on activities. A stop in Asheboro was required to drop off some ceramic tile samples for our ongoing bathroom-remodeling project. We were a little late for the Raleigh rush hour. We stopped in Clayton for gas (very depressing) and I realized just how tired I was from my week's work. I wanted to rest a bit and have a sit-down meal, so we dined at a Quiznos sub shop near the gas station. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we made really good time. Almost exactly 5 hours even with two stops. The air was damp and a bit sultry when we arrived, but as always, that would change. We enjoyed a few bug free minutes on deck before we turned in.
Saturday May 10, 2008
I woke up wondering why Judy was scurrying around the cabin at 2am. Then I heard the thunderclap. She was closing hatches and securing the boat for a storm. Tied to the dock, a thunderstorm is not too scary. In fact sleeping in a boat in the rain is much like sleeping under a tin roof, an experience not many folks younger than me have enjoyed. This storm was all bark and no bite. It only sprinkled and made a lot of noise. We woke at our usual time, turned the coffee pot on and eased into the day. The forecast was for a nice morning and steadily deteriorating conditions after noon. The dirty early morning clouds told a different story. I had a couple of boat tasks that needed attention. I didn't think anything was urgent but since the weather was kind of crappy, I turned my attention to the boats physical condition.
Regular readers will recall my struggle to restore the luxury of hot water to Southern Star's meager creature comforts. On a previous working weekend I had replaced the heating unit in the water heater. I was sure this was the source of the problem that caused the breaker / switch to turn itself off after about 60 seconds. After spending most of a Saturday after practically standing on my head in the port cockpit locker I turned the water heater switch back on and it stayed on for nearly 5 minutes before it tripped and turned off again. From an electrical point of view, a water heater is a very simple circuit. It would contain a heating unit, a thermostat and a breaker. How hard could it be? The process of elimination told me that it wasn't the heating unit. Murphy's law told me it was probably the thermostat because it was the most difficult part to replace and common sense told me it had to be the breaker itself. It is not easy to find an exact replacement for a 25-year-old circuit breaker for a water heater on a sailboat, but the Internet is a wonderful thing. One thing led to another and I was able to find the exact part I needed at a reasonable price. One would think that if you had a replacement part it would be a simple matter of replacing the old with the new, right? Wrong, Murphy's law should say "Nothing about fixing a boat is ever easy". The parts looked identical and they were except for the connectors. The old connector had a threaded hole to accept a screw to attach a round terminal lug for a solid electrical and physical connection. The new breaker had the same size connector but with a tiny unthreaded hole. One of the Captain's most important rules is to never throw anything away because if you do, you will certainly need it later. I rummaged around in my spare parts box and found two nuts that fit the old screws perfectly. I set out to borrow an electric drill to enlarge the tiny holes so they would accept the screws and nuts so I could restore the good solid connection. I am happy to report that the new breaker appears to have cured what ails the water heater issue. We had hot water all weekend and the breaker did not trip at all.
After spending two hours on a job that should have taken one, I turned my attention to the weather. By now the clouds had cleared and the sun was shining. Unfortunately, the winds had stiffened considerably and the forecast was for a small craft advisory in the afternoon. At the risk of disappointing some of my readers, we decided not to venture out of the creek in a 20-knot blow. Another matter had been bugging me for a while and I wanted to at least look into it.
On the same weekend I replaced the water heater unit, I changed the ship's transmission fluid. At the time it was absolutely pouring rain. Since I had my head in the bilge, it was easy to notice that water was streaming down past the transmission and into the bilge. I didn't give it much thought at the time because it was really pouring rain and I thought water was possibly blowing into the clamshell air vents or under a cockpit locker. When I am 250 miles away from the boat I think about boat related things a lot, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought that I should not have seen that much water, no matter how hard it was raining. I still did not realize the gravity of the situation because I remember telling Bill about it when we went sailing, two weeks ago.
As much maintenance as I have done, I wasn't sure where to start looking for the problem. I was afraid I would be spending the day on my head again. I opened an access hatch in the stern cockpit locker that I had never opened before. There it was, plain as day. Our cockpit and most other boat's cockpits are equipped with scuppers. These are drains much like a bathtub drain. The idea is that rain or sea water that finds it's way into the cockpit (which looks a lot like a bathtub) needs to drain directly overboard. On the Catalina 30 this is accomplished by 1 5/8" heavy tubing that runs almost horizontally from the bottom of the cockpit scuppers to through hull fittings that allow the water to drain directly into the sea. It is important that these fittings are above the waterline and that is why the tubing runs horizontally. They transport the water far enough aft so that the holes in the hull can be above the waterline. The problem was painfully obvious. Not one but both the tubes had major holes on the underside. The arrangement of the tubes would allow water to stand in the tubes. I can't be sure but this may be by design to discourage critters from building nests in the tubes. This standing water of course freezes and thaws in the winter, which would contribute to their demise.
This was a shocking discovery. It meant that almost all the rainwater collected by our generous cockpit was draining into the bilge where the bilge pump would pump it out. The thing that disturbed me most was that I wasn't aware there was a problem. Our bilge is not very large and that bad a leak should have caused the pump to run a lot. I would have been alarmed had I noticed it but I had not. The other thing was, based on how bad the tubing was rusted and rotted this problem had existed for a long time. It was almost certainly a problem when we purchased the boat. One of the first things did when we bought the boat was to replace the bilge pump which was not working at all. I am amazed that we were not confronted with a cabin sole with a foot of water and a flooded engine. I had been vigilant about keeping a working bilge pump and the previous owner must have pumped the bilge regularly with the manual pump. This issue needed attention quickly.
Without getting into too many details about how I acquired the right replacement tubing I made two trips to Oriental and one to New Bern before I had what I needed. I bought four new hose clamps while I was at it and gave the newly discovered area a good scrubbing. A good scrubbing seldom hurts. I borrowed Stefan's hacksaw to cut the tubing and replaced both with fresh "hard walled wet exhaust" (read very expensive) hose that should last longer than I will need it.
During all this activity, we met our new neighbors, the new owners of "Loki" the Hunter 30 in the next slip. Phil and Minerva took their boat out for the first time. Unfortunately, the engine ran hot and they had to return. Oh well, it's never simple folks. I gave him Roger's number and I'm sure the problem will be resolved soon. Also the diver was on duty. He cleaned Southern Star's bottom and gave a good report on the condition of the propeller shaft zinc. The only other thing I needed to do was to test the dinghy motor and make sure it would crank. Nick has a tank for the purpose and I used it to make sure there were no problems with the little outboard. It was a little off at speed but I didn't want to run it too much in the tank because it can't cool well with too many bubbles.
Judy served a great dinner of spaghetti and fresh asparagus. We visited with Chuck, Karen, Stefan, Marita, Steve and Debbie in the cockpit after dinner. There was a big crowd this weekend compared to recent weekends and we enjoyed the company and conversation very much. The weather during the afternoon had gone from sultry to downright chilly. The wind suddenly switched from southwest to northeast and the change was dramatic. We were glad we decided to stay at the dock and I was glad I had discovered a potential boat-threatening problem. We turned in before too late and enjoyed pleasant cool temperatures in the v-berth.
Sunday May 11, 2008 (Mother's Day)
The weather overnight had been very pleasant but at 7:30 it looked a little dirty. Clouds were building and Nick reported that there were storms expected by midday. Both our mothers knew we would be away for the weekend and neither were expecting a visit but we figured if we left early enough we could get at least a short visit with both before we were too tired. I usually write the bulk of this log while Judy drives the first leg of the trip home. It is currently raining and generally stormy. We hope for an uneventful "rest of the journey".
We didn't do what we expected to do this weekend but we seldom do. The boat is ready for a planned weeklong trip in the near future, so stay tuned. I hope to be able to provide accounts, pictures and perhaps a short movie on a Pamlico Sound ramble in a few weeks.