Bleeding Perkins.
Spent a lot of time trying to get the Perkins to start. Not fun. No one agrees on what the actual process is for bleeding it. Nothing works. Killing the starter battery. Unhappy.
Ft Lauderdale
I was working on bleeding OPs fuel system and the head of the bleed nut on the governor housing twisted right off. A tiny little fountain of diesel ensued. So today we made the 200 mile round trip to track down a new part on Ft Lauderdale's amazing Marina Mile.
The gas and time were the biggest costs, as the gang at Everglades Diesel Injection wouldn't take a penny for fixing the assembly while I waited.
That 4-hour round trip take us 4 days aboard Lark in a couple more weeks.
Cruising for the faint of heart
It was a hard day, though probably one similar to one many "real cruisers" have experienced. Today we had to let go of our conviction that we would be heading for the Keys this weekend. We have been pushing so hard on this goal and it has been such an amazing time of teamwork and concerted effort. Maybe that's what I'm grieving most, but I had time off lined up; we had a buddy boat ready to go; we had dug deep into the kitty for so many things that had been sitting there waiting to rise to the top of the list: up-to-date flares; spare GPS and VHF; rode markers; Racor filters; dinghy bridle etc., etc., etc.. We will go soon, but somehow it feels like such a defeat to let go of our date.
We had the fuel polishers today and they found ... ... ...... ............... Nothing. Dammit! We so wanted them to find and fix the cause of our engine failure over this past weekend. If only they'd seen goobers and chunks coming out of the tank, we could have moved on under the theory that the proximate cause had been addressed. As it stands, all we know is that the engine failed at an unbelievably fortuitous moment, relatively speaking; that the Racor bowl was full of chunks; that the vacuum gauge was well into the red; and that no sediment was extracted from the tank.
More likely that there's no more sediment left to clog the Racor, or that the polishing simply failed to extract the copious sediment that is present due to Lark's long idle period? More likely that we are out of the woods by sheer joyous luck or that the Racor will clog and starve the engine of fuel the minute we get into anything lumpy like we did on Saturday? More likely we'll run down Hawk's Channel with the reef on the left and the islands on the right without a hiccup, or have to throw the anchor over at a moment's notice and sit and wait for Tow Boat and our $20000 ticket from Fish and Game?
No, we have to address the fuel system definitively before we can go. Which will mean another couple weeks at least. Which means working around other plans for a week and a half in March. Which mean at least another month before we try again.
Welcome to cruising, right? Plans written in sand at low tide and all that. Good times.
We had the fuel polishers today and they found ... ... ...... ............... Nothing. Dammit! We so wanted them to find and fix the cause of our engine failure over this past weekend. If only they'd seen goobers and chunks coming out of the tank, we could have moved on under the theory that the proximate cause had been addressed. As it stands, all we know is that the engine failed at an unbelievably fortuitous moment, relatively speaking; that the Racor bowl was full of chunks; that the vacuum gauge was well into the red; and that no sediment was extracted from the tank.
More likely that there's no more sediment left to clog the Racor, or that the polishing simply failed to extract the copious sediment that is present due to Lark's long idle period? More likely that we are out of the woods by sheer joyous luck or that the Racor will clog and starve the engine of fuel the minute we get into anything lumpy like we did on Saturday? More likely we'll run down Hawk's Channel with the reef on the left and the islands on the right without a hiccup, or have to throw the anchor over at a moment's notice and sit and wait for Tow Boat and our $20000 ticket from Fish and Game?
No, we have to address the fuel system definitively before we can go. Which will mean another couple weeks at least. Which means working around other plans for a week and a half in March. Which mean at least another month before we try again.
Welcome to cruising, right? Plans written in sand at low tide and all that. Good times.
2/23
The divers came last week and scrubbed the bottom, the prop and the shaft clean, so we were able to squeeze another 500 rpm out of old Perky.
We made a run outside on Saturday into some lumpy stuff. It was a blast with everyone all jack-lined and tethered and harnessed in. Glad we choose to go with both wind and tide favorable for the return, as the conditions outside jarred loose a bunch of tank sediment and OP conked out with a high vacuum and a bowl of junk in the Racor shortly after we made it back inside. We whipped out the jib, which we had just the night before bent on, and had an easy sail to the turning basin where we set the Fortress and waited for Tow Boat.
Once the polisher finishes with our fuel tank on Wednesday I'll have the long-awaited opportunity to bleed OP, which odds are, I'll get to do more than once during the upcoming trip.
I'm working on a way to carry the CQR in the roller and the Fortress on the rail without letting it interact with the jib. Other last minute items are to seal up the leaky spot in the bilge pump hose, change OP's oil, and work out how to lash the dink on deck.
2/whatever
We finally have intact cockpit canvas again. April did a beautiful job repairing our poor awning and after scrubbing and waterproofing, it's back up in all its glory. Hooray!
2/15
We got lots of little things done on Lark over the weekend. Lots of line whipped and equipment obtained and stowed. The unplug test went fairly well. The batteries held up reasonably well and the wind turbine spun like a top all weekend.
2/11
We took Dow the main and folded it back up today for another trip to Mack to get the missed batten pocket hole repaired. They did a nice job with the others; even put on new telltales. They just missed the one hole.
We also applied the 303 water proofing to the cockpit shade today. Almost ready to put it back up.
2/8
I got that smelly propane connection fixed and in the process completed my first 12v maintenance task. First of many no doubt.
I was going to try to replace my frayed outhaul, which runs inside the boom. I had this great idea to take the new line, stitch it end-to-end to the old line then pull the old line out, thereby pulling the new line through. Everything went fine until I went to pull the old one out and discovered the line I was pulling was not the line I had just itched the new one to. but a line that is somehow shackled to that line inside the boom. I have no idea how to get at it in there. So for now I'lleave the old outhaul but I've cut off the fraying part so it'll just be kinda short.
April did a beautiful job patching our cockpit canvas. It looks really nice.
2/6.
I put the FL numbers on the dink and finally put the right propane line thread seal on to that leaky connection.
I was able to figure out which one of the several connections there was leaking because with the LPG control switched off there was no smell at all and with it switched on there was. All but one of those connections is upstream of that control, therefore the downstream one was the culprit.
We're defrosting the plate on the frigibar tonight. Hopefully the ice will be all melted by morning.
One bummer-- the propane cylinders that came with Lark are apparently under recall, and the company that made them is gone. So I guess we're in the market for new cylinders.
2/4
I hoisted the dink by the main halyard to check on the bottom and just generally to see how it would work out. It worked and the bottom shows no signs of growth after 3 weeks in the water.
2/3
I picked up some propane line thread sealant from Ace today. I was hoping they'd carry some stainless seizing wire in their little boating section but no luck. I'll need to order it from West I guess.
2/2
Trying to get a diver out to do a little scrubbing. Trying to get the top plate ordered to replace on the staysail furling drum. Best post ever!
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