Moving on...

Well, the engine replacement is truly behind us, now.  We've had an 80-hour shakedown during our southerly migration.  The first half of the trip, we were running the engine mostly by choice, as we wanted to get it through the break-in period.  To remind us of the perversity of inanimate objects, once we hit 50 hours and got ready for some peaceful sailing, we found three small tears in the mainsail.  It's only 32 years old -- things just don't last the way they should.  We elected to motor-sail to St. Lucia with staysail and engine.  That put a few more hours on the clock.  The sail-maker that we like in St. Lucia patched the main -- he figures there's life in it yet, and he's amazed at how well it's served us.  So are we.  When the time comes, we'll order another just like it from Lee Sails in Hong Kong.

We did the 50-hour service on the engine, enjoyed the beautiful weather and water in Rodney Bay, and whiled away two weeks.  Now we've gotten ourselves into that basic cruiser's trap, the schedule problem.  We have to get to Grenada by the end of April because we have plane tickets from there to the States, leaving May 2.  It's not far to Grenada; only about 140 miles, but there's no wind, so we fire up the diesel again.  Now that it's broken in, we can run it the way we choose, as opposed to following the break-in regimen.  That means that we don't have to run it as hard, and we're able to get a better feel for how it's going to serve us in normal use.  We've begun to gather some fuel consumption data. 

At 2000 rpm, the engine moves us along at around 5.8 to 6 knots, and uses 2/3 U.S. gallons per hour.  That's a little faster, and a little lower fuel consumption, than we were accustomed to with the old Volvo.  It's also much quieter and smoother than the old engine, and much quieter and smoother than running this one at higher speeds.  Interestingly, although this engine runs at a somewhat higher temperature than the Volvo, it radiates much less heat into the boat.  The cooling system is apparently significantly more efficient.  That's an unexpected bonus in the tropics.  At 2300 rpm we move along about a quarter of a knot faster, and burn about 0.9 gallons per hour.  To us, that bit of speed is not worth the extra fuel under normal circumstances.  If we push the throttle up to 2700 rpm, we're moving around 6.7 knots and using 1.35 gallons per hour.  An extra knot above our usual cruising speed doubles the fuel consumption.  At full throttle, we making about 7 knots, but we didn't keep it there long enough to gather any fuel consumption data.  The observed behavior tracks very well with Yanmar's published fuel consumption curve for this engine, which predicts that at full throttle, we would use a little more than two gallons per hour.  Talk about diminishing returns!  At least we have the option of using that extra power to drive into head winds and seas to run an inlet or get out of trouble on a lee shore, if we need it.  We didn't know how much better this would be than the old engine.

Enough about the engine.  We're happy to be back in Grenada, even if briefly.  The Customs agent at the Grenada Yacht Club welcomed us back, as did the Immigration agent.  We'll spend the next few days preparing the boat for our absence, removing and storing the sails, canvas, and so forth.  We're looking forward to seeing folks back in the States, but we'll miss Grenada while we're gone.  We keep reminding ourselves that we'll still have 4 months to enjoy this wonderful island when we return.

With boat work behind us for a while, I'm ready to shift my focus and energy to my writing again.  I'm still planning to publish "Dunga de Islan'" this summer, maybe before we get back to the boat, and I have a couple of novels on the drawing board.

It's Downhill from Here!

We stayed in Antigua from March 23 until March 29, visiting with our friends and enjoying the fried chicken from the grocery store at Jolly Harbour.  It's the best fried chicken we've found down this way.  We were eager to get on our way before the tradewinds began their annual shift from northeast to southeast, as southeast winds would make for difficult sailing until we reach St. Lucia, the eastern most point on our way south.  We stayed in Antigua a little too long.

The weather forecast for the 29th showed a little south in the easterly wind, shifting back to east on the 30th.  We had solid southeasterly wind on the 29th, all the way to our stop in Deshaies, Guadeloupe.  We motor-sailed the whole way, with main, staysail, and the diesel.  We needed an excuse to break in the new engine, anyway.  On the 30th, we had more of the same, and discovered a rip in the mainsail, so we took it down and motored along with just the staysail up.  This made no difference to our speed, but without the stabilizing influence of the main, the ride was a lot less pleasant.

Just as we were getting into the heavy seas at the south end of Guadeloupe, the engine dropped from about 2800 RPM to about 2000, and began to vibrate.  We lost speed rapidly.  We quickly figured out that our propeller had fouled on some floating debris.  Without the mainsail, and without the engine, our options diminished.  We turned around and set a course for the town of Basse Terre, Guadeloupe, a few miles away.  We were able to raise a bit of mainsail, up to the third reef, which would normally be used for sailing in near hurricane strength winds.  We only had about twenty knots of wind, now on our starboard bow, but we were able to make our way slowly to a semi-protected anchorage off the town, where we dropped the anchor under sail.  Bud donned snorkel gear and dove on the prop.  As we suspected, a piece of floating fish net had wrapped neatly around the prop.  Bud quickly cut the net away with a couple of desperate strokes of his dive knife.  All was well, again.  Because our prop runs in a small aperture between the aft end of the full keel and the rudder, it is well protected, and we have never, in twenty-two years of sailing Play Actor, fouled the prop before, not even among all of the crab pots on the Chesapeake.  Of course, it had to happen when we were more dependent on the engine than usual. 

The weather forecasts have given up any pretense at northeasterly trades, showing southeasterly winds of 15 to 20 knots for the next few days.  Our course until we reach St. Lucia is a little east of south, so we are very glad for the performance of our new engine.  The engine gives us an option for going to windward now that we haven't had before.  The old engine would only push us along at less than 5 knots with the wind in our faces.  Although our hull speed is around 7 knots, the old engine and prop combo didn't have enough power to overcome the windage.  That's not a problem with our new engine.  We can motor merrily into the wind at 7 knots, as long as we can pay for diesel fuel.  While it's nice to be able to do that, the ride is not great, and, with the wind close on our port bow and the seas up, we're wearing foul weather gear to stay dry.

We spent the night of the 30th anchored in Portsmouth, Dominica, and left early the next morning for St. Pierre, Martinique.  This is normally Leslie's least favorite hop, as the 25-mile channel from Dominica to Martinique is usually rough.  She was pleasantly surprised, this time, as the wind abated somewhat, as well as going a little farther east, making for a quite comfortable trip.  We anchored for the evening under the visage of the statue of Our Lady of Safe Harbor, up on the hillside above town, and thanked her for the smooth ride.  Tomorrow, we'll go to St. Lucia, where we will rest a few days and take our main to the sail maker who patched it for us a couple of years ago.

Our April Fool's Day trip to Martinique was the roughest we've experienced in all of our years in the islands.  The wind is back with a vengeance, and without the main, the waves really slap us around.  About 12 miles out from our destination, we hit a patch of breaking waves, some of which were sizable.  Several broke over the windward quarter and filled the cockpit.  This is not dangerous to a boat like Play Actor, as the cockpit has good drainage, but it's certainly not leisurely sailing.  In all our years aboard, we've only had green water in the cockpit a few times -- three or four, maybe, and those in stormy conditions.  Today, we had green water in the cockpit half a dozen times in an hour.  The waves diminished as we came into the lee of St. Lucia, and we anchored and dried ourselves out before taking the dinghy ashore to clear in with Customs.

We'll be here a week or so, waiting to get the mainsail fixed, and we'll use the time to catch up on some minor maintenance.  Our engine is fully broken in, so we'll do the 50-hour service checklist, as well as replacing weather stripping around a hatch and several portholes that were leaking while in the rough water.  It's nice to be cruising again, instead of installing an engine, and it's nice to be here in St. Lucia.  One of the fruit vendors, named Gregory, came by in his dinghy to welcome us back with a bunch of local bananas -- he knows Leslie as "Banana Lady," because that's all she ever buys from him.  He comes by every day that we are here, tooting on his conch shell to announce his arrival, and makes a close pass alongside, holding out a big bunch of bananas.  Leslie leans far out over the lifelines with a $5 E.C. bill in her fingers, and they do a flying transfer, accompanied by good-natured yells, laughter, and occasional applause from a neighboring boat.

It's downhill from here to Grenada, where we'll leave the boat for a few weeks to fly back to the States and visit family.  All of our courses from here to there have west in them, AND we'll have a mainsail again.

Sailing South

March 21, 2011

Well, our engine replacement project is really finished, now.  We made a few last minute purchases -- things best bought in Saint Martin -- and cleared out with the French officials this morning, with our next port of call Jolly Harbour, Antigua.  We spent the afternoon stowing things and double-checking lists, and went to bed early.

March 22, 2011

We left St. Martin through the 9:00 drawbridge, and, once out of Simpson Bay, raised our sails to check the recent tuning of the mast.  We had to slack the rigging wires when we had the boat hauled out, in order to accommodate the slings of the crane, and realized that it had been several years since we tuned the rig.  It made quite a difference in the way Play Actor sails, and we had a nice jaunt over to St. Barths, where we picked up a mooring for the night in the marine park at Anse Columbier.  We set an alarm for 4:30 the next morning, and went to bed early, planning an early departure so we would arrive in Antigua before dark.

March 23, 2011

We woke up to the sunrise coming through the portholes, and realized that the alarm didn't go off.  A quick check showed that Bud had set it for 4:30 p.m.  Engineers don't always have such a great grasp of technology.  We got under way by about 7:15, somewhat later than planned, and, as we rounded the southeastern corner of St. Barth's, discovered that the wind had more east in it than the forecast had indicated.  This was a disappointment, as we had expected a close reach for the 75 nautical miles to Antigua, and we were hard on the wind.  Given the sloppy seas, which we had expected, that would make for a slow trip.  We decided to exercise our new engine, and motor sail for a while. 

The engine is still in the 50 hour prescribed break-in period, and so  we must  run it harder than we normally would.  We discovered that even hard on the wind with main and staysail, smashing into seas that sent green water rolling back from the bow to the cockpit occasionally, we were still able to make hull speed at about 60 to 70% of full power.  We made it to our chosen anchorage off Jolly Harbour, Antigua, in a little over 11 hours, amazed because we didn’t know Play Actor would go so fast under conditions like these.

We'll be here for a few days, visiting with our friends on Kewaydin, who are getting ready to leave their boat here for the summer.  We will leave early in the week to resume our journey to Grenada.

Sea Trial

We moved Play Actor back to our favorite winter anchorage in the Simpson Bay Lagoon on March 7, and got a chance to evaluate our new propulsion system.  Everything works as it should, with the new engine and propeller combination appearing to be perfectly matched.  The engine reaches it's full rated RPM at just about hull speed, and at cruising RPM range, we're making about 6 knots, which is a little faster than we used to go.

All Finished







New versus old



We hauled Play Actor out on February 24.  Once she was blocked up on the hardstand, we pulled the old propeller and drew the shaft.  There was enough growth on the shaft inside the stern tube to make it challenging to get the shaft out past the cutless bearing, but persistence and penetrating oil will overcome calcium deposits every time.  We took the old shaft and the new one, along with the new  coupling, down the street to the machine shop, and had them cut and key the new shaft, and check the shaft and coupling for trueness.

While we waited on the shaft, we had the yard sand and paint the bottom with fresh antifouling, which we had not done in 3 years.  We  also installed a new cutless bearing, since we had the shaft out,

Note blade cross section

although the old one was still in good shape.  The yard finished the paint on March 1, the same day that the machine shop completed the shaft work.  We installed the shaft and did a rough engine alignment, and installed the new propeller.  We launched Play Actor on March 2, and completed the alignment of the engine and shaft in the water.

We started the engine and put it through its paces while tied to the working dock, although we could not check the engine RPM at full throttle for fear of literally ripping out the dock.  We got up to 2800 RPM before the dock began to give way, and we had not quite reached full throttle, so the prop, a Campbell Sailer (sic) 3 bladed one, appears to be at least reasonably close to the right pitch.  The old



Note old blade cross section

 

engine / prop combination didn't have that kind of power.  The new prop certainly delivers plenty of thrust, in spite of looking very small compared to the old, standard three bladed prop it replaced.

It's good to be back in the water.  We plan to spend a few days at the dock with plenty of fresh water and electricity to finish our clean up.

To those who have followed our progress, thanks for your interest.  We will happily answer any questions you may have.  Just drop us an email.



In place



Close to the Finish LIne

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Fitting the hose to the exhasut

With the engine in place, we were able to find the right spot for the new seawater strainer and mount it.  We finished plumbing the seawater intake, and connected the shift and throttle cables.  We installed and plumbed the new vented loop in the seawater line to the exhaust elbow.  We pulled the battery cables back into place and connected them, as well as finishing the plumbing of the exhaust system.  We added oil to the crankcase and the transmission, and coolant to the cooling system.  We turned the key, and the engine purred to life instantly.  It is amazingly quiet compared to its predecessor, even allowing for the new sound insulation.  We checked that everything was working properly, and shut it down to 

3" hose into the muffler

wait for our turn to haul the boat out and draw the propeller shaft. 

Meanwhile, we can put our living space back in order.  We've been camping out among all sorts of cartons, lumber, and hardware for the past two weeks. 

The end is in sight.  Once we get the shaft and prop in, and the yard gets the bottom painted,, we should be happily back at anchor in Simpson Bay lagoon,



And out of the muffler



Hoses to water heater (Top), and
 modified throttle linkage



 

Seawater strainer, with
 shut off valve, in engine compartment



Oops!  The shaft won't reach.






   








In with the New

While we were waiting for epoxy to cure during the work on the engine beds, we did a few smaller jobs, such as installing the new exhaust through-hull, and routing the exhaust hose, which at 3 inches in diameter and 10 feet long, reminded Bud of his experiences wrestling with alligators in his youth.  We also mounted the new muffler and assembled the new seawater intake system.  We installed the new instrument panel, and ran the cabling for it.  We finished these things on Sunday afternoon of our first week.

On Monday, we finished painting the engine space and installed new sound insulation material, and booked some time on the crane for Tuesday.  On Tuesday, while we waited for the engine to be delivered from the distributor's shop 100 yards away, we re-mounted the fuel filters and tidied the boat a bit.  Late in the afternoon, the engine was delivered.  After uncrating the engine, we warped Play Actor around to the crane, lifted the engine off the shipping pallet, and set it on the beds.  Everything fit as expected, so we warped Play Actor back to the working dock and did a preliminary alignment.  We marked the rails for the holes to bolt down the new engine mounts, and used a hoist from the boom to shift the engine forward, giving us room to drill and tap the rails for the 12 mm mounting bolts.  Once we finished drilling and tapping the rails, we set the engine back in place and bolted it down, pending a final alignment when we get the new propeller shaft in place.




Out of the crate

  


Hooking it up

 

 

Down the hatch

 

On the beds





Just right



A little that way





Marking the mounting holes

Moving the engine out of the way







Drilling and tapping the mounting holes