Friday, July 11, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
New Scene
The Jacob Pike made it over to Benjamin River in Sedgwick last Thursday. The mooring is nicely sheltered by a low water bar and the locals have been nice about us joining their fleet. For me it's great to be closer to home.
Looks like Paul B. may come on to help move the Pike around. Paul's an experienced captain with good mechanical ability. I'm basically just a boat carpenter so I'd be glad for the help.
The racor fuel filter we used to run the boat over here is pretty dark. I can switch to the second one and replace the element in the first, but I need to get to the root of the problem. I'm afraid it may be algae in the diesel, which I'm told can be a real pain. Today I spent some time tracing fuel lines to look for wear and shut off all fuel to the 2 unused generators. Tomorrow I'll get some algae-cide.
On the good side we were just given a hydraulic windlass, and it looks as though I may be able to connect it to a hydraulic pump built into the back of the engine with some not too expensive hose. We took off about 80' of s.s. hydraulic line and maybe I can reuse that for part of the run. I'm fairly new to this systems work, but the concepts are clear. The fuel is our first measure of security and the anchor is our second chance. I'm anxious to get this windlass bolted in, but it's quite a project. At the mooring I'm tied off to the bits on the old one, which, with it's 3 phase electric motor, must weigh 300#. For now I'll do the hydraulics and look for a more significant anchor. If I remember correctly Ben Fuller thought a stockless navy surplus anchor of about 200# was what the boat had originally.
Caught some mackerel off the boat Sunday night.
That's all for now.
Looks like Paul B. may come on to help move the Pike around. Paul's an experienced captain with good mechanical ability. I'm basically just a boat carpenter so I'd be glad for the help.
The racor fuel filter we used to run the boat over here is pretty dark. I can switch to the second one and replace the element in the first, but I need to get to the root of the problem. I'm afraid it may be algae in the diesel, which I'm told can be a real pain. Today I spent some time tracing fuel lines to look for wear and shut off all fuel to the 2 unused generators. Tomorrow I'll get some algae-cide.
On the good side we were just given a hydraulic windlass, and it looks as though I may be able to connect it to a hydraulic pump built into the back of the engine with some not too expensive hose. We took off about 80' of s.s. hydraulic line and maybe I can reuse that for part of the run. I'm fairly new to this systems work, but the concepts are clear. The fuel is our first measure of security and the anchor is our second chance. I'm anxious to get this windlass bolted in, but it's quite a project. At the mooring I'm tied off to the bits on the old one, which, with it's 3 phase electric motor, must weigh 300#. For now I'll do the hydraulics and look for a more significant anchor. If I remember correctly Ben Fuller thought a stockless navy surplus anchor of about 200# was what the boat had originally.
Caught some mackerel off the boat Sunday night.
That's all for now.
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