Sunday, May 10, 2015

In the water

The crew at Portland Riverside put the boat in the water on Friday, May 8. We went down on the day before that to pick up our ladders and the crew confirmed that we would go in the following afternoon.

As soon as we got the message that we were floating, we drove to the boat and tied it up the way we like. Not saying that they don't do a good job but, well, you get the idea.

On Saturday, we showed up early since there was a lot to do. The old girl looked dirty but was floating fine with no water in the bilge. Not that we expected any but who knows what could be leaking after the cold winter we just had.


The Luhrs express next to us belongs to our friend Rob, who is always next to us in the shed during the winter. Rob had the engines going and was waiting for his father, Bill, who was going along for the ride to Niantic, where they tie up for the summer.

It was cool and overcast but as we started to erect the bridge enclosure, the sun came out and it felt like mid-summer. We took the enclosure down to have a zipper on the top repaired and we got it back just in time. (Thanks, Frances for finding a new source for canvas repair.)

Putting this thing back up is always a fun thing to watch because the top section is big and hard to handle. After watching us struggle with it for 30 minutes or so, a friendly boater a few slips down offered his help. We declined the help because at that point, we remembered what the sequence was and how we've done it in the past. And, you know, we're never going to admit that we're getting too old to do a simple job like this.

A bush league mistake. How could we have done this?
With the bridge enclosure up, it was time to fire up the engines. We started with the starboard engine because that was the one on which we installed new heads and exhaust manifolds during the winter. We disconnected the ignition and spun the engine until we saw some healthy oil pressure and then, with the distributor and coil re-connected, we gave the carb a tablespoon of fuel and cranked her over. The engine started immediately with 70 lbs of oil pressure and with no unusual mechanical noises.

However, we did note a slight screeching sound as though a belt was slipping. We checked for cooling water out of the exhausts but with the swim platform in the way, it's difficult to tell if there is cooling water coming out.

Then we remembered. We had forgotten to open the seacock! We shut the ignition off as quickly as we could but the impeller in the new raw water pump was toast. We tried it again with the seacock open but it doesn't take much to kill an impeller and this one was pulling in zero cooling water.

Guess we'll order a rebuild kit for that pump and in the meantime, we'll reinstall the old pump, which worked just fine last year.

We opened the seacock for the port engine and it fired off immediately. Great cooling water flow, oil pressure and charging voltage.

After that semi-disaster, we did something easy: washing the winter dirt off the boat. We borrowed a hose that was on the dock and connected our 100 ft. hose to it. It was just long enough to reach our boat and it was a pleasure to see six month's worth of winter storage grime wash off into the Connecticut River.


Next, we deliver our fenders and boat stairs to Norwich, were we'll be for the summer, drop a car off so we can get home after delivering the boat and then, we're out of here.

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