Is the season over already?
Wow, it flew by. This was of course the COVID season of socially somewhat distant boating. With not much else to do, we were out on the boat a lot -- I think the SmartCraft display indicated nearly 70 hours of engine run time and 420 miles of distance covered.
Mechanically the boat performed well overall. We had a couple of minor issues involving generator cooling water being impeded and two incidents of the toilet pump running endlessly, but both issues were transient. The port batteries are nearly dead, 2-3 times we had to use the emergency crossover function to get the port engine to start, although they seemed to recover later in the season when it was cooler.
The only real project this summer was a new anchor bridal, which worked OK although it got some griping from the admiral who thought it was too long. I also re-mounted the TV antenna.
Weather wise I think it was a pretty good season -- very hot early, and scorching on the 4th of July weekend, one of the few times where I felt like being in the air conditioning on the water was worth it. The water temperature read 85 degrees around the 4th of July, very early and very warm. We didn't have as much of the August rain, clouds and cool down as we've had in the past. We also didn't have the intense heat we've had in September, either.
The generator cooling water issue started in June. Lynn and I took the boat out and anchored in Carson's Bay, which is shallow and weedy. We were anchored in about 12 feet of water and running the generator for vacuuming. I was actually finally re-mounting the TV antenna after last year's high water. The generator cooling water output slowed to a trickle and we saw some steam, so I shut it off thinking it had ingested a lot of weeds.
When I checked the strainer I was surprised to find almost no weeds, but still poor water output. I assume that there was something kind of big wedged into the through-hull. Running a few miles at planing speed didn't clear it, and diving the boat at anchor wasn't a great option.
I got clued into a product meant for winterizing, some kind of thing which fits into the strainer and lets you use a shop vac to blow out the raw water line. They wanted $100 for it, so I managed to gin up my own version using a length of pipe and some Sugru and a shop vac accessory adapter. It didn't really help.
The good news was that the problem kind of seemed to go away on its own, with the obstruction clearing and water output returning to normal....then getting worse again, then getting better again without any coherent reason.
My current thinking is that there might be some more permanent obstruction, like zebra mussles or something else. I plant to remove the hose section between the through hull seacock and the strainer, which will let me get right at the opening and seacock internals. The hose will be replaced with a new section as the old one is probably iffy to put back on, especially after working it off.
I'd like to install a clamshell grate over the through-hull. I think the existing opening is just a hole, and the clamshell grate offers a large surface area that no single weed could block, plus nothing can get stuck in the through-hull and running the boat should naturally clear it. But this is a complex thing to get installed, the boat has to be out of the water and 3 screws sunk into the outside of the hull and in theory one totally through the hull for bonding to the DC ground. I'm half tempted to not bother with bonding since fresh water ought not involve too much galvanic corrosion.
The batteries are another item for next season. The port pair, which run house power, are on their last legs. No crisis this summer, but I did need to use emergency cross over on about 3 occasions to start the port engine. 4 seasons probably isn't bad, considering the sitting over the winter and the heavy abuse from a hot engine room and the fridges running for hours.
I'm half tempted to extend the port batteries to 3 in parallel, stealing one from starboard. This would require basically replacing all 4 batteries, but I don't think the starboard batteries need replacement. Although it probably is smart to do them all. Going with 3 batteries in parallel for port would also require coming up with a pair of short jumper cables to get them connected.
The hardest part about battery replacement is the weight of the batteries, making them weird to get on and off the boat and into the engine room, and of course removing the old ones.
Twice this summer, close but not always exactly after, pumping out the head we had incidents where the vacuum pump ran non-stop. It self-cured after a period of time, although I did break down and buy a vacuum gauge for troubleshooting and finding potential leaks. I never got to the point of actually using it, though, as these incidents self-cured.
Getting the TV antenna back on was tough, I spent about an hour trying to fish out the RF cable from the hard top. I just could not get it out. I ended up buying a hole saw meant for an impact driver and opened up the mounting hole to about 1.5" and it was easy. I re-mounted the antenna using a piece of EPDM rubber as a gasket. I actually bought a HDTV indoor antenna on a lark, and I'm going to see if I can mount this more permanently inside the boat with the idea it might actually work better.
The only other project type thing was making a new bridal for the anchor chain. The one I had been using was a length of dock line with a snubber, and it was too short. I made a new one with a length of rope from the old anchor rode. It still uses the snubber, but the snubber clears the anchor chute so that the load is totally on the anchor chute. Lynn complains that it's clumsy to work, but it's not that bad.
All in all it was a pretty trouble-free season.
