Greg
Active Member
I had a nice dinner planned for Mother's Day, with my Wife and kids, my parents, and my wife's parents. We took the boat out to head up river to a nice restaurant on the water. It was low tide, but that hasn't ever been a problem. We pull out of the slip, head down the fairway, and just before we turn to get out into the river we started stirring up a lot of mud, a LOT of mud.
So we get out into river a little ways and I start to throttle up. It didn't sound right, I went back to idle, all the temps looked good, but I figured I may have plugged the strainers. So I shut down the port engine, and we keep going at idle speed on the starboard engine. I go down and check the strainer, sure enough it was packed. I couldn't even pull the basket out, I had to shop-vac all the mud out of it first. Put it all back together, head upstairs, fire up the port engine, we leave a trail of mud from the exhaust.
Great I think, I shut down the starboard engine, we continue at idle on the port. Open the strainer, same thing, had to vacuum the mud out before I could pull the basket. Put it all back together, start it up, still doesn't sound right, shut it back off and go downstairs. There is smoke pouring out of the shaft seal on the starboard side. So now there is smoke filling the engine room.
I go up, put it in neutral, drop the anchor, go back down, the smoke has dissipated somewhat, and now I see water pouring in around the seal. It appeared that the seal froze to the shaft, then the seal ripped free from the bellows that connects it to the shaft log. The cooling water hoses were all twisted up and ripped, leaking water as well. I grab for the rescue tape, that stuff is awesome, get the shaft seal leak under control, then clamp the cooling hoses with vise-grips.
Since there was no way I was going to continue, I call Sea-Tow. While I am waiting, I go back down to clean the other strainers, A/C's, and generator. They were not quite as bad, but still had a fair amount of mud in them. I took another look at the starboard main strainer, and saw that the mud was packed in the inlet hose to the strainer. I opened the seacock and got no water flow with the strainer open.
Got towed back to the Marina, I stay in the bilge so I can spray water on the port seal, the starboard was taking care of its self. SeaTow brings us in and puts us on the fuel dock. I put a little more rescue tape on the seal, and we wind up eating at a local place, nice restaurant, and had a nice dinner. I slept on the boat last night, tied to the fuel dock, just in case. Today they are pulling the boat.
So how was everybody else's Mother's Day?
So we get out into river a little ways and I start to throttle up. It didn't sound right, I went back to idle, all the temps looked good, but I figured I may have plugged the strainers. So I shut down the port engine, and we keep going at idle speed on the starboard engine. I go down and check the strainer, sure enough it was packed. I couldn't even pull the basket out, I had to shop-vac all the mud out of it first. Put it all back together, head upstairs, fire up the port engine, we leave a trail of mud from the exhaust.
Great I think, I shut down the starboard engine, we continue at idle on the port. Open the strainer, same thing, had to vacuum the mud out before I could pull the basket. Put it all back together, start it up, still doesn't sound right, shut it back off and go downstairs. There is smoke pouring out of the shaft seal on the starboard side. So now there is smoke filling the engine room.
I go up, put it in neutral, drop the anchor, go back down, the smoke has dissipated somewhat, and now I see water pouring in around the seal. It appeared that the seal froze to the shaft, then the seal ripped free from the bellows that connects it to the shaft log. The cooling water hoses were all twisted up and ripped, leaking water as well. I grab for the rescue tape, that stuff is awesome, get the shaft seal leak under control, then clamp the cooling hoses with vise-grips.
Since there was no way I was going to continue, I call Sea-Tow. While I am waiting, I go back down to clean the other strainers, A/C's, and generator. They were not quite as bad, but still had a fair amount of mud in them. I took another look at the starboard main strainer, and saw that the mud was packed in the inlet hose to the strainer. I opened the seacock and got no water flow with the strainer open.
Got towed back to the Marina, I stay in the bilge so I can spray water on the port seal, the starboard was taking care of its self. SeaTow brings us in and puts us on the fuel dock. I put a little more rescue tape on the seal, and we wind up eating at a local place, nice restaurant, and had a nice dinner. I slept on the boat last night, tied to the fuel dock, just in case. Today they are pulling the boat.
So how was everybody else's Mother's Day?