A Mother's Day I'll Never Forget

[Greg]

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?

 

[Turtlesboat]

WOW, sounds like an adventure. That Hudson mud ain't not joke.

 

[wetpaint]

I tell people that if things were perfect, there would be no story's.......Now you can sit around the bar (or on csr) and tell a story.........I forget what I did last year with my mom.....You wont...MEMORIES

 

[Four Suns]

This might be a good time disassemble some heat exchangers and flush them... I'm sure the strainer didn't stop all the mud. One place that easily get's clogged is that stainless exhaust elbow where the raw water enters the exhaust. There are small 1/8" holes where the water essentially sprays the exhaust and I've picked crap out of mine several times... Just an FYI.

If you haven't, you may want to get real familiar with building yourself a pump kit and using Rydlyme.... because this will not be the last time this happens It takes me about 3 days of work to flush everything (AC units, engines, generator).

 

[Greg]

I was concerned about that, especially on the starboard engine, where the mud had completely occluded the intake hose, and I wasn't able to flush seawater through it right away. So now it may be like concrete in there.

I haven't taken the exhaust elbow off yet, but I do want to. I think mine may be plugged as well, judging from the pressure in the line from the trans cooler to the elbow. Remember it blew the trans cooler off one time.

I had been planning on making a flush kit. Can you give a little description of the process you use for doing the Rydlyme flush.

I was thinking of the following:

1) Pull the hose off the trans cooler and connect the trans cooler to the output of a big sump pump sitting in a big rubbermaid type tub.

2) Plug the shaft seal cooling lines.

3) Remove the strainer lid and somehow connect a hose from the strainer back into the tub. Maybe get an extra lid and drill a fitting into it?

I would also close the seacocks, pull the impeller and zincs.

Then while that is circulating, I can clean my elbows.

 

[Nehalennia]

It could have been worse you could have bent up your props and shafts. Glad that didn't happen. Good luck getting all back in action.
Thanks for sharing, it does help others see waht can happen and what to do.

 

[HUMPH]

So how was everybody else's Mother's Day?

Withdrawn, didn't mean to be a downer...

 

[HUMPH]

Removed my previous post, must have bummed people out...sorry. I hope your boat comes out fairly unscathed!

 

[Piringa]

Why all the mud in the first place? I assume you were in some type of channel... were you the first boat through this season? Does the channel get dredged? If you were travelling "home waters" I would be concerned about a re-occurrance! I hope she comes through this with minimal trouble...

Cheers, Jim

 

[Jimmy Buoy]

I tell people that if things were perfect, there would be no story's.......Now you can sit around the bar (or on csr) and tell a story.........I forget what I did last year with my mom.....You wont...MEMORIES

+1:thumbsup:

 

[Alex F]

... 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...

Greg,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. So, the way I understand that the main problem was not enough depth in the spot you always used in the past. So, the this makes me think about two questions:

1. Why did this happened when you had started stirring up the mud, did you ignore unusual depthfinder reading or was there something else that lead you to the issue?

2. How to avoid it in the future in case if this is the route you need to take periodically.

I actually know exactly how easy is to have this situation, b/c I encounter low depths when coming out of my marina. At low tide my depthfinder shows 1.3' under the boat. It's rare but on the occasion I stir the soft bottom slightly. So, your post is a eye opener and a reminder that we need to be extra carefull even in the spots we've been many times.

I hope the repares will cost minimum.

Good luck,
Alex.

 

[Big Island Lifer]

Ken,
Mother's day is for celebrating those with us in spirit as well as in person. There was no reason to take down your post. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your families.
Darren

 

[Greg]

Well, the boat is suppossed to go back in the water today. They are putting on a new shaft seal and bellows on the starboard side. They blew the mud out of the lines. They are installing new impellers, actually last years impellers. I have two new ones, but I want to descale the cooling system. I'll install the new ones when I'm done.

I found out what happened. Apparently the marina got 'silted in' over the winter. They dredged the slips, but not the fairway. I imagine from the dredging of the slips, it probably made the fairway even worse (from the stirred up silt settling) So while the boat was floating fine in the slip (showed 3.? feet as I recall), once I got out near the entrance channel there wasn't enough water. At that time the depth finder showed 426 feet, not sure why that was. I wasn't watching it as I exited my slip, I guess that was my mistake.

People are telling me I should ask the marina to pay for the repairs, doesn't sound right to me. What do you guys think?

 

[Alex F]

Greg,

I think you need to press on the marina management. The fact is they dredged the slips and instead of dredging the fairway they made it worst. What does it mean now everytime you're going out on a low tide you have to go through the same troubles untile you dredge it with your props? This doesn't sound right. I guesss, you that dealing with the current repairs is only part of the problem. If they don't work with you to your satisfaction it might be a time to look for new marina.

P.S.
If you didn't watch the depth finder closelly while exiting your slip I don't consider it a huge failure on your part, b/c IMO it's marina management's obligation to provide safe grounds and if something was changed from last season they should have notify everyone.

Just my .02c.

 

[rondds]

I was thinking you have balls going out on Sunday with all that damn wind! That would have kept me at the dock, but I'm just a big wussy! :lol:

 

[skibum]

The marina should have posted warnings and/or directly contacted everyone whose boat had a large enough draft to cause a problem. I rarely look at my depth gauge in a fairway, particularly where boats larger than mine are slipped.

I say that the marina is mostly at fault for neglecting to inform slipholders that their facility was not suitable for use in its intended purpose. Is a marina without a fairway still a marina? I wonder if that is in Chapman...

 

[HUMPH]

Part of what you pay for in your marina is a safe secure berth but also safe access to the waterways. Is anyone going to berth at a marina where you can only get in and out at high tide? Not me that's for sure. I would at least discuss the issue with the marina operator, maybe they can give you free berthing for a few months or something?

 

[Vince_nj1]

So what was the marina's plan for dredging the fairway? :huh: Let me guess.
.:smt115 Wait for the big boats to drive through it and dredge it for them?

IMHO, The marina caused the problem by dredging only the slips and not the fariway and then failed to warn boat owners that the fairway depths may have changed. They need to take care of the repair. If they don't, start looking for another marina.

My guess is that they will probably try to imply that you left the channel after you passed their sea wall.

Good luck.

 

[rcknecht]

Sorry to hear about your problem... I was amazed how you seemed so calm; I would have been going nuts... From Saturday afternoon through Monday we had 40-50 mph sustained west winds here in NJ... The water was blown out the inlets and we had abnormally low tides. My water behind my house was down 3-4' below normal low tide... I would not go out, one because of the winds, and two because of the low water. I could not imagine how anyone was out on the water... I am glad you made it back safely…

 

[Greg]

Sorry to hear about your problem... I was amazed how you seemed so calm; I would have been going nuts... From Saturday afternoon through Monday we had 40-50 mph sustained west winds here in NJ... The water was blown out the inlets and we had abnormally low tides. My water behind my house was down 3-4' below normal low tide... I would not go out, one because of the winds, and two because of the low water. I could not imagine how anyone was out on the water... I am glad you made it back safely…

As far as being calm, yeah this was nothing compared to my trip back from AC last year.

It was pretty windy, I would have never gone out if I had the 340 still, But this 480 does so much better in the wind.

I was talking to someone at the marina, they said the same thing about the tides, that is was really low because the west wind was blowing the water out of the marina. We are on the west side of the river. I didn't think it could have that much of an effect, but I guess it did.

The boat didn't make it in today, they had to have a socket machined to fit the nut that holds the coupler onto the shaft.

I think I will wait to see the bill before I make a big stink about them paying. They did say they are going to send notices out to everyone.