Friday March 18: Life on the Hard

Most things that go wrong on the boat are no big deal - easily dealt with, corrected or replaced.

Except when a thru hull is involved! So when we were completing the major engine work last week, the bolt in the thru hull for the engine raw water broke off.

Not a good thing as the bolt holds the handle tight into the thru hull - thus preventing water from leaking into the boat. We've found from experience that water leaking into the boat is never a good thing!


And of course the biggest problem with trying to work on a thru hull fitting is that it has to be done out of the water. Should we replace it now? Should we wait until we're traveling and will stop for a week in May anyway?

It was pretty much a no brainer - let's assume the temporary fix of hose clamps will work temporarily but better to get it fixed ASAP.

We headed out for the local boatyard (2 1/2 hour travel time because it was on the ocean side of Marathon). The view out the back was pretty nice actually - so even on the hard life was good :-)

The only real difference was we needed to climb the 8 foot ladder to get on or off the boat!

Hauled on Tuesday and work started on Wednesday. Jeff (the great guy who did the work on the thru hull) had the fitting ground off and out within an hour!

As you can see by the hole thru the hull on the picture left, this is something that could sink the boat in very quickly!


After waiting a day for the part, the new thru hull was in place in short order. Sure looks better than what we took out!

In the meantime, Steve occupied his time cleaning the rudder and prop with a wire brush. Sitting in Banana Bay is hard on the running gear as lots of little critters like to cling to any and all surfaces possible (barnacles mostly),

Sure looks nice with a new coat of anti-fouling paint on both surfaces!

I spent my time stringing a wire from the aft cabin to the outside of the main cabin wall. Seems simple enough - NOT! Not hard - just a pain in the neck. This line will allow us to hook up the solar panels from outside instead of having to run the hookup through the hatch or window.

We're still enjoying the sunset even though the boat is out of the water!

The lack of any bugs at Banana Bay is being appreciated though as we are closing up by 6 pm as the mosquitoes and no-see-ums are out by then.

Fortunately with fans running (can't run the air conditioner as it requires us to be in the water to use), it was quite tolerable.

 Jeff suggested adding a screen/scoop on the outside of the thru hull as well. This eliminated the need for a filter on the inside as well as providing additional flow of water to the thru hull to the engine.

He also took some time to remove an obsolete depth finder transducer from the bottom. Another hole patched - definitely a good thing!!

The most fun was a call from Jenna Star (George and Nancy) on Wednesday saying they were going to take a cruise to the Island Grill - did we want to meet them? Of course :-)

A one hour cruise from Banana Bay but a short 1/2 mile from our workyard!

Definitely a score :-)

And fun to see a helicopter land for lunch. What the life :-)


We arrived back to Banana Bay about noon and are awaiting the arrival of Joe and Joy - our boat neighbors from East 55th St Marina in Cleveland!