Winter Preparations on our Boat Continues…….
Winter is coming and we are getting prepared! They say that this winter could be very cold and wet here in the PNW. Scott and I have been so lucky this past summer, as the weather has been absolutely perfect for our first year of boating. Figures that it could be the worst winter for boating, we’ll find out.
Two weekends ago, Scott changed the oil in both engines. Turns out when he filled them up with new oil through the dip stick hole as he didn’t see the engine oil cap and that’s why it took him about 10 minutes! LOL Lessons learned again. What we couldn’t get done that day, was change the oil filters because we needed an oil filter wrench. We bought the Craftsman 2 pc 16” Rubber Strap Wrench Set
Now the hard part was actually changing the filters. The filter that is up front is actually the fuel filter and the oil filters are on the sides of the engines, clear in the back. Scott did a great job squeezing into those tight spaces to swap them out! It was not an easy job!
Dinghy water
While Scott was working on the engines, I wanted to get rid of the water that had once again collected in the dinghy.
Last week I removed it with the bilge sponge and the water was so stagnant that my hands stunk all day. This time, I bought a Multi-Use Transfer Pump Kit
However, that is probably not the ideal situation. I think we will be moving the dinghy down to the storage racks at Elliott Bay Marina. We can store it upside down during the winter. They charge $25/month and it’s worth it. We’ve already brought the motor home to store.
The Propeller Saga continutes
We needed to take the boat out on the bay to get the new oil dispersed through the engines. On top of that, it was a gorgeous day for boating! I looked down at the props and once again they were covered in sea growth after one week of being cleaned! After talking to the guys at the marina, it’s very common for that to happen, especially in saltwater.
I decided to clean them off with our long handled deck brush before we headed out on the water. Last weekend I told you that the port side prop was bent and that’s why we were having trouble. Here’s the photo I shared:
Well, I should have turned the blades all around, because this time I realized that ALL three blades are busted!
I texted this photo to my brother-in-law, Kurt who was the Chief Engineer for the ferries and asked him if it was ok for us to go out on the bay for a quick trip to run the engines. He told us not to go far, which we didn’t! LOL. In fact, now we won’t be doing any kind of winter cruising until this is fixed.
We had a great cruise in the bay with our friend Meghann and the boat did just fine. Not that we recommend cruising around with a broken prop!
This week, the PNW is getting hammered with three major storms of wind and rain. Being paranoid about keeping the boat dry and warm, this is another topic that I will talk about later this week. Just after I wrote this paragraph, our marina, Elliott Bay Marina sent out an email telling everyone to make sure their boats are secure and to check on them this week! Here’s the weather forecast that came out today: Gale Winds. Last Friday I went down to check on the boat and later this week I will check on it again. Must be the “new boater” worries that are kicking in! Stay tuned. Ally