Whole Again

Oriental Public Docks
35 01.49 076 41`.73 W

See us on the Oriental Harborcam. Until Thursday morning.

Well, it's been a busy few days.  We had a great time with Dave & Cathy.  They like to spoil their guests and we didn't object.

Dave drove us back to Hancock Creek Monday evening.  Soon after he left to drive home I realized that our bag containing computers, wires, batteries, phones, and cords of all kinds was left in David's trunk.  Oh no!  Could I live with no Internet for 24 hours?  It was hard but I did it.  Dave mailed the bag to general delivery Oriental, and I picked it up this morning.

Also this morning we left Hancock Creek Marina.  Jeff & Wendy and all the other people there were great.  We said it before and we'll say it again -- North Carolinian hospitality is the best.

I also got a delivery from Beta Marine with new air cleaners at Oriental.  That's been on the list for a while. Auto parts stores were unable to find an equivalent size.

Good news  -- The Provision Company is back!  Since 2005, The Provision Company in Oriental has been our favorite alternative to West Marine for all things marine.  Last spring it closed, apparently out of business.  Today, it's back -- apparently with new owners.    I bought a new bilge pump and float switch.

Another thing on my list since Irene has been the fact that our automatic bilge pump was broken.  (We have an emergency electric bilge pump and a manual bilge pump as backups.)   The emergency bilge pump lowers the water barely below the floor level under the fresh water tanks.  I now think that was the cause of constant wet under the water tanks.  I removed and replumbed one tank at the DSC Welcome Center, and the other tank at Hancock Marina.   Neither of those stopped the leak.  Now I believe that was unnecessary.   However, it wan't wasted.  The tanks needed cleaning and the plumbing needed renewal anyhow.

I'm unhappy with our old bilge pump (see the picture above).  It was a fancy kind that has a built-in electronic water level sensor that should be immune to contamination and debris.  It was only two years old.  The sensor failed, causing the pump to run constantly which in turn caused the pump motor to fail.  Never again.  The KISS principle applies.  A mercury float switch is simple.  I'll stick with those.

By the way, my latest theory about our leak is that it is the shaft log.  Yesterday I took everything apart to make a visual inspection of that area.  The floor was wet back there.   I suspected the hose clamps, but no -- they were find.  I wiped up all the wetness and moments later some drops appeared from the shaft log.  Aha!   Fixing it, is something else.  I can't tighten the lower bolt without removing the propeller shaft, and I can't re-seat the log while the boat is in the water.  Sounds like we'll have to live with that leak until the next time we're on the hard.  It's only a gallon a day.  It doesn't threaten us unless we were to leave the boat unattended for a week or more.