Spare Parts, You Can’t Have Too Many!



Drain Hole at Bottom of Sea Strainer

Sheered Off Drain Plug

Bag of New Sea Strainer Plugs and Sheered Off Top

Sea Strainer with New Drain Plug

While anchored in Bahia de Chamela, Leonard decided to take care of some routine boat maintenance.  He went in the engine room to clean out the sea strainer basket for the starboard engine, a simple procedure of removing the drain plug from the sea strainer and lifting out the basket to be cleaned.  The simple task, however, did not go as planned.  After rustling around below decks, he appeared with one of those expressions on his face - “why me? I don’t believe it!”  When he backed out the drain plug on the sea strainer it had sheared off, leaving a piece inside the drain opening.  Not a good thing he explained – a piece of neoprene plug left in the drain opening meant water would leak out which could potentially introduce air into the cooling water when the engine ran!  Fortunately, he had a bag of spare plugs for the sea strainers - something we never imagined would be needed.  It certainly drove home the lesson that you can’t have too many spare parts, even the most inconspicuous and smallest of parts!  Of course he had to get the broken piece out first.  The piece was lodged flush with the surface of the drain hole with nothing to grab on to.  With a sharp pointed knife, he pierced the piece of neoprene plug and was able to unscrew it far enough to grab it with a pair of pliers.  With the sea strainer cleaned and the new plug installed, we were back in business.  Leonard’s next project was to dive the bottom of the boat and check out the zincs and prop shafts.  After setting up the hooka-hose and air tank, he dove under the boat while I checked his tank gage and listened to make sure he was still sucking air!  After a few minutes, he bubbled up to the surface and reported that the zincs were in decent shape, not needing to be replaced at this time.  The huge amount of growth on the bottom of the boat, however, was troublesome.  HHAn inordinate amount of algae, seaweed, and barnacles had attached themselves to the props and prop shafts, no doubt affecting our speed.  I guess it’s not too surprising considering that we’ve been cruising in very warm water during the last several months; not nearly a concern in the Pacific Northwest!  Leonard went back under the boat with a scrub pad and went to work cleaning the props.  There was so much growth to remove that the intense scrubbing literally disintegrated the pad!  To clean the shafts meant using up most of the air in the tank.  Leonard decided it would be wise to leave air in the tank in case of a real emergency, like untangling fishing net or other debris that could get wrapped around the prop.  Cleaning the shafts would have to wait until a later date.



Top Lid on Sea Strainer

Air Tank and Hooka-Hose

Leonard Diving the Boat