Friday Funny 07-05/19 (Impeller, Propeller)

Since I have connectivity, I thought I'd post this early.... or late from last week, you can take your pick.

We hope you have a Happy Fourth of July celebration.

We're in Craig AK, on the southern west coast of Prince of Wales Island, and our unlimited data plan card is not finding a connection, and our cell phones that we use as hotspots are soooooo slow. I'm just trying to update crucial apps like AYE TIDES, SEAiq, and AQUA MAP, Audiobooks, stuff we use daily. Writing a blog post, becomes lower on the priority list, again, but I'm trying.

Labouchere Bay

While we were in Wrangell, Bill helped out many boat neighbors with their batteries, charging, monitors, and electrical issues, and didn't have time to do some of our maintenance before we untied, and left. He assured me that he had everything we needed to do our chores after departing the dock. We've had some issues too.

Bill changed the way Denali Rose's batteries were connected to the monitor, so the readings would be more accurate, and replaced the alternator for a new one. That system is now performing much better, and with the increase in power, as well as the solar panels he installed last summer, we are charging the batteries faster, and higher. A WIN!

We had noticed the raw water cooling for the engine, (Ford Lehman), was putting out less of a stream than normal, so Bill changed out the impeller, and used some lime-away in the heat exchanger units. He used one of the impellers from the stores of extra supplies that came with the boat when we purchased her 5 years ago. Afterwards, it didn't look like we were getting a bigger stream of water, and the engine was running just a little hotter than normal, not an issue, so we departed our anchorage for the days travel. Just as we left the protected bay, and into Sumner Strait, 15-20 knots of wind, 3ft seas, the engine started to overheat, and Bill shut it down. He left me to keep watch, making sure we didn't drift into anything dangerous, to keep an eye out for traffic, and went to check things in the engine room. Without any propulsion, Denali Rose turned broadside to rollers, waves, and wind, not fun. Bill didn't find anything obvious, suspecting the new impeller, we turned the engine back on, and motored very slowly back into the bay. He let the anchor out over the bow, and depended on the wind to pull us back and sink the anchor into the bottom mud.
Pulled out the "new" impeller, and fortunately, we had a newer spare. The rubber on the original spare had stiffened up so much it was brittle, and had destroyed itself, the new one, which was just purchased,  was still flexible.

Busted up first replacement impeller on top, and newer replacement one on bottom.

New(er) impeller installed, eureka! Great water flow from the cooling system! Another night in the bay, and we're good to go, no more over-heating issues. A LOSS, and a WIN!

We found two more spares in the Napa Store here, in Craig, so now we have 2 old spares, which we probably won't trust, due to age, and 2 new spares just in case. (If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you'd know we're into redundancy....)

We also had a diver clean off some growth on our prop which was probably causing a slight vibration while underway, and replace 2 small anodes. The small community of Craig has been a WIN/WIN.

We're outta here, and will be back in the no wifi, no cell signal mode again. We're headed back north to rondezvous with a friend on his Nordic Tug, and buddy boat even farther north. 

Bill usually updates our "Where's the Boat" on Farkar, apparently we're north of Ireland. 

Very funny..... but if you want to see our progress, that is usually the link to check. 😀(Top Right)

As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.