Casey Key Beach

The Casey Key Beach is right across the street from the boat slips.
A nice private entrance to blue waters...
Unfortunately, for the Nokomis trip, my camera lens is less than clean, so ignore the smudges in the sky...

And, not too far down the street is a public parking beach access (bottom pic on left), that I haven't seen hide nor hair of evidence of a charge for. There are free access points left and right. So different than Marco for sure.

We also went down to the south tip of the island to check out the infamous "North Jetty Park," where all the surfers go...
Not really much of a surfer day, although there were some rollers coming in through the Venice Inlet... (bottom pic on right). The sailboats that we watched come through were tossed around like lettuce until they reach the calm inner waters...

Pop's

Further exploration in Nokomis led us to Pop's Restaurant, right on the ICW. A hop skip and a dinghy jump or kayak paddle.
In the pic on the left is the ICW looking south from the bridge over the ICW. In the pic on the left side down a little past the big dry boat storage building is Pop's, right on the water. Might need to click to enlarge the pic to maybe see the restaurant.

Pic on right is sign as we were walking over to Pop's. & truthfully, driving out to Casey Key, even though not that far from the highway, feels 1,000,000 miles away. So quiet, so relaxed.
Food and drinks at Pop's were good and looked like a fun place to hang out :)

Checking out Nokomis...

So, my friend Vicki and I spent a day in Nokomis checking it out. The pic on top left is looking down Casey Key Drive to the north. Really busy there as you can see ;)
Just down the street is a place with a potential boat slip.
Never very much depth around the west coast of Florida, so we fashioned a fishing rod to go fishing for depth. From nut weights to bobber was about 6.5 feet (see pic on top right), since it was a 2 foot high tide at the time we "fished" and Athena has 4.5 of draft. In middle pic on right, Vicki is testing the water depth in one of the available slips. Based on the bobber being in general about 6 inches out of the water, looks like Athena will be in the mud at zero tide, and definitely sitting up on it at extreme low tides...
Not the perfect situation, but Nokomis is such a nice relaxed area and the people at the docks seem very nice. And, Athena has a flat bottomed keel of about 4 inches wide to help ride out through shallow times.
Bottom pic on left is from a bridge going over to the boat ramp park that is hidden behind the mangroves on the right and looking down the canal north towards the boat slips.

The inter-coastal waterway (ICW) is on the east side of the boat ramp park. Turning around and looking south, one would see the bridge over the ICW to Casey Key (bottom pic on right). This bridge opens up when tall boats need to get through.

Autohelm working...

Well, while still waiting for engine parts... I dug through the mess of a nav station (top left pic) where I currently "hide" all the owner's manuals to all that be on the boat. Reorganizing the nav station is going to need to be added to the todo list.
Locating the old Autohelm manual, I was able to trace all the lines and confirm to where they were going/coming. I have no idea how old the Autohelm is or when it was installed. It looked liked the Autohelm was powered directly to the engine without a fuse in between... I was afraid perhaps the Autohelm might have been blown if it saw a power surge... I disconnected the wire to the engine and connected the Autohelm power line to one of the fuses shown in the mess of wiring in the pic on the left (been working for two years trying to clean this mess up, doesn't look like I've done much). With limited fuses (better get to the hardware store), I had to steal from Peter to pay Paul. Then I hit the newly connected fuse switch and wa-la! power to the Autohelm!!!! pic on right. I performed the in-place calibration for features that could be set at the dock.
Next, need to go out and see how she works!!!!
Without doubling up, I've now used up every spot of the 10 fuses available on the existing old fuse panel; and, I haven't hooked up the fuel gauge yet! I think I'm going to double up the fuel gauge with the GPS/Chartplotter fuse... for now.
The pic bottom right shows my "labeling system" for all the new stuff put on the panel in the past couple of years... Bilge pump was also rewired to the existing spot.
Next stop, West Marine for new circuit breaker panels with more spots!
Have I mentioned? I'm exhausted. and, I don't think I can exert any more muscle power out of my arms.

Securing the Propane Line

This morning's project (while awaiting one more engine part...) has been securing and protecting of the propane line.
This involves squeezing into tight spaces... tight hot spaces. Speaking of which, have I mentioned that the outside temperature is climbing into the mid to high 80s during the day this week while I've been working on all these recent projects...
Compared to being squished into the locker, it feels so much better to be top deck even in the 80+ degree heat!
Pic on top left is me partway into the aft storage locker. The propane is running through the part of the locker that is beneath my right elbow. Oh, and I'm not standing either, I'm sitting on my feet on top of the box protecting the rudder gear.
Top right pic is part of the propane hose coming through the aft locker now secured and protected with clear vinyl tubing.
Bottom pics from left to right are the propane line secured and protected through the starboard storage locker, some of the items stored in their in evidence in the pics (sailing dinghy dagger board and kayak paddle, not to mention the batteries). This locker is also the entrance to the engine room.

New water line

Replaced new water intake line from intake thru-hull to water pump. The old one wasn't too corroded, but decided to replace anyways. It took over an hour and a half to get the water pipe on the thru-hull fittings... Left to right pic shows the half-inch difficult section of pipe fitting...
In between efforts to get the pipe further up on the fitting, I reinstalled the water pump and closed up the aft and forward cooling water chambers... Had to take a break in between brute force and ignorance attempts at that darn fitting. much swearing like a sailor could be heard if one was standing just outside my boat on the dock... who needs a gym.
There is a little more space on the fitting I'd like to get the hose onto, but I gave up and put the two hose clamps on. This may be removed again soon anyways when I look into adding a water intake strainer.

Reassemble continued...

With all new gaskets and zincs, the forward and aft cooling chambers were put back together. Top left and right pics are of aft chamber. Left pic shows the temp sensor in place, which I'm thinking of replacing as well. Now waiting for that part to come in. Right pic shows very tip of new exhaust hose section replaced from the metal exhaust elbow to the soon to come new waterlock/muffler. This section was beginning to deteriorate.
Bottom left picture shows forward cooling water chamber back together, as well as water pump in bottom left of the pic; alternator is on the right, and hopefully still in place since taking apart the forward cooling chamber involved removing a piece attached to the alternator, which Russell and I have spent much time trying to secure in place with proper drive band tension!
Bottom right pic are the two new zincs, and evidence of securing the new and backup parts. I'm always amazed at how much the gaskets (seemingly little pieces of paper) cost.

Disassemble - Reassemble

With almost all the parts in, time to reassemble the engine...
A new impeller was put into the water pump with a brand new gasket (top left pic) and brand new bolts (right pic). The new bolts are different from the previously used easily stripped and broken bolts (holding one of the old ones in my hand in the pic for comparison). Then, reattaching the water pump such that the drive band is appropriately tight (no easy task with only two hands...).

A day with Russell

A day with rad Russell and a new hole was drilled for installing the fuel gauge (see top right of top left pic). Used one of the many existing empty holes in this area to try and clean Athena up a little. Fuel gauge reading less than zero because it still needs to be wired up!
Need to wire this up now that I've also changed out my cheater clear vent hose from the fuel tank to a black "premium" fire retardant marine fuel hose.
Plans in the near future for changing out that old fuse panel in the bottom of that pic on the left...
Pieces parts of the propane line were also connected and soapy solution pressure tested. We're cooking with gas now inside (2 burner stove) and outside (grill). Yae :)
Couple more steps to finish the project; 1) finish securing the propane hose in the storage lockers to prevent chafing of the hose; and, 2) sealing the new through-deck opening (bottom of pic on right).
Thank you, Thank you, Russell !!!!

Wildlife Viewings

Also been seeing lots of wildlife up and down the docks.
Manatees almost every day this week. A different kind of duck. I think the duck is a red-breasted merganser. They winter or migrate through SWFL.
And, a goliath grouper (about 3 feet long) that looks like it's not doing too well :(
I think it was probably caught at depth, and like can happen to an uncareful scuba diver, the air bladder exploded into the body chamber making it impossible for this poor fish to dive back down to depth. If you're an angler, and you must do catch and release with goliath grouper at this time since any kind of harvest is currently illegal, it's important to know how to use a fish venting tool.

Awaiting Parts...

While awaiting parts, I try to work on other small projects (like installing the second fire extinguisher in the galley beneath the sink). It's funny, I have a really difficult time moving on to another project while the engine is torn apart, even when I'm at a point I can't really go further. It's all I can do to get my mind to focus on something other than the disaster at hand. But, move on to other things we must. Can't waste time sitting around...
However, must leave some time for relaxing! spending evenings with Peppermint Patty.
Too tired and sore to do anything else but enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
It's a good reminder to me to stop and take moments.
Sometimes I rush around too much, going here, going there, out out and about. I suppose often times trying to fight that feeling of loneliness I get being at the marina, which is so wonderfully remote, but also, remote.
Not that I'm not watched over every day by my neighbors that call me sunshine, captain, or sweetie ;)
We may not all hang out together all the time, but we have lots of in-passing dock, parking lot, or laundry room conversations :)
Once settled into the groove of whittling away at boat projects, it's easier for me to deal with being alone so much of the time, course I've been spending a good part of it at the West Marine, hardware, and engine parts stores that all know me by first name... scary!

Working & Living

It's tough to work and live in such a small space that easily becomes a disaster when the engine is all apart... As I write this the boat is much more of a disaster than the pic on the left, but I'm too embarrassed to show! The mess shown had been relatively picked up each night before bed... now the disaster just sits... We're just awaiting parts.
A great thing to do is to keep receipts for recalling part numbers, especially for old engines... I've tried to start a running list of part numbers and associated part names in the old engine manual (orange pages). I don't even want to think about how much money is represented by the receipts in the pic...
worth every penny though. this has been the greatest adventure and learning experience.

You can bet...

You can bet my waitressing career would be stunted by my dirty fingernails from slaving away cleaning the engine...
I am sure sore after climbing in and out and reaching in and out of all the tight spaces around Athena's engine. The pic is of me tucked in the engine room... Racor filter attached to wall at my left, black fuel tank behind me, engine in front (holding the camera), and access through starboard aft storage locker (that has removable wood wall between storage and engine room) to my right where sun is coming in. Climbing around and "swinging" down into the saloon area of the boat (because the stairs are removed to access the forward side of the engine) sure is a workout! and, you can also bet I've hit my head a couple times... ouch, it hurts today.

Other cooling water chambers

Next I opened up a cooling water chamber I hadn't opened up during previous engine cleaning (July 2006). This one is difficult to access (typical). But, it had signs of saltwater corrosion (see pic on left salt crystals forming around edges. Middle pic shows partial removal, the three metal tubes/lines in front are fuel lines... which I've been told are not possible to purchase anymore so I certainly don't want to be breaking those in the process! Pic on right shows this cooling water chamber opened up and some corrosion...

Temp sensor chamber

The aft zinc chamber is also the temperature sensor chamber...
The temp sensor can be seen sticking out of the port side (which also happens to be left side of the picture) of the aft zinc camber in the blog entry below.
The pic of this entry shows the temp sensor chamber opened up with the temp sensor probe.
There's some corrosion and some flaking from zinc and other salt corrosion.
but, enough to be the smoking gun....?

Next stop, zincs.

Replaced almost 2 years ago (July 2006), I thought perhaps the zincs were degrading and causing clogging in the cooling water system... They should probably be checked/replaced once a year anyways...
The top pic on the left is the aft zinc and the pic on the right is the forward (for) zinc. The for zinc took quite the force to break free with the added difficulty of another part tough to access.
Pic on bottom left shows the two zincs side by side. New ones have arrived for replacement :)
The for zinc chamber didn't look too shabby. The aft one...
but, enough to be the smoking gun...???

Water Pump - Impeller

So, taking apart, piece by piece, Athena's engine's saltwater cooling system.
Hoping to find the "smoking gun" causing the engine to overheat.
Typical first thing to check when engines start overheating is the water pump or impeller.
The impeller is not an easy thing to get to...
Top left pic is a view of the water pump looking forward from engine room (note for size, the circular cover is only 2.5 inches in diameter, and although those little bolts may look deceivingly accessible in the photo, the bottom three are actually impossible to get to). Top pic on right is a view of the water pump looking aft from the saloon (the water pump is behind and attached to, pumped-by, the black drive wheel beneath the large black hose). The water pump and drive wheel had to be removed in order to remove the circular cover of the water pump to access the impeller. It's also nice to have the pump removed for easy access for removal of stripped bolts... mini vice grips are great for removing stripped bolts. this situation will hopefully be remedied with different type of new bolt (more to come on that later).
Once opened... (bottom left pic is impeller in chamber), low and behold, there was some hard fleck pieces within the impeller chamber... (bottom pic on right shows flecks) but, enough to be the smoking gun....????