Part of having a boat is the joy of fixing archaic things in uncomfortable places at inopertune times.
Since I don’t like cleaning hair out of the shower sump, we rarely shower on the boat unless on the back deck. This is a great way of meeting neighbors and a fantastic team building event. But, it was winter so we decided to shower in the boat. Time for an amorous evening…..
Of course I go last so I can wipe down the shower stall and clean up.
But of course after Claire’s shower the sump pump did not come on. On a Grand Banks, the shower water is pumped into the bilge and then it is pumped overboard by the much larger bilge pump in the main bilge sump in the engine room.
After dipping the water out I waited till the next day to run to West Marine for a replacement. Amorous evening ruined.
I made quick work of the almost exact replacement and guess what, it did not work.
I had power to the switch, and power at the pump, but the pump would not come on. So next was to pull the switch and test it independently, fine. I then wired the pump around the switch and it worked.
This was not making sense. After much thought I concluded the wire from the switch to the pump must be broken, and started the process of opening cabinets and hatches to trace the run to pull new wire.
Guess what? Grand Banks put a terminal block on the bottom of the floor. The block was exposed to bilge water, and probably got wet in rough seas.
The terminals had rusted enough that voltage would flow but no current. I replaced the block with a new stainless one and, “showers for everyone”!
As many of you know, someone at Lehman was having a bad day on engine layout day, and decided to curse everyone with an upside down oil filter.
This design sucks. At best you spill some, at worse a lot, all over the engine.
In my striving for a 20k hour motor, I changed to the longest filter available by NAPA gold, #1843, almost double the filtering media. But the added weight and vibration fatigued the chicken shit bracket till failure.
To add insult to the all ready bad design, you must remove the crossover cooling tube and exhaust manifold to remove the old bracket. So it will stay.
I decided to move the filter to the motor mount, giving room to place a catch basin under it and also allowing a much more robust plate for mounting. This way I could still use the factory hoses.
As you can see, the new plate is 3/16” plate steel. It is available from Kyle at Moe Enterprises. Send me a PM for contact info. He has a CNC plasma cutter and can modify it if needed.
In the process I discovered the three oil\ lines were all cracking, so those were replaced by Brian at American Diesel.
These lines are indexed and have special fittings and washers, get them all. Installing them is a bitch, they have to be twisted into place then threaded.
After about a year we have decided to leave Blue Dolphin Marina and take the boat East. This will be about three years since our last trip.
We have accomplished many tasks, and the boat is much better suited to coastal cruising. We now seldom need to run the generator, since we have rebuilt the refrigeration systems. We have almost all the canvas and screens replaced. Choices is buffed out and shining.
Same as last time we picked a cool brisk sunny morning to leave, and ran outside the Houston Ship channel to the Intercoastal Canal and then turned East.
This was the start of a one week trip, all the way to New Orleans. The last time Claire and I did this we had a few issues. This time we expected none. I ran the boat most of the way from inside perched on a $10.00 Walmart bar stool with a pillow for a cushion. This is a great way to kill all feeling to your butt….
The first day we stopped at Stingaree in Bolivar, again. They offer a free dock with power, which made the first day a short relaxing hop. A great place to take the kids, they can watch barges go by and the push boats honk their horns for the kids.
The second day we made Shell Island south of Beaumont. We wandered around the island and found a nice channel that was a half mile from the ICW, but quiet and only accessed by a few fishermen. That evening we anchored the boat and were surrounded by thousands of migratory birds, which the video can not possibly show.
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The third day we intended to go to Blacks Bayou. This was another scenic anchorage area that my mother would have loved, very quiet and beautiful. But instead ran longer and went on into Lake Arthur.
We took a detour and stayed the night at the Lake Arthur Yacht Club. This is an old sailing club on a pretty lake that is very country. Great hospitality and incredible scenery.
We passed this old country home that had a giant oak tree in the yard. If you look close you can see the trunk is at least ten feet in diameter.
On the fifth day, a Sunday, we stopped for the night at Shell Morgan in Intercoastal City. Think of this as a country gas station for offshore workboats, commercial fishermen, and traveling yachts.
Shell Morgan is a Chevron station, the name is from their dad, who started the place ninety years ago. It is only 45 minutes from our Lafayette house. Tim and Trish came and took us to eat.
At Shell Morgan we paid $4.01/gallon, about 75 cents or more cheaper than normal, and topped off with 150 gallons. This was the first time we had bought fuel in almost three years! Last time was with Stan on the way back in Gulfport, MS.
After that we motored to Morgan City. We stayed on the City bulkhead, a noisy and sometimes rough place with free power. Claire and I walked to Rita Mayes in a light rain and had fried shrimp.
The Bayou Boeuf lock was down for repairs during the day so we went through the Bayou Chene swamp and passed a giant section of dry dock being towed somewhere. It was too big to go through the lock. One side of the dry dock had a whole collection of channel markers it had snagged.
The second to last day we stopped at the Houma city dock and park. It is a quiet place near the medical center. We had dinner at a very nice place, Christians Restorante, and the owner gave us a ride back to the boat, pretty cool. Rob’s kind of place, walls covered in biking stuff,
Next morning we ran all the way to Harvey lock, and after a short wait were locked into the Mississippi River before curfew at 3:00.
Although we did not get a picture, Choices skirted the edge of a whirlpool that was almost as big as the boat, and we could not see the bottom of the inverted funnel. About a quarter mile later we saw where the whirlpool emptied. A little unnerving. Here you can see deck fluff Claire ready with ropes.
At the end of our Mississippi River tour was the Industrial Canal lock. This is a nice lock in that there is a small bulkhead small boats can tie to waiting to get locked through. This was good, since the lock master got us confused with another boat and we sat here till after dark.
Once clear of the lock we made Ponchatrain Landing, our dockage for the weekend, at 7:00 pm.
Seabrook Marina New Orleans
We were scheduled for a Monday morning haulout at Seabrook Marina in New Orleans.
Choices had not had a bottom job since Woodforest in Florida over three years ago. I was expecting a botanical hanging garden when they pulled her. The last job was with Micron bottom paint.
To our surprise she was very clean except for barnacles around the thruster and running gear. Zincs were toast. Woodforest did an awesome job, and you can check out their work in the archives.
The new paint is Trinidad Pro, red. About 65% copper. Should be good for another three years. I cold galvanized the prop to see how that works.
Adam repacked the stuffing box while there. This picture is by Claire, checking my bottom out….
A couple videos of Choices getting splashed. We were here about two weeks.
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Journey East Mississippi Gulf Coast
Once we left Seabrook Marina we stopped at Bay St.Louis for the weekend. A great place to explore, it gave us some time to relax and explore this cool little town. Think a redneck Fairhope, AL.
The Marina is very rolly, no real protection from storms. If going there pick your slip carefully. Here is Choices on the end with deck fluff waving, and us having cocktails.
Our next stop was Gulfport. We stayed a couple days here also, and really like this marina. Great bathrooms and showers. Claire met a new friend. Notice the marinas look almost identical. Most municipal marinas on the Mississippi coast look the same.
Of course we ate at Half Shell Oyster House several times, along with their sister restaurant.
Lulu’s
Tim and Trish have been at Lulu’s for several months. The real name is Homeport Marine at mile marker 155. Claire and I settled in and made that leg in one day, 96 miles, in 12 hours, from Gulfport.
Below you can see Claire during her shift at the helm.
It was a nice uneventful trip with the wind on our nose.
Upon arrival Tim and Trish greeted us like war hero’s and we went and had drinks and dinner at the restaurant.
Although scheduled for a week, we are now here for two months, not a bad place and great hurricane hole, thanks Ken!
Fresh Water Woes
One of the few systems on Choices which has worked trouble free is the Groco fresh water system, thirty years old.
Choices holds two hundred gallons of fresh water in two tanks, one at the bow and the other at the stern.
From there the water is plumbed to other engine room where it is pumped through the boat by the original Groco system.
It seems the accumulator tank ruptured, causing the pump to cycle more, causing the pump pressure switch to fail, causing the pump to fail.
For the price to rebuild I could replace the entire thing with new. So while doing this I also replaced the galley faucet and head faucet. The hoses are metric, so I used a shark compression fitting to mate the faucet hoses.
Looks much better and a greatly needed improvement.
Alas, the new Groco pump failed within a couple weeks. POS is just crap. Waiting on new pump now.
John’s 42 Classic
A blog follower and now friend John bought a 42 classic to do the loop in.
Being a car restoration guy and commercial pilot, he has big plans on restoring the boat to better than new, and is well on his way.
He was also in the Seabrook Yard for several months getting new thru hulls and a bottom job.
So…. I helped him move the boat from the yard to Lulu’s the same trip Claire and I had just made. And, I only charged him meals…
John’s boat has 4 times the horsepower and cruises much faster. He got some good docking experience along the way.
Choices 