We rented big people bicycles and rode 20 miles up to Grassy Key (just North of Vaca Key where Marathon is) a of couple times We've sampled "Burdine's" (touted as the best burger and fries in the area), took the bus to Key West for a day, lunched at Jimmy Buffet's "Margaritaville", toured Hemingway's House, and did a good bit of work-work (the work we get paid for).
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| Hemingway's House in Key West |
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| This really cool sculpture garden dedicated to those who had a large influence in Key West over the years |
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| "The Wreckers" a bronze sculpture of the men who salvaged the wrecks on the reefs surrounding Key West |
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| We have no idea why this is "done up" as it is, but pretty wild! |
The canvas that enwraps the mainsail when it is not in use has been wearing thin in one or two places. So, Sharon bought some really nice Sunbrella with a vinyl backing from a local canvas shop and set to work on the cabin top with her trusty sewing machine. She was able to add patches to the mainsail cover in two heavy wear areas with great results.
Here is Sharon hard at work (disregard the sunny day, blue water and palm trees in the background!)
We need to add a picture of the finished product! She did a beautiful job! And it was warm and sunny on deck all afternoon! A happy day.
Greg's project was to clean the diesel's heat exchanger (this is like the radiator on your car engine). What fun! The boat next door just had it's generator heat exchanger cleaned, and Greg thought it was a great idea to do the same for our main engine as it's been over ten years since it has been tended to. In order to do this he had to build a small pump system that would circulate water and an acid mixture through the heat exchanger into a bucket. He happened to have an extra water pump and added extra wire and a cigrette lighter plug so that it could be operated anywhere there was a cigrette lighter receptacle (that would be like your 12-volt plug in your car where you plug in your phone or other devices). He bought clear hose from the hardware store for the pump. And he happened to have another run of larger hose that fit the heat exchanger to pump assembly perfectly. Often the most difficult part of boat projects is the planning and gathering of parts. This turned out easier than most!
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| Pump assembly |
First task, test the pump in the sink to make sure it worked. Then he found two five gallon buckets to use for the acid mixture and later the clean water final flush. Denny Mills, across the dock on the IP420 True North, helped out. Denny's boat was the one that had the generator aboard that was cleaned...and the inspiration for this project. So, once Dream Catcher was done the boys moved to True North to clean that heat exchanger.
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| Running the system - black water! |
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| Denny caught off guard! |
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| Disregard those running sox! |
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| The solution is brown as a result of organics being killed and flushed |
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| After the initial acid flush a soda flush neutralizes the acid |
Heat Exchanger cleaning using an HCL acid bath:
Hydrochloric
(HCL) and Muriatic Acid are the same. But the concentrations available in
stores differ. Most are 20 – 50% concentrations. All are OK to use, but it’s
worth knowing what you’re using as you add HCL to the water mix so that you can
add at a more or less aggressive rate. My bottle is 39% HCL. Rydlyme (sold by Mack
Boring marine diesel distributor) is essentially a 5-9% HCL solution. See their
technical specs: http://www.rydlymemarine.com/assets/1/7/RYDLYME_MARINE_SDS_0301151.PDF
Wear
eye protection.
Open
all hatches and ports so that the area is well ventilated. The process
temporarily generates strong gases.
Have
extra rags, paper towels and plastic bags handy to keep the area as dry as
possible.
Prepare
your motor:
Close
engine seacock valve.
Cover
starter, alternator and any other electrical devices with plastic, paper and
towels to keep them dry.
Open
heat exchanger raw water drain, if equipped, and release as much raw water as
possible.
Disconnect
both raw water hoses from heat exchanger.
Connect
pump hose and exit water hose to heat exchanger.
Flush
system:
Add
three to four gallons of clean water to each of two buckets.
Circulate
clean water through the system and check for leaks. If none, proceed.
Add
a small amount of HCL to bucket, perhaps 2 cups. It will fizz when in contact
with water, which means it is interacting with the base/organic material in the
water. The organic material is algae, barnacles, and other plant or parasitic
marine life growing in the heat exchanger.
The
water will change color to dark brown as organic material is converted and
exits the system.
Monitor
solution in circulation bucket for fizzing and bubbling. When it no longer reacts
add more HCL. The water should continue to turn dark brown or black as a result
of flushing the organic material out.
When
adding new HCL has no more fizzing effect in the bucket run the pump for
another few minutes and then stop the process.
This means there is no more
organic material in the system.
Flush the system with clean water for a few minutes
while adding backing soda to the mixture to neutralize the HCL. Do this very
slowly, as this will cause more bubbling and fizzing as the water in the heat
exchanger enters the bucket. Continue adding soda until there is no more
bubbling or fizzing, then run the pump another minute or two.
Remove the soda bath bucket and add another fresh
water bucket, insert the hoses into this bucket and flush again with fresh
water for a few minutes. This should eliminate most traces of acid or soda and
fill the heat exchanger with clean water.
Carefully empty the water from the hoses into the
bucket, disconnect them from the heat exchanger, reconnect engine hoses and
remove the pump and equipment from the engine area.
Clean and dry engine and engine room. Open seacock.
Run the engine. Make sure you have good water flow. You’re done!
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