Paradise Isn’t Always Wonderful….#31

I’m sure you watch our posts and think…. “If only?” or “what a life” or “wish I could do that”…. but the real day to day life is more hard stuff and work than just sunsets, swimming in the ocean and eating tacos. Dan keeps an ongoing list of projects, some really hard and some easy… of course while we are working on the list, something else breaks and is more important and we reshuffle our priorities.

One of our most recent fix and a bit complicated was the removal, welding fix and reinstalling of a couple exhaust elbows. We have 4  two on each engine, 1 of them had previously had a leak and was repaired. When 2 of the remaining ones started to show signs of leakage we quickly decided to do the same to those that we had done to the first. This time I documented it and it was a bit easier because we understood more about it than before.

What we learned from the first repair:

– The water line is above the level of the elbow (when you remove the elbow water starts to pour into the bilge)

– Having a plug ready & sized properly to stop the water entering is a good option

– Helping hands is needed, Dan couldn’t do this alone

– You get wet, dirty and sweaty!! I know first hand

Prior to the removal of the elbow Dan went hunting for 4-6 inch thick hunk of wood that he could cut to size, plugging the opening once we pulled the elbow out. He found some solid wood remnants that the marina had left over from installing new whalers and were in process of tossing out. “It was Lucky” He attempted to cut them in circles to fit the diameter of the pipe but he didn’t have a good enough saw to accomplish. We asked the stainless steel repair shop to help us, he gladly cut them for us.

Once we had all the parts ready Dan and I prepared to remove the elbows. Sorry no pictures of the action as we both had our hands full. Dan loosen the hose clamps one at a time, top and bottom. Dan slid the top of the elbow down and out. As we were preparing to remove the bottom I would pull on the elbow while Dan would shove the plug into the end with his wood caps and tighten hose clamps around it to stop any water. This worked great but remember as soon as the elbow was removed water started pouring in. He had to move quickly.

Sergio from, “Machine Shop Vallarta” swung by to pick them up from us and started the repair. If you need any stainless steel repairs done or machine work while in Puerto Vallarta, we highly recommend them. You can find them on FB at Machine Shop Vallarta. The completed elbows came back all shiny and like new! We then prepared for the install… of course the opposite procedures of pulling them off was the process for putting back on. It wasn’t a hard process, but a bit messy and the final product and results are “perfecto”.

One other projects we are in-process of completing is the repair of our dinghy crane hydraulics. The hoist cylinder started to leak fluid from the main seals. Our nextdoor boating neighbors Ben and Andrea on SV Belle Vie helped us disassemble the crane. We took the cylinder & one of the sheaves  (rollers for crane line) into this same shop to have fixed. While it was out and down we were able to clean and paint the boom, and assess the hoisting crane cable & decided to purchase a new line. We will be getting a line with different material called Dyneema AmSteel, that will help the crane work more smoothly.

Here are some action pictures, using the Port crane to lift and move the Starboard one.

With all our projects we always look at repairing versus buying a new part.  Both options are always assessed on how to go forward from a “best repair” and a financial perspective.

We always feel lucky….to have our friends to help us! New boating friends, Machine Shop Friends and You that read about our crazy adventures! Thank you!

Hasta Luego Amigos