Getting Tanked

OK, we've gotten beyond the worst of all this.  I'm talking about the initial discovery of the leaking holding tank, the realization that we had been mislead by the sellers when we bought the boat and the general stink of it all.  Now we're back in Limbo, living in Pete and Gina's basement (which is nicely finished and furnished and very comfortable, thank you), and well into the replacement of the tank.

John Hellwege, service manager at Gratitude Yachting Center, has decided to make their shop the leading East Coast authority on everything Island Packet.  It appears that ours is only the second 420 to suffer the indignity of a holding tank failure.  The location of this tank is in a bad spot, centered in the forward cabin, partly under the forward bunk and partly under the walkway to the head.  John's decided to try to minimize the destruction necessary to remove it by going in through the storage area under the bunk and exposing as much of the tank as possible.  For those not familiar with the IP420, the forward bunk is hinged so it can be lifted to reveal a large storage area underneath.  Pullout panels in the floor provide access to even more storage beneath that.  Underneath this second level is where the holding tank is hidden away.

This part of the project, removing the tank, went pretty quickly.  Referring to drawings, they mapped out existing hoses and bulkheads that were hidden from view.  After removing the drawers and hardware they were able to make precise cuts and remove only what was necessary from the support structure beneath the bunk.  The entire first level of storage was removed in one piece which will make it less painful to put back together again in the end.  Once down to the second level they removed one section of flooring and some bracing to expose the tank.

With the tank exposed the plan was to cut it into sections for removal.  When the tank was first drilled into it was found to be pressurized.  This indicated that the vent line was plugged which explained why the tank was unable to be pumped out.  At first, everyone was thinking that this was the real cause of our problem and that the tank wouldn't need to be replaced.  At this point no one had actually done a visual verification that there really was a hole in the tank.  To be able to see underneath the tank you would have to be a double jointed contortionist with a flashlight in your mouth and mirrors in each hand.  Being smarter than most, John used his cell phone camera and after several tries discovered a hole along the seam the size of a half dollar.  I never doubted there was a hole down there because I had spent several hours cleaning up the putrid mess that had leaked out of the tank.  John's photograph verified our suspicions.  The picture here shows the cut out section of the tank with the hole in the center.

So, the tank was removed in sections using a small grinder with a cutoff wheel, a sawzall and hacksaw blades.  The floor of the area underneath was scrubbed clean as was the bilge.  Now when you first enter the boat down the companionway you are greeted with the clean smell of fiberglass and plastic, the smell of a new boat.  This is the first time we've had this on this boat.  There is still a faint odor in the forward cabin, kinda like sulfur, which can be traced to the hanging locker.  We'll hafta tear into that and get it completely cleaned out.  This will require removing the cedar lining that was just installed this past winter.  Bummer.

We were originally going to use an off-the-shelf tank made by Moeller Plastics.  This was a standard rectangular model, 28" x 23" x 11.5", and the largest we could fit would have been 30 gallons.  We decided to bite the bullet and go with a custom made tank that'll fit the space better and give us more volume.  The actual cost is about the same since the Moeller tank would have required additional bracing and man-hours for installation.  The tank we finally settled on will be built to our specs by Wellington Plastics in British Columbia, made from 1/2" welded polyethylene.  The biggest drawback with the custom tank is having to wait for it to be built.  This, along with 5 days for shipping, has added 3 weeks to this project, basically doubling the amount of time for the repair.  Yikes you say, six weeks!  That's what we said too.  But after giving it some thought we felt it was better to have the larger tank for resale value and were willing to put in the extra time to have this done right.  With a boat of this quality you just can't do things half-way.

Here's some pics showing what's going on.  The first one is of our bunk in the forward cabin with the mattress and top level removed.  You can see part of the holding tank showing through the floor.  The machinery in the background is the air conditioner for the forward stateroom.  It uses the storage area under the bunk as an air return chamber.  Pretty cool, so to speak.  When it's running you can't even hear it.  The next picture shows the top section of the bunk that was removed in one large piece so reassembly will go quicker. The third picture shows the tank before they cut into it.  That's only about half the tank showing as the rest of it extends to the left under the cabin sole.  To remove the tank in one piece would have required cutting out the side of the bunk and a section of the floor. If you look at the exposed compartment below the tank you can see some of the hoses and valves for the tank.  You can also see some of the crud that had leaked out.  Mmmmm, nice huh?  This area was all covered up when we first found we had a problem.  To the left of the hoses in this picture is another compartment under the cabin sole and this is where I found the original mess.  It's also where we found the "leaking valve" while the boat was in Florida prior to the survey.  It should have been obvious to anyone familiar with the layout of the boat what the real problem was.  I claim innocence (read stupidity) since I didn't have a clue about where the holding tank was.  The surveyor on the other hand was intimately aware of it, having recently inspected another 420.  But I digress.  Sorry about that.

You can see in the bottom picture that the new tank wouldn't be able to fit through the existing hole if it was the same size as the original.  This creates a problem or two.  We want to minimize the amount of damage to the surrounding cabin.  We also want to have a tank that's pretty much the same volume, 60 gallons.  Last but not least, we want to squeeze it through a hole that was too small for the original 60 gallon tank to come out of.  Same old story, Tom wants it all.  John took the dimensions of the original tank and shrunk it down just enough to fit.  He estimates the new tank volume to be 55 gallons.

Over the last year we've gone through quite a bit with this boat, from purchase to repairs and upgrades and now this stupid holding tank.  Working with the folks at Gratitude Yachting Center has been a real pleasure.  Jack and Sharon Malatich were our brokers and were instrumental in finding the perfect boat for us.  They ensured our concerns were addressed and practically held our hands throughout the process of buying the boat.  John Hellwege has made sure all the work we've had done was of the highest quality and yet stayed within our budget.  He understood our goals and kept them in mind for every aspect of the rebuild.  He's gone out of his way to make things right for us, even the little things like cleaning up the boat and leaving the A/C on for us so it'd be comfortable when we came up for the weekend.  In this industry where an "estimated time of repair" is nothing but a pipe dream and brokers are only around when you flash some cash, Gratitude Yachting Center stands out as being different from all the rest.  They treat you with honesty and respect, as they would treat family or a friend.  We've made some good friends at Gratitude.

An Apple A Day.....

On the day of The Great Holding Tank Disaster (GHTD) Cheri and I were putting together a new computer for La Vida Dulce.  We took the time to look into software that was available for navigation and other things that would be needed from the boat's point of view.  It quickly became apparent that everything out there is PC based which makes sense since the world revolves around Windows.  Unfortunately, I am sick and tired of everything Microsoft and couldn't stand the thought of having to deal with another PC and all the frustration that traditionally goes with it.  My brother-in-law converted over to a Mac last year and he loves it.  He showed it off to me recently and I felt like I was looking at a real solution.  I envisioned hours of internet use without having Explorer hang up.  Woohooo!  Yes, I know, there are other browsers available.  I use Mozilla at work and it's way better than IE.  Never-the-less, the whole mentality of "get it into production now and fix the problems later", which is pretty much the mantra of anything PC, has driven me to the edge.

So we jumped.  We looked at Mac laptops but the gazillion dollar price tags scared us off.  The all-in-one desktop was really cool but pricey too and the monitor was too big to use at the Nav Station.  Then we saw the Mac-mini.  This has everything I wanted wrapped up in a small 8" x 8" x 2" box:

• 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 2GB memory
• 320GB hard drive
• 8x double-layer SuperDrive
• NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics
• Mac OS X Snow Leopard

  You can add up to 8GB memory and a 500 GB hard drive but the base product is plenty for our needs.  It's really built for hooking up to your home theater and that works out fine for us.  We've set it up with a Samsung 23" LCD monitor on a Bretford desk mount at the Nav Station.  We went with the Apple wireless keyboard and mouse to keep everything clean, plus the keyboard is 1/2 the size of a regular one, which is perfect for using on the boat.  The monitor draws just 45 watts and the Mac mini draws 85 but drops to 10 watts in sleep mode.  Also perfect for the boat.  We wanted to have a 37" flat screen in the forward stateroom and a smaller screen in the Main Salon.  The Mac mini will support both at once.  Cool!  We'll have music, movies and TV over the internet using Pandora, Netflix and Online-television.tv.  This'll serve us well until we finally head away from the mainland and by then I hope to have all our music on a hard drive.  I don't expect we'll spend too much time watching TV or movies at that point.

We mounted the arm for the monitor at the Nav Station.  It's bolted down to the desktop and is stiff as a brick.  It kinda resembles the mast so I can pass it off as being a continuation of the interior design motif.  Right.  Like she'd really buy that.  The monitor is black framed and just kinda disappears against the instrument panel, at the same time hiding all the switches and gadgets from view.  For access to anything you simply pull the monitor out of the way.  I plan to add a hook to the cabinet with an eye mounted to the arm so I can lock down the monitor while we're underway.  Where it's mounted, the monitor can be turned for viewing from anywhere in the Galley or Main Salon.  All the wiring for the Mac is run through the Nav Station cabinet so it's a really clean installation.  Plus the Mac mini can be run by a remote control so it'll be nice for sitting back and watching TV or movies.  Oh yeah, one more thing.  The Mac can run Windows based software so now I've got the best of both worlds.

I actually got to use the Mac mini for about 2 hours before the GHTD but we've been off the boat ever since.  Bummer.  My short experience with it has been all positive.  I think it's gonna be a real breath of fresh air after years of dealing with Microsoft.  And let me tell you, a little fresh air is really needed right now.

On Saturday, 7/3, we sailed up to Gratitude.  We had originally planned to go there for 3 days so we could take in the fireworks and visit with my cousin's family; Steve, Vicki and Brandon Ward.  Now with the GHTD our plans had changed.  We were too mortified to have anyone come visit.  I mean, I want people to visit the boat and walk away with memories of a pleasant sail on our beautiful boat.  Right now they'd walk away with memories of dirty diapers.  Yuck!  So we canceled our social visit and turned the trip into a delivery.  We'd leave the boat so that repairs could begin the following week.  That meant that we had to drop off a car in Rock Hall the day before, requiring a 2 hour drive in each direction.  Love that Bay Bridge traffic!

We sailed up on Saturday with light winds, 6 to 8 knots, and averaged about 3.5 knots in speed.  It took us all day to get there, leaving Herrington Harbour at 0830 and arriving at Gratitude at 1930.  We had reservations for dinner at the Osprey Point Inn at 2000 which didn't leave us much time to tie up the boat and get ready.  Cheri hit the showers but I opted for a quick sponge bath.  We showed up at the inn just at 2000 and found that they didn't have us down for a reservation.  Not a problem though and they gave us a table for two in the best part of the room.  This place is really fine dining, gourmet in fact, and in my opinion is one of the best places to eat in Maryland.  Highly recommended.  After dinner as we walked out to the car we could see the start of the fireworks display over the tree tops (they do them on the 3rd in Rock Hall).  We hurried back to the marina and hiked out to the end of the stone jetty.  We had a perfect view across the water of the display going off just a few blocks away.  What a sight, really beautiful.

We spent the night on the boat with every hatch and port opened up to a nice sweet breeze off the water.  In the morning we headed back to Silver Spring after stopping for some pancakes, eggs and coffee.  The weekend turned out to be very nice.  Now we're in the wait mode for 3 weeks.  Waiting to get our home back.  Waiting to get our life back in order.  Waiting to get some time in on the Mac.  And waiting to go sailing again on this awesome boat.   I just gotta say, even with the setback of the GHTD our life on La Vida Dulce is pure magic.

An Unpleasant Occurrance (or...... S _ _ T Happens)

This is a nasty little story involving rotten scoundrels, dirty deeds and other disagreeable matters.  There's nothing funny or cute or nice here.  I'll try to say something nice in my next entry but for now I gotta tell it like it is.

In the previous entry about our cruise to the Little Choptank River (click here) I mentioned that we had some trouble with the holding tank overflowing into the hanging lockers.  At the time we thought this was caused by a blockage in one of the lines.  Since then we've discovered the real cause of the problem.

Last Summer we were deeply entrenched in our search for a new boat that would take us around the world.  We found one that fit our requirements to a T but it was located down in Bradenton, Florida and had been in the charter fleet down in the British Virgin Islands.  Our broker convinced us to go down and check it out because the price was low, close to the limit for what we could afford, and this was probably going to be the only way we would ever be able to get an Island Packet 420, the boat of our dreams.  We flew down and spent a miserably hot day going over her with a fine tooth comb.  She showed some wear and tear which was to be expected from charter life but we also found some serious signs of neglect.  All the teak woodwork down below was water stained, as if all the ports and hatches had been left open constantly, rain or shine.  We also found raw sewage beneath the cabin sole (floor) under the valves for the holding tank.  We were told this was from a leaky valve and would be taken care of.  Another area of concern was in the two hanging lockers which are located back to back on the bulkhead between the main salon and the forward stateroom.  Both lockers are lined with cedar which had water stains and smelled like 10 day old fish.  We were told this odor was probably caused by storing away wet foul weather gear.  We presented a list of concerns to our brokers and were told that everything could be repaired over the winter at a reasonable expense and when combined with the low purchase price we would still be way under the market value of the boat.  We had her surveyed, the results of which basically mirrored our list, and went ahead and made the purchase.

 After having the boat trucked up to Rock Hall we spent 8 months and over $40,000 having everything on our list repaired.  One of our biggest concerns was the smell down below and this was addressed by replacing all the hoses for the two heads and the holding tank.  We also replaced the cedar lining in the two hanging lockers.

 We sold our house in Silver Spring along with everything that attached us to life on shore and on May 15th of this year we moved on board, confident that we had prepared the boat to be our new home.  In order to reduce the possibility of mildew and other unpleasant things, we decided to use the marina's facilities while the boat was in the slip and only use the boat's toilets and showers when on the hook.

 After living aboard for three weeks we planned a 5 day sail and pumped out the holding tank prior to leaving.  This was a new experience for us.  Herrington Harbour has 2 pumping stations set up on a dock near the entrance to the marina.  You just motor over and tie up alongside.  The marina supplies tokens which are used to run the pump.  There's a long, corrugated hose that's at least 3" in diameter with a control valve on the end and a fitting with a rubber seal around the end.  The holding tank on the boat has a line that goes to a deck fitting (I should point out here that this line runs up through the hanging locker in the forward stateroom).  The hose from the dock forms a vacuum tight seal against the deck fitting and sucks the gunk out of the tank.  There's a clear plastic section near the valve so you can see when it's done pumping too.  Lovely.  When you first put in the token you're supposed to wait about a minute because the pump is located on shore and has to pump down this 3" hose that's the length of the dock.  If you open the valve too soon you loose suction.  We waited until we felt the hose jump a few times which indicates that everything is ready to go and then placed the rubber seal against the deck fitting and opened the valve.  It pumped just fine for about 10 or 15 seconds, then slowed to just a drizzle.  We checked the suction by dipping the pumpout hose into the creek and it sucked just fine.  OK, must be working, right?  I mean, after all, we hadn't been using the on-board heads much so how full could it be?  Two days later, while on our trip to The Little Choptank River the pumpout line overflowed into the hanging lockers.  This was written off as a line being plugged and we continued on.  After getting back to the marina we pumped out again.  Same thing, worked fine for 10 or 15 seconds, then nothing.  I ran a water hose into the pumpout line to flush out the tank and let it run for quite a while.  When I went to pump it out I got clear water but only for about 10 or 15 seconds, then nothing.  ???

 Later that night we were getting ready for bed when we got this terrible odor in the forward cabin.  Bella, you bad dog!  We looked all around but couldn't find any surprises she might have left.  Only after looking in the compartments below the cabin sole (floor) did I find the source of the smell.  Our holding tank wasn't holding.  There was raw sewage  flowing out from under the tank in exactly the same spot where we had seen the problem with the leaky valve last September.  While cleaning up this mess ( I'm still gagging) it became clear to me what was going on.  The tank wouldn't pump out because it had a hole in the bottom and couldn't form suction.  Nothing was coming out until now because the contents of the tank had been sitting in there for at least a year while the boat was for sale and had baked into a solid mass.  When I ran all that water into the tank it re-hydrated everything and opened up the leak.  This is a great subject for a blog, huh?

 Here's how I picture the history of this little event.  I believe it all started while the boat was in charter down in the British Virgin Islands, probably over two years ago.  Some unfortunate Yuppie couple had rented this boat for their annual vacation, paid thousands of dollars.  While sailing around Paradise the holding tank backed up into the hanging lockers because it couldn't be pumped out and then the tank leaked out into the bilge.  The stink musta been so bad they opened all the ports and hatches for fresh air until they got back to the Charter company's docks.  Their vacation was ruined.  The boat probably sat at the dock with everything open, rain or shine, and this is how all the woodwork down below was ruined.  When the owners finally saw the condition of their beautiful Island Packet they decided to just sell it instead of dumping money into repairs.  The boat then sat in Florida for a year because no one wanted to buy a stinky boat.  Over that time the price was dropped $110,00 to the point where we finally got suckered in.  No one involved in this sale was up front about the actual problem.  We were mislead about "leaky valves" and "stinky wet clothes".  The gentleman who did the survey for us was recommended by the broker representing the sellers.  The surveyor never mentioned any problem with the holding tank even though we had pointed out the "leak" at the valves.  As it turns out, this is a fairly common problem on Island Packets.  The tanks are all made from aluminum and there have been quite a few reports of failed tanks.  Seems to me that a good surveyor would have been familiar with this.  It was his job to be completely thorough in his inspection and yet he missed the biggest, most obvious problem on the boat.  I hate being taken for a sucker.

 We probably would have bought the boat anyway, even had we known about this problem.  Island Packets in good condition sell for about twice what we had set for a ceiling price when we were looking at boats.  Having to do some repairs was really the only way we would be able to get "the perfect boat" and the cost of those repairs could be rolled into the loan.  No problem.  My problem is with being lied to and let me tell you, a lie by omission is still a lie.  Grrrrr.

So on Saturday, 7-3, we sailed the boat back up to Gratitude to have the tank replaced.  It's located under the floor and bunk in the forward stateroom.  To take it out in one piece would require that half the cabin be disassembled.  Big job.  To reduce the destruction, Gratitude is going to remove the inside of the bunk, two layers of storage cabinetry, and cut out the flooring underneath to get at the tank.  Then they'll cut the tank into pieces to get it out.  The new tank will have to be smaller to get back in the same hole so we're going with a 35 gallon tank made out of some kind of poly plastic with 3/8" walls.  It looks like the cause of these tank failures is uric acid attacking the aluminum, causing corrosion and, after about 8 or 10 years, eating it's way through.  Hopefully the poly tank will last longer.

Here's the kicker.  We hafta be outa the boat for the next 3 weeks and it's gonna cost us $8000 out of pocket.  Grrrr.  If only they had been more up-front about this before we bought the boat.  Now I'm gonna hafta spend all my afternoons on the streetcorner begging for spare change.  On the upside, our dear friends, Peter and Gina Judd have offered us their home while they're on vacation down in Virginia.  Once again, friends and family are there when you need them.  And I can always count on rush hour traffic to choke up some coin.