So, here I go again and Pandora is out of the water, for the second time this season. This time because of a leak in a rubber gasket on the bow thruster that keeps the sea out of the thruster locker. It is a flexible boot that allows the unit to pivot up and down, as it’s retractable. It’s acutally a pretty neat thruster as it isn’t like most small boat thrusters that are a hole in the hull crosswise at the bow. It pulls up flush to the hull so there is no effect on the speed of the boat.
Sometimes I wonder if I really own Pandora or if she owns me. Over the last few months I have worked hard to get her ready for the run to Hampton and then on to Antigua along with the rest of the fleet in the Salty Dawg Caribbean Rally and as hard as I try, she always has the last word.
I wrote earlier in the season about a problem with the shaft coupling failing as I headed up the CT River and home, haul #1, and how lucky I was that it had not happened any earlier in the 1,500 mile run home. I am sure that I do have a guardian angel watching out for me, that’s for sure.
In this case, a leak in the bow, discovered here in the comfort of the CT River, suggests that my Angel is still with me. I shudder to think about a leak 500 miles from land. Yes, good but, as always, a good amount of “boat dollars” to set things right.
Well, Pandora is now on the hard. The good news is that she now has a clean bottom and the problem has been solved with the installation of a new boot.
The bow thruster is a particularly finiky piece of equipment that has cost me thousands over the years. When it works, it’s worth it’s weight in gold as loosing control of the boat in close quarters can lead to expensive scratch repairs. And, it’s a very heavy piece of kit jammed into a very cramped place up in the bow, let me tell you. This is the third time that I have had problems with the unit, the first time when she was new to us. In that case, I discovered that the unit had been damaged by water before we purchased her back in 2015. That was a painful “upgrade” if you could call it that.
It is pretty neat. See this video of how she operates.
So, here we are on a similar repair path years later when a humble rubber part, lovingly called a “bellows” has developed a leak. Fortunately, when I had the unit serviced in 2015, I also made a point of purchasing what might be the last bellows avaiable anywhere in the US, knowing that it would eventually fail.
Well, it failed, started leaking, and now Pandora is back on the hard.
However, this time I was able to do the repairs myself. Unlike the last time, when parts were frozen with corrosion, getting the unit apart this time was a fairly simple, if day long job.
I should note that while getting her hauled in the past, in the summer or early fall, was a simple affair, it has become a lot more difficult, and expensive as Safe Harbor has been buying up so many of the marinas around the area so they know that they don’t have to be accomodating. What used to be a fairly informal and competitive marina environment, the care and feeding of boats is now a lot more difficult.
In my case, I have been hauling Pandora for seasonal maintenance every summer for a decade at a nearby yard. Now that Safe Harbor has purchased the yard, they are a lot less flexible for anyone that does not store with them year round. This yard, now with a new manager, said that they are too busy with winter storage to haul Pandora for a two week stay. Sure, they will haul her for a few days but two weeks? No way. Sorry, go somewhere else!
There had been a missunderstaning when I scheduled the haul a few weeks ago so when I showed up and said that I’d need her out for about two weeks, they declined and told me to just go away. No credit for being a customer for a decade. Nice to have so much business…
This experience is not unique among yards owned by Safe Harbor, as a friend of mine that has rented a mooring in Wickford RI for a decade, from what is now a Safe Harbor yard, was told that he could no longer keep his boat there unless he was a year round customer. No seasonal mooring rentals any longer.
Sure, if they can enforce these new rules, good for them, but once business goes through a down cycle I expect that they will find that they may regret their arrogance.
Anyway, I am now hauled out at a “non-Safe Harbor” yard and it was delightfull to be treated like a customer and not like one of the “unwashed” masses or in this case, “un-hauled”.
Access to the thruster through the anchor locker and, under that, through yet another hatch. 
It is a very tight squeeze.
I fit, barely. Not a great place to spend two full days, one taking the unit out and the other, back in.
I had fully expected to spend days or weeks getting frozen parts out but this time it was, much to my surprise, a breeze with no parts frozen in place. 
That was a huge departure from my experience when I purchased Pandora. Shortly after the purchase I discovered that thruster wasn’t working properly due to neglect by the prior owner. I learned that the compartment had flooded a number of times, causing a good deal of corrosion. That fix was very painful and more than a few “boat dollars”.
What clued me recently that there was a problem was that when the unit was deployed, I heard some sort of “water” sound. This happened earlier in the season but didn’t think much about it until a few weeks ago when I noticed that the compartment bilge pump was running. Oops, that gave me a clue that something was amis. It was this part, a rubber bellows that the shaft for the thruster goes through and allows it to retract and remain, until now, watertight. It had developed a small crack. 
The bellows is the proverbial “weak link” in the system and it’s a little scary that this fragile piece is all that is keeping water out of the thruster compartment.
This shows the little crack. Yes, little but big in effect at letting the sea enter where it doesn’t belong. 
The folks from New England Bow Thruster, did a wonderful job of getting things back years ago but at great expense. This time, I did it, and it went pretty well, if I may say so. Sure, it took much of the day to get it apart, but nothing was stuck.
The biggest problem was finding the spare bellows that I had purchased a few years ago, in anticipation of a required replacement at some point. I searched the entire boat, becoming more frantic as my options for finding it became more and remote.
Finally, I decided to go home for lunch. As I drove home it suddenly dawned on me where it might be. Alas, there it was in a box in the attic. Hurrah!
So, here’s the unit, all finished and checked out.
For the entire summer I have been fully focused on getting Pandora ready for the run to Antigua, with a stop in Hampton VA along the way to participate in the Salty Dawg Rally to the Caribbean.
Alas, Pandora had her own ideas, and with a little help from my guardian angel, I had to rethink my plans and will now be departing from Essex, for a direct shot to Antigua. Leaving from this far north brings with it a whole different set of issues that I will address soon in a subsequent post.
For now, all I can say is that Pandora seems to be calling the shots and as much as I hated to change my plans at the last minute, leaving from here does make the preparation for the run a lot simpler.
Whatever happens next remains to be seen. But, one thing that is certain, is that Pandora is in charge and she has been pretty clear in pointing out “who owns who”.
As I write this I am heading to Annapolis for the Sailboat Show and the Salty Dawg rendezous dinner. It will be fun. For now, Pandora will be waiting for me. Amazing how big she looks, especially when compared to Brenda’s Mini.
A last note, it’s been a very long time since my last post and that’s, in large part, because WordPress, the program that I write this blog on, has gone through a big upgrade so I had to re-learn all the steps to posting as if I was starting from scratch. It was pretty intimidating, to be sure.
And, last, last… If you have subscribed to get notices when I post, you’ll have to do it again as all that was lost in a related software program. So, go to the upper right of this page and put in your email address. I hope that works. I guess we will see how that goes.
Signing off for now.