Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board

Bahama follies, sat phone and plane crash

Posted By: Bruce
Date: Wednesday, 21 December 2005, at 6:27 a.m.

I headed to Georgetown, Exumas Monday to rescue a boater who hydro locked his genset.

Weather in Fla sucked, climbed out to 15k' and hit sun and it stayed that way till 30 miles out landing yesterday.

Upon arriving, I fixed the problem quickly and before starting the genset, I asked the owner if the thru hull was open and he said yes. Started and ran for about 8 minutes before smelling paint and saw the paint bubling on the back of the impeller housing.
Shut down, thru hull was not open after all.

Didn't have a spare impeller either, so we scavanged the dock, boats scarce right now and found something close and went back and with drill, knife and scissors proceeded to whittle a new impeller.

It worked and allowed me to finish the oil flush to remove the water.

Since he was paying for 2 days, I asked if there was anything else to do and he had me look at the water maker. I needed to call the company so we waited till Tues am.

He has an Iridium sat phone and I grilled him about it.
Has used it quite a bit the last 3 years in the Bahamas.
Connects 50% of the time. No calls seem to last more than 5 minutes without having to redial and conversation can be garbled even when connected.

Holding the antenna in the correct position is important and maybe a fixed antenna would be better.

After arriving in Ft Lauderdale. I called the wife and found out she thought the Chalks out of Miami that crashed was mine and collapsed at work Monday.
The plane did originate out of Lauderdale and was a puddle jumper like mine.
After doing some checking, she realized it was not my plane.

So after I get home, I get a swat for making her worry.
Go figure.

The owner of the boat was from ST Augustine and had it boat in the yard doing some work, including new genset. Wilma delayed launch and he was in a hurry to get going and get to Georgetown to get a spot before the hords moved in after the first.

Everything that was done didn't work or broke shortly there after and I explained to him about why deadlines and boating don't mix.
Shake down cruises are a necessary evil after major repairs.

Lesson learned the hard and expensive way.

Messages In This Thread

Bahama follies, sat phone and plane crash
Bruce -- Wednesday, 21 December 2005, at 6:27 a.m.

Re: Bahama follies, sat phone and plane crash
mike ohlstein -- Wednesday, 21 December 2005, at 4:30 p.m.