Baltimore: Highest Priority Projects

May 19 thru May 26

--Blogpost written by Bob

This blogpost covers a week of working on boat projects--things that had to be fixed after last season's adventure.

Saturday, May 19

Another rainy day! I decided to go to Annapolis today and pick up several items needed for a couple projects I will be working on during the next few days, namely installing the gimbal stop on our new oven and installing an upgraded bilge pump float switch.

A rainy evening in Baltimore.

One of my highest priority projects for this summer was getting and installing a more reliable bilge pump switch. The Rule-brand SUPER SWITCH (which is supposed to be an upgrade over the standard float switch) rarely lasts it’s one-year warranty period. (I still like the RULE-brand bilge pumps.)  The RULE-brand float switch failed to operate properly when we started taking on water in the Chesapeake Bay on our way back to Baltimore.  I’ve always had to carry two spares because they have failed so frequently and at the most inopportune times. This is one of the most important pieces of onboard equipment—it literally keeps your boat afloat.



I did some research on various bilge pump switches on the market and came across the Ultra PumpSwitch by Ultra Safety Systems—it is handmade in the USA and has received outstanding reviews on Amazon and elsewhere.

The Ultra PumpSwitch shown connected
to a RULE-brand bilge pump.

I purchased the Ultra PS-02 model from Amazon. It costs about twice as much as Rule’s SUPER SWITCH but I expect it to last 5 to 10 times longer.

While I’m upgrading the pump switch, I’ve decided to replace and upgrade the wiring to the panel as well.  This installation will be completed on Monday and described later in this blogpost.  The installation will be done on Monday and is described later in this blogpost.

Sunday, May 20

Finally, the sun came out this morning after raining all week. I carried our new little kitten to the cockpit this morning but she was so overwhelmed with the sights and sounds that she quickly retreated to her comfort zone below. (Someday, she will love going out into the cockpit like Captain Jack but it will take some time.)

We decided to take it easy today and just accomplish a couple small, but necessary, chores: lifting the dinghy onto the foredeck for summer storage, putting silicone sealant where the new coaming box meets the fiberglass, and doing laundry.

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This morning I ordered a (used) 10-100mm lens (like Maggie’s) for my little mirrorless Nikon 1 V-1 camera. It should be here by Friday. This (secondary) camera will be my lightweight travel camera and the one I use to photograph my boat projects.

Monday, May 21

Today was a beautiful sunny day right from the start.  First thing on our agenda this morning was to remove the drawer unit near the companionway and re-mount the drawer assembly to the facing—somehow this worked loose during our recent trip, exhibited by the indentation at the top drawer as illustrated below.

The shadow at the top of this image is evidence of
the failing bond between the drawing
unit and the facing.

I removed the drawer back from the facing and applied a layer of epoxy and the clamped the two pieces together. I used a couple screws to make sure that that alignment between the two pieces were accurate. After the epoxy cured, I purchased and installed new stainless steel wood screws to replace the old bronze Roberts (square Insert) head screws all around the periphery. Then, I applied a layer of fiberglass tape saturated with epoxy all around the perimeter, with double thickness on the top which was the weakest area.

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About mid-morning we tackled the installation of the new bilge pump switch and new wiring. We got it all hooked up and the fuse blew—I still can’t figure out why the fuse blew but it works fine after replacing the fuse and thoroughly re-checking all the connections.

The final installation of the new bilge pump switch.
Note the green light on top to tell you
it is operating correctly.

After lunch, we started on the replacement of our hot water heater. We worked most of the afternoon on the water heater installation but didn’t complete it because we needed several additional hose fittings.

Tuesday, May 22

We woke to a light rain—it was predicted, so we planned around it and drove to Annapolis to pick up hose fittings and many other things we needed. We got back to Baltimore around 4 PM. (Tomorrow is our eighth wedding anniversary!)

Wednesday, May 23

We decided to celebrate our eighth wedding anniversary by going out for lunch at Mama’s on the Half Shell here in the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore.

Early in the morning I prepared beef bourgeoise for cooking in the crockpot during the day—this will be our dinner tonight. (It was great, by the way!)

While Maggie went to pick up some backing fabric for her quilt, I began to make the teak block for the gimbal stop for our new stove. When finished cutting and drilling, I started the multistep process of staining and varnishing it. (I have a stain that I mixed up to match the interior teak of the boat.)

This is the tiny little teak block used with the gimbal
stop plate provided by the stove manufacturer.
This image was after two coats of varnish.

I worked on the water heater installation all afternoon, between trips to Home Depot for more fittings. You may think that a little project like this one should’ve take more than an hour or two—in a land-based home, you would be correct. However, the installation on a sailboat is in a tiny space in the engine room. I’m also combining the water heater installation with the changeout of the fresh water lines, getting rid of the original gray QEST-brand hoses.

Thursday, May 24

I made a trip to Annapolis this morning to get more hose fittings, clamps, and a boxed 50 foot length of 1/2” diameter vinyl hose.

This afternoon when I started to run the new hoses, I opened the box of hose and they gave me the wrong type of hose—it was unreinforced.  So, I went to the local West Marine and they had only 17 feet of the reinforced 1/2” diameter hose in stock—I took all of it so that I could continue the project but it wasn’t enough for completion.

Friday, May 25

Today, I went to Fawcetts in Annapolis and picked up ten more feet of 1/2” reinforced water hose (since I cleaned out the supply at the nearest West Marine yesterday). I also had to pick up a few more fittings.

When we got back to the boat at mid-afternoon I hooked up the last remaining connections and we pressurized the system to check for leaks. The first one was easy to find since I forgot to put the filter housing back on—the water was gushing out under the kitchen sink where the filter is located. 

After changing the filter and reinstalling the housing, we again pressurized the system to look for leaks. We must have had a half dozen or so small leaks around the water heater. I had used a mixture of plastic fittings and brass fittings, using pipe thread compound on the threads of each. I tried to tighten the connections to eliminate the leaks but it was very difficult to get to some of the connections. (The pipe thread compound I used was old and not very well mixed—I attribute most of the leakage problem to this but there were some other contributing factors like the mixture of plastic and metal fittings.)

As this point in the day I was tired, hungry, and demoralized—so, we quit for the day.

Saturday, May 26

We in stalled the gimbal stop on the stove first thing in the morning because it was badly needed and it was ready for installation.

The installation of the gimbal stop for the new stove.
This prevents the stove from rotating on its gimbal
supports which are for use only underway.

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With a fresh outlook, I decided to remove all the fittings around the water heater and simplify (less fittings and they are all brass). I cleaned off all the pipe thread compound from each of the fittings and the tank connections.

We purchased some PTFE plumbers tape from the hardware store a few blocks away from our marina. I carefully reassembled all of the fittings (this time without any plastic fittings) using PTFE tape (using three complete wraps around the male threads). We also purchased a new brass check valve to replace the 35-year old plastic one—we installed this upstream of the cold water inlet to the water heater but in a different (actually more accessible) area.

When we pressurized the system again, there were NO leaks around the new water heater. We had one small leak at a plastic fitting leading to the plumbing in the head—we pulled this connection apart and applied PTFE tape to fix the leak.

The completed installation of our new
Raritan-brand water heater.

Now that we had all the leaks fixed, we ran the engine to create some hot water. After a short time, the temperature alarm on the engine sounded.  We turned off the engine and I pulled the glycol hose from the water heater and got blasted with hot air with some glycol mixed with it. I diagnosed the problem as an air lock in the glycol system. (I read online accounts about others having a similar problem after a water heater replacement.)

While I was determining the easiest way to fix the air lock, we tried to heat water using shore power—this worked perfectly. So, I pulled apart the glycol hose from the water heater and (holding it as high as possible) filled the hose with glycol. This also filled up the glycol cavity in the water heater. Then we quickly attached the hose to the water heater. We then topped off the glycol reservoir and started the engine. We ran it for 20 minutes and the high temperature alarm never sounded. We declared success!!!

We took showers and got back to the boat before a thunderstorm blew through. We have two remaining problems to be fixed: (1) the cold and hot water lines are reversed to the head sink, and (2) something is blocking our fridge supplemental cooling pump (its raw water strainer was covered with a thick black goo).  However, these two small problems will wait until after the holiday weekend.

Part of the reason these projects took so long
was that I was training a new little helper.

The interior of the boat is now all back together and everything has been cleaned up.  Stay tuned for the remainder of things that have to be fixed...

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