OCEAN FLYER FLIES AGAIN - PLEASE READ NEW UPDATED LOG

Alexandria Bay, NY to Brewerton , NY and then back to Oswego, NY

June 5th through June 26th

Where should I begin????? It's now Tuesday, June 26th and Jean and I are in Oswego , NY back underway and heading, once again, to Canada . The boat's engine has been rebuilt completely and tested in open waters. We left the boat yard in Brewerton on Saturday and are very excited to be back on the water. I'll try to recap the adventures of the last three weeks. When we last wrote, we were heading to Brewerton to have the engine repaired. I'll start with our trip to Brewerton.

The trip to Brewerton is approximately 100 miles back down the St Lawrence River, across Lake Ontario and then into the Oswego Canal. Brewerton is home to the Winter Harbor Boatyard, considered one of the best boatyards in the area and one of the few equipped to handle the removal of our engine (and then its placement back into the boat). Neither Jean nor I were happy about having to go backwards, especially since it meant we would be going through eight locks including the two at which we had major problems. We knew that we could not go though the locks by ourselves, especially without full control of the boat.

But…Jean spoke with Jim Stewart, the service manager for the boat yard and he indicated that they would tow us through the locks. So….after the dead engine's propeller was removed, on Tuesday June 6 th , we limped (on one engine) our way back to Oswego , NY which represented the first 65 miles. We left Alexandria Bay very early that morning and the waters were unusually calm—actually it was like a sea of mirrors. We were lucky. The trip was slow but uneventful. Ocean Flyer handled well, given the circumstances. We had alerted the Oswego International Marina (where we had stayed earlier in the trip) of our circumstances and had asked for special help in docking. We arrived around 3pm and Tecia and several other boaters, aware of our problem, were at the dock to assist us. The docking went very well and we got settled in for the night. So far so good…..

On Wednesday morning, June 7 th Tom Pirro Jr., along with Mike Rumple showed up at 8am to begin the tow to Brewerton. Tom Jr. is the son of the owner of the Winter Harbor boat yard. Jean and I were immediately surprised to learn that to tow us, Tom would lash his tow boat to our port side—we would not be towed in a straight line—but rather side by side. This configuration would allow for more control of our boat, especially once inside the locks. We looked pretty weird when we were tied up to the tow boat—a 31 foot center console with twin 200+ hp outboards. Jean would be at the helm of Ocean Flyer with its engine running. She and Tom were in constant communication as we provided the speed and Tom provided the control and direction.

There were engine pieces everywhere with the salon looking quite horrible. It was amazing to see how these two mechanics could fit in such a little space and get so much done. Aaron and Rob worked very well together and knew exactly what had to be done to get the engine small enough to fit through the 27” salon door. At the end of their work, they put all of the loose pieces into a cart to be taken back to their shop for analysis and to be used to rebuild the new engine.

We should mention that Aaron and Rob were working under the guidance of Marty Jenkins, our main contact at Caterpillar. Marty was extremely helpful in directing us to the Winter Harbor boatyard and in facilitating the speed and coordination of the engine repair. He was very diligent in analyzing the engine breakdown and in explaining it to us in plain English.

By the end of Friday, the engine was ‘ready' to be extracted. Jim knew that the engine removal would take almost all day so he scheduled this for Monday morning.

Jean and I decided to spend the weekend in Canada visiting the ports that we had planned on seeing from the water. We drove to Gananoque, the port we were traveling to when the engine died. It's a quaint town with a beautiful municipal marina right in the heart of town. We ‘toured' around (it seemed strange to be in a car) although the weather was cold and rainy.

We also went to Kingston , Ontario , another port on our schedule. This city, the former capital of Canada , is rich in history and we loved being tourists there. We took the obligatory trolley tour and then made our way to the Maritime Museum . We walked around town quite a bit taking in some of the historic spots and even hitting an outdoor produce and crafts market. We found a great waterfront restaurant and celebrated Jean's birthday in high fashion (we tried NOT to dwell on the fact that the engine died on Jean's birthday, June 4 th ). I can easily say that my dinner at this restaurant—The River Mill—was one of the ten best meals I've ever eaten!!!!! After dinner, we went to see a local play at a small theater housed in a former church. The entire weekend was wonderful—and took our minds off the dreaded engine problem.

On Monday, we were back at the boat yard, and ready for a stressful day. Jim led the team of 7-8 men that would spent the entire day removing the engine. This is no small task. The team began by establishing the different support systems that would be used throughout the day as the engine moved from the engine room, to the salon, to the aft deck and finally, to dry land. Each step required a team of men and each step moved the engine only inches. They constructed a hoist over the hole in the salon floor and would bring the engine up to the salon floor level using that hoist. This step was not without its challenges and the engine did move out of position at one point.

Just getting the engine up to the salon floor level was a major achievement. Each step was taken very slowly and with tremendous care. This engine weighs a lot and it was very important that all of the supports stayed in tact. Here, Jim, Bob and Charles review the mechanics of removing and supporting the engine.

Once the engine was on the salon floor and properly supported, it was decided to move the boat into position at the haul-out bay. This stern-in position would be needed for the next step in removing the engine from the boat. The workers, using just lines and their physical strength, turned Ocean Flyer around—it was pretty interesting to see how easily these workers move boats. It was also pretty sad to now see Ocean Flyer listing to one side in the water due to the lopsided weight inside the boat.

Jean and I had seen enough and decided to head back to Cape Cod for the next week. We were on the road by 6pm on Monday and back on Cape Cod at midnight . The Caterpillar team needed some time to rebuild the engine and then the Winter Harbor team needed a few days to put the engine back into the boat. Jean and I decided to return once the engine was back in the boat and ready for its sea trial. Thus…there are no pictures of the engine being put back into the boat. To our pleasant surprise, the Caterpillar team rebuilt the engine in an amazingly short time and Jim and the Winter Harbor team did an equally amazing job of reinserting the engine!!!!! So….. with both tasks completed, we returned this past Tuesday, getting to Brewerton at 1am on Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday morning, Tom Jr. and Jim and the team hauled Ocean Flyer out of the water to reinstall the propeller. Removing Ocean Flyer from the water was made to look simple as Jim, Tom Jr. and some of the other workers operated the travel lift and worked on the propeller. While out, Jean had the sacrificial anodes (zincs) replaced. Now that we would be in fresh water for the next 5 months, there would be little or no deterioration during that period.

By 2pm , we were ready for the sea trial. Jean and the entire team were ‘at sea' for awhile and came back with good reports of the engine's performance. Now…Jim and his team would replace the floor, re-lay the carpet and reinstall all the furniture. Here's Bob getting the sofa back into its spot.

The effort to put the boat back together took up most of Thursday and Friday. Jean and I did errands to provision the boat and bought some needed items at West Marine and from Caterpillar. There was also a lot of cleaning to be done—the boat was pretty dirty. By Friday night we were sleeping on board and planning to leave on Saturday by mid-morning!!!!!

Prior to leaving Brewerton, we met with Marty Jenkins and Dick Smith, the failure analyst from Caterpillar, to learn what actually happened to the engine (375 hp 8 cylinder Caterpillar 3208 Turbo with less than 2000 hours of running time). The connecting rod in the #3 cylinder fractured which then caused a chain reaction of events. The pistons jammed and the crankshaft broke causing damage to the cylinder block. It was considered a catastrophic engine failure which could not have been predicted or prevented. By analyzing ‘beach marks' on the failed rod, Dick concluded that the problem had been developing for some period of time—perhaps even since the original manufacture of the engine in 1989. In his 20 years of engine failure analysis, Dick had seen this type of breakdown only once previously. Lucky us!!! As for the replacement, Caterpillar installed a factory-remanufactured ‘long block' which is the engine block plus heads. The oil pump, turbo and injectors were also replaced. Most of the rest of the bolt-on parts were cleaned up and reused.

Unfortunately, the claim we filed with our insurance company was denied. The reason for the engine failure was either a mechanical failure or a latent defect, both of which are excluded from coverage. Only external causes are covered. So if we had run aground or over a pile of rocks, the repair we could have collected on our insurance. Unfortunately, in this case, seamanship stupidity pays but careful maintenance doesn't!!

Before we left Winter Harbor we wanted to get some photos of the many people who helped us through these past few weeks. So here goes—

We have pictures of Jim, the service manager at Winter Harbor .

We took a photo of Tom Pirro Sr. and his wife Doris—the wonderful couple who run and own Winter Harbor . Their son, Tom Jr. is seen in many of the photos and is the person who, with his friend Mike, towed us through the locks from Oswego to Winter Harbor .

We also took a picture of Leslie who runs the office at Winter Harbor . Leslie was a big help to us in many ways. She's assisted by Noreen, who also helped us, especially with our frozen foods. Unfortunately, we did not get a picture of Noreen.

We also took some photos of the boat yard itself. It's a very impressive facility with extensive dock space, great fuel prices, unbelievable service and an incredible team of people.

If you EVER need repair work, renovation or AwlGrip painting done to your boat—this is the place to come to. The team is very knowledgeable, friendly and available. There is an immediate attention to your problems and very good communication about the possible solutions. We were treated with respect throughout the entire process and made to feel welcome and included at all times. We would highly recommend this boat yard to anyone for any kind of work.

One final note…..

Our plan on leaving Winter Harbor was to go as far as Oswego , which would be approximately a five hour trip. We would stay Saturday night in Oswego and then go across Lake Ontario into Canada . The only big issue in this plan was that we needed to go through eight locks, two of which were in the Oswego Canal and were the locks where, on our initial trip, we had major problems. I was NOT looking forward to this part of the trip. I even asked Tom Jr. if he would hop on board for that part of the trip and help us out. He politely agreed to meet us at along the way and to go through the two locks with us (he would drive his car to the first lock and then stay on board with us for the next lock). Well…shortly after leaving Winter Harbor , Jean and I devised a strategy to get us through the locks without Tom Jr. and without any difficulty. So, we called Tom Jr. and cancelled our request.

When we got to the first lock, I merely jumped off the boat onto the top of the lock and secured a line around one of the pilings which was on the top of the wall. Jean maneuvered Ocean Flyer so that the piling was at the midpoint of the boat. We then used that line to keep the boat in place as we were lowered in the lock. As soon as we could get hold of the wall cable, we secured both a bow line (me) and a stern line (Jean), to the boat. With these lines in place, we then released the line around the piling and we were all set. Victory!!!!!!!

When we went through the second lock we repeated the same procedure—only with more ease. The lockmaster actually walked by and said, “You guys handle this like pros”. I laughed and said…'you should have seen me a month ago'. It felt great. We were docked in Oswego by 5:30pm , feeling good about being underway again. Jean docked the boat beautifully and received many compliments from the people on the dock who helped us with our lines. Life is good!!!!!

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