Engine repairs complete – we are on the road again!

At least the view was nice at
McKinley Marina in Milwaukee

Gertie the Duck

Jim and Scott Shimandle from Shimandle Diesel arrived on Sunday with Sheri Shimandle for a combo get together and repair experience. Mostly repair work. 

We have known Jim and Sheri for years from the days when they docked at Venetian D dock and through All Ports Yacht Club, our little drinking society. We are so grateful that they found our predicament interesting enough to drive to Milwaukee to help!

 

We saw different vistas at
McKinley Marina

 The plan was to host these three friends on the boat so it could be a combination vacation (mostly for Sheri) and work camp but in a boating setting. What could be better?

We spent the weekend (Oct 6 and 7) cleaning everything and setting up the cabins to be comfortable for our guests. We moved all the crap that accumulates when you think you have extra space. This was a particular problem in the forward cabin where Scott would stay because literally no one uses that space.

The Art Museum

We moved stuff into other hiding spots and consolidated things like bags and luggage into the smallest possible space on the lower bunk, freeing the upper bunk to be a clean, comfortable cabin for Scott. We added blankets to every bed because it was starting to get cold. We cleaned all bathrooms and hooked up all TVs. We were ready and excited to see our friends.

NOTE: We will be equally excited to see you if you want to visit!!

Saturday night during midnight bathroom breaks, we noticed that the toilet in the middle and aft bathrooms were not flushing properly. Then came the sound every boater dreads – water overflowing! We leaped from the bed, grabbed a red solo cup and started to bail. Toilet water backed up in the aft and (we soon discovered) the forward heads. OMG and TOTAL YUCK!!

Cleanup completed, we got the bleach out and repaired the sanitary damage. Kermit got out the owner’s manual and discovered we probably needed a pump out. But we’ve only been on the boats a few days since the last pump out! Actually, we must have been living on the boat more than we thought. Unfortunately we were stuck on N dock with no way to get to the pump out on the other side of the marina.

We couldn’t stay on the boat after all! We could still cook and drink but not pee.

We made arrangements for the whole gang of us to stay at the Astor Hotel about 1.5 miles away. More about that later. First, let’s bring you up to date on the engine repairs.

After 3 ½ days of work, Jim and Scott are still not sure why the engine broke. But we do know what Jim and Scott repaired.

A little background about these engines. The starboard engine and transmission were removed from the boat and completely rebuilt in 2006. When repairs were complete, the engine and transmission were assembled on site and the boat redecorated. Great, right? Unfortunately, the rebuilt starboard engine was not assembled properly from the beginning.

No one noticed. The fellow we bought the boat from purchased the boat in 2008, 2 years after the starboard engine was completely rebuilt and the boat was remodeled. He didn’t notice any engine problems because he did not travel in the boat so the engines didn’t run enough to notice. We don’t think the previous owner put 10 hours on the engines in the 10 years he owned the boat. We put 10 hours on the boat in the first day.

Two things happened simultaneously:

A water leak in the starboard engine head. A bad water line allowed water to leak into the head which caused a seizure in the number 2 cylinder which then corrupted the liner on the number 2 cylinder.

Number 1 cylinder. The liner was too loose and must have been vibrating the entire time. The liner cracked which bent the connecting rod which forced the rod to knock the injector loose and spray diesel into the oil pan. When that happened a piece of the liner flew off the crank shaft and hit the bottom of the liner on the number 2 cylinder and broke it, adding insult to injury. Remember the number 2 cylinder had its own problem to begin with.

So we ended up with 2 broken liners, a bent connecting rod, a bad injector and 4 broken fuel lines that feed the injectors.

What we learned was that if we hadn’t shut down the engine immediately we would have destroyed the entire engine.

The moral of the story: when you hear something funny in the engine, shut it down immediately and investigate. Don’t restart the engine. Don’t hope the noise goes away. It never will go away. It will only get worse.

Another moral: Don’t pass up the opportunity to get a pump out. You never know when it will come in handy!

The Astor Hotel

The Astor Hotel is located a little over a mile from the marina in the Yankee Hill East Town neighborhood, just east of downtown Milwaukee. It is a 9 story beauty built in 1920, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I love staying in these kinds of hotels. I love supporting hotels that are a little funky. This hotel did not disappoint.

The rooms were a little different. In addition to the usual accoutrements (bed, little table, nice little chair in the corner) the bathroom was tiled in bright pink old style tile with a fascinating system of dials to shower. It took us a couple of days to figure out the shower. Plus it had a 2 inch step to get into the bathroom. Nice tripping hazard.

Each room has what is known as a dry cleaning door. I first saw this kind of door when staying at a fabulous hotel on Lake Como in Italy, Villa d’Este. The big wooden doors for each room have a rounded second door on the hall side and the room side. Each side has a lock. This allowed the visitor to hang a piece of clothing from the room side, close the door, then the hotel attendant would pick up the clothing from the hall side in the middle of the night, clean or press the clothing and return the clothing to the hall side of the closet so the tenant could access the clean clothing from the room side. Isn’t that cool?

The closet door in our room did not open. But the door in Sheri’s room (next door) stuck all the time. It required a lot of hip pitches from the hall while pulling from the room side to get that door open. But the inner closet door opened!! There was a little hanger and two shelves large enough for a pair of shoes. Cool huh?

Spending time in Milwaukee

Safe House

Jim, Scott and Kermit left the hotel every morning at 7:30am. Jim and Scott removed the wall to the engine room so they could get at the entire starboard engine. They put blankets on the floor. Scott was assigned to engine yoga, bending into a small space to get at the other side of the engine.

Kermit cooked lunch and made sure the guys were comfortable. He made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, hamburgers, and a grilled pork wrap and we brought carryout Mexican one day.

I cooked dinner: pot roast, pork chops, and chicken mostaccoli.

While the guys were working hard, Sheri and I explored Milwaukee. Sheri found a good place for breakfast and brought me carry out two days. We went to the suburbs to see A Star is Born and had lunch at Maggianos. One day we walked around the Historic Third Ward along the riverfront and had lunch at Onesto, a marvelous modern Italian restaurant. We had a wonderful pomegranate sangria!

Safe House Milwaukee

Safe House Milwaukee

One day we went to lunch at a place called Safe House, a spy themed restaurant. We entered through a sort of unmarked door into a tiny room staffed by a woman who called herself Money Penny. She made us do funny hand gestures like a hula dance before letting us in through a secret door. The restaurant used to be a jazz club in the early 1900s. The rabbit warren of rooms have different spy related themes.

We sat in the Hong Kong section in a tiny alcove with the tiniest table and benches. The food was delicious. It even had a resident magician who gave us a tour! I got to sit in a bar chair that goes up and down.

In the Soviet room we saw prison door from a real Stazi (East German Secret Police). Through the food door you could see that the prison cell was only 18 inches deep. The fellow who was imprisoned there when the Berlin Wall came down had the opportunity to keep two prison doors. He gave one to Safe House and one to the Spy Museum in Washington DC.

Bottom Line. Sheri and I had a wonderful time exploring Milwaukee, the guys did great work and we had a wonderful time together!

Leaving McKinley Marina to
overcast skies - it was about
to get icky

Friday morning, Oct 12, 2018 I returned the rental car and by the time I walked back to the marina, Kermit was ready to get going. We started up the engines and everything worked well! We pulled in to the McKinley Marina gas dock for a much needed pump out. It seemed to take forever. Kermit rinsed it three time to be sure it was completely empty.

Can you see Chicago in the background? 

We left Milwaukee around 8:30am to grey skies and a bit of rain. The waves inched up to 3’ to 5’ but you couldn’t tell inside the boat. The ride was smooth and easy from the inside although it was pretty cold. We put on layers then put on more layers. 

Ideally we would have liked to stop in Chicago at DuSable Marina but we feared the water was so bad that we would have trouble getting to the Calumet Sag entrance. We so much wanted to be off Lake Michigan that we kept going all the way to Hammond. We arrived around 3pm amidst cold rain.

This morning we awoke to icy walkways at Hammond Marina.

We took the paper off the side names
even without a naming ceremony - we need
to be visible on the rivers

The skies turned clear and sunny as the day progressed. It looks like it will be a good day on Sunday 10-14 to head down the river.

Our next step is to start down the rivers. We will get to Florida eventually. Until then, our hearts go out to the folks on the Florida Panhandle after Hurricane Michael.