Latitude 38 Interview - Mike Harker: Part 4

March 2008

Part 4 of 5

Courtesy Latitude 38 Magazine

38: What was Wanderlust 3‘s fuel consumption like?

Harker: My boat has the Yanmar 4JH four-cylinder with the new turbo and intercooler. I can go at normal cruising speed for almost two hours on a gallon of fuel. It’s a very fuel-efficient engine at 1,800 rpms, which is what I ran it at. Speaking of fuel, one of the great items on my boat - and I’m going to recommend that Hunter make it part of their Mariner Package - is the Fuel Filter Boss. This device allows you to switch between two fuel filters while the engine is running, plus it has a fuel pump which eliminates manual bleeding, and even features a light in the cockpit that warns if the filters are getting dirty.

Thanks to the Fuel Filter Boss, I didn’t get a drop of fuel in the bilge. When the unit indicates a filter is getting dirty, you temporarily switch to the other fuel routing, remove the old filter and drop in a new one - while the engine is running. That’s it. Changing filters was a real pain with my old boat, and I always spilled about a pint of diesel in the bilge. I hated that. The Fuel Filter Boss is great insurance for your engine because all you need to keep a diesel going is clean fuel. I also have a third filter for fuel transferred from the reserve 80 gallon tank to the main 150 gallon tank. Incidentally, Hunter’s normal fuel filters are 10-microns. I bought a 24-pack of 2-micron filters. They stop everything. I never had a fuel problem on my trip and, believe me, I got some dirty fuel in a couple of places.

38: Did you have a watermaker, and how did that work?

Harker: I have a 7-gallon per hour HRO, and it was perfect. I changed the filters five times during my trip, and changed the carbon filter once six months into it. But there wasn’t a hiccup or problem at all.

38: You hardly had anything go wrong?

Harker: There were really just two significant things, and both involved a chain of events. My boat has four 8D AGM 230 amp batteries, which is double the number of batteries and amps that Hunter puts in. So I had twice the battery capacity that the alternator was designed for. Normally, it wouldn’t make a difference, but I had two Danish models who sailed with me from Panama’s Perlas Islands to the Galapagos, so they needed a lot of power for their hair dryers and things. Plus, they used the microwave and other things doing lots of great cooking. Normally, this wouldn’t have been a problem, but my Fisher-Panda had a faulty fuel pump. I carry the F-P Offshore Repair Kit that included a new pump and fixed it myself, but not before burning up the engine alternator. With the girls using the hair dryer all the time, and my genset out, I was having to use the engine alternator a lot to keep the batteries charged. Before we got to the Galapagos, the engine alternator was fried trying to keep the batteries charged.

38: Didn’t you have a spare alternator?

Harker: No. But I do now. It’s a bigger 100-amp Balmar which, by the way, is now standard on all Hunter 49s. The regulators have been upgraded, too.

38: What was the other major problem?

Harker: Having left Cape Town, I was 1,000 miles from Africa and 1,000 miles from South America, when my high water alarm went off. There was a very unusual leak in the water pump housing of my Yanmar diesel that peed water all over the alternator. There was so much that my lower bilge pump couldn’t keep up, and the water got to the higher bilge pump, which automatically turns on an alarm. But because we were heeled over, the water had also gotten into the F-P genset’s motherboard before the alarm went off, so it was toast. As for the main engine’s alternator, it was caked with salt from having water sprayed all over it. Thanks again to a chain reaction, I had no way to charge my batteries for the second time! Well, I have a Honda portable generator that I used to keep the charge up on my engine start battery.

38: We made a big deal asking folks how they would have stopped the leak in your pump. How did you actually do it?

Harker: I coated a self-threading stainless steel screw with 3M 5200 to make it waterproof, and screwed it in the hole. It lasted just fine until I got back to Miami and Yanmar/Mastry had a chance to replace the entire pump housing.

38: What spares did you carry?

Harker: I had a spare and/or spare parts kit for almost everything. I had them for my Yanmar and Fisher-Panda genset, a spare freshwater pump, a spare bilge pump, a spare high water bilge pump and alarm - and, eventually, a spare alternator. I even had a plumbing spares kit because Hunter recommended I buy it. Other stuff they recommended were a spare link arm and U-joint for the steering, a spare Selden gooseneck fitting for the mast and other small parts.
I also got a spare roller fitting for the headboard of the mainsail - I’m terrible at the specific names of things - that I actually needed to put on yesterday. It pulled away from the mast while I was in the doldrums, but I was still able to make it here to St. Barth.

38: It’s a good thing that you didn’t have to go up the mast.

Harker: That’s not an issue, because I can’t go up the mast when alone. By the way, I had to change the masthead tricolor on my last boat twice, so for this one I bought a $700 LED tricolor. It wasn’t cheap, but I think it’s worth it. It’s called a Lopo-Light, and it includes the navigation lights and a five-mile anchor light. It uses less than one watt of power, but is twice as brilliant as the old-style lights, and you never have to change them. All the Volvo Race boats used them. Readers might be interested to learn that I don’t have a single incandescent light bulb on my boat. Everything is either low-power fluorescent or even lower-power LED.

38: You have solar panels. How much did they help?

Harker: I have three panels for a total 28 amps, and during the day they normally provide all the power I need to run everything and to top off the 900-amp bank of batteries. I have two freezers and two fridges, but I only use one of each. I typically used 20 amps an hour, depending somewhat on how much effort my autopilot was having to make. All my instruments and lights use very little power. This Hunter 49 is very well thought out in terms of energy use.

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North Atlantic: Antigua to St. Barts

Just at sunset I left English Harbor and sailed along the east coast of Antigua towards St. Barts. I should arrive mid morning.

I will meet with Richard Spindler (Publisher Latitude 38 Magazine) and stay one night in Gustava.

I got my impeller pump replaced but could NOT fix the F-P generator nor do I have a reserve alternator. Hunter sent a reserve alternator on Thursday 'overnight' but it will not arrive until Sat and they don't deliver until Monday.

I left without a replacement alternator and hope my provisional repair and re-wire holds until I get into Miami. I have only the Balmar alternator on the Yanmar engine to charge batteries, but I am confident in my own repair and trust it will hold.

I will keep a running log each day.

Mike
S/V Wanderlust 3
BOTY

North Atlantic: Position Report

Wed 16 Jan 09:00 UT
10* 10' N X 47*10' W

I am 900 miles SE of Antigua and now that I am in the Trade Winds I am making better than expected progress.

The winds are weak, 10 -12 knots from the ENE, but I have the main up to second reef and the stay-sail down wind, but I have the Genoa out into the wind on the Selden Graphite pole giving me the "Wing-on-Wing" effect so that I can maintain 7 knots.

At this rate I will be at anchor in Antigua in 5 days. I may be just in time for the famous "Steel Band Sunday Afternoon Party" at Shirley Heights. At any rate I am ahead of schedule.

I only run the engine in neutral at idle, about 900 - 1000 rpms, just to top off the batteries for 3 hours a day. Because I do not have the use of my F-P generator, I can only charge the battery system with the engine alternator, and it is re-wired provisionally just to get me into port.

Needless to say, I am doing everything cautiously, I can not afford another breakdown, I have no reserves. But I am sailing well, fast and smooth.

The GRIB weather files show the wind and weather to be constant for the next week, typical trade winds, and I am happy to be in them.

Mike Harker
WanderLust 3
Hunter 49 "BOTY"

Atlantic: Water Leak

On his way to St. Helena, Mike ran into a bit of problem. Here is his story. --TSCtv.

I was really worried when the "High Water" alarm went off. I hurried down the stairs to look in the bilge and when I saw the water up to the floorboards, I shouted "Oh my God, I'm sinking!!!!"

The first thing I did was shut off the engine, then I went around to close ALL the through-hull seacocks. I went back to the manual bilge pump and started pumping out the sea water, but it was too slow. I then got out my hand pump and buckets and pumped the bilge water into the buckets and threw the water overboard. With most of the water overboard I went around looking for leaks.

When I lifted the engine cover, there was dried salt all around the alternator area and a water stream coming up into the alternator from somewhere under it. I took down the stairs and laid them in the forward cabin, then took off the engine cover to get to the alternator. After removing the alternator, I found the leak.

A steady stream about the force of a kid peeing was coming up out of the salt water impeller pump. Not from the two hose connections on the pump, but from the curve of the metal casing of the pump itself.

Now what do I do, I have to stop the leak? I got out the Yanmar book and found the page where it shows the impeller pump connection into the intercooler. I unscrewed the drain plug from the intercooler to drain all the water from above the pump, that stopped the water flowing from the leak. How do I plug or fill the hole?

I thought of screwing a stainless self-taping screw into the hole, then surrounding the screw with 5200 sealant. That seemed to work. I rinsed off most of the salt from the exterior of the engine around the leak area and got out my reserve spare Balmar alternator I bought just for such emergencies.

I pulled out the old alternator and laid it out on the floor with all wires showing. I put the new alternator next to it, then started exchanging wire connections. I could see the salt covering the interior of the old alternator. I put the new alternator on with a new drive belt and tried to start the engine. It would turn over but would NOT start. I ran the battery down trying, so I went to start the Fischer-Panda generator, but the remote switch would not even light.

I was in trouble! No engine, no generator, no wind to sail and a leak in my boat in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean a thousand miles from any land, half-way between Brazil and Africa. The only civilization was the island of St. Helena, about 500 miles north of me. That is where the British interned Napoleon after he lost at Waterloo. That was the most distant place from any other land on earth they could find.

I got out the SAT phone and called Hunter Customer Service. Then I called you (Greg Emerson of Hunter Marine). You were terrific. You got me in a conference call with your specialist, Joe Kerr, then with the Yanmar distributor and finally Fischer-Panda. Somehow, with about 300 minutes of SAT phone time, Karl from Yanmar finally found a way for me to start the engine after other attempts failed.

With the engine running, there was no charge power from the Balmar alternator. A SAT phone call to Dale English of Balmar in Texas got the right man. He talked me through re-wiring the alternator to by-pass the regulator and, with 2 pieces of wire and some crimp connections, I was able to use the internal regulator.

After 2 days of drifting in the South Atlantic, I finally had the leak fixed and the engine running. At just above idle, not to overwork the alternator, I was able to bring back charge to my depleted battery bank of 900 amps, down to only 110 amps left. I had to use my Honda generator to keep the start batteries charged, but that worked fine.

After 3 days of slow motoring, I was able to drop anchor in Jamestown Bay, St. Helena on the day before Christmas. I was relieved. "Ann's Place" offered all the sailing cruisers a get-together Christmas dinner for free, just bring your own booze. I brought the gallon jug of aged Panamanian rum a guest had left aboard to the party. That was a hit! I e-mailed all the contacts you gave me but I only got replies back saying "Closed for the holidays, will be back in the office after Jan 2."

Because St. Helena does NOT have an airport to fly parts into, I left yesterday for the island of Ascension, about 700 miles distant. There is a small contingent of US and English military communication experts there, but not much else. But Ascension does have an airport. If I think I need to stop and get a replacement impeller pump and alternator-regulator flown in, I will. That could take days, if not weeks. Remember the 3 week wait for a new alternator in Galapagos?

If my alternator keeps charging and the impeller pump leak I repaired still holds, I think I will continue to Antigua where they have both a Yanmar and Fischer-Panda mechanic and get all three repairs done professionally. However, that is over 4000 miles with no working generator, an amateur repair job on the pump leak and a re-wired provisional repair to the alternator/regulator. It will be a risk!But I really want to get to Miami for the Boat Show. A delay in Ascension waiting for parts would put a Miami arrival in time for the boat show out of reach.

Mike Harker

s/v Wanderlust3

Tuesday Jan 1 - Happy New Year!

I am 170 miles from Ascension, and will arrive at daybreak tomorrow. My primitive repairs are holding and working well. I will leave Ascension after getting fuel. It is 3300 miles to English Harbor Antigua. When I arrive in 3-4 weeks, it will be my personal circumnavigation. From there it should be less than 2 weeks to Miami by way of Tortola BVI and above Nassau. I am on schedule for an arrival on Feb 12 into Miami. Let's hope everything runs as well as it is.