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This week was very similar to last week in the sense that lots of time was spent cleaning the bilge on the starboard side and being able to have the final coat of paint on by Friday. The bilges took longer time to clean than anticipated because they were a lot worse than we thought. We spent hours using degreaser, pressure washing the oil off the bottom, pumping the oily water into a waste barrel and repeating. Once the water levels were low enough the bilge pumps would not pick anything up, the shop vac was used to pick up the remaining water and gunk at the lowest part of the bilge. Finally, after the bilge was all clean and painted, it looked like a new space. By the middle of the week, we were able to get down in the port engine room and place the engine on the mounts and start dressing it back up. I was helping with dressing the right side of the engine while Kyle was on the left side. Ron and I were able to put on the turbocharger, alternator, exhaust manifold, air crossover pipe, and more.

By Friday Kyle and I were off on one of the side quests of trying to remove old cable through a “Roxbox,” a multi cable sealing, watertight module that is placed through a bulkhead to keep the compartment watertight. These are supposed to be easy to maintain modules, but where the one we were working on has not been touched in at least 10 years, we tried our best to be able to disassemble it and nothing was happening. As much as we tried to pry pieces apart or move them by using a wedge and hammer nothing happened except little clouds of dust appearing. In the end, it stayed as it was when we began. What made this job even more difficult was the Roxbox was placed in the Tween Deck. I wasn’t able to sit up straight to work on it, nor was I able to sit comfortably, but in the end we tried our best. It will be a new day to try and tackle it again.

Monday, Tuesday and Half of Wednesday this week was spent getting the starboard side bilges cleaned, prepped, and painted so that we could get the last engine onboard and move the ship back. We had to muck all of the solid waste and oil out of the bilges then power wash them heavily. We then had to grind and sand the surfaces of all of the cracked loose paint. We then applied a two-part epoxy based bilge paint that made the bilges and engine room look 100x better than they did. 

We were at a stand still with the port side engine as we had to wait for an order of stainless washers to come in for the engine mounts. Once they came in on Wednesday, we finished buttoning those up and moved the engine into place securing it to the mounts ready for the vibration and alignment contractors to align the motor and the shaft. 

On Thursday we started putting parts back on the port side engine, the after cooler, the exhaust manifold, oil cooler, coolant reservoir, and heat exchanger. This is the engine all in place with all of the parts on it. On Friday, Alesha and I worked for Denis going in the tween decks to inspect the RoxTec Boxes that kept a watertight seal from the tween deck between the engine room pontoons and the forward tween deck. These RoxTec Boxes are meant to be taken apart and have adjustable squares that allow for different size wires to go through them. However after trying to get these Rox Boxes out all day. Struggling in cramped spaces with screwdrivers, wedges, hammers, knives all day, we still weren’t able to get the Rox Box out. So, we decided to call it after a long, hard week and go swim in the ocean. Also, to get the fiberglass stuck in my back from crawling in and out of the tween deck space out. 

This week was a very reassuring and exciting week. To start the week, we laid the metal plates that replace the wood on the pier. The wood that is kept there normally, Epay wood, is one of the strongest woods in the world. Epay is a dense wood that is resistant to rot and decay and is 8 times harder than California Redwood. Without preservatives, Epay is guaranteed to last 20 years. After laying the metal plating, it was time to get back to the bilges. The port and starboard bilges still needed cleaning, so I spent a few days doing that before the next big mission came, warping the ship. Warping a ship is moving it solely with the help of the tides and lines. So as the tide was ebbing, the whole crew had their line they were in charge of and slowly slacked some as others pulled on their lines to slide the boat astern. This was definitely an experience that I have always wanted to try ever since learning about it. The final resting place for the boat was stern to the dock so the A-frame was directly over the dock. Once the boat was tied back up, it was time for the weight tests. We had railroad tires that weighed 5,200 lbs combined. This wight was over the wight of the engine when it would have accessory parts removed, so when it worked, we knew that putting the engines on board would work too. During the wight test we had to make sure the dock was not buckling under the wight of the forklift and railroad tires, the A-frame could lift the wight, and then bring the weight onboard with the hydraulics. Following the successful day, the next day we did the same things but with one of the new engines. Once it was onboard, it was walked over to the soft patch with the portable A-frame and then successfully lowered into the engine room. To finish the week, I helped with sifting the engine forward and blocking it and clean the starboard bilge more. This week was a huge accomplishment showing that it was in fact possible to get the engines onboard while still at the school and not having to go to the shipyard. The next challenge will be lowering the other engine into the starboard engine room with the hydraulic tank in the way.

This was an exciting and successful week! We developed a plan to move the F.G. Walton Smith aft a few feet so that it would rest flush against the finger pier that tied up the stern, so that the A-frame would be directly above the dock and therefore would be able to lift the new engine onto the deck. This manuever had never been done before and so we needed to test if a couple things were possible first, so there was a lot of contingency planning and troubleshooting weaknesses in the plan. Some of the problems trying to lift the new engine block with the heads on were:

– The cranes onboard couldn’t lift the full 4780 lbs of the new motors with the jib fully extended. Therefore we needed to find a way to get the engines on deck and resting next to the soft patch, so that the cranes could lift with the jib knuckled in. 

– The finger pier structurally has these wooden slats that are along the middle of concrete supports, which run along the whole pier. The worry being if the big forklift with a large boom extension carrying the new motors would be too much weight for the wood slats to bear. These wood slats are comprised of 3 2x4s held together by rebar with small 2×2 spacers in between them. We found out later that they are made of Ipe, a brazilian hardwood, that is actually one of the five strongest woods in the world. However, the slats are varying degrees of age and degradation and there was still worries. 

– The A-frame boom rams when resting on the supports are completely stowed in the ram cylinder and provide an approximate 5-7 foot overhang off the stern. The centerline winch runs off the hydraulics powered by the generators and is rated for 7,000 lbs, which would make it ideal to lift the engines. The only drawback was that SWL was rated with the A-frame in the stowed position and not with the rams extended, therefore it was undefined and untested how far the A-frame could  boom in. 

So, at the beginning of the week we coordinated with the Campus Facilities personnel to put metal plates into the pier in lieu of the wooden slats. But upon later testing found that we also needed to strengthen those supporting it with the wooden slats and 6x6s as well. We moved the ship back timing it with the outgoing tide and working the lines, I learned from school this is called ‘warping’ a ship. The next step was to test the A-frame, pier, and forklift capabilities to move the engines weight. The crew had some old train wheels that in total weighed 5200 lbs lying around in the shop and those were forklifted out to the pier, brought down the finger pier and hoisted with the A-frame. The results were a success as the A-frame was capable to lifting the weight safely until at a vertical angle with the deck. It then would be possible to walk the engine from the center of the deck next to the soft patch utilizing Lock and Ron’s portable A-frame chain hoist bar. After these initial tests, we accomplished getting the brand new portside engine onto the deck and into the port engine room by Thursday afternoon. Here are some pictures of the whole process:

It was very exciting to conduct all of this planning and testing to find that it was a very plausible idea to get the engines onboard and moved where they needed to go and very rewarding to finally do it after all was said and done. On Friday, we put the engine mount dampeners in, moved the engine forward and blocked it up, then got back to cleaning the starboard side bilges. The starboard side engine room brings more challenges than the first, so our successes with the portside engine quickly turned into worries about doing the other engine. But that will be figured out hopefully soon as the plan is to attempt to get the other one on board next week. 

This week was relatively short for me as I took 2 personal days off, Thursday and Friday. Both Monday and Tues day was spent removing the mounts the engines sat on. This was a very laborious job that took lots of leverage to complete. The bolts for the mounts were seized in place so we had to use lots of PB Blaster, a lubricating oil that eliminates rust, corrosion, and sticking, and place pipes over the end of the rachet to act as a cheater bar to increase the amount of torque. Even this at times didn’t help, a persuader had to be used (a hammer) to dislodge some of the rust and free up some area to work with. On Wednesday we spent the day cleaning out the port engine room bilge. There was so much accumulating oil from over the years that it turned into sludge. We spent hours that day using degreasers and a pressure washer to clean the bilge. By the end of the day the bilge was noticeable cleaner but not fully cleaned. Once the bilge is clean then it will be time to paint it.

After a busy last week getting the engines out, it has slowed down this week. We have had to pump out slop from the bilges, clean them with the pressure washer, get them all dry, and put paint in the bilges before the new, clean, red engines go in. This mostly took up the beginning of the week along with some crane ops and moving/removing various items ranging from engine room parts to tools and materials. The ship is a mess with so many projects and equipment being used. Alesha and I have many side quests from Denis to install the wifi, run the POSMV wires and set up that system, run the wires for the starboard and port side cameras, reconstruct the CTD, and make new terminations on the 3-2-2 wire. We also have side quests from Jon to finish the A/C installation in  Cabin 9, make a shelf, and insulate some more A/C piping. The main mission of course right now is figuring out how to get the new engines at around 4,500 lbs onto the ship and into the engine room cleanly and safely. Then, to repower and run controls to all of the steering stations onboard. 

In the latter part of this week, I worked on making some holes in the overheads to run RJ45 wire to the two different wifi modems. I also had to mount the modems and figure out where to put the relay boxes for easier maintenance later on. 

This week was remarkably busy and tiring. On Monday, the weather was not in our favor to pop open the soft patch, breaking the watertight seal, so we began stripping everything off the starboard engine: aftercooler, exhaust manifold, raw water pump, alternator, and coolant reservoir. By Tuesday, the weather was looking better so we pulled up the decking to expose the soft patch, scraped off the 5200, and pulled off the soft patch. That was the easy part of the day. Following, we hooked the engine up with the crane and attached the Dillion tension load cell between the engine and the crane wire. Upon lifting we realized the engine still weighed 4,560 lbs., over the SWL for the extension of the crane, it was now time to remove at least 1,000 lbs. We started by removing the 6 valve covers (one for each cylinder and not one large one), followed by removing the cylinder heads, valves, injectors, and rocker body. Tuesday night I got the wonderful news that I had the opportunity to extend my internship until the middle of September and gladly accepted. By Wednesday morning, the engine was ready to be lifted again to remove it from the engine room. This time, it weighed exactly 1,000 lbs. less. We were now able to lift the engine and move the crane safely. This took some time as we had to avoid the generator that was sitting close by, as well as a seawater discharge pipe that stuck out about 4 inches from the edge of the soft patch. We were able to lower the engine in the middle of the deck, where the starboard crane would pick up the engine and place it on the dock. While the engine as placed in the middle of the deck on blocks, the oil pan was reattached. By the end of the day, the engine was blocked under an overhang to protect it from rain. By Thursday, we knew exactly what we needed to remove from the starboard engine to make it light enough for the crane. We started with breaking the head bolts and removing the heads, valves, and injectors to remove all that weight from the engine. This was all followed up by decluttering the area around the engine to be able to shift it aft without anything being in the way. By the end of the day Thursday, the engine was moved aft under the soft patch and ready to be removed Friday morning. Friday morning was started by removing a light fixture that was hanging off the soft patch, removing the decking and stairwell on top, then popping off the patch. The starboard engine was far more difficult to remove from the engine room because the hydraulic fluid tank occupied half, if not more, of the working area under the patch to more the engine around. Because of that, we had to keep problem solving ways to angle and maneuver the engine to shimmy it out. Once out of the engine room and lowering onto the dock everyone was relieved and excited. As the engines weight was removed from the crane onto the dock, the boat rose about 6 inches out of the water. With both engines out and off the boat, we removed nearly 5 tons, setting us below our lowest draft mark. Having both engines out was a fantastic way to end the work week.