Awaiting for Spring 2010...

As a prologue to my acquisition story, my 270DA now looks like a giant deformed marshmallow on jack stands as the boating season has been officially closed since the end of October. Of course, the Rideau Canal water level has been lowered for winter. Though I took delivery of my 2009 Sea Ray 270 Sundancer late in the boating season, at least I got a few weeks of use and enjoyment. Of course, the downside is that I didn't get my fill of my new toy and now I'm eagerly awaiting spring to arrive so that I can commission "Summer Dreams", my boat's official name. Going through the pictures I took in the brief time I was on the water was my muse for all my posts.

In my last post I said that it was the beginning of a new story and I wasn't kidding. It's not much of a story as it's more a learning experience. It starts with our impromptu trip, traveling south down the Rideau Canal, towards Smith Falls for the Thanksgiving weekend (in Canada that was October 10th to 12th).


We were cruising at about 10 kph, enjoying the scenery as the above picture shows. My wife Maria is down below chilling in the mid-cabin and Catherine is playing World of Warcraft on her laptop. Of course, temporarily installing 3G wireless/wi-fi sort of throws one of my arguments overboard; hope that the wife will let that slide. Just after the above picture was taken, I got a warning alarm on the generator then it shutdown. The error code that was flashing on the controller's LED two digit display was L6. Of course, I pulled out the 4 inch thick owner manuals for the boat (I'm not kidding about the manual being 4" thick; Sea Ray really has to cut this down). For the generator, there were lots of codes but I be damned if I could find out what L6 was. I decided to anchor and check in the bilge.

Of course, to access the bilge the entire back of the boat lifts up by an electric lift. This is my first time opening the engine hatch to the bilge, by myself that is. I unlocked the hatch and pushed the hatch lift rocker at the helm. Nothing happens. I check to that I did everything right and still nothing happens. I was at a loss so I decided to radio the marina to ask them what is an L6 code on the generator. Of course, being a new 2009 model they were not familiar with the systems. What to do? I can't continue the trip without the generator so I pulled anchor and started heading back to the marina. Then it donned on me to check the fuse panel. Sure enough the fuse to the hatch blew. One mystery solved but I have no replacement fuse (a suggestion to those who own brand new boats, get some extra fuses) so I was still headed back to the marina.

Just as we were approaching the gas bar at the marina, the master alarm on the SmartCraft diagnostics went off. No gear lube/oil pressure. Docking was interesting as I shutdown the engine, obviously not wanting to break my new toy. I went to service to get a fuse and tell them about the lack of gear lube/oil. When I mentioned it, the service guy goes "you have a Bravo III stern drive right?" I say yes. He says, "always keep a extra bottle on hand because the Bravo III goes through lube quickly". Now they tell me... Lucky I didn't go far.

So I replace the fuse and open the hatch. Yep, no gear lube so I fill it up and have a spare bottle on hand. Of course, I made a mental note to keep an eye on the lube level just in case there is a functional problem, i.e. bad seal. I'm guessing that there was air in the drive which eventually bubbled up lowering the level. Again something that only time and use will tell.

Now back to the generator, I check everything including the raw water intake strainer. It's blocked with water weeds so I clean it out and check everything before I reset/clear the error code. As I was staring at the readout, it dawned on me. The code was not L6 but Lb, (L)ine (b)locked which was a error code in the manual. I felt really stupid at that moment. Sure enough, I started everything up and resumed our trip.

Unfortunately, a good few hours were expended which meant making the next set of locks impractical. No matter as I was just happy to be out on the water and that the family was having a good time. Of course, the weather was off and on but once and while the view from the helm was breathtaking as the below pictures shows.




Of course, Maria and Catherine were down below enjoying themselves. Catherine helped herself to the munchies I brought on board (ate all the sour cream Pringles ) and pretty much used up all my monthly bandwidth playing WoW.


My wife was very happy to relax and read her books. In the evening, we all piled into the V-berth for a movie night out on the water. With the cabin speakers (hidden at the front of the cabin) and the TV speakers (which is tied into the sound system), it was like a mini-home theater.


Suffice to say that we had a Happy Thanksgiving out on the water.

Cheers,
Kaoru

Posted by Kaoru [Boating] ( December 13, 2009 11:04 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]