Boat Service Day - Just One Surprise........sort of.

Today was a boat service day planned in advance. In order to change the oil in the pods, the boat has to be hauled out of the water and the oil drained. We took the boat next door to Isle of Palms Marine Service where they used the travel lift to haul the boat. Fordham Marine came to take care of the pod service.

The haul out went well and the bottom of the boat looked good. The starboard props (each pod has two props) didn't look so great. Port side props were fine. One blade had a serious nick/tear in it and the other prop had some bent blades. Fortunately, we had purchased a spare set of props and the technician from Fordham took off the damaged props and replaced them with the spares. The damaged props will be sent out for repair while we are back in NJ and become our spare set. The damage was not entirely unexpected. We believe the damage happened as we were leaving Loggerhead Marina in Vero Beach. I plan to let them know that there is an underwater obstruction which has been documented in comments by some other boaters.

The technician took care of the gear oil change in the pods and we were back in the water after lunch. An alarm went off indicating low gear oil, but after contacting Fordham we think the engine just needed to be restarted. We will take the boat out for a short sea trial before we leave to make sure.

Martha went around the boat and cleaned up some of the water line stains that are difficult for us to get to and I replaced the sacrificial anodes on the trim tabs. Encore is looking pretty good now and ready for the next cruise in March.

Fortunately, all the work was completed before the rain storms came through the area. I may try to give her a good wash tomorrow. Temperatures are forecast to be in the 50s, but the sun is supposed to be out. We'll see how things go.