Grenada - "Go For Launch"

After waiting for the rain to abate, which it finally did on Friday, the boatyard crew was able to finish the waxing on the boat by midday Saturday. The guys that work the travelift don't launch boats on Saturdays, so we were stuck for the rest of the weekend. We took the opportunity to do a few loads of laundry and do a couple of other small projects on Sunday. Finally Monday morning rolled around and they had us in the water before lunchtime. Hooray! Or so I thought...

"Houston, we have a problem..." We had planned to spend one night in the harbor just to make sure that the saildrives didn't leak. (A saildrive is what links the propeller to the engine.) The mechanics had installed new seals to prevent seawater from leaking in, but just to be sure we didn't want to stray too far from the boatyard. So we anchored in the harbor and had lunch. Kevin then looked at both engine compartments, and sure enough the starboard side had a slow leak. After ten minutes of inspecting, Kevin found that the saildrive wasn't leaking but the seacock was. The mechanics had removed the seacock to take out the saildrives so something went wrong when they reinstalled it (the seacock wasn't leaking before we hauled out). So Kevin got on the phone to Craig, the mechanical manager, and let him know what was going on. Unfortunately Craig didn't have anyone available to fix it until tomorrow and he couldn't guarantee that we wouldn't get charged for a second haulout. What???!!! Kevin mentioned that he had a spare seacock and all that they needed to do was lift the boat out of the water and change it while we were in the slings and then just drop us back in. Kevin wanted it to be no charge since it was part of the job to put the boat back together with no holes in it. Craig countered with "Well you must have known the seacock was bad if you are carrying a spare." What an idiot. We carry ALL KINDS of spares for the engines! Because you never know where you will be when something breaks. (In fact we WISH we'd carried spare sail drive seals since the ones Craig ordered took FOREVER to clear through customs.) Obviously customer service is not Craig's strong suit. Kevin was hopping mad, and is determined to fix this problem himself. For now, we are taking on water (albeit very slowly).

[Kevin's Post]I was actually kind of relieved when I saw that it was the seacock leaking and not the seal itself. The seacock was leaking from the valve, not the threads, so they must have damaged it somehow during the process of removing and reinstalling the saildrives. After talking to Craig, it was clear that they weren't going to take responsibility for it. So rather than pay for another haulout and the labor to fix it, I decided I would fix it myself. I've changed 2 seacocks in the past (this was one of them actually) while in the water. Both those times the water was too murky/dirty to dive and plug the thru-hull from the outside, so water poured through the thru-hull until I could get the new one on. This time I dove and wrapped saran wrap around the saildrive to plug the intakes while I removed and replaced the seacock. It only took me about 20 minutes to get the new seacock on and so far it appears to not be leaking. The engine room is drying out and I'll have to check it again in the morning to make sure the repair is good. We won't be hauling at Grenada Marine again, and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.