Marine Heads Blog: Salvaging Your Boat After a Hurricane Hits Hard
A Hurricane Doesn't Mean You Can't Salvage Your Boat
Raritan Engineering Company your marine heads experts would like to share with you these topics we thought would be of interest to you this month regarding how to salvage your boat after a hurricane hits hard.
With the remnants of Hurricane Florence now on the way out to sea and high waters still posing a threat in some regions, boat owners are starting recovery efforts. The BoatUS Marine Insurance Catastrophe Team began field operations on Sunday, Sept. 16, in the Carolinas.
1. Get permission first. Your marine toilet specialists talk about how you never try to enter a storm-affected marina or boat storage facility without permission. Spilled fuel combined with the potential of downed electrical wires and a host of other hazards make them extremely dangerous places. Smoking is a big no-no.
2. Remove valuables. If your boat has washed ashore, remove as much equipment as possible and move it to a safe place to protect it from looters and vandals.
3. Minimize further damage. Protect your boat from further water damage resulting from exposure to the weather. This could include covering it with a tarp or boarding up broken windows or hatches. As soon as possible, start drying out the boat, either by taking advantage of sunny weather or using electric air handlers.
4. “Pickle” wet machinery. Engines and other machinery that were submerged or have gotten wet should be “pickled” by flushing with freshwater and then filled with diesel fuel or kerosene.
5. Consult your insurance provider. If your boat is sunk or must be moved by a salvage company, BoatUS recommends that boat owners should not sign any salvage or wreck-removal contract without first getting approval from their insurance company.
Your electric marine toilets distributors ask the question, "what kind of madman would intentionally pitch a perfectly good outboard engine over the side of his boat?" Yep, that would be me. But I haven’t lost my mind, mechanical frustration hasn’t made me go insane, and crazy thoughts haven’t caused me to strand myself at sea.
If your outboard gets submerged in salt water—whether it's because it jumped off the transom, your boat sank, or you got a bad case of butter-fingers while walking down the dock—you’ll need to know how to get it up and running again, while also protecting it from an explosion of corrosion. The process is called “pickling."
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Motor M*A*S*H
Before giving my hapless horses the heave-ho, I’ve set up an emergency outboard operating center back at the house. No, most of us won’t have the clairvoyance to do this before our engines get dunked, but we’ll still need to start this process properly prepared—even if it means letting the engine soak longer than otherwise necessary.
What should you do if you need to drive for an hour or more, to get your engine home? If at all possible, keep the motor submerged as you transport it. Depending on its size and weight you may be able to keep it in a large cooler filled with water, or some other form of make-shift tank.
Start the process by showering the engine with fresh water. Don’t worry about getting the components saturated—it’s too late for that—just remember that a whole lot of freshwater in and on the engine is far better than a little bit of saltwater.
Now, you need to get the water out of the rest of the engine. Remove the breather and the spark plug(s), and tilt the motor every which way you can to allow as much water as possible to escape. If your outboard is a four-stroke, this is also the time to drain off the oil and remove the oil filter.
The Big Flush
Now that you’ve washed away all the salt water and drained the engine of all fluids possible, you need to flush it out with diesel fuel. The diesel will displace any remaining water, and (hopefully) carry it all away.
Once the engine is uber-filled, manually crank it over several times to distribute the diesel evenly throughout the cylinders. Then pull the plugs again, and let the diesel drain down. Replace the oil plug, put on a new filter, and then re-fill the engine oil.
Fine Brine
At this point, you can take a breath and slow down. You’ve done what’s necessary to halt the corrosion, and the rest of the pickling process is a bit less time-sensitive. Your portable marine toilet suppliers talk about how you’re not quite out of the woods yet.
Next, you’re going to have to flush out all of the internal fuel lines. They may be just fine, but if a single drop of water got into them it’ll lead to trouble. So disconnect them at both ends, flush them out into one of your buckets, and replace any in-line filters. If your engine has an internal fuel tank, drain and refill that, as well.
With the process completed on my Mariner, I waited a week to see if any internal corrosion would take hold, then cranked it over. Thankfully, it started and is still running strong today.
So don't forget these helpful tips when trying to salvage your boat after a hurricane hits. 1) Never try to enter a storm-affected marina or boat storage facility without permission; 2) if your boat has washed ashore, remove as much equipment as possible and move it to a safe place to protect it from looters and vandals; and 3) engines and other machinery that were submerged or have gotten wet should be “pickled” by flushing with freshwater and then filled with diesel fuel or kerosene.
Amazing Moment Giant Grey Whale Plays With Boat And Its Passengers
Whales are pretty spectacular creatures, but usually best kept at something of a length.
After all, they're the largest animals on Earth and generally unconcerned about humans, so they can unwittingly throw their weight around. For this grey whale, however, there are no such problems with people - this one just wants to snug up and make friends. Watch the amazing video here.
It swims up right to the side of their vessel and allows the people to stroke it on its side, with one even leaning over and seeming to give the mega-mammal a little kiss.
They can grow to lengths just shy of 15 metres in length and weighs somewhere in the region of 36 tonnes, which is massive by anyone's standards.
Grey whales live predominantly in the northern Pacific Ocean, along the western coast of North America, though they also possess one of the widest migratory ranges of any animal on Earth and thus can be found across a huge swath of the Pacific Ocean.
Grey whales have been hunted by whalers - they only predators are humans and killer whales - although killing them is now broadly illegal.
Humans have also nearly eradicated the species from the eastern Pacific, where Japanese and Korean whalers have reduced their numbers to less than 200.
Whaling for grey whales is only allowed in very controlled circumstances and by aboriginal inhabitants of the North American Pacific Coast.
Alaska natives recently caused controversy by killing a grey whale under the impression that it was a Beluga whale, which they are allowed to kill
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