S O S - Scheduled Oil Samples

Well while John's away in Wales doing something or other in a tent he asked me to look after the blog. His exact words were . . . "perhaps you could do a few techy things?"

As it happens we've got a few techy things on this week.

The biggest part of my job is the planned maintenance for the Mersey. This varies in complexity from checking bulbs are working to oil changes on the engines. These days we don't just change the oil annually or every so many hours (as you would in your car). What we do is every 3 months I sample the oil from both engines (see above from the starboard engine) and send it off to Finnings (www.finning-sos.co.uk). The clever scientist people at Finnings then test the oil and carefully analyse the results. They test for water and fuel in the oil, different metals in the oil and the condition of the oil itself. By comparing the results to set standards and to previous results they can detect engine problems before the user notices them. Coolant in the oil for example is a good indicator that a head gasket is leaking, increased metal levels can show that bearings are wearing.

If Finnings recommend that the oil is changed then this is done as soon as possible. Once the engine has run for about 10 hours on the new oil another sample is taken. This then gives the new benchmark for that engine. By doing this we are able to extend the period between oil changes from annually to about 2 yearly. This means less oil and filters to buy and dispose of, good for the environment and good for our pocket too!

For those of you who remember their periodic table, here's a list of what they test for.

I've put our samples in the post, should have the results by the end of the week. Fingers crossed they should be OK.

In the mean time if anyone's got any "Techy" questions please feel free to ask away.

Dave

Counting the cost

Amid destruction and uglyness lies beauty and wonder.

Today was another day off from Lifeboating but again a kind of busman's holiday drew my attention. Joined by Mark 'Jedi-Master' Rainsley and his talented (and tolerant) wife Heather, I travelled west to paddle through the scene of the MSC Napoli disaster. In some ways guilt was strongly present, to be joining the hoards of much reviled scavengers and rubber neckers. However, I felt a strong urge to see the extent of the damage for myself rather than just rely on inflated or distorted press stories.It certainly was an impressive sight and apart from a small amount of oil on the water all seemed well. We got good and close, close enough in fact to be firmly escorted from the premises by the coastguard patrol boat.We skirted round the exclusion zone and came back into the shore at Brancsome to see for outselves the extent of the destruction caused by the looters.This was extensive and, though superficial, still completely un-necessary. All the discarded contents of containers had been dumped and then inevitably washed along the shore for at least 5 or 6 miles.Despite there being few traces of oil, we did see a number of oiled sea birds. Clearly a great deal has been done to save as many as possible, however, there are many like those we saw which will avoid being collected and will inevitably die from ingesting the oil. A sad end to the day........

Life is like a box of chocolates............

Floating debris is a big problem at sea. And events of the past week have brought this sharply into focus. There is now a vast amount of debris floating around in the English Channel. Not just whole containers, but fuel oil and also the discarded detritus left over by the marauding scavengers. It would be easy to view this lightly, roguish scamps against the filthy rich capitalists. But this ignores the reality that they are not just hampering the clean up but making it far harder. To them I say.............Think more carefully about what you are doing, buy your nappies like the rest of us, don't pick up discarded ones from the beach. And why not put your energies into helping rather than being so selfish.

We deal with the resulting damage caused by this floating trash all too frequently. Vessels are often caught up in old bits of rope or netting. This is exactly what happened to the 38' yacht 'White Oryx IV' 11Nm South of Peveril Ledge Buoy last year. They were on passage from Cherbourg to The Solent when suddenly the yacht's engine stopped. They had run over a large quantity of heavy netting. The yacht's skipper went over the side to see if he could clear the prop himself but unfortunately it was too deep for him to reach. There was absolutely no wind and the yacht was drifting West with the ebb tide at nearly 2 knots. As the yacht was disabled Portland Coastguard asked for assistance from Swanage's All Weather Lifeboat. We were paged and launched 9 mins later, a course was plotted and best speed made towards the casualty. We arrived alongside a little under 40 mins later. A tow line was passed across and the slow tow home began. Meanwhile crew at the lifeboat station were busily trying to find a diver to clear the yacht's prop to allow them to continue their passage. As luck would have it a local dive charter boat 'Mary Jo' was coming back into Swanage with divers onboard at about the same time as the Lifeboat and its tow. They very kindly offered to help and one of their divers soon cleared the large net allowing 'White Oryx IV' to continue on their passage to The Solent. We were then released to return to station.