The first thing I did was to bring the diesels online to warm them up, charge the batteries, and to circulate the oil. I also started the genset and brought it under load to give it a workout. During this time, I pulled up all of the flooring in the salon to give full access to the engines. After about 15 minutes, I began bringing the engines off-line to allow for some cool down. During the cool down period, I decided to get the final pump out for the season. We had winterized the forward head a couple of weeks ago. We just had to finish the aft head. We have the luxury of doing a pump out in our slip. The hose is long enough to go from the gas dock to our slip. After getting a good evacuation and a couple of rinse cycles, we sealed off the head, added about 4 gallons of 50/50 solution and secured the power. Both holding tanks have about 5 gallons of 50/50 solution and should suffice throughout the winter.

Also during this time, Kimberly had prepared six gallons of 50/50 solution for the air conditioning units. My intent was to pull the single feed line from the seacock and feed the solution from this point. Yeah, fat chance. After loosening the hose clamps and moving them out of the way, I tried to remove the hose - it wasn't moving. It's not that it was stuck - it's just geometry and leverage. Carver engineers decided to put the A/C seacock right under the starboard engine with about four inches of clearance above the hose. The seacock is also set back about eight inches and is directly underneath the forward port engine mount. Due to the engine mount and various lines and hoses, it is near impossible to reach the seacock from the centerline or top. You can only get your hand (not hands) on it from underneath the front of the engine. The first length of tubing is about 12 inches long with two bends in it going from the seacock to the intake of the sea strainer. There isn't enough give in the hose to twist or lift up off the nipple on the seacock. Okay, on to Plan B.

I decided to replace the hose clamps and made sure the other three sets were secure. I did try briefly to remove the second line of hose aft of the sea strainer, but it is much shorter and definitely not going anywhere. I decided to attack the problem from the sea strainer. I pulled the strainer and did a complete evacuation of the strainer and the intake hose. Then I positioned the six gallons of 50/50 solution and proceeded to cycle each of the three units one by one. On the 444, there is one intake for all three units and one discharge port. I had Kimberly watch the discharge port and call on the walkie-talkie when the discharge was running pink. As each unit came online, I kept the sea strainer full of 50/50 solution - not an easy feat. This particular setup will gulp down a gallon of solution in about 30 seconds. After feeding six gallons through the system, we prepared two addition gallons to ensure the system was topped off. We cycled the units again and fed the two gallons through.

By now, it was starting to get late and I decided to forgo the genset and just concentrate on the diesels. I connected the hand pump and proceeding to pump out the oil through the dipstick. I thought it would be easy enough - nope. After pumping for about two minutes, I hadn't even gained a drop of oil. After playing with various hose combinations and set-ups, I decided that I needed to consult the manuals and see if there were any suggestions. Yep - Cummins suggests that you drain the oil through either the front or rear drain plugs. Hmmm...does anybody at Cummins own a boat? The front and rear drain plugs are less than eight inches from the hull and certainly not in reach or accessible. If the diesels were up on stands, it would be a no brainer. However, when they are mounted, it just is not going to work. After about hour of messing with this, I decided to call it quits and do some more research. I'm thinking that I might need a better pump and try using the dipstick like a big straw. Wait, didn't I try that in the beginning? Oh well, I will attack it on another day. Heck, we've got several more weeks before the first snow.

At least I winterized the ice maker without problems.