ok so, right after posting this message I figured it out.
changed:
string item = xNavigator.SelectSingleNode("/my:myFields/my:Parts/my:Part/my:PartNumber", this.NamespaceManager).InnerXml;
to
string item = xNavigator.SelectSingleNode("my:PartNumber", this.NamespaceManager).InnerXml;
and
xNavigator.SelectSingleNode("/my:myFields/my:Parts/my:Part/my:PartDescription", this.NamespaceManager).SetValue(desc);
to
xNavigator.SelectSingleNode("my:PartDescription", this.NamespaceManager).SetValue(desc);
All is good.