Broken Gearbox and a stolen dinghy.

While sailing in the Abacos, our tranny broke. Badly. We felt it would be better if we did our repairs in Florida where parts would be more accessible. Almost two (2) months later I have the last part and am ready to install.

Our dinghy was stolen the other day. A bus driver, Lyn, says she drops the homeless couple off at a park every day where they sleep. BTW, the buses are free in Vero Beach and the homeless use them as shelter (A/C) against the inhumane summer heat and humidity.

So we went looking and lo and behold, there it was, A power boat was broken into and I suspect these two used our dinghy as a get-away vehicle.

That's it, Police have awesome security pictures of them.

I will publish more on the tranny later.

In the Bahamas

After many months of being locked out of my own blog, I am finally back in...on our second day after reaching Freeport, Bahamas. We are docked at Ocean Reef Resort. Retirement agrees with me.

This is our Quarantine flag, awaiting release from Customs and Immigration.

No Gridlock and new to her tender. Life is good.

Winter work

We have started a lot of jobs on the boat and are in the middle of of a lot of them.

A lot of wood has been removed to be copied, stained and varnished. Warning; the new wood will not match the remaining wood, I am not that skilled.

We removed the bow pulpit because I need a 3" drilled into it for our new electric windlass. Might do that myself...I don't know. I am leaning towards a machine shop$$$.

The wife and I are learning to use the sewing machine.

We have to bone up on navigation too.

We need a radio operators course too.

So much to do, so little time as we retire in less that 290 days:)

My wife by the genoa.

Floating and happy!

After a year and a half on the hard, we are finally back at Hamilton Harbour West Marina.

The wife looking forward from our cockpit.

A shot of one of the boat stencils we bought, this one tells the model and length of our boat. I dock walk a lot and like it when the boat model and size is displayed.

Our daughter chose the name as she knows I despise traffic. Apt.

Our boats 'car'. 4 hp of screaming terror. Only two speeds, slow and fast, no neutral and no reverse. You have to be aware of where you are pointing when you start this puppy up.

Painting the hull....

Well, a lot has happened since I last posted.

The soft cockpit sole has been fixed. That could not have been accomplished without the help of my great (and thin) friend Graham. He was able to worm past my rudder post and remove the bottom of the cockpit sole and the soggy balsa core, (I despise the use of balsa on a boat), and glassed in 1/2" marine plywood THEN we got some 1/2" foam pipe insulation from Lowes, split that in half lengthwise and glassed that in too. That and the stainless steel bars I used for backing plates for the steering pedestal has made my cockpit bulletproof. Sorry, way too busy and dirty to even think about touching the camera for pictures.

The wife and I have done a shitload of work on the boat, but it is mostly stuff you don't see so we decided we needed a visual accomplishment, hence the decision to paint the hull. Once again our friend Graham had ideas. Graham used to build Sharks , a racing sailboat and they used automotive paint, Think Corvettes), as there is a ton of Sharks out there is seemed a viable, (read cheaper), alternative to marine $$$ paint.

So, the wife and I spent a month of weekends prepping the hull, that is sanding and filling gouges and war wound, then repeating because we always found more that we missed. A 38' hull has a lot of area.

The above is the hull sanded. The yellow is the factory primer that we sanded down to. The epoxy repairs are in the yellow and are pretty much transparent when cured. That tank on wheels beside the boat is the portable pump out station. Yes, we had a pump out on the hard.

That is the boat primed. That is my friend Graham showing off his bod. The paint and primer I got was close to a $1000 and is designed to be sprayed on. We had the spray gun cocked and loaded then the owner of the yard said no spraying was allowed. Drat. So we rolled and tipped I liked the results. Graham didn't.

That is the hull with two coats of white rolled and tipped on. next spring we will put the third coat on then launch.

Leaking oil line on a Perkins 4-107

Ahh, the mighty Perkins developed a leaking oil line between the lube oil pump and the oil cooler.Not too difficult to change one would think, what with JIC fittings at both ends and I have the proper sized tube wrench to do the loosening. Both ends are now loose, easy peasy. I can't remove the line, both ends are flop-cocking about but I can't remove it. WTF? Turns out the Perkins engineers decided to clamp the middle of the hose to the centre of the oil pan With my nimble fingers I determined that it was definitely clamped. Borrowed a scope from work and had a look-see. Sure enough it was clamped and the clamp itself was bent against the flat of the nut (or bolt head), couldn't tell what for sure. (If it was a bolt and nut combination then I know for a fact that a sadistic design engineer was involved.). Solution: This was my wifes idea....use a hacksaw blade wrapped with a facecloth and cut the bastard lin in half. 15 sweaty minutes later I cut through the adamantium wire reinforced lube oil line and pulled them out. As I couldn't see what I was doing I suspect the line was regenerating itself ala Wolverine. Just got to get the line to a hose shop and get them to make 4" longer and with an anti-chaffe cover, it will hang freely when I install it.