Here we are, mid-February, still in the marina. Frustration upon frustration. Re-welded the broken engine mount, replaced the broken motor mount, and spent four days and many hours removing the bent prop shaft flange. It just wouldn't come off after Dennis spent two days hanging over the motor trying to remove the set screws, so he admitted defeat and called in the mechanic. Jeff is shorter than Dennis, so he can fit down in the bilge a little easier, but even he was complaining about how tight it was.
So, here we sit, finding things to do while stuck
Dennis, with his claustraphobia getting worse, just could not have gotten into the spaces that Jeff did. Money well spent!!!!
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| Jeff's working hard and he also elects to come out over the top of the engine! |
Unfortunately, Jeff is the only mechanic and extremely busy, so we spend a lot of time waiting for him to show up. The first day everyone was set to go and Isla Colon lost power, so there went any hope of using that angle grinder. Then it was Sunday, Valentine's Day, and we had torrential downpours all day long, so he couldn't work then. Monday, over to finish with the angle grinder. No luck. Screws out but it seemed to be rusted on to the shaft. Jeff left and Dennis lubed everything up, let it sit for 24 hours, and they worked at it again Tuesday. Finally, after using the saws-all and setting the towel on fire (thankfully, I was up at the Calypso Cantina visiting with Mark on Sea Cycle), the flange came off. Jeff put the order in Tuesday for a new flange, but Marine Warehouse's idea of ASAP and mine are two totally separate things. As of Saturday it still wasn't on my Visa bill :(
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| All squished in! |
in the marina with no motor. ~~~_/)~~~
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| Trying to get the flange off! |
1 comment:
We had Jeff give us a hand while in Bocas. We were trying to solve an overheating problem...Jeff took the heat exchanger off, the turbo, and the mixing elbow. All was OK...then I found some small barnacle shells in the transmission heat exchanger which was plumbed in-line with the water feed-line to the main engine. The engine got enough water at low speeds to cool, but at high speeds it overheated. Jeff did a good job on all that he did, but it was me that found the real problem which was some barnacle pieces left over from Colombia.
Bill
BeBe
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