It has been almost a week since my last post….the days have dragged on and on with very little to show for progress.
Since Debbie left we have lost our hot spot. Susan and I are doing laundry now…..free wifi…..yea! Let me try to recap this past week.
Monday Don returned the steering piston and the power steering piston and reinstalled them. He replaced all the sleeves on the Pistons as they were all leaking. The steering system is a low/no pressure hydraulic system. The leaking required that each morning before we left for the days travels we had to add fluid to replace what had leaked out since the morning before. Since we left on December 12, I had gone through two gallons of automatic transmission fluid. Don bled the system to get as much air out as he could. The Pistons aren’t leaking…..and bonus….the autopilot now works. Susan and I will continue to work the system to get all the air out. Don will be back on Wednesday to review remaining work I need done.
Mervin has successfully traced a leak in the master stateroom that we haven’t been able to find. Removing and replacing caulking. Epoxying holes and refinishing.
The liferaft…..ok the vender has found a used case that will work for our liferaft. Our liferaft needs $1,000 worth of work to recertify and put it in a hard case. The existing cleats on the flybridge will need to be modified to work with the new case….and I’ll have to figure that out when I get it…..I asked when I would get the raft back and I got…”we’ll get back to you…” Still waiting…
Epirb….. Existing epirb needed certification. Called several venders and discovered the company that made my existing unit has been out of business for years. No one here services them anymore. Great. New unit…..West Marine. Registered unit with NOAA and installed new bracket.
this device will broadcast a homing signal in the event on a problem. Will float if nothing else does…
Clean swimming ladder. Replace hardware at fold. Replace nonslip treads.
Don was planning to come Friday to work on the dingy outboard……..but it rained…..really hard all day. He showed up Saturday morning in near gale conditions. Not raining but extremely windy. We put the dingy in the water and Don started on the outboard. Carburetor is fouled as expected. Removes unit to take to shop for disassembly and cleaning. He has located rebuild kits….that’s right “kits”…3 cylinders, 3 carburetors, 3 repair kits. And in the process discover that the steering wheel mechanism has failed…….the boat will only turn one way…….and I think I’d get bored with circles pretty quick. Plan is to install stuff on Monday….weather permitting of course.
Ok I think laundry is about done…..later