December 4, 5 and 6. Holy crap, time flies when you’re trapped in North Carolina.

To recap, our part was supposed to arrive via UPS on Monday night right at the marinas closing time. I was working on the boat and assumed Christy was up at the marina office awaiting our new damper. She talked to the woman at the counter and told her that she was going food shopping and that I was at the boat so please let me know when the part arrives. Okay, no problem.

I realize that its 4:30 so I go to check on the situation just as Christy comes around the corner with bags of groceries. She asks if I got the part, I say “I thought you were getting it”. Oh no! Sure enough the office is closed and there’s our part sitting in plain view on the parts counter. I thought about calling the fire department.

So on December fifth I go up to the marina office and retrieve our new part. The part is held in place by 5 bolts. One bolt in the bolt pattern is not evenly spaced by 5 degrees. It’s by design so that the plate can only be put in one way. I can’t see the difference by eye so when I measure it I find that the one bolt hole is only out by a little less than a eighth of an inch. Cool, except I can’t even see 3 of the bolt holes in the flywheel that I have to bolt this thing too. Crap. So I’m going to put in 2 of the bolts and check if the other 3 line up to see if I have it right. I figure at worst I’ll only have to do this 5 times. Crap. I put it in the first time and holy shit, its right. Cool.

After the plates tightly bolted into place the monster part of the job is going to be pushing the engine back into place. I get Christy to watch the transmission end of the engine to let me know if the spline is engaging in the plate or if it is stopping the engine from moving into place. The engine probably weighs 700 pounds and it was a chore for me to pull it out so I was worried about sliding it back into place with enough control to get it to slip onto the spline. I’ve pulled the engine so far forward that I can’t get my lever in to start to pry it back into place so I put my shoulder to it and the damn thing slides straight back away from me and perfectly into place. It’s a miracle, I mean holy crap, it slid perfectly into place, quick honey, go play the lottery. Of course they probably pay off in livestock but damn it just slid into place. 

I spent the rest of the day bolting everything together and reinstalling all of the parts that I had to remove to get to the transmission. We had been invited to Pat and Eddie’s boat for dinner that evening and we wanted to leave the next morning so I needed to get everything done before dinner. At 5 minutes to 6 I refill the water and start to change the oil when I hear a drip. Crap. A hose on the heat exchanger is leaking and I can’t stop it so I pull a large rusty knife and commit Hari-Kari, well okay, no I didn’t but it did cross my mind.

I run to the shower and off we go to dinner. We had an excellent time and played some dominoes after dinner. See, there are good times as well. Thank god for this evening because today’s ending was really rough on me. Drip drip.

December sixth starts with me removing that damn starter yet again so I can change the hose that’s leaking. I change it and refill the system and there’s no difference, drip drip. Crap. I screwed with that thing for quite a while before I was able to fix the leak. I can’t believe with everything else I’ve done this week it was a damn drip of water that almost killed me.

I put the starter back in and the engine fired right up and all seems to be well. We’ll be off tomorrow. As long as we’re still here now I can use this opportunity to install the new circuit board for the generator that arrived yesterday. Now with the generator working again we aren’t so dependant on dock power to keep the dogs warm at night. We also got a new Wifi antenna that should increase the reliability of our internet connection. Things are falling into place, a little navigating tonight and we’ll be all set.

We’ll be underway by 0700; I hope it’s a good day. Please. I have to say, this marina is not much to look at but the people rock and their all so damn friendly. We’re supposed to have decent wind so there may even be some sailing involved. 

One more thing while I have your attention. I want you all to get out your dictionaries and add the words:

Knowd- meaning I know, I knew. As in………I knowd he’d get it done.
Thems – meaning They are. As in………Thems good folk.