March 16, 2008

Okay, let me recap the last few days. On Wednesday we were up and waiting for the mailboat to come in as it was carrying our new outboard. The boat showed up just off the western hook of Thompson Bay at 0900. They had to stand off and wait a few hours for the tide to start to fill in so they could get in to the government dock.

It was neat to see them bring this boat in and start to unload the cargo. After a few large trucks came ashore, I could see several boxes that were marked “Yamaha” in the pile of pallets. I asked the forklift driver if he could drop my box near the edge of the dock so I could just lower my box into the dinghy. No problem, mon.

He brought over a pallet with a half dozen boxes and dropped it where I had asked him to. One box was addressed to us, so I unstacked everything, removed our box from the pallet and put everything back. Then I told one of the stevedores that I had my receipt and asked if I had to sign something before I took the box. He replied “If it’s paid for, then it’s cool”, so I guessed we were cool. The honesty around here just blows me away, they are honest and just expect it from you in return.

Hell, at the gas dock you filled up your boat and the attendant filled out a slip of paper with how much gas and diesel you received. Then he handed it to you and you walked 80 yards up to the gas station, handed them your slip and paid for your fuel. You don’t get a receipt or anything so the attendant has no way of knowing if you paid your bill or not, oh that’s right, of course the bill is paid, this is the land of honesty.

Thursday we have the new outboard and are up and underway for Georgetown, Exuma. The breeze was very light, maybe 5 to 7 knots but from a good direction so we had all sail up and were ghosting along at close to 4 knots. The wind did finally start to build and by the end of the day we were making a solid 5 knots.

We decided to anchor in Kidd Cove which was as close as possible to the town of Georgetown itself. We’d been gone for about a month and our water tank was getting very low, so while we were underway Christy gave the inside of the tank a good scrubbing with some bleach and we pumped the tank completely dry just as we arrived in town. So we’d arrived in Georgetown with no water and it was going to take several trips to shore to jerry jug “home” a hundred and sixty gallons of water. It was just about sundown when we had the last load of water on board. As a result, we decided to stay anchored there for the night.

So we found ourselves with an unexpected front row seat for the first night of the Bahamanian Music Festival. It was Gospel Night and the music was as loud as any I’ve ever heard. It was loud even down inside the boat. They were singing their hearts out until 0130. It was great to hear different acts trying to outshine the group that had just left the stage.

The next morning we crossed Elizabeth Harbor and headed over to Sand Dollar Beach. We’ll be here for a few days as there’s a big blow on its way. During the afternoon we heard our friends on Meermin headed towards our anchorage. It will be great to see them, but we’re sure that their arrival is not a sign of anything good. They were a few days ahead of us and headed north and then back to the states when last we saw them.

We went over to greet them and it turned out that they had a pretty good leak through their dripless shaft seal and a really nasty vibration in their starboard drive train. Over sundowners we formulated a plan to tackle their problems in the morning. By chance, one of the other boaters who dropped in, was in need of an outboard engine, just like the one we’ve now got for sale. Excellent.

The next day I had promised to go snorkeling with Christy, but first Gary from Packet Inn and I ran over to Meermin to see what we could do to help. It turned out that the dripless seals on both shafts were leaking from being improperly adjusted. After just a few minutes that was remedied.

While troubleshooting the vibration problem I found that the shaft coupling bolts were all loose. After tightening them up it was plain to see that the shaft was not running true. With a small vise and a hacksaw blade I was able to fashion a crude indicator. Gary loosened the coupling bolts and was able to tap the shaft into alignment.

While Christy and I went snorkeling, Gary and Art took Meermin out for a test spin. When they returned the news was grim. They said that while the leaks had stopped, the vibration was worse. I couldn’t believe it, that shaft ran so much better after we adjusted it, how could it be worse?

During the night I remembered that Tom from Hearts Desire owned a precision machine shop back in the real world. So, in the morning I gave him a call and soon we were on our way to Meermin with a dial indicator in hand. When we checked the shaft we found that it ran within ten thousands of an inch. Not too shabby for adjusting it by eye with yesterdays crude indicator. It doesn’t explain all this vibration, but while we were at it we used the dial indicator to bring the runout down to nothing.

While we were hand spinning the prop shaft there was a horrible new noise. I couldn’t believe we didn’t hear this noise yesterday. It was a horrible clunking sound and it definitely sounded like it was coming from the transmission. It was funny though, as I used my right hand to spin the prop shaft, my pinky was on the shaft and my thumb was towards the transmission and I “felt” the clunk more in my pinky. There were 4 full grown men standing in this (huge) engine room and we all agreed that the noise was definitely coming from the transmission. My pinky begged to differ though, I had a nagging suspicion that the propeller was loose and clunking on the shaft.

The night before, while Christy was BBQing, our spatula slipped over the side. It was too dark to find then, so since I was going in after the spatula this morning I figured I may as well swim over and check out the props on Meermin.

I found that indeed the starboard prop had come loose, both lock nuts had backed off and everything had stayed on the shaft only because of the cotter pin through the shaft. I was able to reinstall the propeller and get everything squared away. When Art went into the engine room to turn the shaft he came back beaming. The noise was completely gone, it had been the prop after all. I guess the transmission was amplifying the noise as it traveled through the prop shaft. My pinky was right, my pinky rocks.

Since I found a buyer for the Mercury we decided to put the new Yahama on the dinghy. Holy shit, what a difference. The dink is now scary fast. Even though we’re still breaking the new engine in we can get up on plane in the blink of an eye. It’s like riding a skipping stone. Previously the ride to town was a wet 30 minute ride, now we arrive in 6 or 7 minutes and we’re bone dry. Just wait until we can open her up. Woo Hoooo.

So we’ll be here for a few more days, doing boat chores and enjoying the water and the island a bit. The weather is supposed to break on Thursday, giving us an opportunity to get underway on Friday. Although by then the wind will have been in the low twenties for several days straight. We may have to wait another day or two for the ocean to settle a bit before we head out.