More Fun Than I can Stand! ! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

Current Location:27'27.404N/ 080'18.251W - Fort Pierce

Yesterday(Saturday) I laid out the course for my Monday departure, weather permitting, for Melbourne and a visit with some more firends. I also ended up helping Brad finish installing his radar dome. I had to haul him and it up the mast. He fed the first wire( power cable) through the framing and into the dome no problem. The second one wouldn't go into the hole in the framing because the connector on the end was too large. This is the data cable and it has somewhere between 10 and 16 individual wires in it that come together in a type of plug. I found out from Brad that to get it down the mast(inside) he had cut off the other end and was intending to use some special stripper he had acquired to reattach a new connector/plug. Now, 30 feet in the air, he decided to do the same thing with the other end and did it. Snip!I really hope he knows what he's doing as screwing around with those cable is likely to make the radar not function properly. Then he bolted the bracket holding the dome to the mast. He complained that it wasn't square but I reminded him that everything about a boat is a compromise.

I went ashore and had dinner at a place on the beach called "Archie's." It is hard to describe. Think of the worst, most run -down beach side bar you can imaginer. Compared to ARCHIE's, it is a palace! Ithas been knocked down by hurricane a couple of times and been rebuilt . . .well, more like put back together but it still looks terrible. But it is a great place. It has a wonderful atmosphere, it's clientel runs from bikers to bankers and everyone in between. The food is good, the beer is cold and the bands are excellent. It sort of feels like a big family get together. Patty McGee, who owns and runs the place, is spectacular. If she was on Letterman once, she would be a national institution. Not the most attractive of women, she can just hold your attention. She truly is one of a kind.

Today(Sunday) I decided to change the engine oil. I figured an hour at the outside. I started at 10am and finished at 4pm. It was more fun that I could ever have imagined.

First mistake, I didn't run the engine and heat up the oil to thin it. I couldn't draw out the oil, which had the consistency of peanut butter, either with the hand pump on the front of the engine nor the portable pump running a hose through the did stick. I called Gerry and he gave me a bunch of good advice the best of which was "run the engine for 20 minutes." This I did and while waiting I taped over the connections on the hand pump less seeping air kill the pumps vacuum. After the 20 minute run, I tried the hand pump and got no joy. I push the hose from the portable pump down the dip stick hole, got to star drawing but it stopped rather quickly. Damn!

I called Gerry again and he was out So I call Chuck Wargo and he was in. He suggested I run the engine again for a little longer, pour a little oil inside the front pump on the engine - if it hadn't been used in a long time, it might need priming - and if it still didn't work, connect the portable pump the hose currently connected to the hand pump. I ran the engine for 30 minutes. I tried the hand pump, still no vacuum. I removed the hand pump but instead of attaching the portable pump, I led the hose from the hand pump, which went directly to the sump of the engine, and let gravity do the work. And it did a fine job. It emptied the engine in no time. I reconnected the hand pump to the hose.

Now all that probably sounded pretty simple and straight forward, but it also involved a lot of bolting and unbolting, moving thiongs around to get at other things, removing the ladder and putting it back again, and dropping things into the bilge which need to be fished out. It took a rather long time just to get that part of the job done. On top of that, it was also oily. No matter how careful you are, oil will escape and get in the darnedest places. It of course needs to be cleaned up.

Mistake two was in changing the oil filter. There are three filters on the engine, two for fuel one for oil. The one I though was for the oil wasn't. well, I just took it as a sign that it was time to change the fuel filters too and so I did. I also changed the oil filter which actually turned out to be a snap. I refilled the engine with oil and started it up and it didn't explode which I took as a good sign.

Doing all this work on the engine, I discovered that the stuffing box nut( the nut around the drive shaft to the prop) and was admitting too much water. The bilge pump had been working lately but I thought that it was just ice melt from the fridge. Well, corrected that problem and all seems ready for the trip to Melbourne.

Tomorrow I will do a pump and dump and fuel up and I hope to be in Melbourne tomorrow night. As much as I enjoy being here, I am wary of getting "trapped" again. Good harbors rotting ships and men and all that.I have about 980 miles to got before I hit Hospital Point(ICW Mile Marker ZERO) in Virginia. Strangely, it doesn't seem to be all that far away.