Tuesday was an easy day. I replaced a bad engine room exhaust fan and then put on my plumber hat and pulled apart the hot and cold faucets in the aft head. they were leaky and needed new washers. (they NEEDED to be totally replaced) So i drove to Home Depot with the two 'old guts' of the faucet in my pocket. The guy helping me was kind and looked for a few minutes.... 'nope, aint gottem.' So i drove across the island to "Specialty Hardware." The tiny little True Value hardware. they have two of everything known to man and some stuff i still dont know what it is... I have a salesman offer to assist me if needed? yes please. "We dont have that style anymore, do you want to rebuild these?" yes please. "It may take awhile." that's OK, i'll wait. (so i follow him over to his work bench and hover watching over his shoulder.) He tries to remove the old brass screws and cant. "i'll have to get my drill." yes please. He drills out the old screw, breaking 2 drill bits in the process. After he works on it about 20-30 minutes he says, "i'm going to have to get the expert for this. come on, let's find the plumber." yes please. Next Andy took over and drilled out, tapped and took apart both the hot and cold faucets. Andy rebuilt both faucets. Each one had 4 gaskets and seals. They charged me $5.00 total. Ninety minutes, two guys and all that labor for five bucks. I'm going to take apart my shower and forward faucets next week and go back!
Sure i made plans, i wanted to go to shore today and catch up on the blog and order some parts and stuff. (maybe take it easy? play Bocce Ball at 2pm?) Then i got a call from Diesel Don about his helper Jason arriving today to "take a look at it." At 9am Jason arrived with two bags of tools. To "look at it." Two hours later he was leaving with my transmission in his dingy. The prop shaft disconnected but NOT the pillow bearing. The pillow bearing is rusted onto the shaft. ("we might have to cut it off") OK, great Jason is gone and i can still have lunch, maybe squeeze in a nap before going to shore and doing this blog post. You guessed it, more. After my first bite of sandwich someone is banging on the hull of Prodigal. OCD, obsessive compulsive divers are there to dive under Prodigal and pull her Propeller. Ok. Progress is good. Chris and Derrick were called in today because yesterday Diver Dave didn't have the proper tool for my style prop.
Diver Dave
Jason pulling the tranny
Pillow bearing
Chris and Derrick
The correct tool
But wait, you guessed it, there's more. the Prop has a little 'bend in the blades' and needs to go to Marathon Prop for straightening. Fix the correct pitch and balance all 3 blades so it gets more speed and no wobble and vibration.
$180 to make it like new (see tomorrow) by noon tomorrow.
PS. sister Lynn is the question lady and 'the comment sister Jane' does her shtick. Yesterday my brother Steve asked, "is Lynne sailing with you? am i reading this right that you have Shanghaied some poor lady?" YES Steve Lynne is signed up on the adventure. you read it right.
