THANKSGIVING. I had a splendid feast at the Craig and Angela house for Thanksgiving. We cooked everything you can imagine. Pie report: Tollhouse, Apple, Pecan, Pumpkin, and all were great! 
Boat Work. the 'yearly maintenance' on the Packing Gland. i have owned the boat for two years and never had it done. The guys doing the work; Dave Allen from TNT boat works and 'old Bill' the guy pictured above, both said how fortunate that there was so much space to work in. ("oh this is great - lots of room to work.") i can only imagine a bad / small / tight space...
pull up floorboards to access the 'spacious' bilge area where the Packing Gland keeps water from entering the boat via the propeller shaft. (there's a hole in the boat where the shaft goes out to the propeller. the 'packing' keeps water from getting in around the shaft.)
So you have this 'rope like stuff' that has 'waxy goo' on it. you wrap it around the drive shaft and then squeeze it up under the lock washer. but first you pound on it with a hammer to flatten it so it fits. then you tighten it down and this forces is it up into the gap. repeat step one... note: the little yellow pick thing is to remove the old packing. but i didn't have any packing in there at all. it seems the old owner had merely backed off the lock nut as far as possible and then tightened down the screw till it was bottomed out. that's no way to run a navy! nothing broke. now it's packed right and not constantly dripping. (duhh i know why it dripped - with no packing!) $100 and 2 hours entertainment. now i am 100% qualified to do this myself next year. Well i had a birthday last week. I'm older, but no wiser and certainly no prettier...
May all your Holiday Wishes come true!
- Pirate Skip
