Omar showed up at eight o’clock sharp this morning with the steering box (I swear I can not ever remember the name of that thing). He had noticed that when it was all put together he could move the shaft back and forth maybe an eighth of an inch—just enough that the metal ring wasn’t sitting tight against the o-ring. He put a couple of washers behind the metal ring on the shaft and then put everything back together again (basically the same fix as the injector the day before). You couldn’t move the shaft any more.
I installed it, filled it with oil, and cranked the wheel back and forth. No oil drips. Success again.
We’d been told that the lift would be coming at nine so we scrambled to finish two more projects that had to be done before splashing—replacing the packing on the prop shaft and the rudder shaft. That was easier than I expected and with time to spare we had managed to finish everything.
The lift came and hauled Bumfuzzle off to the water. I was giddy at this point.
As soon as the boat hit the water I climbed aboard. I can’t really explain the feeling, but there was something wonderful about how the boat felt under my feet—softer I guess. Everything felt right with the world—and the boat—for a change.
The transmission still wasn’t hooked up because the boat sits all out of whack when it’s on the hard and aligning anything then would just be a waste of time. So a panga tied me up and towed me over to the slip where Omar was waiting to catch the lines. Back aboard he went straight to work on aligning the engine. This is probably where a good portion of the problems with Bumfuzzle the past few months originated. I thought I’d done the job correctly, but the broken motor mounts and a transmission falling to the ground told me otherwise. Live and learn.
Omar had done this a million times and working together to move mounts sixteenths of an inch, or raise one side of the engine by five-thousandths of an inch, I learned a lot. Before long the shaft was aligned perfectly all the way around.
With that done we fired the engine up and waited for it to heat up. When the thermostat finally opened a rush of trapped air filled the expansion tank. We topped off the coolant, waited for a few more air bubbles to make their way through the system, and finally capped it off.
The alternator still wasn’t working and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why. I’d checked and double-checked my wiring. I e-mailed the company, DC Power Solutions, and got more wiring information, but still nothing worked. So what happened? Omar took a look at it, scratched his head, and then started wiggling wires. Suddenly, there it was, the alternator finally kicked in. The only thing wrong had been a loose connection.
When the alternator fired up so did the tachometer. Hooray, I’d actually wired both of them correctly. I’ve never had a functioning tachometer on this boat and it has always bugged me—but no more.
That was it, there was no more magic to be done by Omar. With him gone I set about the massive, looming, list of things still to be done before sailing out tomorrow. I rigged the sails, took the cover off the dinghy, inflated, and stowed it, filled the water tanks, reinstalled the engine compartment covers, stowed everything in the house, picked up groceries, straightened up cockpit lockers, and on and on and on.
I’m literally falling asleep at my keyboard. Early day tomorrow.
26 Comments on “Success”
Glad to hear everything’s moving along … I wish we had our own personal Omar around here!
Congratulations!
Congrats on getting Bumfuzzle back in her natural habitat, bet it feels great!
Bon voyage! Looking forward to the further adventures of Bumfuzzle.
Glad to see she’s back in the water where she belongs. We’re big fans up here in NH!
Excellent! Very well done, and I hope no “new thing” arises. Fair winds.
A true boater you are! 🙂
What a great feeling to have things come together!! Good Job Bro!!!
Enjoy your sail!!!
Good on ya. Success is a great healer. I know you have been busy and may have missed this study that came out today. It shows another great thing you are doing for Ouest and Lowe. Seems that folks who speak two languages get dementia about 4 1/2 years later than mono-linguistics. Guess that helps you and Ali also. 😉
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/Dementia/42760
That is one scary looking travel lift. The supports are so….so…low to CG.
Now that you’ve got the engine running right, the wind will blow off the sbtd qtr all the way home.
So, how many beers are we up to NOW? Omar, King of the Mechanics! Unfortunately, we’re not coming to Mazatlan so you won’t have to pay up, until Portland?
Happy Trails!
alan
s/v MAGIC
Congrats and just wanted to say what an AWESOME picture that last photo is — the stars look fantastic. Happy sailing!!!
– Leah
Awesome Pat! have a safe trip
She looks absolutely beautiful! 🙂
So how many dogs will be waiting at home in Mazatlan?
WHAT ? a MOno hull ?.. just read your first book so have a lot of catching up to do.. nice to see you’re on the water again though, and thanks for restoring my faith in sailing…… !!!
Nope, it is a half-cat. Dontcha know? 🙂 Probably a better half at that 😉
Looks great. Can’t wait to hear how your family reacts to being back on the boat. They are going to love it. Exciting times ahead! Lots of Bumfuzzle fun and adventure.
SWEET ! looks beautiful
Safe travels!!! And Omar rocks!
A wise sailor once said, “It’s a sailboat, sail it!”. Congrats and keep the posts flowing.
Congratulations on getting Bumfuzzle running and launched! You’re so right about that great feeling of standing on a floating boat after months on the hard. It’s a reminder of why to put up with the down days.
Glad your back on water!!!Congrats!!
stoked on the good news amigo. everything is in its right place.
Excited for you guys!