is at end.
Previous log file
is here.
comments to me.
My tentative
cruising plans
| Log of the sailboat "Magnolia". |
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| Most recent entry is at end. Previous log file is here. |
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Please send any comments to me. My tentative cruising plans | |
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12/18/2008 (Thursday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Dumped water from jugs into water tanks, with a little added bleach. Did a bucket of laundry. Dinghied ashore. Disposed of garbage. Relatively quiet in town today, because there are no cruise-ships at the main dock. Walked to the library. $2 for an hour of internet; bought a couple of 12V 39-LED cluster-bulbs on EBay ($17 with shipping); ordered the parts for my GPS-autopilot project ($96 for dev board, programmer board, chip, and shipping). Got a free book from the take-a-book kiosk. Back to the dinghy, then out to see if I can arrange a dinghy-ride ashore later. First boat I stopped at, Steve and his wife on "I'Lean", agreed to do the favor; that was easy. Back to the boat. Sprayed a cockroach in the galley. 
Stowed rope anchor rode and swept off the foredeck. Hoisted and lashed the dinghy and locked cable through the motor and boat and fuel tank and propane tank. Finished emptying water jugs and put them in cabin. Packed my suitcase. Cleaned the heads. Did the dishes and put them away. Just before 2, Steve came over. I set off the bug-bomb (what a fountain of poison!), closed up and locked the main hatch, and we headed for shore. Interesting conversation as we went to the dock. Turns out Steve just came up from Venezuela, and his (or one next to his here, I didn't get it straight) is the boat that was involved in the fatal shooting of a cruiser down there a couple of weeks ago (it was in the news). Another cruiser, a visitor to the boat, was shot by approaching locals, with no provocation. (Wow: the story is pretty amazing: article by Pat Rains on TheLog.com.) Then, it turned out Steve is having the same solar-panel problem I had earlier this year: his Kyocera 120 panel has died (puts out 19V at no-load, but 9V and no current under load). So I told him to contact Kyocera, they'll send new panel at no charge and pay shipping both ways, etc. Caught a taxi-van ($11) to the airport, and the other passenger wanted to know about chartering a sailboat down here, something I know little about. The driver said it's really cold in Philadelphia, my destination. And he says the New Year's Eve fireworks here will be from the marina, not municipal: I didn't have to move the boat yesterday. And he was complaining about the cruise-ship schedule I was noticing in Magen's Bay: two days with no ships in harbor, then a day with 5 or 6 in harbor, then a day with none. Expected to pay $15 to check a suitcase, but no charge. Maybe they've rescinded those charges now that fuel prices have gone back down ? Or maybe only for domestic flights ? In the security lines in the airport, chatted with a businessman who had been down here for a 2-day business trip. He was pretty envious when I told him I was retired and living on a boat. Nice view of all of Vieques and the whole east end of Puerto Rico as we flew out of the area. Was raining over the rainforest, for a change. Uneventful flight, although a pretty bumpy landing in windless conditions in Philly. An evening of 35-40 degrees and no wind in Philly, which is about as good as I could ask for here in December. Expecting snow tomorrow. Picked up by my brother and off to Mom's place. Very nice to see her. And a whole box of mail waiting for me, including a lot of packages I ordered over the internet several weeks ago: 7 used books, a new AC adapter for the laptop (confirmed that the old one is bad), and a hand-cranked 5-LED flashlight (looks good). And Comedy Central is having a Futurama marathon; bliss. [Next morning: nice long hot shower, and newspapers. That's a good thing about living on a boat: everything's so great when you get back to modern conveniences.] 12/19/2008 - 1/7/2009 Boat's at anchor at Charlotte Amalie; I'm in PA / NJ for Christmas / New Year's. Did a few chores for Mom: fixed her AOL account, tried to diagnose a hum in her TV set (we ended up exchanging it for a new one), sorted through a pile of hearing-aid batteries, figured out the keypad on her microwave oven, etc. 12/19: Went to Philly with my sister and my mom, saw a house my brother bought and another next door that he plans to buy, and another elsewhere that my sister dreams of buying (but in a place where it's wise to have bulletproof glass in the windows). Lunch at Dinic's in the Reading Terminal Market. Found the downside of my very short haircut: cold rain cuts right through it. Grey and rainy and cool/cold all day. Squashed a bug (pic) in Mom's kitchen. Didn't tell her about it; maybe it came in with the morning newspaper ? Or maybe I carried a bad habit from the boat to PA. Squashed another one the next day, and Mom says they're harmless beetle-like things that are widespread in the complex. Surprising in an expensive, upscale assisted-living place. (Later, my sister said they're "shield beetles", they often swarm here, they're harmless, they're in lots of buildings. Readers say it's a "stink bug", and if you crush it you'll find out why it's called that.)
Ordered a BlueProton GSky 500 mW USB Wi-Fi adapter ($26 including shipping). Should improve my Wi-Fi capability. 12/21: Up to Paterson NJ to a big model-railroad exhibit with my 2.5-year-old nephew. 12/22: Rented a car for a week ($325). It's a Nissan Altima with a new-fangled ignition switch: the electronic key-fob has to be inside the car somewhere, but you don't stick a key into a switch, you press a button on the dashboard to start/stop the engine. Bought various stuff for the boat: galley water filters, new scraper for the hull, spark-plug wrench, 12V plug. Ordered a simple 12v cigarette-plug type outlet-and-plug through EBay; how can it possibly "ship from Hong Kong Post via Airmail" for $1 for the part and $2.32 for shipping ? Ordered a USB extension cable for the Wi-Fi. Went into a "religious store" so Mom could buy a new rosary; I was relieved when I didn't burst into flame as I entered. Did almost all of my Christmas-gift shopping in a half-hour session in a Borders bookstore. Received my GPS-autopilot development pieces by mail on Christmas Day: development board and programmer board. Looks like I need to buy a special cable to connect the two of them. Also received my LED light bulbs. Had a nice Christmas at my brother's place in Newark NJ. See some pictures, including me in the one labeled "two retirees comparing notes". Received a chocolate Magnolia from my sister in Indiana. Mmmmmm: went to dinner at Mastori's diner in Bordentown NJ; very nice. Received my new Wi-Fi adapter, and it picks up more Wi-Fi signals than my previous adapter. Looks good. The 20 GB hard disk in my laptop is so full that it's hard to install the software for my auto-pilot project, so I went to the other extreme and ordered a 750 GB USB hard disk (through Amazon, for an unbelievably low $92 including free shipping). Won't be any practical way to back up the data on it, of course. [Whoops: after ordering, found out the disk comes with an AC adapter; I had assumed it was USB-powered. Will have to use a DC-to-DC adapter. Looks like I can't find out the DC voltage and current specs until I receive the disk.] Now it will be a race to see if it arrives here before I leave to go back to the boat. I've noticed that my sleep-patterns are completely different here than they were on the boat, more so than in previous holidays. I'm sleeping like a log for 4+ hours or even the entire night; on the boat I sleep very lightly most of the time, even in a calm, safe anchorage. Probably good for my brain to get different kinds of sleep. Went to stay with my brother for a few days, and he has broadband fiber-optic internet ! And we went to a Princeton University hockey game, which was fun. Received my 15-foot USB active extension cable, but it doesn't seem to work with the new GSky Wi-Fi adapter. In fact, it keeps causing a Blue Screen of Death on Windows XP; can't remember last time that happened to me. Probably a bug in the GSky driver; USB errors shouldn't cause BSOD. Had a pizza on New Year's Eve. My first pizza in 10 months or so; that made it even more delicious. That "$1 plus $2.30 shipping" cigarette-plug extender arrived from Hong Kong ! How can they dothat ? Went to the Barnes Foundation (art museum) in N or NW Philadelphia; it was very nice. Chock-full of expensive art: Matisse, Renoir, Cezanne, etc. Dinner at a good Indian restaurant near Yardley PA; can't remember the last time I had Indian food. Picked up a multi-day cold and headache. My new disk drive via FedEx was in Harrisburg PA at 4 PM on the 6th; will it be delivered (in Langhorne at the other end of the state) on the 7th ? I'm leaving at dawn on the 8th ! Yes ! New disk drive arrived at 12:25 on the 7th, and I got it, and it works (but it's really "only" 698 GB, not 750). The AC adapter with it puts out 12 VDC; wonder if I dare connect the drive power directly to the 12 VDC in my boat (which really is 12.4 to 14 VDC) ? Finally got my will and health care directive witnessed and notarized; I've been trying to get all of the pieces and people together for a couple of weeks. Bought a $1 ticket for the $105 million Powerball lottery; if I win, I might get a bigger boat. (Didn't win; did worse than random chance.) 1/8/2009 (Thursday) Boat's at anchor at Charlotte Amalie; I'm in PA / NJ for Christmas / New Year's. An anxious trip to the airport: taxiis were too busy to get earlier train; taxi ($8) was late anyway; later train ($9) was 11 minutes late; found that train let me off at terminal A east when I needed A west. Saved by absolutely zero line at check-in; rushed up 55 minutes before 10 AM departure time and the guy said "I'm surprised the computer let me check your bag onto this flight; you're after the deadline". $15 to check the bag. Absolutely no line at Security either. Wondered if Security elsewhere freaked when they scanned my suitcase: it contained a disk drive, LED hand-crank flashlight, two circuit-boards and cables, USB extender cable, big putty knife, spark-plug tool, cigarette plug, etc. Probably got hand-searched. Plane taxiied out onto the field and then sat for 20+ minutes; I saw at least 15 other planes sitting or moving slowly on the taxiways. Uneventful flight to St Thomas, and I had a whole row of seats to myself. Even soda costs $2 aboard now. 80 degrees or so in St Thomas. My suitcase appeared, so everything was fine. Taxi ($10) to downtown dinghy dock, I can see my boat still afloat, and time to bum a ride out to my boat. First guy had more than a dinghy-full of groceries to take out; didn't even ask him. Second guys were coming in, and busy. Third guy was happy to take me on his way out to his boat; easy. Couldn't have been standing there more than 3 minutes. Out to the boat, climbed aboard at 4 PM AST, and unlocked and opened up everything. No poison residue or fumes from the bug-bomb I set off as I left, and only a couple of dead cockroaches in a few odd corners. Boat looks fine, inside and out. Harbor is rolly as usual. Another boat is anchored fairly close over my primary anchor, and my two anchor rodes (chains) are twisted around each other a couple of times, but those are problems for tomorrow or the next day. Changed water filter under galley sink. Installed 39-LED bulb in light fixture over stove. No cruise-ships in harbor today. They're up to their usual scheduling oddness: six here yesterday according to the taxi driver, zero today, zero tomorrow. The tourist-workers here hate that. Saw gasoline here for $2.69/gallon; best in NJ was $1.43/gallon. PB-crackers for dinner. A bit headachey from the trip; took pills and early to bed. Sprayed several cockroaches in the galley during the night. So much for the bug-bomb approach.
Got a little Wi-Fi at 11 PM; new adapter proves its worth. 1/9/2009 (Friday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Added water to the batteries. Started the refrigerator. Killed a cockroach in the galley.
Dinghied ashore after lunch, noticing that "Wandering Albatross" is here. To Radio Shack, and bought a DB-9 connector ($3) for the autopilot project. To the supermarket for groceries, and trundled them back to the dinghy using my little grocery-cart thing; it comes in very handy every now and then. Saw Doug and Nancy from "Presque Isle" on the dinghy-dock and said hello; Nancy looks great, she's lost weight. They're thinking of leaving here in March or so; they've been here a year or so. They said Joe and Wendy from "Off Call" are here too; they're heading up to Canada. Back to the boat and stowed everything. Did a little Wi-Fi. Salad and chili and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Ran engine for 15 minutes to exercise it. Killed a cockroach in the galley during the night.
1/10/2009 (Saturday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship in harbor today. Had hoped for no wind in the morning; I need to untwist the anchor rodes and then raise anchor, cleaning the rodes. But it's pretty windy this morning. Went out on the foredeck before noon, but it was still blowing way too hard. Kept blowing all day. Installed a couple of 12V connectors to use instead of cigarette-plug connectors. I had done a little of this a while ago, but then changed laptop power adapters. Tried to do a little Wi-Fi, but the signal dropped right after uploading the log file, and I couldn't get reconnected. Listened to Car Talk. Salad and cheese-and-crackers for dinner. Killed a cockroach in the galley during the night.
1/11/2009 (Sunday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship in main harbor today. Rain at 7:50. Launched dinghy and pumped up the tubes. Wind was light, so used the dinghy to spin the boat twice clockwise, untwisting the anchor chains. This operation is the only time I wish my outboard motor had a couple more horsepower: 6 HP is barely enough to do this. Brief rain at 9:30 and more at 9:45 and again at 10:30. Ashore to do shopping, trying to time things to avoid the light squalls that are rolling through every 15 minutes or so. But didn't find anything I needed in KMart, and only half of the stuff I wanted in the supermarket. Stopped in the marina office to ask about their facilities (pretty low fuel prices: $2.19/gallon for gas and $2.30/gallon for diesel). Saw Doug and chatted with him for 10 or 15 minutes. Bummer: he says St Martin fees have been increased to about $5/day; I'm planning to go there. Back to the boat. Started raising the secondary anchor, scrubbing the chain as it came up, but had to keep stopping to let rain squalls pass through. Pretty rolly too. A messy, sweaty job. Got the anchor up, and found the shank bent (pic). Must have happened while I was gone; I'm virtually certain it wasn't like that when I put it down. Didn't think there was anything hard enough on the bottom here to bend it. Mark from "Mystic" stopped by to chat. I last saw him about 15 months ago in Salinas; he left to try to get work on St Croix. He ended up working in the boatyard in Christiansted, and put a used engine in his boat. He left for Grenada a few months before hurricane Omar hit St Croix. He came back and saw the damage, and told me stories of boats broken up against the boardwalk. He said the eye of the storm went right over the SE tip of the island; I thought the radio said the eye went 10-20 miles SE of the island. His info makes the damage in Christiansted more understandable. Saw a big marching band go up the waterfront street in town. Spaghetti and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Killed several cockroaches in the galley during the night.
Didn't sleep well, for second night in a row. Have a sore throat and a cough. 1/12/2009 (Monday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. I had been planning to leave today. But I don't feel good, then I decided I should use the fuel dock here, and I kind of wanted to go snorkeling at Buck Island on the way out. So I think I'll bag it all and go back to bed. Felt tired and headachey and achey all day, with some coughing. Napped and read and napped and took pills. Fuel level 3.25 inches at engine hour 4472; didn't realize it had gotten that low. Lucky I didn't run out when coming here before Christmas (although I have 5 gallons of diesel in a jug on deck for just such an emergency). Salad and cheese sandwich for dinner. Another night of headache and coughing and little sleep. Around 3 AM, finally found a combination of pills that worked: anti-histamine, Tylenol and ibuprofen. Started to feel better. Killed several cockroaches in the galley during the night.
1/13/2009 (Tuesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Feeling mostly-better; still slightly weak. Decided to leave today, stopping at the fuel dock on the way out. Three cruise-ships in main harbor today. Dumped 5 gallons of diesel from jug to fuel tank. Put out four fenders and two dock-lines on the starboard side. Anchor up by 8:55. Called fuel dock on the VHF, and they said their diesel pump isn't working, maybe try again in a couple of hours ! Well, I know my tank is very low on fuel, but I'm only going 8-9 miles to Benner Bay, and the 5 gallons I just added should more than cover that. Don't feel like putting anchor down and waiting, and maybe spending another day and night here. So I decided to go anyway (bad decision). Got out of the harbor mouth, and it's pretty rough out here. It always is on this stretch; the water funnels between St Thomas to the north and Buck Island to the south. Hope the fuel doesn't slosh around in the tank enough to make the engine suck air. Decided to keep going (bad decision). Making only 2.2 knots or so over ground, straight into strong wind and big seas. Got about 2/3 of the way there, next to underwater Packet Rock, and the engine started choking and racing. No way I'm going to make it all the way, and ahead there's a mile-plus stretch off the nasty lee shore of False Entrance and Cas Cay. Quickly shut off the engine to save some running-time for later (good decision), unfurl the jib, and start sailing back. Before I can get much headway, I almost run over a dive-mooring and get it in the prop; that would be a disaster in these conditions. Manage to skootch around it. Nice sail downwind, making close to 4 knots. Hard to see where the harbor entrance is; it's sort of around a corner out of sight, and the rocky shore looks so uniform that I can't see where the entrance is. I need to hug the shore so I'm close in when I turn that corner and probably lose the wind. But there are a few shoals to watch out for. So I head in closer (good decision). I go through one tricky place where there are breaking shoals on both sides, and go a little too close to a motorboat with a diver-down flag flying. If I hadn't, I would have lost some ground downwind, which I don't think I can afford. Around the corner of Point Knoll, going as close ashore as I dare, about 20 feet away from some seriously shallow rocks. Now I'm in water shallow enough and mostly-sheltered enough to anchor. I start to lose the wind as I approach a smaller unnamed point 100 yards further up. Any thoughts I had of sailing all the way into the main harbor are gone; the wind-shadow of the island would make it too dangerous. I start the engine, it runs, and I furl the jib and nose into Pacquereau Bay just outside the harbor entrance, and put the anchor down. Done by 11:10 at Pacquereau Bay. What a relief ! Kind of nice here, too; not as rolly as the main harbor. But I'm sure there will be a few huge ferry wakes. Got Wi-Fi just long enough to upload the log file. Around 1:30, called the fuel dock on the VHF and confirmed that their diesel pump is running now. Launched the dinghy before 2, went in and got 10 gallons of diesel for $2.31, and back out to the boat by 2:30. Hoisted dinghy and stowed everything, dumped the fuel from jugs into the fuel tank, and got the boat ready to take in to the fuel dock. At 3:05, raised anchor (just about exhausted myself doing that), and motored in. Heard a bit of a "kling-kling" sound from somewhere, but couldn't localize it. Got about 1/3 of the way along cruise-ship row toward the fuel dock when the engine stuttered and then quit ! Quickly unfurled the jib, made a left turn (good thing I didn't have to turn right: stupidly, the fenders are covering up the starboard jib sheet), and sailed away from the cruise ships. Fortunately the wind is from a good direction and there are no anchored boats in my way. Sailed over to the edge of the anchored boats and put and down by 3:25 at Charlotte Amalie. So, I'm back. As I tidied up the boat, pulling fenders and such in, I noticed a smoky smell, probably coming from the cruise ships, which run generators all of the time. But after a while I started to suspect it was coming from my boat. Sure enough, the cabin air is fairly smoky, and the engine compartment is the source of it. The engine is hot and the smoke smells kind of dusty/rubbery. I can't remember if I looked in the engine compartment after this morning's fiasco, but I'm sure there was no smoke in the cabin before 3. I know I looked at the engine temperature gauge this morning, and probably this afternoon, and it was normal. Crap ! So, I'm in a decent place, maybe not as comfortable as possible but safe and legal and with access to facilities and people, and with possibly two separate engine problems (maybe a fuel-filter problem and a heat/burning problem ?). Will start working on the engine tomorrow. But did a quick scan of the hot engine and didn't see any obvious problems: no leaks, no broken hoses or wires, alternator belt looks good. Chicken-onion-saffronrice and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Watched the cruise-ships leave at sunset. Watched carefully, because I'm the boat closest to the spot they back into to make the turn to point out the harbor entrance. I'm really not too close, at least 200 yards away from their nearest approach and not directly behind them, but they're so big that I seem too close. After the first one left, when it was more than half a mile away, the harbor water where the ship had turned was churning, with strong currents whipping up from the bottom and maybe some air in the water. I watched as it approached my boat and then ebbed out just past me. The other two ships (sister-ships to each other) didn't cause the same effect. As the last ship backed out, a megayacht came out of the marina and dawdled right in their way, making the ship stop and wait; pretty inconsiderate. Killed a cockroach in the galley during the night.
Slept fairly well, but still taking pills. 1/14/2009 (Wednesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Still not fully well: head aches a little, runny nose, coughing, sneezing, feel a little weak, still taking pills. Two cruise-ships in main harbor today. Started investigating the engine. Coolant level fine, oil level fine. Transmission fluid is low; it's at the "L" mark, and in this tranmission it's supposed to be above "F" when engine is off. Added about a pint of fluid to it. I remember checking the fluid level months ago, and it was a little below "F", I think. Hope I haven't blown a transmission seal; guess the level would be off the dipstick if that had happened. Looked at the exhaust system; I'd been thinking exhaust fumes had been getting into the compartment, and assumed the joint between exhaust manifold and exhaust riser was loose. Today, something definitely is loose. I tighten the nuts holding riser onto manifold, but that doesn't fix it. Then I find that the manifold-to-engine-block joint is loose. I tighten the four nuts through the top of the manifold, and now the joints are tight, and the riser is solid (I'm surprised that there seem to be no nuts/bolts underneath the manifold holding it to the block; how is that side of the joint held closed ?). That explains the smoke in the compartment and boat. Hope I don't need to take the manifold off completely and rebed the joint to the engine block, or buy and install a new gasket there. Looks like some water ran down from loose manifold-block joint and made some rust on the side of the starter motor and solenoid. Might be a good idea to take them off and to a motor shop for some cleanup. I've had some starting problems, so I really should do that. All wires on starboard side of the engine look good. A little rust on the terminals on the starter solenoid. A little rust on the manual handle on the fuel lift pump: some water got out of the exhaust manifold and down to there. Loosened the alternator and took the belt off completely, and the belt looks absolutely fine. Alternator and fresh-water cooling pump pulleys spin freely and cleanly. Put the belt back on. Fuel level 5.1 inches at engine hour 4474. So the fuel I put in yesterday did get into the tank. Okay, my records show I'm overdue for changing all of the fuel filters. The cruise ships are doing lifeboat practice today (pic). Can't get any free Wi-Fi. Got out the new fuel filters, and then realized my diesel jugs are empty; I have no clean diesel to pour into the filter housings when putting them back together. So dinghied ashore and bought another 10 gallons of diesel ($23). Replaced the two primary filters, and they were very dirty. And what came out of them looks like mostly black water, not diesel. Washed out the housings with WD-40, put in the new filters, filled them up with diesel, and installed them. A messy job. Started the engine and ran it for 5 minutes, and everything looks good ! No smoke, no racing or stalling, alternator good, no leaks from the fuel filter housings. But then I put it into gear, and there was a "chunk" sound and the engine stalled. Started it again, put it in gear again, same thing. So, I either have a seized transmission, or something solid stuck in my propeller. A bad transmission is my worst nightmare; it's going to be a major job to get it out of there and to a shop. I don't have the heart to dive under the boat this afternoon; tomorrow I'll do that, and do the secondary fuel filter, check the transmission fluid again, and see if the transmission has cured itself miraculously. Crap ! Later, took a quick look at the clearance for getting the transmission out, and it's not quite as bad as I thought at first. I'll have to take a cabinet off the engine compartment wall, maybe with a sledgehammer, and probably take out the engine oil cooler and intake strainer, and rig something to help me lift the transmission and reduction-gear (probably weighs 100-120 pounds ?). Hope I can get the drive-shaft coupling loose, but I got it apart a couple of years ago in the boatyard (with massive effort), so maybe it can be done again here. If that won't budge, I'll have to be towed into a boatyard. Salad and cheese sandwich for dinner. Slept fairly well, but still taking pills. 1/15/2009 (Thursday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Still feeling poorly: coughing, sneezing, stuffed up, headachey. By 9:45, wind blowing hard. Not an attractive day for snorkeling under the boat, but I have to do it. So, before noon, lowered the dinghy and went snorkeling under the boat. Not too bad, and I was in and out quickly. But as I feared, no big chunk of something fouling the propeller. And I can't turn the propeller; usually it freewheels easily while the transmission is in neutral or the engine is off. Now I can rotate it back and forth only a couple of degrees before it stops hard. So something in the transmission is munched. Back aboard and showered off. Still can't get any free Wi-Fi here. Headed ashore. First up toward the marina. Long chat with Chris and Mary Liz on "Wandering Albatross"; I last saw them in Luperon in 2005. They spent almost 2 years in Venezuela, and liked it, but there was plenty of crime, and they wouldn't go back now. I told them about my transmission problem, we talked about St Croix and hurricanes and such, and it was nice. I gave them a couple of books. Doug and Nancy came by, so I went to their boat and told Doug about the transmission; he's very knowledgeable and usually knows all the local scoop everywhere. He guesses one or more of the transmission main bearings has disintegrated, although he suggested a few less likely things such as the shaft binding in the stern tube (no way). He pointed me to a local shop that does engine work; maybe they can handle transmission stuff too. Then went down the harbor to the downtown dock area. Disposed of garbage. To the library, and did an hour of internet ($2). Looks like transmission rebuild kits and parts aren't horribly expensive (but a new dipstick is $40 ?). Sent an inquiry about swapping my transmission for a reconditioned one, but probably the shipping costs would be prohibitive. My transmission is a Borg-Warner Velvet Drive 72C (or 72CR ?) hydraulic, 2.1 to 1 reduction, serial number 12525, model AS13-72C (or AS13-72CR ?). Read my book in the park for a while, then back to the boat. It was good to get off the boat for a while, and talk to some friends. Lots of rain-squalls from 4:30 to 5:30. Chili for dinner. Around 5:30, headed ashore, walked through the marina into Havensight Mall (outdoor mall at the cruise-ship docks), and joined Chris and Mary Liz and Doug And Nancy for a drink. The bar is a little shack just inside the entrance that opens from 5 to 8 or so. Sat at an outdoor table with rain threatening, and had a nice chat. I didn't stay too long, just had one beer and was sociable. Then to the supermarket for a few groceries, back to the dinghy-dock, and out to the boat. It's taken a while to get the hang of hoisting the dinghy in the dark, in a rolly harbor, but I've gotten pretty good at it. More rain-squalls from 8 to 10 or so. Took pills, eventually slept well, and I think my fever and cold broke a bit during the night. 1/16/2009 (Friday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Feeling a lot better this morning: still coughing a bit, but my head feels pretty good. No cruise-ships at the main dock. Did a small bucket of laundry. Emptied the cabinet above the transmission, in the engine compartment, so I can take it off the wall. Suddenly realized a big complication of the transmission job: the rear engine-mounts are bolted to the transmission, not the engine block. So I'm going to have to devise a support for the rear end of the 1300-pound engine before removing the transmission. Ugly. I could wedge a bunch of wood under there, but if the engine settles down at all, it would be a chore to get it up again. So I guess buying or borrowing a scissors-jack or bottle-jack might be the way to go. I assume the bottom of the bilge can take the weight, with some added wood down there to spread the load. I might have to sculpt a piece of wood to fit up under the bottom of the flywheel bell-housing, so the jack can't slip sideways while the engine is jacked up. And more wood on the sides to keep the engine in place when the boat rolls, while the rear mounts and transmission are out. And once I have the engine supported and the transmission out, I might as well replace the rear engine mounts; they're 36 years old and have needed replacement for a while, I'm sure. If I replace the rear mounts, and have a jack available anyway, then after putting the rear mounts and transmission in, I might as well replace the forward engine mounts too. Probably should take the opportunity to have a transmission fluid temperature gauge installed. Service manual says transmission plus reduction gear weighs 153 pounds. So, now you see why a serious transmission problem has been one of my recurring nightmares. I won't mention the others, lest that cause one of them. Should take the opportunity to take the starter motor out and take it to a shop. Removed the cabinet from the wall of the engine compartment. Removed the setscrew-wire from the transmission-to-shaft coupler, and eventually got the setscrews (bolts, really) out. Drenched the area with WD-40. Will try to get the shaft out of the coupler tomorrow. Dinghied ashore (saw interesting boat), stopping to chat with Doug and Nancy on the way. Found the diesel shop, talked to the guy, and all is well. He says they've been rebuilding my model of transmission for 20 years now, and have all the usual parts in stock. He says it's easy to take the transmission out (and it is, if you gloss over jacking up a 1300-pound engine and then lifting a 150-pound transmission out of an awkward spot). He'd be happy to send a guy out to the boat to do it (probably at $70 per hour). If I need them to send a truck to pick up the transmission from the dinghy-dock, that will cost $55/hour. I didn't even ask the price of a rebuild; whatever it is, I'll pay it. Back to the dinghy, and headed for the boat with a huge squall bearing down on me. As I went past, Mary Liz said they're leaving tomorrow. Rain beat me to the boat by a minute or so, and I got fairly wet. The last few days, we've had rain-squalls at dawn and then from 4 to 6 or so. But this afternoon, the rain came in at 3 or so and the grey never went away. Squalls at 3 and 3:40 and 3:55, then damp and grey and icky all evening. Salad and cheese-and-crackers and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Evening not too bad, but after midnight it started getting rolly, and stayed rolly. Very uncomfortable and irritating, and hard to sleep at all. Wind is light and much more south than usual, and boat is wallowing. Lousy. 1/17/2009 (Saturday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Miserable, rolly, grey, damp morning. Rained hard at 7:15. Not enough breeze to keep the boat motion regular, or to blow away the damp. Constantly threatening misty rain, so I had to keep the hatches and ports closed. Laid in bed and read a book and listened to radio and felt grouchy. One cruise-ship at the main dock. Dumped about 4 gallons of rainwater from buckets to jug. Mark stopped by around 9:30, wondering why I was still in the harbor, and had changed position since he last saw me. I told him about the transmission, and he gave me his phone number and offered any help he could give. He too complained about how rolly it had been last night, saying he'd started feeling seasick as he laid in his berth. He's moving to Crown Bay today. Finally got some sunshine after 11. Put the setscrews back into the drive-shaft coupling, and loosened the bolts holding the coupling halves together. Quickly tired of crouching with head down toward the bilge with the boat rolling, with greasy hands working on half-hidden bolts. At 12:45, reader Ralph from Hans Christian sloop "Solainne" (pic) nearby came by to say hello, and to give me a spray-can of Avert cockroach gel bait ! He's heading to Culebra tomorrow. A second cruise-ship came in. Things to do on the transmission: - remove bilge pumps to get them out of the way. - use something to prop up the drive shaft, then undo the coupling bolts. - take pictures and draw diagrams, then remove hoses and gear linkage from transmission. - remove engine oil cooler and oil filter and intake strainer to get them out of the way. - measure clearance from bottom of bell housing to bilge. - to Home Depot or hardware store to buy scissors jack or bottle jack. - install wood and jack under bell housing. - install wood around sides of bell housing to keep engine from sliding sideways when boat rolls. - loosen nuts on tops of forward engine mounts. - remove nuts on tops of rear engine mounts. - jack up rear of engine just enough so engine is holding up transmission instead of vice-versa. - make some kind of rope sling to lift transmission. - unbolt transmission from bell housing. - lift transmission out. Dinghied ashore and went to the library. Despite having carefully checked the schedule when I was here on Thursday to verify that it was open on Saturday, it's not open today. Maybe it's closed because Monday is a holiday ? To a cafe and used the tiny book-exchange there, then to the park to read a book for a couple of hours. Turned into a sunny afternoon, and it was very nice to be off the boat, and I felt better. Several dozen Palestinians chanting and protesting Israel over at the bandstand. Not much breeze this afternoon, so a seaplane came in for landing from the east instead of the west. Showing off, he came in as low as possible, right over Emancipation Park, and started his landing just about at the dinghy-dock. Pretty reckless and dangerous, but he got away with it. Back to the boat. Nice-looking schooner nearby. Spaghetti and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Loud music from shore for much of the evening; I think Carnival season is approaching. Biggest megayacht I've ever seen (pic) came in and anchored nearby, and stayed lit up all night; took a picture of it the next morning before it snuck away. Never did see anyone out on deck on it. Maybe 250 feet long ? More ? [Later it was at the marina fuel-dock for a while, and I saw the name is "Rising Sun". And it has a 15-foot-long bow-bulb (what's the name for that ?) mostly underwater.] [Turns out it has a Wikipedia page, and is about 450 feet long !] Started one of the used books I bought through Amazon, and found the first 128 pages missing ! First time that's happened to me. 1/18/2009 (Sunday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Partly cloudy morning, so better than it's been the last few days. Still not much wind, and fairly rolly at times. One cruise-ship in harbor. Loafed all morning. Took some pictures of the approach to the transmission, looking in from the door to the engine compartment: pic1, pic2. Then took out the engine intake strainer (one hose-clamp broke apart as I loosened it) and the shelf it was attached to, and the approach is a little clearer: pic3. Took out the primary bilge pump: pic4. Disconnected linkage and hoses from transmission, and oil hoses from engine. Transmission fluid dripping out of the oil cooler is dark and burnt-smelling; the fluid on the dipstick was fine. Maybe the oil cooler is plugged up, or the fluid pump in the transmission is broken ? What could make the fluid bad in one place and good in the other ? Tried to get the oil cooler and oil filter assembly off the engine, but it's held on by a couple of rusty bolts and nuts through the edge of the bell housing, and I could get only one nut off. Access is very limited, and everything is rusty. Ended up taking the oil filter off separately. pic5. Killed a cockroach in the cockpit; first one I've seen in a week or so, and I've been looking. Haven't tried that "Avert" stuff yet.
Salad and cheese sandwich for dinner. Huge fire ashore (pic); took them a couple of hours to put it out. Smoke went from white to black to white again a couple of times. [Found out later, it was a former Red Cross warehouse, maybe used by the USO now, which had a lot of donated old clothing in it.] 1/19/2009 (Monday; MLK day) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Pretty clear morning. One cruise-ship in harbor. Still no free Wi-Fi here; life would be a lot more pleasant if there were. Loafed all morning; it's pretty rolly, and I'm having trouble getting myself to move on the nasty stuck bolts on the transmission job. Harbor stayed rolly all day. After lunch, cleaned the bilge a bit (frustrating; none of my oil-change pumps work well. Then took the oil cooler off the engine, and worked on the last stuck nut holding the last bracket onto the bell housing. Maybe I could leave it alone, but I think I want to get it off. Didn't make much progress; maybe tomorrow I'll cut or crack it off. Tried to loosen an engine mount nut, and it wouldn't budge. I need to buy a 1-1/8" box-end wrench, or I could just cut/crack the nuts off. Here's what the approach to the transmission looks like now: pic. Measured the current adjustment levels of the engine mounts. Measured the clearance from bottom of the bilge to bottom of the engine flywheel bell housing, and it's quite deep right there: 24". It's just aft of a big step up in the bilge, and forward of a fiberglass "bridge" across the bilge underneath the transmission. So trying to swing the handle of a jack could be a challenge. The screw-action of a scissors-jack or a hydraulic hose to a jack would work. Chili and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Killed a cockroach in the galley during the night.
1/20/2009 (Tuesday; Inauguration Day) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Grey, dim, rainy morning. Three cruise-ships in harbor. And the wind made me inhale their exhaust-fumes much of the day. Rolly today, too. Dinghied ashore. Sun starting to come out around 10. Disposed of garbage. To the library, and the stupid place is closed again ! The sign last week said nothing about being closed today. Walked down to the Sea Chest hardware store, which turned out to be further than I thought. Kept an eye out for site of that big fire the other evening, but didn't see it. Looked at jacks at the hardware store, and they had a nice bottle-jack for $28. Has an 8" minimum and a 15" maximum, which I'm not sure will fit under the front end of the engine when replacing the forward engine mounts. And it would be nice to have bolt-holes in the base of the jack so I could bolt it in place on top of a piece of 2x10 or something, so there's less chance of it tilting when the boat rolls. They had a scissors-jack too, but it was a lot wider and longer (but maybe not as tall) and was $55 or so. Bought a 1-1/8" wrench ($13.50) for the engine mount nuts. Went to NAPA Auto, but it and other places are closed today. Got groceries, then a longish wait for a safari bus ($1) back to downtown. Hot and tired by the time I got back to the boat. Took the secondary bilge pump out: pic. A sledgehammer and the new wrench soon got all four engine-mount nuts loose; a couple of them were really stubborn. The nut-cracker and the biggest pliers got the cooler-bracket-nut off. So now I have access to the transmission as good as it will get: pic. Measured clearance from bottom of bilge to bottom of forward end of engine, and it's only 12" or less, and the bottom of the engine there is oil-pan. So I'll have to do something tricky to raise that end of the engine, and an 8"-minimum jack might be too large. Cleaned the bilge some more; there's still a lot of oily water down there, and I'd like to have it dry before putting a lot of wood down there for the jack. Carved an old laundry-detergent bottle and used it to prop up the drive shaft. Then unbolted the coupling halves. Confirmed that shaft turns okay; transmission is seized. Put a wrench on one of the bolts holding transmission to engine flywheel bell housing, and it turned without too much effort. So I think the path is clear to getting this transmission out. Need to remove a light metal baffle that is hanging down into the bilge underneath the transmission, to get to the space where the platform for the jack will stand. Don't really understand what purpose it is supposed to serve; the bilge would have to be very full of water for this baffle to affect surges forward and back. Salami-and-cheese sandwiches and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Miserable night: very rolly all night, and didn't get much sleep. I hate this harbor. 1/21/2009 (Wednesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Three cruise-ships in harbor. More exhaust-fumes. And it's still rolly. Dinghied ashore. Disposed of garbage. To the library, and finally it's open. Asked why it was closed Saturday and Tuesday: "oh, we've been closed on Saturdays for a while since they're rebuilding the walkway outside" and "Tuesday was Inauguration Day"; no apology for the signs not saying so. The signs clearly say "closed on Monday the 19th". Did an hour of internet ($2). A diesel place says the 2.1:1 reduction units are trouble; hope mine isn't irreparable. Used the book-exchange. Sat in the park for a little while and chatted with a guy from the Dominican Republic. Back to the boat. Very grey and humid this afternoon; wind slowly wandering between W and S. Pumped and cleaned the bilge some more, and finally I can see the bottom of it in a few places. Got the drive-coupler bolts back in properly; apparently the two bolts are not quite identical, so each must go in a particular hole. Figured out what is holding that metal baffle on in the bilge, and it's a couple of screws that must have been put in before the engine and transmission were installed. I don't have the short Phillips-head screwdriver I need to get them out. The reduction gear portion is bigger/longer than I thought at first glance. Looks like removing the reduction gear first (suggested by a reader) would split the 155 or so pounds of weight into maybe 45 and 110. Probably worth doing. Reversing that on the way back in would be trickier: a gasket has to be installed between the two pieces. Around 3, the grey really closed in, and it started raining. Rained every 45 minutes or so for most of the afternoon and early evening. Wind mostly out of the W and SW, which is unusual. Salad and chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Still rolly at times, but got some decent sleep this night. 1/22/2009 (Thursday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. No cruise-ships in harbor. And it's not quite so rolly today. Loafed most of the morning, then got working. Removed the reduction-gear from the transmission and lifted it out (pic). As usual with such a job, there was a bit of a surprise. Had to slide the drive shaft back much further than I expected: instead of a splined shaft coming out from the transmission, there was a gear and shaft (pic). At first, I was afraid the reduction gear was going to come out in pieces, which would fall into the bilge. But it turns out there's an adapter plate bolted to the rear of the transmission, and that's what I was seeing. A worrying note for putting it back together: there's a small gasket inside the reduction gear that doesn't seem to be fixed in place; it's sliding around loose, around the hole that the shaft goes into. Lots of dark, burnt transmission fluid came out; I guess the fluid on the dipstick was lying to me. Pumped out the bilge a bit more. The reduction gear shafts spin freely; the gear and shaft coming out of the rear of the transmission won't rotate. Salad and salami-cheese-crackers for dinner. Dinghied ashore. Stopped to chat with Doug and Nancy, and borrowed a short Phillips-head screwdriver from them. Went ashore for a walk and to read my book. 1/23/2009 (Friday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. No cruise-ships at the main docks, but one came in and anchored right near me. Pic1, pic2. It's hard to tell from aboard, but it looks like we'll come very close if the wind swings them around. I guess they'll use engines to keep from swinging over me. Dinghied ashore, and caught a safari bus ($1) to Home Depot. Struck out there: their bottle-jack was a little taller than the one at Sea Chest (I want shorter), their hand-trucks were $110, they didn't have any marine caulk. Walked over to Cost-U-Less and bought some bulk groceries, and then had a surprise at checkout when I remembered that they don't provide plastic bags. Managed to get everything into/onto a box, walked out to the road, and caught a safari back to downtown ($2). From the hills, it looks like the cruise-ship won't quite hit my boat if they swing around. On the way out to the boat, was hailed by Mark and stopped to chat with him and another guy on an anchored sailboat ("Mary G II" or "Mary L II" or something; flowery script that's difficult to read). They offered to help me lift the transmission out, or to help move my boat to a better anchoring spot with dinghies. I may take them up on one or both. After lunch, headed ashore again. Looked around a little for some scrap wood, then off to the library. Did an hour of internet ($2). Looks like new engine mounts might cost about $100 apiece; will have to see what the price is here. Picked up a free book. Caught a safari bus ($1) and went to NAPA Auto. They had a slightly smaller bottle-jack than the other places, so I bought one ($33; pic). Scrounged a piece of scrap 2x4 nearby. Caught a safari bus back ($1). Worked on taking the two screws out of the metal baffle in the bilge. Very tight quarters under the bell housing and transmission and just above a fiberglass "bridge". Got the screws 2/3 of the way out, and picked up a lot of bruises on my forearms. Called it a day. A number of readers have suggested I lift the engine and transmission from above, instead of jacking them up from underneath. But there's no sturdy lifting point on the engine-compartment ceiling; it's just the fiberglass cockpit sole. And the engine has only one lifting ring on top, all the way at the forward end. That anchored cruise-ship left at 4, and it was a bit rolly for a couple of hours afterward; I guess the ship was sheltering me a bit. Spaghetti and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Sprayed a cockroach in the galley during the night.
1/24/2009 (Saturday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship at the main docks. Still no free Wi-Fi from the boat. Worked on the baffle in the bilge, finally got the two screws out, then found a third screw in a totally impossible position. Used a crowbar to pop the baffle and remaining screw out (pic). Pumped and cleaned the bilge some more; I'd like it to be fairly clean before I start building a wood-and-jack platform in there. Dinghied ashore, disposed of garbage, and walked into Havensight Mall. Tried to sit outside and do Wi-Fi for free, but none of the AC outlets worked. So went into the Offshore Bar and did a couple of hours of Wi-Fi for price of a Diet Coke ($2). A bit of a smoky, noisy experience, but not bad. Lots of people playing electronic Keno machines. First Wi-Fi signal I've seen with "$2Drinks" in the network name. Salad and a cheese sandwich for dinner. Saw a cockroach in the cockpit but he evaded me twice. 
1/25/2009 (Sunday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship at the main docks. Got ready to launch the dinghy, and noticed some pretty big strawberries floating along past the boat. Maybe they're a bit over-ripe, and the cruise-ship kitchen or someone on a boat ditched them. Dinghied ashore. Walked toward the supermarket, but found a dozen or so pieces of wood at the big road-construction site, so took them back to the dinghy. Met Jerry from "Carabella" and a marina worker named Bill, and chatted with them a bit. Then off to the supermarket again, and got groceries. Worked all afternoon on the transmission project. Pumped and cleaned the bilge, then started cutting and nailing pieces of wood to fit in the bilge. Eventually realized that I should crank the engine mount nuts so the rear of the engine is as high as possible, to reduce the amount of jacking needed. I have to be able to get the wood out after putting the fixed transmission back in, and it may have reduction gear on it when I put it back in. Maybe I should enlarge the clearance around the coupling by cutting out a bit of the engine compartment wall there. Finally got tired enough that I stopped thinking clearly, and quit for the day. Chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-coke for dinner. 1/26/2009 (Monday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Three cruise-ships at the main docks. Loafed most of the morning, then got to work. Cut and nailed more wood. I'm making a U-shaped stack of 2x4's, with the bottle-jack standing in the middle. I want to jack up the engine, with the U-shaped stack rising too, then slide another couple of 2x4's under the legs of the "U", ease the jack, and have the engine weight settle down onto the wood (no load on the jack). I made the stack "U-shaped" to minimize the chances of it buckling in one direction or another once the engine weight is on it and the jack is released. Don't want to leave the engine weight on just the jack, partly because it's a point-pressure, not very stable, but also because the jack's manual says it's not for long-term lifting. Put a metal plate under the place where the top of the jack will press, so the jack doesn't just pierce into the wood. Several very brief rain-showers, and some rolling as tourist boats are darting around today. But the bilge is not square, there's a fiberglass "bridge" in the way, and everything is deep under the engine and transmission. So my first U-stack was too big to get into place. Chopped it into two pieces and got everything in place. Put the jack in there and started jacking. The engine came up just fine, taking the weight off the rear engine mounts but still with any sideways motion restrained by the mount bolts, and I stopped jacking. But then I couldn't slide more 2x4's under the bottom of the "U": the lower half that I had to chop off had tilted in the space, and there was no way to un-tilt it. And it looks like I need a few more 2x4 pieces, to slide underneath and to wedge down the sides of the engine once it's completely above the engine mounts (I do have enough 2x4's aboard, but I'm resisting chopping up the few long ones I have). So I unscrewed the release on the jack (and the engine came back down pronto), and took the wood pieces out. Enough for today; I want to think about this a bit, and scrounge some more wood. Salad and a salami-and-cheese sandwich for dinner. Just after sunset, the harbor pilot boat for the cruise-ships came by, and told a megayacht and then me that we had to move. A cruise-ship is going to come in and anchor near here tomorrow morning at 8:30. I told the guy that my transmission was seized, and he immediately said "okay, we can call SeaTow" (and they'll charge me $1000). I told him I was getting the transmission fixed, and he said "good, the last thing we need is another derelict boat in here". All said in a friendly way, but I felt like slugging him. I suggested that the ship anchor outside the harbor, which I've seen them do, and he said "oh, we need to accomodate them as much as possible, they bring so much business to the island". And why couldn't the pilot boat have come by in daylight to tell me to move ? Anyway, I launched the dinghy and looked for help. Went to two big boats with powerful dinghies, but the people were all inside eating dinner or watching TV, and I didn't want to knock on hulls. Then to blue-hulled sailboat "Resolution", where Steve and Marty immediately agreed to help. They just got their own rebuilt transmission back from Hector (he rebuilt it in 2 days for $450, and it looks like a smaller version of mine, but an outdrive so it was easy to take out; it's sitting in their cockpit right now). So they came over in their dinghy. I wanted them to push my boat from the stern, maybe using both our dinghies, but they insisted a side-tie would be better, saying they've moved their boat a lot this way. So Steve tied his dinghy to my starboard aft quarter, moved the boat forward a little, and I started hauling in slippery, grass-slimy anchor chain from 35-foot deep water. It was a chore, but finally I got the anchor free from the bottom. Then we found that the side-tie didn't work; the boat turned to port irresistably. So I had to get into my dinghy and push from the stern, while Marty steered at the helm. Now I can't see where we're going, and I hope they know enough to keep us from running into anyone, and get me to a decent anchoring spot. Steve comes back to tell me to stop pushing in 10 seconds and come aboard and drop anchor. I do, get to the bow, and see that we could have gone much farther forward, into a more convenient area (but the next day I noticed a couple of tiny mooring balls in that area, so it's just as well we didn't go further, and maybe snag the anchor on a mooring). But I lower the anchor, and we're done. Probably moved 300 feet, which is enough to get me into a safer and more acceptable place. I thanked them, they left, and I hoisted the dinghy and tidied up the boat. Checked that the drive shaft hadn't shifted. 1/27/2009 (Tuesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Wind blowing fairly hard this morning. Three cruise-ships at the main docks, and then one more came in and anchored near me (pic). Fixed the wires on the anchor-light I dangle from the boom. These very thin wires keep breaking. Cut and sculpted and nailed wood, tried several times, and finally got the rear of the engine jacked up ! Released the jack and the engine settled onto the wood stack I've made under it. Slid and pounded a couple of boards down the sides to keep the engine straight; the rear seems to want to slide to port a bit. Now no weight is on the rear engine mounts and transmission; the mount flanges are an inch or so above the mounts (pic). Will leave it like this for a day or so, to make sure it is stable. If rolling or something makes the engine fall, it will land back onto the engine mounts. Just as I finished, Ed and Sue from "Angel Louise" stopped by to say hello; they've been reading my log from Des Moines for a few years, and then sending email as they made their way down to here from the Bahamas, Turks, etc. Dumped 4 gallons of diesel from jug to fuel tank. After lunch, launched the dinghy. Went over to "Angel Louise" and chatted with Ed and Sue for a while. Their boat is a 12-meter Catalac catamaran. They came down from the Chesapeake, through Bahamas and Turks and then skipping the Dominican Republic (smart). This is their 4th cruisable boat. Ed seems to have sailed the USVI's quite a bit but has never gone to the BVI's, which I find strange. Nice people. To "Presque Isle", returned the screwdriver I borrowed, and chatted with Doug for a little while. He gave me a couple of books. Ashore to the dinghy-dock by the fuel dock, passing the mega-megayacht "Rising Sun" which is docked there. Got rained on a little. To the Offshore Bar for Wi-Fi and a rum-and-coke ($2). The Wi-Fi didn't work so well for me this time. But at least they were playing some decent music, instead of the high-volume action movies they had last time. [Added a hit-counter to the bottom of the log file. Initialized it to 100K, since the HTML version of the page has 45K hits since it was created 26 months ago, and the TXT version before that was up for 53 months, and maybe readership has increased over time.] Back to the dinghy, got $5 of gasoline at the fuel dock, and back to the boat. Watched the cruise ship behind me raising anchors (pic). Took them quite a while, with lots of water pouring out over the chains to clean them, and lots of clanking and pounding inside the chain lockers. I wonder if that anchor weighs more than my whole boat (about 24K pounds) ? Squashed a cockroach in the cockpit.
Chili for dinner. Feeling headachey; having a rum-and-coke in the middle of the afternoon in a smoky bar wasn't a good idea. 1/28/2009 (Wednesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship at the main docks. Fairly squally and rolly this morning. Engine seems to be staying in place, mostly; a slight twist to port. But it's rolly enough today that I'm not sure I want to try to take the transmission off today. Got rolled heavily at 11:45 or so, and the engine stayed in place. Loosened and tightened all 6 of the bolts/nuts holding the transmission to the flywheel bell housing. And finally found the transmission drain plug; it's in a totally inaccessible spot, between engine mount flange and fiberglass "bridge" when the engine is in place. Maybe I can plumb a hose to it, so I can change the fluid properly in the future. Took out one of the boards bracing the side of the engine and put in smaller boards, to give more room to get the transmission out. Another cruise-ship came in at 12:30; unusual. Loafed for a while. Boat still rolly at times. Big squall at 2 PM. Finally kicked myself into action, tied a 2x4 across the top of the transmission (pic), and started removing bolts. Got four out, but the last two are trapped by the engine-mount flanges, which I don't want to remove because they make such great handles. Loosened those bolts as much as I could, but the transmission remains firmly stuck to the bell housing. Doug told me this happened to him, too. Banged on the transmission housing a bit, but it didn't budge. Doused the joint with WD-40 and quit for the day. Finally got smart and started sorting the various bolts and nuts into pouches and labeling them, but already I have two big bolts that I can't identify. Salad and tuna-salad-sandwich for dinner. A bit headachey again tonight. Killed a cockroach in the galley during the night.
Fairly rolly at times during the evening and night. 1/29/2009 (Thursday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. No cruise-ships at the main docks. Fairly rolly today. Opened a $5 bag of granola and found it full of bugs (not cockroaches); emptied it overboard. "Resolution" left at 9, so I guess their rebuilt transmission works. I was surprised to see them head straight out; when I get my rebuilt transmission back in, I'm going to motor around inside the harbor for quite a while to test it out. Got some Wi-Fi from the boat, but it was pretty patchy. Squashed a cockroach in the cockpit.
Pounded on and pried at the transmission a bit, but it didn't budge. It's held onto the bell housing by two bolts and four studs; I have the two bolts out, the nuts off two of the studs, and the nuts on the other two studs are out far enough that they're helping press the transmission off. But still no movement; I think the entire joint is frozen together, having been together for 36 years. Doused the joint with some more WD-40, but I'm not sure how I'm going to get it apart. I guess pounding a screwdriver tip into the joint in many different places is the best way. I've banged sideways on the far end of the transmission case with a sledgehammer, but I'm reluctant to pound too hard. Too much massive metal to make heating work. Launched the dinghy and headed ashore, needing to get off the boat for a while. Hoped to consult with Doug about how he got his transmission off, but he wasn't on his boat. Disposed of garbage. Walked to a Wi-Fi cafe I've never tried, a very upscale one in the marina, but it had only two AC outlets in the whole place and both were fully occupied. Didn't feel like going to the smoky Offshore Bar. Back to the dinghy dock. Briefly chatted with Jerry and Shary from "Carabella" as we both motored out. Rain at 2. Did a little more Wi-Fi from the boat, but it was barely usable. Noticed two sloops anchored next to each other: a 25-footer that probably cost $15K and a 70-footer that probably cost $700K. Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Sprayed at a cockroach in the galley during the night, but it got away.
Fair amount of rain several times during the night. 1/30/2009 (Friday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. No cruise-ships at the main docks, but one came in at 7:15 and anchored. No free Wi-Fi this morning. After lunch, went at the transmission, pounding a screwdriver down into the joint between transmission and flywheel bell housing, and I started to get some movement ! Slowly forced the joint open (pic), the last couple of nuts came off, and then I was able to slide the transmission off the studs and lift it out. It's pretty heavy, but not fall-through-the-Earth's-crust heavy, and the engine mount flanges make good handles, as I expected. Pic1, pic2, pic3. Looked inside the flywheel bell housing a little, and can't see much, but it looks okay (could use some oil, maybe). Ditto for the front end of the transmission. But the engine mounts are a different story: the port-aft mount looks like it's tilted aft; it isn't pointing straight up, and certainly doesn't parallel the starboard-aft mount (you might be able to see this in the last picture above). I may have to do some fiberglass work to fix this. Strange: I can rotate the input and output shafts of the transmission: it's not seized any more ! For a moment, I wonder if maybe I didn't need to pull it out; maybe there was a linkage problem instead ? But I don't think a linkage problem should ever make the engine stop dead, or prevent the prop shaft from freewheeling. And I definitely have seriously burnt fluid. Need a rebuild. Dinghied ashore and to Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi. Did a couple of hours, for price of a Diet Coke ($2). Got info on increased fees for French side of St Martin: will cost me about $7/day to stay there, so I think I'll skip that island. Skype-called Mom but got her answering machine. Back to the boat after dark, and had fun raising the dinghy while the boat rolled. Pretty rolly evening and night, maybe because there was very little wind. Salad for dinner. 1/31/2009 (Saturday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship at the main docks. Wind light and wandering between S and SW this morning. Cleaned up the bilge and rear of engine and transmission a bit. I had thought of maybe cutting a bit of wood away to make more clearance around the gear-to-shaft coupler, but on closer inspection the "wood" is a 2-inch thick fiberglass-covered bulkhead that is structural; won't be cutting away any of that. Carried the transmission out of the hallway into the aft cabin; messy and awkward to carry in confined moving spaces, but I can carry it a little. Unbolted the port-aft engine mount from the stringer, and it turns out to have been bolted in, not screwed in with lag bolts; there must be a nut glassed-in inside the stringer. Pried the mount off the top of the fiberglass, and holes don't look quite straight. Fair amount of oil has seeped in down there. So I don't think I'm going to try to re-mount this mount so that it's parallel to the starboard-aft mount; let sleeping dogs lie. I assume I really should replace all the engine mounts; they're 36 years old and oil has soaked into the two aft mounts. Maybe I'll show them to some friends and see what they think. How can you tell if an engine mount needs to be replaced ? Not a trivial decision; the size I need probably costs $100+ each here. Worked at rigging some rope and blocks to lift the transmission up through the hatch in the aft cabin. Need another block to do it better; I don't have enough blocks that accept thick line. Tried setting the transmission onto my grocery-hauling cart, and the cart didn't break under the weight. Might try borrowing a hand-cart from the transmission shop anyway. Dinghied ashore in the heat of midafternoon. Stopped by "Wandering Albatross" to chat with Chris and Mary Liz, and borrowed an additional snatch-block from them. To the supermarket and got groceries; I needed to get off the boat and stretch my legs. But it's a hot, fairly still afternoon, and I was beat by the time I got back to the boat, stowed the groceries, and hoisted and lashed the dinghy. A shower revived me a bit, but it was hot in the pilothouse and I retreated below for dinner. Chicken-onion-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Wind changing to E in the evening. Saw and sprayed at a cockroach in the galley during the night, but he was unbelievably quick, and got away.
2/1/2009 (Sunday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship at the main docks. Wind blowing hard from E or ESE today. Did a bucket of laundry. Added snatch block to transmission lifting setup, and I think it's ready to try tomorrow, with a friend helping. Getting it up to deck won't be too bad; getting it down into the dinghy, and then from dinghy to dock, will be interesting. Painted the engine compartment and bilge a bit; I like it as bright-white as I can get it, instead of the original battleship-grey. Need to clean some areas and do some more painting. Before, after. Should paint the bell housing and block too, with engine paint. Looked through my Nigel Calder book to see what he had to say about transmission problems and engine mounts. Not much about my particular transmission behavior, and almost nothing about engine mounts. The "shaft turning a bit in neutral" problem I had is a symptom of worn clutch plates, apparently. As I read his engine alignment section, it occurs to me that I didn't even check the alignment after replacing the cutless bearing a few years ago, even though that involved taking the shaft out of the coupling. Made a list for the transmission-rebuild guy, including: add a fluid-temperature sensor to the transmission, and plumb a fluid-drain hose to the bottom of the case. Figured out where the two mystery bolts came from: bottom of the transmission-to-reduction-gear joint. Salad and salami-cheese-crackers and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Thought of going ashore to a bar to join Doug and Nancy and Chris and Mary Liz watching the Super Bowl, but I didn't feel like it. Wanted to listen to it on radio, and AM 1000 has been talking Super Bowl all day, but at game time they suddenly switched to a baseball preseason talk-show, of all things; no Super Bowl broadcast. 2/2/2009 (Monday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship at the main docks. A little after 9, launched the dinghy, pumped up a bow tube a little, and went over to "Wandering Albatross" to ask Chris to help me with the transmission. Brought him back to my boat, gave him the 1-minute tour, then we hoisted the transmission up through the aft hatch and onto deck. Waited a minute for a wake to pass, then lifted it down onto the stern deck, then down into the dinghy. I brought the reduction gear (lighter than I remembered) up from the cabin, onto deck, and down into the dinghy. Loaded the old engine mount, the grocery cart, and a board into the dinghy too. Closed up the boat and we headed ashore. That went well ! To the dinghy-dock nearest the cruise-ship docks. Crowded, but we got in. Hoisted my grocery-cart and the reduction gear onto the dock, spilling only a couple of drops of fluid. Trundled the gear off to the repair shop. Left gear and cart there, borrowed a serious hand-truck from them, and back to the dinghy dock. Hoisted the transmission out of the dinghy and onto the dock, using a length of 2x6 to slide it a bit, and onto the hand-truck. Trundled it off to the repair shop, and I was pretty winded by the time we got it up that small hill. Into the shop, and talked to the man (Hector). I had brought the old engine mount, and got two new ones from him ($75 each). Cash or check only, no credit, but he gave me the mounts without payment today, since I'm leaving the transmission. Pic. Then we talked about the transmission. I told him about the "shaft turning slowly even in neutral", which Nigel Calder explains as worn clutch plates, but Hector said "ahh, they all do that". That wasn't my experience; my transmission started doing that only a few months ago. I explained about the transmission seizure stalling the engine, and he insists I use a wrench to turn the engine crankshaft and make sure the engine is not seized. No way that could be true; the engine ran fine with transmission in neutral, but he dismissed that. I don't think I'm going to bother; spinning the crankshaft is a huge ordeal on my 6-cylinder diesel engine, including loosening all of the fuel injectors out of their seats. I explained about the good fluid on the dipstick but the burnt fluid inside, and how the drain-plug is inaccessible. He asked when the transmission was last serviced, and when I said maybe never (36 years), he was amazed, and said they're supposed to be serviced every 4 years (not likely). I asked him about installing a temperature or pressure sensor, and he says they're both a waste of money. His shop used to sell them, and stopped doing it. By the time you see that something is wrong, it's too late. Not sure I agree about a temperature sensor, but I decided to skip it. I told him after removing the transmission I could spin the shafts by hand, and now he's starting to disbelieve that it's seized. Then I tried to explain how I wanted a drain hose fitted, and he didn't understand, so we went back out to look at the transmission. He spun the shafts by hand, and immediately said "it's seized". And I showed him where the drain hose should go. A few details: I wanted the stuff painted white, but they do only blue or red, so I said no paint (I'll do white myself later). They give me all of the replaced parts (I'm curious). They'll return the two pieces separate, after testing them together. As Doug said, Hector also cautioned me to run diesel through the oil-cooler to make sure there are no metal particles in the fluid lines. So Chris and I left, back to the dinghy, and I took Chris back to his boat. Back to my boat by 11, sweaty but happy that I got that step accomplished. Chris and Mary Liz may leave the harbor for a day or two (to go to Benner Bay, mainly to get into a cheap slip and charge their batteries thoroughly ! They have an electric motor instead of an engine.). But I can hold onto his snatch-block, and he'll help me again when I get the transmission back. I was pleased at how well everything went. Of course, I planned it all out, and did everything I could in advance. Didn't waste any of Chris's time, and I did most of the work, just needing his help in a few critical places. After lunch, cleaned up some more places to paint, and took out the starboard-aft engine mount. Dinghied ashore and to Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi ($2 for a Diet Coke). "Angel Louise" sent email a couple of days ago inviting me for dinner yesterday, but I didn't get it until just now. Chili for dinner. Did some more painting in the transmission/bilge area. Around 2 AM, started getting fairly rolly. 2/3/2009 (Tuesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Fairly rolly and wakey morning; uncomfortable, and I'm glad we moved the transmission yesterday. Grey until 9 AM. Two cruise-ships at the main docks, and a third came in at 11:30. Something strange going on with the battery monitor: one bank is showing exactly zero current going in or out, which is unlikely. Will have to investigate. Did some computing for a while, then got around to looking at the battery monitor thing. At first I thought it was just a monitoring wire come loose or broken, but then I suddenly saw that it was far worse. One of the cables has sheared right off a battery terminal, taking the terminal remnant with it (pic). This is a failure of the hack I did last year that I was so proud of: I bought a bunch of golf-cart batteries with damaged terminals for $10 apiece, and used heli-coils to screw bolts into the terminal remnants. Looks like electrolysis has made a bolt disintegrate; not surprising with a steel coil and bolt into a lead terminal, maybe. Wasn't quite clear why losing one cable would give the battery monitor symptoms; there is another pair of batteries paralleled to the broken pair. Then I looked further, and found another sheared-off terminal on that pair ! (pic) So one pair has been out of the loop for a while, and then I noticed when the second pair broke free last night or whenever. Now I'm down to 4 golf-cart batteries, instead of my usual 8. Tried to use jumper-cables to grab onto the terminal remnant on the second pair, to make a temporary patch, and the remnant sheared off completely (pic). Crap ! So shuffled the batteries around to make one good pair out of the two bad pairs, and that newly-added pair started charging from the solar panels. Then started drilling into the sheared-off terminal remnants on the two bad batteries, to see if I can repair these batteries, or will have to buy new ones. An ugly job, drilling into corroded lead-helicoil-bolt remnants while the boat is rolling and lurching unpredictably. But eventually I got the holes drilled out and got new bolts to grip semi-reasonably in the holes. Put the batteries in and cabled them up, and they started charging. Not a very pretty solution, and I'll have to keep an eye on it, but good enough for now. Hope I don't have to buy a bunch of new batteries at $120 or whatever each. Breathing exhaust fumes from the cruise-ships all day. Saw a trawler smoking oddly in the harbor; wondered if it was on fire (pic). But the the smoke eased, and it motored away. Decided to get the heck off this rolly, decaying boat for a while ! Launched the dinghy and headed ashore. Stopped to chat with Ed and Sue on "Angel Louise", and they invited me over for tomorrow evening. They're real cruisers now: Ed is talking about raising anchor and moving closer to the marina so he can get a stronger Wi-Fi signal from there. Went ashore, and had a pretty good hunt to find a photocopier; this place is all tourist-shops. Copied my will and health care documents. Then to the library to exchange half a dozen books in their book-exchange racks. Got $500 from ATM for partial payment for the transmission job. Back to the boat. Still rolly out here. Sprayed a cockroach in the galley, and he got away, but I sprayed him pretty well.
Tested and cleaned the three paths through the oil cooler: seawater, oil, and transmission fluid. A messy job (pic). Other than a little grass in one end of the seawater part, not problems. No metal particles, no clogs. Salad and cheese-and-crackers for dinner. Rolly, uncomfortable night. 2/4/2009 (Wednesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Very rolly and grey morning; uncomfortable. Three cruise-ships at the main docks. Painted the rear end of the engine with white engine-paint. Painted part of the bilge in the aft cabin. Dinghied ashore and to Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi. Looked up the new engine mounts to make sure they were the right size (weight rating). Someone suggested I buy a handheld IR thermometer instead of having a temperature sensor and gauge for the transmission; I think I'll do that. To the post office, and mailed my legal documents to my brother. To the transmission shop, and my transmission is done ! They found one of the reverse clutch plates completely snapped in two, and the big fluid-pump at the front of the transmission caused the seizure somehow (they can't quite see what was wrong with it, but if they leave the old one in, it's seized, and putting a new one in fixes it). The bill for the rebuild is about $1040 (more than I hoped, but not too bad; $550 for labor, $305 for the fluid-pump part alone, the rest for various parts). Add the two engine mounts at $75 each, and the total is $1187. I gave them $500 cash as the first part of the payment. Got $700 from an ATM for remainder of payment for the transmission job. Back to the boat, stopping to chat briefly with Chris on "Wandering Albatross". They left the harbor this morning to sail to Benner Bay, but then the wind died and they spent an hour and half stalled just outside the harbor entrance, and gave up and came back. They're going to try again tomorrow, which means I'll have to find someone else to help with the transmission (if conditions are calm enough to do it at all). Showered and then went over to "Angel Louise" at 4. Nice conversation with Ed and Sue over drinks and dinner. Their boat came with an amazing amount of electronic gear installed; I think they have two chartplotters plus another navigation system on a laptop. They've cruised the NY and CT area, which I never have, and the pictures were interesting. Then we've cruised a lot of the same southern areas, but they went through a lot faster than I did. Lots of talk about the cruising life, some talk about current events, lots of fun. Got back to my boat at 9, stopping along the way to say hi to Doug and Nancy. Sprayed a cockroach in the galley, but the spray blasted him out of sight.
Headachey during the night, but the rolling seems to be abating a bit. 2/5/2009 (Thursday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Headachey. Not so rolly this morning. Two cruise-ships at the main docks. Loafed a bit, and by 10 it was windier and getting rolly again. Added oil to the outboard, put the cart into the dinghy, and headed ashore. To the repair shop, through the crowds of cruise-ship passengers in the Havensight Mall. At the shop, paid the balance of my bill ($687), bought two quarts of transmission fluid ($9), and picked up the reduction gear and the replaced parts. To the ATM for yet more cash, back to the dinghy dock and back to the boat. Transmission parts: $305 pump and clutch plates, gaskets, springs, etc. Invoice says they replaced 3 reverse clutch plates; guess the forward ones were okay. And there's a 60-day warranty. It occurs to me that the shop must not have put together transmission and reduction gear, filled them with fluid, and tested them using a motor or something. The reduction gear is totally clean and dry, no fluid on it, and you need to attach it to put fluid in the transmission. Wonder if the shop normally tests with fluid in, or not ? Not too happy if they're giving me an untested rebuild. Added a little more oil to the outboard (it's hard to read the little dipstick, and any motion to the dinghy makes accuracy worse). Dinghied ashore after lunch. Disposed of garbage, then was crossing the street when someone started screaming "Bill, Bill !" from behind me. I figured it was some friend of mine, but I was in the middle of a busy street, and traffic in front of me was running the light even though I had the "Walk" signal. So I kept going, then turned around when I got to the sidewalk. It was Mario, driving an unfamiliar pickup truck, not his classic CJB, with a couple other people with him. He motioned that he'd turn around and come back. So I waited. Doug and Nancy came by and stopped and we chatted a little. No sign of Mario, and we figured he'd have to go a mile or so through heavy traffic before he could find anywhere to turn. Eventually I gave up on him and caught a safari bus. The bus looked more like a cruise-ship safari bus, not one for riff-raff like me, and I think the driver was surprised when I signalled for the stop at SeaChest hardware store. But I got off and paid and walked away. Bought engine paint ($6), then to NAPA auto. Transmission fluid there was more expensive than at the transmission repair shop ! Didn't buy anything at NAPA, and caught a safari back to town ($1). Traffic was all snarled up, and police were yelling at everyone to move. Back to the boat. Painted more of the bilge, as far down as I could reach with a roller. The very bottom is too messy to paint. Bolted the new aft engine mounts into place. Pic. Mark from "Mystic" stopped by briefly to see how I was doing with the transmission job. He told me about our friend Tom, who I last saw in Salinas. Recently, he tried to sail from Grenada to Carriacou with a friend, and ran into a sudden huge squall that caused a disaster. The davits broke, the dinghy filled with water and threatened to tear a cleat out of the deck, so he cut it loose and it disappeared, with the outboard. Sails flogging wildly, a halyard broke, engine stopped because maybe something got into the prop. A real mess. Eventually they limped back to Grenada, I think. Chili and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Nice, quiet night; hardly any rolling. Wind from E and even a little ENE. 2/6/2009 (Friday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Great start to the morning: rolled onto my eyeglasses and one of the corroded hinges snapped. Went to epoxy it as a temporary patch, and a brand-new tube of epoxy is dried and hardened; had to throw it away. JB-Welded the eyeglasses and got out a backup pair that is usable. Grey morning, not very rolly. Pretty good rain at 8, and more at 8:45. No cruise-ships. Sprayed a cockroach in the galley, but the spray blasted him out of sight.
Launched the dinghy and went over to "Angel Louise", and Ed agreed to help me with the transmission. Headed ashore, taking pictures of a few megayachts as I went (pic1, pic2, pic3; if you look carefully, you can see a couple of peons washing the fiberglass in the 1st and 3rd pics). To the repair shop. Left a $150 deposit for the hand-truck, got the hand-truck and the guys loaded the transmission onto it for me. The guy confirmed that they test their transmissions by hand without fluid after rebuilding them, so mine is no different. I'd have more confidence if they did some kind of motor-testing with fluid in. Trucked the transmission to the dinghy-dock. Ed met me there and we loaded the transmission into the dinghy. Then back to the shop, returned the hand-truck, and got my deposit back. We walked up the hill a little further to see the view. Then back through the mall to the dinghy dock. Out to the boat (Ed zipped out on plane, I did my usual plodding pace, and he had to wait for me). Nice, calm water, so we had no problem lifting the transmission up out of the dinghy and then down into the aft cabin. Gave Ed the nickel tour of the boat, chatted a little, and then he left. All done by 11 or so. Pic. Turned the aft cabin into a paint-shed, and spray-painted the gear and transmission a couple of times. Dinghied ashore after lunch. Couple at the dock asked me a couple of engine questions, thinking I'm an expert since the guy saw me with the transmission on the dock this morning. They just came up from Venezuela, and 150 miles out, oil pressure on the engine dropped to near-zero. They shut it down and sailed in, using the engine only for the last couple of miles. Added 2 quarts of oil, and suddenly oil-level is over full on the engine. They're a bit mystified, and I wasn't much help. To Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi (for $2 for a drink). Back to the dinghy, and to the fuel dock. Bought 10 gallons of water ($2). Salad and salami-cheese-crackers and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Spray-painted the gear and transmission some more. 2/7/2009 (Saturday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship at the main docks. Second ship came in at 12:30. The JB-Weld patch on my good pair of eyeglasses lasted for about 60 seconds. Spray-painted the gear and transmission some more. Getting a lot of wakes and some rolly swells by 10 or so. Dinghied ashore. Found an optician; new eyeglass frames would be $100, but then he said he could replace the broken hinge for $20, so I went for that. Will have to go back Monday to pick them up. Later thought that I should have told him to replace both hinges. To KMart, and could not find a single thing on my list (epoxy, penetrating oil, sandals, a couple other things). Left without buying anything. Back to the boat. Spray-painted the gear and transmission some more (pic). Later, spray-painted the oil cooler brackets. "Wandering Albatross" sailed back in at 2:30, and threaded their way up through the anchorage and sailed onto anchor. It's a Westsail 32 and sails fairly well; I couldn't do that with my boat. Went to use that $2 12V extension cable I bought from Hong Kong, and found it has an LED that runs continuously while power is applied; I didn't want that. Noticed that the package was declared to Customs as a "gift". I've been noticing that a fairly big trawler "Alexa C2" anchored nearby has had their main RADAR antenna rotating continuously for 3 days now. I guess they have so much power to spare that they don't notice that they left it on. Chicken-onion-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Loud music from shore until 3 AM or so. If I'm feeling the bass way out here, the boats close in must be getting pounded. Lots of wind and rain at 4:15. 2/8/2009 (Sunday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship at the main docks. Had to throw away two more $5 bags of granola; they were completely full of bugs. Apparently very small chafed holes in the plastic packaging led to rot. Not sure if the holes were there when I bought them, or the boat motion created the holes. If your boat is too small to exercise on, exercise in your dinghy: pic. More transmission work: cleaned up the read of the engine, put anti-seize in a few places, moved the transmission into the engine compartment, lashed a 2x4 across the top of it, and (with a bit of a struggle) slid the transmission across to dangle behind the engine. Tried several times to get it to slide forward onto the studs/bolts sticking out of the rear of the engine, but failed. Then did a very stupid thing: straddled the engine, bent far over, and lifted the entire weight of the transmission to try to get it in place. Almost immediately, heard a "pop" and felt a lot of pain in my lower back ! Stupid, stupid, stupid ! Staggered out of the engine compartment in a lot of pain and laid down on my back on the aft cabin sole. Crap ! For the next 5 or 10 minutes or so, couldn't stand up for more than 10 seconds at a time without starting to get faint. Pale and feeling sweaty and clammy; shock. Laid down as much as I could, tried working my legs and back a little to try to ease the pain. Transmission is dangling in a fairly vulnerable position if a big wake or swell rolls the boat, so in little steps I worked to wedge wood around it, and tie a line to keep it from swinging too much. After a while, stopped feeling faint when I stand up. And the pain slowly eased over the next hour or so. But I still have back pain, and obviously I'm not doing anything more for today at least. Might have to get my friends to help finish the transmission job over the next week or so. I feel stupid, stupid, stupid ! Grey clouds and rain at noon. Finally wised up and took an ibuprofen; maybe that will help my back. Weather stayed grey and rainy all afternoon. Hard rain at 2:45 and 3:45. Then rolly afterward. Just what I need for a sore back. Felt well enough to shift some water around. Dumped 5 gallons from jug to water tank, then 4 gallons from buckets into jug. Salad and cheese sandwich for dinner. Rained off and on all night. 2/9/2009 (Monday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Back doesn't feel too bad; lots of achey muscles, but no pain right in the spine, no stabbing pain, not bad at all. I may have avoided serious damage. Totally grey, rainy morning; solidly socked in. Two cruise-ships at the main docks. Shifted more water: 4 gallons from jug to tank, 2 gallons from buckets to tank, 2 gallons from buckets to jug. Rain at 10. Started getting a little solar power around 10:30. Trawler "Alexa C2" starting to raise anchor, with their main RADAR antenna still rotating. Launched dinghy and went ashore. Have to be careful to avoid aggravating my back problem. To Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi (for $2 for a drink). Did a little Wi-Fi, then left the laptop in the bar and walked up the street to get my repaired eyeglasses ($20). Back to the bar and more Wi-Fi. Found that $305 fluid-pump part for my transmission on the internet for $140. Bummer. Did a long internet session, then out into a nice sunny afternoon. I had worried that my batteries would get low in all the grey weather. Back to the boat. Spaghetti and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Squashed two cockroaches in the aft head.
2/10/2009 (Tuesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Back feels tired and a little weak, but better. Three cruise-ships at the main docks. Worked on the transmission a bit, trying to be very careful not to hurt my back again. Shifted it back and forth and up and down, trying to get it algned with the studs to slide it onto the back of the engine. But too many things moving relative to each other. Took engine mounts off to get them out of the way, but I shouldn't have had to do that. Eventually figured out that the ropes suspending the transmission under the long 2x4 I'm using are tied wrong: they're slowly slipping out further and letting the transmission hang lower and lower. And my back is getting tired. So stopped and went to rest. A little later, tied new ropes to hold transmission to 2x4, but now I need to do some lifting to snug the new ropes up and then untie the old ropes, and my back is tired. Maybe I'll do it this afternoon. Around 10:30, launched the dinghy and headed ashore. Returned the snatch block to Chris on "Wandering Albatross". To the supermarket and bought groceries. Hope the walking is doing some good for my back. Got sprinkled with a little rain going each way. On the boat, my back felt pretty sore and tired; took an ibuprofen. Starting around 1, the weather blew up. Strong wind, lots of grey, lots of rain from 1 to 2:15. The wind kept going, and the rain came through every hour or so, for the rest of the day. Rolly at times. Ugly. Wind very strong at times. Salad and apple and PBJ sandwiches for dinner. The weather kept going all evening and night; lots of strong wind, and occasional rain. Kept checking to make sure my anchor is holding; I'm pretty vulnerable with no engine. If something goes wrong, my only lever is to put out my second anchor. Killed three cockroaches in the galley during the night.
2/11/2009 (Wednesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Back feels sorer and more tired than I expected; guess I won't try any transmission work today. More ibuprofen. Still very windy, and occasionally rolly, but at least it's mostly sunny today. Two cruise-ships at the main docks, and a third came in at 11:30. Dinghied ashore before noon, into teeth of howling wind, and to Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi. Chicken-onion-cabbage-rice and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Put out a little tub of sugar and boric acid for the cockroaches. Wind dying down to normal levels. 2/12/2009 (Thursday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Ship "Kennedy" came in to main docks at 7:30; can't tell what kind it is. Not a freighter or tanker, but it has cranes on the foredeck. Several big lifeboats, and a couple of launches. Maybe a research ship ? [Later found out: it's a training ship for the Massachusetts Maritime Academy; converted Navy freighter.] No cruise-ships at the dock today. Back feels good, but maybe the pills I took around midnight haven't worn off. Made one last try at doing the transmission myself, and decided it was stupid: I need another set of hands. Around 11:30, launched the dinghy and headed ashore. Looks like no one home at "Wandering Albatross" and "Presque Isle" (no dinghies), so I headed the other way, to town. Disposed of garbage, and to the library to exchange books. Sat in the main park and read a book for a while. Back to the boat. I see a dinghy at "Wandering Albatross". But I give the transmission one more try, and finally I get it right and slide it onto the studs sticking out of the rear of the engine. A real struggle to get a couple of the nuts on, the ones hard against the mount flanges. But eventually it's on. I bolt the port engine mount to the fiberglass, but there's not enough clearance under the flange to get the starboard one on. Will have to jack up the engine to slide it under. Enough for today. Pic. Salad and cheese sandwich for dinner. Killed a cockroach in the galley during the night.
2/13/2009 (Friday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Training ship "Kennedy" and no cruise-ships at the main docks today. Into the engine compartment. I check the transmission-to-engine bolts one more time. Then jack up the engine and slide the starboard engine mount under the flange, and bolt it down loosely. Some finagling to get the mount studs to line up with the flange holes, then I pull out a couple of boards and release the jack, and the engine settles down onto the new mounts ! I pull out the jack and wood, which takes a while. Pic. Looks good ! Pic. I start to think about painting the bilge under the rear of the engine. Then I see a problem: the fittings on the new drain-line stick out too far, and when I lower the engine on the mounts to line up with the shaft, the fittings will gouge into the fiberglass; there's not enough clearance. Pic. No way I could have predicted this exactly; the fiberglass curves. But I should have measured before I took out the transmission in the first place, and paid more attention to what kind of fittings they were putting on there. The fitting is about 1/4" from the fiberglass now, the flange has to come down 1.5" to 2", and the fiberglass is closing at about a 60-degree angle. Not going to work. I measure a couple of times, consult the engine-mount-height measurements I made before jacking up the engine originally, think about cutting a notch into the fiberglass, measure again, and finally realize it's hopeless. If everything scrapes by, I'd still end up with the fitting hard against the fiberglass, and the engine vibration would eventually break it off. I have to cut the extra threads off those new fittings, or maybe even get different fittings. The transmission has to come back out. Crap ! At least I won't have to haul it back ashore, but I do have to get it back out onto the cabin sole so I can remove those fittings and take them to the shop. So I start putting the wood and jack back under the engine. I work for a while, can't get it quite right, and finally give up for the morning. I'm tired and sweaty and frustrated, and my back is tired. Enough. After lunch, dinghied ashore and to Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi ($2 for a Diet Coke). Snuck out halfway through to go to optician and supermarket. I've been looking at internet eyeglass places, and they're dirt cheap, but if I want an eye exam and new prescription here, that will cost me $80. (Maybe I should start practicing with the eye chart.). Chili and a rum-and-coke for dinner. 2/14/2009 (Saturday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Training ship "Kennedy" and one cruise-ship at the main docks today. I notice that trawler "Alexa C2" is anchored nearby again, and this time has both RADAR antennae rotating continuously, at anchor, day and night. Got the wood under the engine and transmission sorted out. Jacked up the rear of the engine, unbolted the engine mounts and slid them out, then eased the engine down onto the wood. Shoved a couple of 2x4's down the sides to keep the engine in place when the boat rolls. Unbolted the transmission, slid it off the studs, and wrestled it sideways onto the compartment sole. A struggle to unscrew the drain-fitting out of the transmission body; they really put it in there solidly. Finally got it loose, and it came flying off, with a big spring coming out with a "sproing!" behind it. The spring went flying off into the bilge somewhere, and I couldn't find it even after a long search of both ends of the bilge. Took measurements, and cutting threads off the drain-fitting will make it 5/8" shorter. Would like to get more; maybe we can do some trickery to gain a little more. The whole thing is 2-1/4" long overall. Pic1, pic2. Tired and back aching by the time I got done. Back kept aching the rest of the day and evening; took more pills. Apple and salad and tuna-salad-sandwich for dinner. Killed a cockroach in the cockpit.
2/15/2009 (Sunday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Back still aching a fair amount this morning. Tried stretching, but I guess it's just going to be slow to heal. And repeated transmission work is going to keep stressing it. Training ship "Kennedy" and one cruise-ship at the main docks today. I notice another trawler at anchor with RADAR bar still rotating, as well as both still running on "Alexa C2". But other trawlers don't, and the big ships at the dock and in the marina don't have theirs running. Must just be carelessness. After lunch, dinghied ashore and to Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi ($2 for a Diet Coke). Brought my external disk with me, to do a backup. Had to wait half an hour for the bar to open, for some reason. Then 15 minutes after I started, a handyman guy pulled the breaker and turned off all the outlets upstairs; turns out he needed to rewire all the outlets. He knew I was plugged into those outlets; no warning, no explanation, no apology. Had to move downstairs, where I was treated to professional bowling on the big-screen ! Yuck. A friend of mine (John Viera on Pearson 323 "Tyche") is in Oriental NC with a busted engine; he needs to repower with a good used diesel engine. Any readers who live in that area and might be able to scout for an engine for him ? Please email me and I'll point you to him. Thanks ! Chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-coke for dinner. 2/16/2009 (Monday; President's Day) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Wind light and circling, then from the W for a while, then from the S. Training ship "Kennedy" and one cruise-ship at the main docks today. Then the "Kennedy" left. Started the day with a battery problem. The monitor is showing voltage of 12.10, which is far too low for a morning after all the sun we had yesterday. Voltage usually is 12.35 or 12.40 at this point. Some investigation shows that one pair of batteries is at 11 volts and falling, and one battery in that pair has very low water and a bit of a bulging case. I guess a cell has shorted and the battery is draining all of the others. So I drop that pair out of the system. Lovely. Took another good look in the bilge for that escaped spring, and still can't find it. Around 10, dinghied ashore. Stopped to chat briefly with Chris and Mary Liz as they were heading ashore. Then stopped for a long chat with Ed. Finally got ashore. Walked through the marina and the cruise-ship mall, to the transmission/engine shop. Thought they would be closed today, but they were partly open for the morning. Showed the fitting to Hector and told him that it had to be shorter. He said "cut the fiberglass", but I don't think that's a good idea. He looked for a better fitting among their stock, couldn't find one, and suggested I try the hardware store. If I can't get better there, bring this one back and he'll start cutting it. He says the spring that escaped doesn't matter; it really wasn't doing anything. So back to the dinghy dock, and back out to stop by Ed's boat. He had said he needed to go to the hardware store, and now I do too. I figured we'd go tomorrow, but he called the store and found they were open until 1 today. So we dinghied over to town, caught a safari bus ($1), and went to the store. Lots of fittings in the hardware store, but nothing that improved my situation. Bought epoxy and JB-Weld and some boric-acid cockroach lures/poison ($17). A block over to NAPA Auto, and I was surprised to find them open too. But they didn't have a better fitting for me either. Caught a safari bus back to town ($1). To a tourist liquor store, and we bought some rum. By using specials and combining our order to get a 15% discount for buying 4 bottles, I ended up with two liters of Calypso Island flavored rum for $11 (total). Back to the boat by 1:15 or so. Hmmm, another pair of the batteries don't seem to be charging properly; I think repaired terminals may have worked loose. Sure enough, I find one loose. Not sure how to fix it. The bolt is eaten away a bit. The terminal hole is wide enough to require a thicker bolt, but the cable-connector hole won't allow a thicker bolt. Worked on it a bit, couldn't get a new heli-coil into the hole, stuffed some steel wire down into it, and eventually got the bolt to grab again. Put out a couple dozen roach-bait tablets in various corners of the galley, cockpit and aft head. Salad and apple and yogurt for dinner. Ashore at 5:30 and to the rum shack for some drinks with friends. Chatted and drank with Doug and Nancy, Matt and Jo, Boomer and Christine, Chris and Mary Liz, and later Ed and Sue joined us. Two rum-and-cokes ($5) made me pretty wobbly by the time I headed back to the boat, and I had to be very careful on the dinghy dock, heading out, and then on the boat. Very clear evening with little wind, and the boat was rolling and lurching slightly but continually, and I found myself staggering around aboard. Got the dinghy hoisted and stowed, ate a snack to get something solid in my stomach, and to bed. 2/17/2009 (Tuesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship at the main docks today. Very light wind from S or SSW. Dinghied ashore and to Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi. Ducked out first thing and took the fitting to the shop. Left it and will pick it up again tomorrow morning. Skype-called my Mom and actually got to talk to her for a while (no answering machine this time). This is almost the fitting I need: Flare Elbow, 1/2" x 3/8" (need the 1/2" changed to 3/4"). Still might need it to be cut down to make the pipe thread part shorter. And I can't find the 3/4" version on the internet at all; I guess such a big reduction is unusual. Chicken-onion-rice for dinner. Wind swinging aorund to W in the evening, then NW and then N. Very gusty and often blowing hard during the night, with low clouds but little rain. Several boats anchored right after sunset, and I think they're sliding around a bit, but no one is threatening me. 2/18/2009 (Wednesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Wind swirling and gusting; boats moving weirdly and pointing various directions; lots of thick grey cloud. Pilot-boat running around at 6:30 blasting horn at anchored boats to get them to move out of the way of incoming cruise-ships. Three cruise-ships at the main docks today. Saw a cockroach in the main cabin, but missed him.
Dinghied ashore to intercept a sailmaker who I'm told comes in to the dinghy-dock every morning. Turns out the assistant he picks up is a guy I know from Benner Bay, Timmy. So I sat and chatted with Timmy and gave him the piece of paper with all of the mainsail specs. Said hi to the sailmaker, Manfred, when he came in. Should have a quote for me tomorrow morning. Yesterday I sent for a quote from Lee Sails in Hong Kong. And I have the quote I got 4 months ago form North Sail in Fajardo PR. Walked to the repair shop, and Hector gave me the reworked fitting (pic). He ended up taking it to a friend's machine-shop to get re-tapped, and he says it's as good as it will get. Looks to me like they could have taken off another 1/8", but I don't want to press, and he didn't even charge me for it. Off to the supermarket, where they didn't have half of the things I wanted. Back to the dinghy-dock, and my back is aching from all of the walking. Said hi to Doug as I went out to the boat. Looks like the new fitting is 1-5/8" long, down from 2-1/4" before. There's still some extra thread showing when I get it fully screwed into the transmission. And it ends up at an awkward place: 2 turns is a little loose, but can't get to 3 turns without breaking something. Tried several times, with and without washer inside the transmission in place. Put thread-sealant on it and screwed it in and left it. Finally started getting some sunshine around 10:30. Killed a cockroach in the main cabin.
Worked on the transmission for more than an hour, and almost got it onto the studs 3 or 4 times, but couldn't quite get it. Gave up, sweaty and aching and with my hand chafed from the rope I'm using to lift it. Patched the battery terminal a bit again. Weather stayed very windy and rough all day. An adventure to get stuff out of the dinghy and then hoist and lash it. Salad and cheese sandwich for dinner. Killed a cockroach in the cockpit.
2/19/2009 (Thursday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Grey and trying to rain and windy again this morning, but not quite as windy as yesterday. I'm a bit depressed this morning, about the transmission and my back and the batteries and the grey weather and not being able to do laundry. Just a normal funk. Maybe because I haven't had a rum-and-coke in two days ? Launched the dinghy and went to the dinghy-dock to intercept sailmaker Manfred and see if he has a mainsail quote for me. And of course he doesn't: he was too busy yesterday to get to it. Stopped to chat with Ed, and ask him to help me with the transmission. We'll get together at 1 and see if we can do it. Back to the boat, and I messed with the battery terminal and then tried the transmission a couple more times; no luck getting it to slide onto the studs. Dinghied ashore and to Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi. Received about 15 emails from readers about the transmission fitting; a little overwhelming ! Several readers found a fitting that would work: Parker 149F-6-12 male elbow. Many others suggested a 3/4-3/4 elbow. (Found a picture that fits my situation: pic). Back to the boat. Grey and windy afternoon. Chili and a rum-and-coke for dinner. 2/20/2009 (Friday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Less grey this morning. Did a bucket of laundry. Jacked up the rear of the engine, bolted the engine mounts in, and lowered the engine onto the mounts. Looks good, and looks like the fitting might clear the fiberglass now. But the fitting definitely is not tight enough into the case; the sealant I used isn't good enough. Will have to find some thread-locker, which I don't think I have aboard. But I can unscrew the fitting (just barely) without removing the transmission again (with the engine jacked up). Dinghied ashore to intercept Manfred the sailmaker at the dinghy-dock, but he didn't show up. Stopped at "Presque Isle", but Doug didn't have any thread-locker. He said Manfred is already ashore. So I went back, walked the length of the marina, and finally found Manfred. He has a mainsail quote for me: $1700 for a new sail, and he keeps saying I should obtain the wire to go into the luff, so I think that item is extra. This compares to a quote of about $1500 from the loft in Fajardo. Manfred would charge about half of the $1700 to modify a used sail to work for me; that seems high. Making the new sail would take a couple of weeks. Getting pretty windy. Dinghied over to the fuel dock and got 10 gallons of water ($2). On the way back, stopped at nearby sailboat "Jabiru V", introduced myself to Peter, and borrowed a little tube of Loctite 271 from him. When I mentioned the transmission to him, he said they had to take the transmission out of his boat five times in the last year or so, and had to pull the engine to do it each time. There seems to be a brotherhood going: lots of people have transmission stories. To the boat. Unscrewed the drain-fitting and cleaned sealant from it and the hole. Applied the Loctite, screwed it in, and will see what I have in 24 hours. Back to "Jabiru V" to return the Loctite, but Peter must have gone ashore. Back to the boat. Saw him home later, and returned the tube of Loctite. Removed the wood from under the engine and painted the bilge a bit. Having trouble getting out one big assembly of wood; how did I get it in there ? Salad and apple and power-bar and yogurt for dinner. Rolly, mostly sleepless night. Killed two cockroaches in the galley during the night.
2/21/2009 (Saturday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Two cruise-ships at the main docks today. Very windy and pretty rolly by 10 or so. Got the last wood out from under the engine. Looked at the thread-locker stuff, and some on the outside of the case is still gummy; maybe it didn't harden properly. Should work on the transmission some more right now, but I feel like getting off the stupid boat. Dinghied ashore and to Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi. The bar wasn't quite open, so I did the supermarket first. Bummer: they're going to renovate this corner of the shopping area, and the bar will be kaput after next Friday. I'll have to find another place to do Wi-Fi. Back to the boat for lunch and Car Talk. Ridiculously windy and often quite rolly this afternoon. Then I do almost two hours of pretty solid work on the transmission, lowering the engine down into its normal position and then bolting the reduction gear onto the rear of the transmission. Was barely able to wrestle the gear around into place, because now the transmission has a big gear and short shaft sticking out the back that came out with the reduction gear when I removed it. Had to get the reduction gear on without having that gear fall off, while positioning a big gasket between transmisson and gear. Pic. Tightened the bolts and poured 3 quarts of fluid into the transmission. Eventually started getting a bit of a drip out of the gasket, even though I swabbed both sides of it with fluid before installing it. Will have to leave it overnight and hope the gasket swells and stops leaking. No leak from the drain fitting. Spaghetti and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Had to make spaghetti with low-fat turkey smoked kielbasa; the supermarket hasn't had Italian sausage in weeks. Rolly about half the night, but some periods of relative calm. 2/22/2009 (Sunday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Fairly windy and rolly again this morning. One cruise-ship at the main docks today. I check under the transmission, and maybe half a cup of fluid has leaked out of the gasket. The fluid looks clean. I pour it back into the transmission and add another half-quart; now it's up to the Full mark. The slightest bit of ooze underneath the drain fitting; maybe it will hold. Found that missing spring in the bilge: it's jet-black and has thin wires, and is much bigger than I expected; it must have been under tremendous force inside the drain plug. Checked the batteries some more. Sure enough, one of them has a shorted cell: a 6-volt battery reading about 4 volts across the terminals. Of course, it's not one of the ones with the damaged terminals; the terminals on it are fine. It's the oldest of my batteries, but not all that old: it's stamped "K5", which means manufactured in Nov 2005, I think. Jury-rigged the damaged terminal on the other battery well enough to get that one working again. Ridiculously windy and pretty rolly all afternoon. Transmission still leaking from the gasket, but maybe not quite as much. Poured the leaked fluid back into it. Salad and salami-and-cheese sandwich and a rum-and-coke for dinner. "Rising Sun" has moved out from the fuel dock and now is anchored in the harbor entrance. (Doug heard they were paying $10K/month for their berth at the fuel dock.) 2/23/2009 (Monday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Grey at first this morning, then sunny and a lot less windy and rolly. "Rising Sun" is gone, but a new huge non-private megayacht (or small cruise-ship, more likely) is hovering inside the harbor entrance: Sea Dream II. Still fluid leaking from the transmission gasket, but I think the leak is slowing. Nothing leaking from the drain fitting. Messed with broken battery terminal. Did a little work on the postponed GPS-autopilot project. Managed to get the laptop, programmer board and target board connected properly (I think), built a program and programmed it into the target, and then nothing (no blinking LEDs or clicking relays). Tried many different options and commands in the development environment, and managed to get it to the point where it wouldn't program the target board any more. Time to ask for help on the web. Dinghied ashore and to Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi. Got a mainsail quote from Lee Sails in Hong Kong: $1080 including FedEx delivery and 3% credit-card fee. Price includes a 10% discount for off-season ordering, which expires at end of February, so I have to decide quickly. I think I'll do it. Several readers have written that the drain fitting is a critical point, and I should get it re-tapped or at least use Teflon tape instead of Loctite. I should mention that after screwing the hose onto it, I wired the hose to the body of the transmission, so it should act to hold the fitting in place. I really did the wiring to avoid having the weight of the hose actively unscrew the fitting a quarter-turn, but the wired position of the hose serves to hold the fitting in place too. I may end up having to jack up the engine, take that fitting out, and have it re-done. At least I shouldn't have to remove transmission from engine to do that. Chili and a rum-and-coke for dinner. 2/24/2009 (Tuesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Nice morning. Three cruise-ships at the main docks today. Transmission gasket still leaking a fair amount; not gushing, but it will get worse when the fluid is under pressure. Added another quart of fluid to see if I can get more of the gasket wet and swelling and sealed. Messed with broken battery terminal a little, but not getting it to connect this morning. Dinghied ashore a little before 9, hoping to meet a reader named Ron who's here on a cruise ship today. Thought maybe a 1/10 chance, since I sent him email yesterday afternoon picking a meeting place, so maybe he didn't get the email, or his ship wasn't at the main docks. Waited until almost 9:20, was about to give up, and there were Ron and Glenda ! Turns out he didn't get my email; after you pay all that money for the cruise, then they charge you 55 cents/minute for internet aboard ! But he spotted my boat in the harbor, spotted me coming in by dinghy, and I had picked a very good meeting place, the info booth right where passengers come off the ships. So we went to a cafe and chatted and sipped sodas for a while. They have an Allied Princess sailboat in St Petersburg FL, and plan to start cruising next year. Ron's worked repairing boats for 40 years or so. After a while, we walked to the dinghy-dock, and chatted with Doug for a few minutes. Ron and Doug seem to agree that I'll need to use form-a-gasket sealant on that leaky transmission gasket; I always thought a gasket should work by itself without needing that stuff. But I guess I'll have to do it. Will be a pain to clean all the fluid off the surfaces so the sealant can get a good grip. Then up to the supermarket, where they bought rum and snacks and I bought a few things. Back to the docks for a little more chatting and shopping, then they were off for a half-day sailboat trip, and I headed back out to the boat. A pleasant morning with Ron and Glenda. [Later, they sent me a couple of pictures: Bill in dinghy, Bill and Ron.] In the afternoon, started draining fluid out of the transmission. Got about 2 quarts out of the drain hose, then started loosening the bolts between transmission and reduction gear to see if I could increase the leak there (I've been catching the leaking fluid in a small bucket). Had to work at it quite a bit to loosen it, without suddenly opening the gap and getting a deluge of fluid. Salad for dinner. All three cruise-ships left in a space of 20 minutes or so, and they churned up the harbor water into something like dirty dishwater; I could see that area slowly spreading through the harbor. Lots of air-bubbles and eddys and currents, and boats started spinning and pointing in various directions. My boat slowly spun clockwise over about 60 seconds, and a minute or two later spun halfway counter-clockwise over another 60 seconds. During the night, emptied more than a quart of transmission fluid out of the bucket; it was almost full and I was afraid a roll would spill it. 2/25/2009 (Wednesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Nice morning. Three cruise-ships at the main docks today. Big sailboat nearby. Messed with the PIC board (GPS auto-pilot) stuff some more, but still can't get LEDs to blink. I need some documentation of the programmer board and target board; they came with nothing, for some reason. Captured as much of the rest of the transmission fluid as I could: recovered 3.5 quarts of the 4.25 I put in; the rest is in the bilge, wiped up on paper towels, or still inside the transmission. Separated reduction gear from transmission, being careful to retain that big gear that is loose in there, and was amazed to find a big section of the gasket is missing (pic)! I thought I had been very careful when putting the gasket in. I could see maybe having torn it slightly, but how did a section get sliced off ? Felt around inside the reduction gear and transmission to make sure there are no pieces floating around in there, and then found the missing section in the bucket in the bilge (pic). Somehow it must have gotten folded under and sliced off between the two parts when I put the reduction gear on ? Dinghied ashore and to Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi. Found schematic for my PIC target board, and user manual for my programmer board. Started finalizing the mainsail order. Ducked out to the repair shop. Hector said "how did you do this to the gasket ?", wondered why putting the transmission back in is taking so long, and suggested I hire one of his mechanics. I think he's doubting my competence, which is okay; I doubt it myself about 10 times a day. He gave me a new gasket for free (I was buying two more quarts of fluid for $9 anyway); very nice. He said don't put gasket-sealant on the gasket (he waved away the tube of PermaTex I was trying to ask him about); just put any kind of grease on both sides (I wasn't clear if it's just to hold it in place while assembling, or to help make the seal). In the bar, a lady at one of the gambling machines near me won a $1200 payout. Spaghetti and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Must admit: that cockroach-stuff ("Harris Famous Roach Tablets") seems to be working: saw a few dead cockroaches here and there several days ago, but no big live ones during the night for a while now. 2/26/2009 (Thursday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Nice morning. One cruise-ship at the main docks today. Still can't get the PIC board (for the GPS-autopilot project) to come to life; the programmer says it's programming the target chip successfully, but the data really isn't getting into the chip. Greased the new gasket and put it on, and bolted everything together. Will let it sit for a little while to let the grease soak in a bit before adding fluid. Hmmm: the drive coupling can't be rotated by hand; it could before. Maybe something is wrong, or maybe it just needs fluid ? Dinghied ashore and to Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi. But their Wi-Fi is down; they're starting to tear the place down to move it. But then the guy pushed a button and it started working. Sent email to place order for new mainsail. Comes to around $1170; final price may change a little (time-zone to Hong Kong makes email back-and-forth a slow process). Got groceries at the supermarket, and back to the boat. Salad and cheese sandwich for dinner. 2/27/2009 (Friday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship at anchor; none at the main docks today. Tightened the bolts through the gasket some more, added fluid, and no leaks. But bad news: the drive coupling still is frozen, which isn't right. So I'll have to drain the fluid and take off the reduction gear and try again. Still no joy with the PIC project either; upgraded software, checked configuration bits, tried writing to target board, programmer still lying to me. Squashed a cockroach in the cockpit.
Started draining fluid out of the transmission. Carefully propped a fluid-bottle in the bucket in the bottom of the bilge with the drain-hose feeding into it. Got the bottle mostly full, pulled on the rope to pull the bucket up, and the bucket-handle broke and up-ended the bottle and dumped about a quart of fluid into the bilge. Par for this job. Got the reduction gear loose from the transmission, slid it out a bit, and poked around. Nothing obviously wrong, except the big gear won't spin. Put it back together. Dinghied ashore and to Offshore Bar to do Wi-Fi. Ducked out and to the repair shop. Hector had 3 other customers in the shop, but said to me "just start the engine and put it in forward and reverse". So I will go on. No email from the sailmakers in Hong Kong; I was hoping to get a confirmation of my sail order. Chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Ed and Sue stopped by to chat just before sunset. They're probably going to leave tomorrow, heading for St John and the BVI's and then eventually down to Grenada. 2/28/2009 (Saturday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship at the main docks today. Sunny until 9 or so, then solidly grey all day. Loafed all morning. After lunch, got to work. Tightened bolts through transmission gasket and filled it with fluid. Bolted bracket onto bell housing, put oil-cooler onto seawater-pump hose, then bracket to hold oil-cooler in place. It's hitting the top of the engine mount stud, but I'll worry about that later. Installed oil hoses and transmission fluid hoses. Salad and apple for dinner. 3/1/2009 (Sunday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship at the main docks today. Sunny until noon, then mostly cloudy after that. Installed raw-water intake hose and strainer to the oil-cooler. Tightened all of the hose clamps, turned on the raw-water intake, and the water hoses leak a little. They're cracked at the ends and I need to replace a couple of them. I probably was going to do that anyway, since I want to mount the intake strainer further out of the way than it used to be. Topped up the engine and transmission fluids, then held my breath and cranked the engine a little. No horrible grinding noises or anything. Checked for massive leaks, topped off the fluids (the oil-cooler and oil filter were empty, so I expected some fluid to "disappear" into them). Cranked the engine again, got it started, and dashed below to check for leaks or problems. Looks good ! Got up my courage and tried shifting transmission into forward, and that worked. Into neutral and reverse, and the shift-arm goes pretty far back before reverse engages, but I think it's okay. Back and forth a few times, let it run for a few minutes, and shut down the engine. No leaks except for the minor water-hose leaks. Wow ! With engine off, still can't rotate the drive coupling by hand; I used to be able to do this. So now the prop won't free-wheel when I'm sailing ? Shifted the batteries around to try to get a good pair into the number-1 bank, but failed. I have one cell-shorted battery, two with one totally decayed terminal each, and a fourth that is good. And the other bank has four good batteries in it. So I'll need to buy three batteries ($400+). Later, ran the engine for 30 minutes, mostly in forward gear, to exercise engine and transmission and charge batteries. Engine coming up to temp normally, transmission getting warm but not hot. When transmission is in neutral, I can rotate drive coupling a little by hand, but it's stiff. After running in forward for 15 minutes, then putting it in neutral, coupling is a lot easier to rotate by hand. So maybe the rear bearing just needs to "wear in" or get fluid through it. Will have to check again tomorrow with the engine off. So now I need to: - replace water-hoses, maybe re-positioning the oil-cooler slightly in the process. - jack up the front of the engine and replace the front mounts. - align engine-transmission-shaft and bolt the drive coupling together. The batteries will wait until I get to Benner Bay, which has a marine store at the waterfront. Spaghetti and a rum-and-coke for dinner. 3/2/2009 (Monday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship at the main docks today. Pretty rolly in the harbor. Started working on jacking up the front end of the engine. Uncomfortable, bending down into an awkward space with the boat rolling, and it tires my back quickly. Removed some unused screws in the fiberglass that were jabbing my feet. Had to disconnect the fuel hose to the engine. As I expected, the complication at this end of the engine is that the oil sump covers the bottom of the engine block, and I don't think the sump is strong enough to bear the weight of the engine. So I have to make some kind of cradle to extend around the sides of the sump and put the weight on the bases of the engine mount flanges. Started working with 2x4's and 2x6's in the cockpit to see what I can knock together. No free Wi-Fi from the boat. Saw some kind of floating dry-dock vessel (pic) south of the island. [Later got this from Ed on "Angel Louise":] That floating drydock was the Dockwise yacht carrier. They move boats from here several times a year. Must have been making deliveries. They flood it to float yachts off and on, and then blow the tanks full to float and cruise to the next destination.Dinghied ashore after lunch, stopping at "Presque Isle" to chat with Doug. Chatted with Rob and Jo outside the Bad Ass Cafe; they said there have been some muggings here lately, a couple on the street outside this marina. Chatted with them for quite a while. And when I told them my transmission story, Rob immediately told me their transmission story: when they first got their boat, Rob saw that the manual said their Volvo transmission used regular engine oil, and he thought that meant it shared the engine oil with the engine. So they motored away with absolutely no oil in the transmission, and within a couple of hours it had welded itself into a solid lump stuck in forward gear. Then into the cafe to do Wi-Fi, but as I expected, every single electrical outlet was full. Same thing was true last time I came in here. So off through the length of the marina and across the street to an internet place above a Filipino or Indian restaurant; $3/hour there. Authorized the mainsail order in Hong Kong, for almost exactly $1200. To the supermarket, since I was close to it anyway, then back into the marina. Stopped to chat with Rob a little more, and read my book a little. Then back to the boat. Trawler "La Creatura" anchored behind me left at 5:15 and headed out of the harbor. I'd been curious about their "flopper-stoppers": big outriggers that greatly reduced the rolling at anchor. I was surprised to see them motor out with the "flopper-stoppers" still deployed in the water; that can't be right. [Later got this from reader Ben, and similar from another:] The outriggers you saw on the trawler were being used to deploy what are called 'birds'. These are about 18 inches long and the same width and look very much like F-111 swing-wing fighters with their wings folded back. The noses of the birds are typically about ten or fifteen pounds of lead to keep them aimed downward. They work marginally well at rest, but are superior under way, holding the boat fairly upright without any severe wallowing, like both our boats are prone to do when motoring in cross-seas. Of course, the price for this stability is charged in pure horsepower. A boat with a strong engine can afford the drag and additional fuel consumption, which is only marginal if you have 250 HP to play with. If you only have 85 - 100 HP, your fuel consumption may almost double and cruising speed will suffer a bit. Of course, most folks will feel it's well worth it to have the comfort.Salad and tuna-salad-sandwich for dinner. Rolly and humid and fairly still and uncomfortable all night. Didn't sleep very well. 3/3/2009 (Tuesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Grey and rolly this morning until 8:45 or so, then sunny and rolly. Two cruise-ships at the main docks; third came in at 10:30. Lots of exhaust fumes from the cruise-ships, too. Finally got some life out of my PIC board (picture of programmer and target boards) for my GPS-autopilot project ! The problem was with the "configuration word". Got my little C program to blink LEDs and turn relays on and off. Grey again by 10 AM. Worked on jacking up the front of the engine. Had to cut and sculpt and glue some wood to fit the contours of the undersides of the engine mounts. Tiring to work, wedged into a tight corner at the front of the engine, bending down to reach underneath, while the boat is rolling. Not much room, and several hoses and cables in the way, even after clearing out a few of them. Killed a cockroach on the ceiling of the main cabin.
Chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-coke for dinner. 3/4/2009 (Wednesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Fairly grey and a bit rolly this morning, but not quite as bad as yesterday. Two cruise-ships at the main docks; lots of exhaust fumes from the cruise-ships again. I've been noticing that my batteries are charging really well these days, and staying high overnight. I think that shorted battery must have been dragging things down for months or more. That's the downside of paralleling a lot of batteries: problems like that can be hidden. Jacked up the front end of the engine a bit, and things generally went well, but there's an angle between the bottom of the engine and the bilge, so I need to change something. Will think about it. Also, the oil-pan is not flat side-to-side; it's recessed on the starboard side, which complicates things. Took the engine intake strainer out, and got out the pipe wrench and other tools (pic), since I need to tighten one of the pipe joints 90 degrees to accomodate mounting the strainer onto the compartment wall. Thought it would be a struggle, but it went quite easily. Cut and painted wood blocks for mounting the strainer onto the wall. Dinghied ashore to town. Disposed of garbage, then to library. Deposited about 15 books into their book-exchange, got 6 out, then did an hour of internet ($2). Read a book in the park for a while, then back to the boat. Chopped and painted another couple of pieces of wood for the intake strainer mount. Dinghied ashore to the marina and went to the supermarket for groceries. Salad and salami-cheese-tomato sandwiches for dinner. Pretty rolly evening, and it rained hard and steady a couple of times. Nicer after midnight. 3/5/2009 (Thursday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Totally grey and a bit rainy this morning. No cruise-ships at the main docks. Caught 10 gallons of rainwater in the buckets last night, but then a big wake came along this morning and spilled out several gallons of it. Got up (late) and dumped about 8 gallons of water from jugs to tanks, and then several gallons from buckets to jug. Chopped and glued a little wood to put under the jack. Loosened the front engine-mount bolts. Got up my courage and jacked up the front of the engine. Got it clear of the port mount first, and unbolted that mount from the fiberglass, slid it out, and slid three pieces of 2x4 under the flange to catch the engine in case something slips. Engine is starting to twist a little to starboard. A brief rest, a little more jacking-up, and was able to unbolt and slide out the starboard mount (pic). Put three pieces of 2x4 under that flange and released the jack, and the engine settled down onto the 2x4's. Slid a 2x6 down one side of the engine and a 2x4 down the other side to keep the engine from sliding sideways when the boat rolls. Dinghied ashore, and off to the repair shop, stopping at the ATM to get cash. Bought two engine mounts ($150) and three quarts of transmission fluid ($13). Had to stand under awnings and wait out some rain on the way back. Fair number of pretty women wandering through the outdoor mall here; I should hang around here more often. Said hi to Doug and Nancy as we passed briefly. Back to the boat. Put the new engine mounts in, working quickly as the starboard side of the wood-and-jack contraption kept creaking and settling and letting the engine back down. Couldn't get one bolt on the starboard side started into the nut inside the fiberglass stringer, and the hole seems to have a lot of clay-like dirt in it, for some reason. A relief to have the engine back down on mounts. Chili (with some bacon which was on sale; yum) and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Wind started blowing hard around 10 or so, very gusty and strong and cool. Then wind and horizontal rain often throughout the night. Wind mainly from ENE and NE, but swirling a bit too. 3/6/2009 (Friday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Totally grey and still very windy and gusty this morning. Horizontal rain several times. No cruise-ships at the main docks. Drilled wood pieces and mounted engine intake strainer to the bulkhead. Looked at oil-cooler, and decided I have its bracket in upside-down; fixing that should raise it half an inch or so away from the top of the engine-mount bolt. Started getting a little sun around 11, but it stayed mostly grey and windy all day. Painted a bit of the bilge under the forward end of the engine. Later eased the engine down a bit more on the forward mounts; a slow job because parts of the mount flanges come right up to the nuts, making it hard to get much of a swing with a wrench. Less rain and cloud in the late afternoon, but still windy and cool. Worked some more on getting that last engine-mount bolt into the stringer, but it wouldn't go and I kept digging out more dirt. Can't really see a nut in there; maybe the hole isn't lined up liked it used to be, or maybe I sheared off the bolt when I removed it ? Don't remember any big snapping noise. NPR suddenly went off the air around 4 (carrier is still there), and stayed off for six hours or more. Salad and apple and salami-cheese-tomato sandwich for dinner. 3/7/2009 (Saturday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Feeling headachey this morning. Mostly sunny but still cool and very windy and gusty this morning; a little rain too. One big cruise-ship and one small one at the main docks. Did a little work on the PIC autopilot project. Added water to a couple of the batteries. Dinghied ashore through strong wind, and to internet place ($3/hour). Skype-called my Mom. Downloaded a couple of pictures from Ron: Bill in dinghy, Bill and Ron. Then to the supermarket, where check-out was very slow. Back to the boat in time to listen to Car Talk. Added water to the other pair of batteries. Gave myself a severe haircut and then showered; that always makes me feel good. Spaghetti and a rum-and-coke for dinner. 3/8/2009 (Sunday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Still feeling headachey this morning. Weather still mostly grey and cool and very windy and gusty. One cruise-ship at the main docks and a small one at anchor near town. Loafed all morning, then did some work. Reconnected fuel line to engine, fixed ground cable I'd pulled off, fixed oil-cooler bracket, adjusted hose between cooler and raw-water pump so it's on properly. Lowered engine more on its mounts, to the position it was in before I started replacing the mounts. Looked at putting the water-intake hoses together, and realized I needed to do some pipe-work as well as getting a new length or two of hose. Took the strainer back off the wall and worked on it with pipe-wrench and crescent wrench, and got most of it done. But there's a small piece I need to take to a shop, and I need to buy an elbow assembly, and some hose. Fairly nice afternoon, actually. Sunny with only a few bursts of high wind. Salad and tuna-salad-sandwich for dinner. Nice night; maybe the bursts of high wind have gone away. But then just before dawn they came back. 3/9/2009 (Monday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Weather again mostly grey and windy with very strong gusts; not as cool as before. Two cruise-ships at the main docks. Sunny after 9 or so; grey again by 10. Did a little work on the PIC autopilot project: got timer interrupts working. Dinghied ashore. Nice-looking woman on the dock; it's been too long since I've seen a woman in a bikini. To repair shop, but turns out they don't do pipe work, and have only 1/2" and smaller in stock. To internet place ($3 for an hour). Bought an Extech IR201 IR thermometer through EBay ($27 including shipping). To supermarket for groceries. To fuel dock, and bought $5 of gasoline. Back to the boat. Sunny afternoon. Got out the vise and pipe-wrench (pic), and worked at getting a pipe-elbow apart. Couldn't get my ancient pipe-wrench to grip on the pipe; I wonder if I can sharpen the teeth on it, or should just throw it away and get a new one ? Pump pliers did the job. Screwed the straight piece into the strainer. With a bit of a struggle, worked the propeller shaft forward and bolted the two halves of the coupler together lightly. The drive-saver is still between the halves, and I know I really should take it out, do the alignment, and then put it back in. But I failed to budge the bolts holding transmission side to drive-saver. And I think I'd have to snorkel under the boat and cut part or all of the zinc off the shaft, to get the shaft to slide in further than normal. So I'll give it a try with drive-saver in place. Still feels good to have shaft connected again, even if it's not quite ready to go. Chili and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Killed a cockroach in the main cabin during dinner.
Forward water tank ran empty; switched to aft tank. 3/10/2009 (Tuesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. I think most of the strong wind-burst weather has ended. Three cruise-ships at the main docks. Did a little work on the PIC project (GPS-autopilot project). Did a bucket of laundry. Messed with the drive coupling a little more; it's a little awkward to work on, down low and partly under a bulkhead. And it's too stiff to rotate by hand, but I was able to use a wrench on the stuck bolts to rotate it. I need to rotate it to adjust the alignment. Dinghied ashore around 9:15, swinging by "Angel Louise" but without seeing any signs of life there. Walked up to the hospital corner and caught a safari bus ($1) over the hill to Home Depot. Bought pipe parts for the engine water intake ($14; what's the difference between "brass" and "red brass" ?). To CostULess and bought $57 worth of crackers and snacks; that should keep me for a while. Caught another safari bus ($1) back, and back to the boat. Put the new pipe parts together. Had lunch. Worked on the engine alignment. Got the up-and-down better, but now I need to force the forward end of the engine to port a bit. Tried doing that with a 2x4, it didn't fit right, and decided to think about how to do it (probably a combination of 2x4 and crowbar). I still have the mounts loose, so the motion will move the mounts. After fastening the mounts in place, I might have to loosen the adjustment-slides between mounts and engine block, and get motion in there. Added a new feature to the log file: now it should scroll you down to the place you stopped reading the last time you looked at it. Hope it works for everyone. Cut and drilled wood and got the intake strainer screwed onto the wall again, differently now that one of the pipe is horizontal instead of vertical. Cut hoses and started putting together the engine water intake stuff. I hate trying to get hoses onto pipes; it's always a struggle. Put soapy water on the pipes. A struggle, in tight corners in a few places, and didn't want to put sideways pressure on the intake through-hull and damage it. Got the first two sections of the intake together, but none of the hoses went on as far as I wanted. Got maybe 1-1/2" of hose onto pipe, just barely enough to get two hose-clamps on. In one place, really got only enough for one clamp. Salad and salami-cheese-crackers for dinner. 3/11/2009 (Wednesday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. Three cruise-ships at the main docks. Did a little work on the PIC project (GPS-autopilot project), working on serial port interrupts. Dinghied ashore to fuel dock and got 10 gallons of water ($2). A bit dicey at the dock, with a charter sailboat trying to come in for fuel, and making a bit of a hash about the docking. While I was there, one of the cruise ships gave eight short blasts on the horn; I often hear one of them do that around 9:30 each morning; why ? It's not exact; sometimes more like 9:15, this morning around 9:45. Maybe it means "cocktails being served in the main saloon" ? Back to the boat, and did a bucket of laundry. Worked on the engine. After several tries, figured out a way to slide a couple of pieces down the starboard-front quarter and then hammer a crowbar into the gap between them. Levered the front of the engine to port, tightened the engine-mount bolts, and now will have to see if it stays there. Checked the alignment at the coupling, it looked good, rotated the coupling 180 degrees, and it still looked mostly good. Later loosened the rear mounts and re-tightened them, in case they were fighting the engine twist a little. Dinghied ashore. Saw a couple of guys painting around the anchors on a cruise ship (pic1, pic2). To post office, where the woman behind the counter gave me the hardest time possible, but finally accepted my package and sent it out. To internet place ($3 for an hour), then supermarket. To the fuel dock and got 10 gallons of water ($2). Back to the boat. Cut the last piece of hose for the engine water intake system, and managed to cut it an inch or two shorter than needed (hard to estimate, with a bit of curve, and not knowing how far I'll be able to force each end onto the pipes). Put it on anyway. Checked everything and then ran the engine for 5 minutes, keeping the transmission in neutral. Nice to have it running again, and no leaks or other problems. Opened up the instrument panel and ran wires to the GPS for the auto-pilot project. Mark stopped by for a short chat. He's done plenty of drive-shaft-alignments; he used to work in a boatyard. He says it's really not too critical on a sailboat, where the shaft RPM is low (if I run engine at 1900 RPM, after 2.1:1 reduction my shaft is turning at 900 RPM), as compared to a fast powerboat. So cheating by leaving the drive-saver on should be okay. And I have several feet of shaft between stern tube and coupling, so I think that helps too. Chicken-onion-rice and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Brilliant full moon tonight. 3/12/2009 (Thursday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. No cruise-ships at the main docks. Dumped 10 gallons of water from jugs to forward water tank. Worked on that engine-mount bolt that won't grab. Removed dirt from the hole using half a dozen wetted Q-tips, and eventually convinced myself that there's a sheared-off bolt-end in the nut in the bottom of the hole. So I need to replace it with a lag screw. I want to do this before I finish the alignment and do any motoring with the prop turning, so the engine mount stays in place. As I was launching the dinghy, Doug swung by in his skiff. Turns out he was going to a neighboring boat to help them lift out the engine, put it in his skiff, and take it ashore, maybe to the same repair shop I've been using. The boat is a Morgan 36 or so; don't know how big the engine is or how much it weighs. I think they have water in the oil in the engine. I offered my help, but he said they already had three people, which was enough. And Doug's done this sort of thing before, so he knows what he's doing. Dinghied ashore through rain-sprinkles. Walked up to the hospital corner, and stopped in an optometrist's; turns out an eye exam and bifocal prescription here is only $35 as compared to $80 at the other place I asked; I think I'll do that soon. Across the street and caught a safari bus ($1) over the hill to Home Depot. Bought a seat-cushion, paintbrushes, paint rollers, battery-terminal bolts, and a lag screw for the engine mount. To CostULess and bought some food. Caught another safari bus ($1) back, and passed Doug and Nancy trudging up the hill on foot (I'd rather pay $1 for the bus). To the fuel dock for water, but no attendant appeared, so I gave up on that. Back to the boat. Did a little work on the PIC project (GPS-autopilot project). Put DB-9 connector on wires from GPS, plugged it into the PIC board, and eventually got serial port interrupts working. I'm getting NMEA data from the GPS into the board, although I'm getting a framing error with each character, so something's not quite right. But it's progress ! Looked at the engine-mount. Dry-fit the lag-screw in, and wished I'd bought the one a half-inch longer and then filed it down a bit. Mixed West System epoxy and filled the hole. Will decide tomorrow whether to make yet another trip to Home Depot to exchange the screw. Checked the shaft alignment, unbolted the coupling halves, rotated them 180 degrees relative to each other, bolted them together loosely, and checked again. Looks good, so I bolted them all the way together. Salad and salami-cheese-tomato sandwich for dinner. 3/13/2009 (Friday) At anchor at Charlotte Amalie. One cruise-ship at the main docks. Did a little work on the PIC project. Now receiving legible NMEA characters from GPS in my program on the PIC board ! You can see the test programs I've written at GPS-autopilot test programs. Dinghied ashore and caught a safari bus ($1) over the hill to Home Depot; driver tried to charge me $2 for such a short trip; I just walked away from him. Bought the lag screw and some decent hacksaw blades. To CostULess just to buy some food and make the trip a little more cost-effective, but there were huge lines of unhappy people at the registers, so I turned right around and walked back out. Caught another safari bus ($1) back. To the fuel dock and bought 10 gallons of water ($2). Back to the boat. Drilled into the epoxy in the engine-mount hole, but it's spongy, not as hard as it should be, and I couldn't get the screw to grab; gave up on it for now. Reattached the drive-shaft collar that keeps the shaft from sliding back too far if the coupling separates. Reattached the shift linkage, testing carefully to see that the throttle settings result in the transmission fully in each gear; I've heard you can burn out your transmission with a mis-adjusted linkage. Checked fluids and intake valve, and then started the engine. Ran okay, and after a minute I tried forward gear. Boat actually moving ! I'm still at anchor, so I couldn't do it for long, but I did a few shots of forward and reverse, and everything seems good. Ran the engine for 20 minutes or so to exercise it. Tomorrow, I think I'll try raising anchor and motoring around the harbor a bit ! Dumped 10 gallons of water from jugs to forward water tank. Dinghied ashore and to internet place ($3 for an hour). Chili and a rum-and-coke for dinner. Saw a cockroach in the galley during the night but he escaped.
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