more projects in in nanny cay – 15 to 16 oct 2013

well the last two days where non stop projects in pretty oppressively hot conditions here in nanny cay. i rebuilt dons carb 3 times actually getting the engine to run for a bit. alas in a final turn of fate don pulled the cord and the engine would not budge. later analysis would confirm the engine had seized. not sure how this happens, its a 15 year old mercury 15 hp 2 stroke 2 cylinder. fortunately we had already loaded our backup 5 hp int dons massive dingy so at least now he can drive around with a trolling motor in the marina!

we also got the main sail and geno back on dons boat along with the bimini. lots of work when you leave your boar for the hurricane season. we did this between 6am and 9am on the last two days and where still drenched by the time the job was complete.

we also pretty much cleaned off the palapa list with a few divots along the way. we changed both the genset and main engine oil and replaced the oil with synthetic. the genset change was painless but the engine was a calamity. fortunately we had added the drain tube on the bottom of the engine. we did not run the engine very long so the drain was slow. no problem we will just do some other projects i thought. we got 2 liters out and put another 2 liter bottle in. unfortunately when i removed the oil filter a bunch more oil came out and next thing i knew the bilge was full of oil.

fortunately the bilge pump had not kicked in and i turned it off and got to work with the wet dry shop vac sucking oily water out of the bilge. of course the vacuum hiccuped and started blowing frothy oil out in the cabin all over the white cushions. talk about 1 step forward 2 steps back. huge mess. i finally got all the oil outside after being upside down in the bilge for an hour with don swapping out rags. in the end we put 5 liters into the engine and the good news was it stayed very clear so apparently we got more out than we ever have before.

following this we finished up the stereo swap out only to discover the replacement sirius radio they had sent us was xm. it says sirius everywhere except on the antenna that sais “xm only” there is no xm in the Caribbean so now no radio.

aimee got a ton of stainless done and all the rust marks out of the top side. she also got almost all of the isinglass complete before she got her toe caught in the metal dock. she limped over to the bar where don and i where waiting for her with a bloody bandage wrapped around her foot a bit hysterical she had lost her tow. i tok here back to the boat and patched her up, fortunately her toe was still intact! her tonail was partially off so we sent her in to the clinic the next day to have it looked at professionally.

$250, 3 hours, 2 stiches, after having the to nail removed after being numbed with local she was back on palapa ( the doc did say i did a good job dressing it the first time.). i tried to get her to take it easy but she does not like to be told to slow down.

we did make it back to mulligans bat alas still no ribs. i think it is time to get out of the marina for a bit!

Cheers,
Roger