Haulout Day

Tiger Point Marina, N30 41.50 W081 27.25

Today (5/31) I worked hard. I’m beat now. I worked all day with the diesel mechanic. We also hauled Tarwathie, and pressure washed the hull. She sits high and dry.

So, what is the answer to the question I posed before about the boat speed under power? It was mostly propeller fouling. The hull fouling wasn’t bad but the propeller looked like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. That made the engine work harder.

Still we took apart the raw water pump and found one of the rubber impeller blades cracked. A replacement is on order. We also back flushed the cooling system. No critters came out but some sand did. I suspect one of those groundings in the waterway. When I revved up the engine, it stirred the bottom and I sucked some sand in. We also found some barnacles in the thru-hull fitting.

I learned a lot about diesel maintenance today. That’s good. But the biggest lesson I learned is that I’ll have to learn to dive and do underwater maintenance on

Tarwathie. It’s not affordable to haul her out of the water whenever something needs cleaning. Perhaps a snorkel and mask will do. I don’t have SCUBA certification.

The rigging man, Ingmar, came today to look at the bent anchor roller pin. I completely surprised him by conducting our business in Swedish. He was even more surprised to hear that I’ve been in Darlana, the region in Sweden he comes from.

All the people here at the marina are very nice. It’s a pleasure working with them. I hope I feel the same after I see the boatyard bill at the end of the week.