Repowering Day 17

South Beach, N 27.457420 W -80.302420

Sometimes it is hard to keep a smile on, despite the fact that we're living the luxury dream life.

Monday we launched Tarwathie after 2.5 weeks in the boat yard. As the travel lift lowered us in the water, the first thing I checked was the propeller shaft to make sure that it didn't leak. I looked down there and, OH NO, water was streaming in. I told them to haul us back up immediately. Poor Libby was beside herself with disappointment. I wasn't very happy either.

It was leaking around where we had sealed the shaft log with marine epoxy putty (Marine Tex). I bought another Marine Tex kit from the boat yard and we laid on lots more. We built it up to the same level of enclosure that Al Hatch had on there. Bud Taplin told us that wasn't necessary, but he was wrong.

I plugged us in to shore power to wait for the next morning to retry. After some time we noticed that the refrigerator motor ran all the time and that the freezer was barely getting cold. Something went wrong with it during the two weeks it was shut down.

This morning we launched again, this time it didn't leak HOORAY, but we are $400 poorer. That was the boat yard fee for hauling us out, sitting it on blocks and putting it back again. Boy can mistakes be expensive.

Anyhow, the new motor started right up and we worked our way out into the channel. Oh how nice it is to be in the water again and mobile. We fueled up and bought a block of ice for the fridge. It will take a week or more to connect with a refrigeration man.

On the bad side, there is a noticeable vibration when we are in gear. I'm not sure if that's because the engine is much quieter and smoother than we ever had with the old Perkins, or whether there is some problem with the alignment. To be sure, we pulled in to a nearby anchorage. I rowed to shore and walked to a hardware store to buy a feeler gauge. That's what I need to fine tune the alignment of the "motor saver" coupling according to an instruction sheet I have. The sheet says that the four bolts have to be tightened alike with no more than 0.01 inches difference among the four.

I'll work on the alignment in the morning. In the meantime, we are just enjoying a lazy sunny afternoon out on the water without doing work.
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Repowering project summary