Aligned

Fort Pierce
27 27.01 N 080 19.29 W

The mechanic came this morning and now I'm aligned again. Not politically (I seem to forever be out of political alignment with the rest of the world) but mechanically.

Actually, he could only do a partial job. You see I have a flexible coupler between the engine and the shaft. It is called an engine saver and it's purpose is to limit the amount of shock that can be transmitted to the crank shaft in case the propeller strikes something hard.

The mechanic told me though that it is nearly impossible to align the shaft with the flexible coupler in there. Could we remove the coupler long enough to do the job? "No," I said, "The shaft is too short. There is not enough room between the propeller and the hull to hook up the shaft without the flexible coupler. "Oh well," said the mechanic and did the best he could. Now, at high RPMs we don't get as much vibration as before, but it is still not really right.

Now I have two reasons to haul the boat. First to repair that broken screw for the zinc (remember that from a month ago?). Second, to remove the propeller from the shaft, push the shaft in, then remove the flexible coupler, realign the engine, then put everything back again. Maybe while we are in Marathon, we can do that.

The wind turned to NW just an hour ago. We could leave right now and go on the outside to Marathon. I'm going to wait until morning though. We'll still have nice wind for several days.