It is another weekend and here we still sit in Demopolis living on the hard, or as someone said living "in the tree house." It is kind of like that given we must climb the ladder to get on and off the boat. Yesterday morning was rather unnerving when I tried to get off the boat and noticed that the ladder had blown over. Here I am 10 feet in the air with the ladder on the ground. With the help of a dock hook, the ladder was retrieved.
The bent rudder has been repaired and the cutlass bearing has been replaced. The cutlass bearing is located in front of the propeller. It is necessary to keep the prop and shaft from just wobbling around in space behind the boat, one end of the shaft connects to the motor the other goes through the bearing to the prop. In the process of replacing the bearing the shaft had to be removed. Upon removal it was discovered that the shaft was too worn to be usable. A new bearing was not the complete answer, but a new shaft was.
That was on Tuesday. The old shaft was taken to the local machine shop to be copied. A new shaft was to be ready by lunch on Friday. Well, in Alabama lunch must be over at 3:00 because the shaft was not here in the yard until 3:30. After it was installed it was discovered that the shaft had not been cut properly and the prop would not fit properly over the end. The shaft is to be back in the shop on Monday. We will have to see when this is all finished!
Hopefully the whole project will be done by mid-day on Monday and we can be underway again. We are about 200 miles north of Mobile, 235 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico. When we get down there we will head to the west and on to Grand Isle.
I spoke with our friend Andy on Grand Isle today and was told that our 5th wheel is all set up and waiting for us. It will be good to get there even if Andy and Sue are not there. Their plans are to take their boat to Key West for about a month. They should be back to Grand Ilse in mid December.
The only positive thing is that we were just able to watch Michigan play a great game against Minnesota, the Little Brown Jug stays in Ann Arbor. Next is the Alabama vs. LSU game. Geaux Tigers!!
That's all for now.
Rob
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2 comments:
Rob & Jude,
Hope your repairs go well and you are back in the water soon. It was fun traveling with you. Boat is on the hard in Mobile and we are home for the holidays with family & friends.
Best wishes from Jay Uler (crew member on Northern Light)
hey jude, patrick here. I can't email you my life story with email address knittingjude@starband.com so i used the alaskain2004@yahoo.com hope to here from you..patrick
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