Friday, June 10, 2016

Puff Aboard!

 We loaded up our rowing/sailing dinghy Puff and strapped her down into her chocks on the cabin top. We have Alizée pretty loaded down now. The morning was spent reprogramming the tachometer to work with the high output alternator (the tach figures out the engine RPM from the alternator pulses). Once we had a good idea of actual RPM, we ran her up to full power in the slip. Good news is that we held 2800 RPM, which should work out just about right so we won't need to haul out to change the propellor pitch: just an educated guessing game really. Bad news is that the bloody ocean starts flooding in at full power. Turns out it wasn't just the short vent tube, which we replaced, so we weren't as lucky as I had hoped. The propellor pushes on the propellor shaft which pushes on the engine which pushes on the boat via squishy engine mounts. That's how she powers forward. Those mounts are a wee bit too squishy and the engine was shifting forward just enough at full power to break the seal on the propellor shaft and, voilà, flooding of da bilge.

I moved the shaft seal forward 1/2" and we now have no drips, much less gushing, at full power. Still, I'll revisit the arrangement when we have finished out this season: the kinda thing I don't want to deal with again in the middle of an ocean.

First cooked meal on Alizée - Kodiaks! Well, if you count making pancakes as cooking. Still, it's a start and the cleaning up is the hard part anyway. Tomorrow we might go all out with scrambled eggs: live big!

David has dozed off after breakfast, bless him. Not one complaint, but boat life may be taking a toll. I'll always remember Karen's post (sorry, couldn't find the exact post) when she and Jim were in the middle of the Pacific, probably still stuck in the ITCZ. It was to the effect that everyone on land thinks you're "living the life", but sometimes, when you're living on a boat, you feel like they are "living the life". It ain't all pancakes ...

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