Kaimusailing

The tilt/trim motor came in on Thursday instead of the following Monday. Great shipper. The plan was to use the time waiting for the motor to do a bunch of unfinished chores. I managed to finally service the batteries, way overdue, each cell taking about 4 ounces of distilled water. Capn Neal had given me a handy battery water pitcher that automatically dispenses the correct amount of water, however it runs into difficulty with the battery bank in the port hull. The space above the batteries is limited and the pitcher doesn't quite fit. Instead I've been using a small squeeze bottle that takes 8 ounces of water at a time. It is graduated, so I know how much water each cell is taking.
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Another task was reattaching a batten pocket chafe strip that was coming loose. It was originally glued to the sail with urethane adhesive, now it got gooped and held in place with spring clamps.
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The parts for the Honda outboard were ordered from Boats.net online at about 20 percent discount and free shipping. On the invoice it says “2 day air”. It looks like the parts will arrive before the service manual. An example of their pricing is the propeller shaft for $56 instead of the $78 from Honda. The only items not on the order are the shift lever and the throttle arm for the carburetor. The throttle arm isn't available separately, so getting a new one means buying the whole carburetor body for a bit over $100. Honda's list price is $154. Still, the engine is worth $500-600 in running condition. The shift lever is part of a unit that passes right through the engine and looks like a bit of trouble to remove and replace. The part that is missing is a simple arm that can be easily be fabricated from aluminum and attached to the stub that is left from the original unit. Nothing has to be disassembled.
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The plan is to see if the engine runs with the original carburetor and use a clamp as a temporary throttle arm. If it runs, then a throttle arm will be made out of stainless plate. If it doesn't run, then the carburetor body will have to be purchased.
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The question from the last couple of lunar photos was what was the length of the lenses. The Paragon is 200mm which on the EOS 30D equates to 329mm, and the Alpexes are 135mm which equate to 216mm. The image from the Paragon in larger, while the Alpex is producing a smaller image that needs to be blown up to match the Paragon's. Even so, the Alpex looks like a sharper image. Cirrus clouds may have hurt the Paragon. We are hoping to take pictures during the eclipse this weekend, but weather is also predicted.
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When I installed the trim motor I dropped one of the screws and found out it was antimagnetic, so I couldn't fish for it with a magnet. It sleeps with the fishes of the Bodkin. Strangely, the new motor came with six washers, but only three bolts hold the motor in place. The answer came when the first screw bottomed out, the washers are a crude way to make up the difference in the motor flange, the new one is thinner than the original. Since I had to go to the hardware store to purchase a replacement for the one I dropped, I bought a full set, plus one, of M5X16 socket head cap screws. If I drop one of those, I had one extra, if I drop two, I will have to use one of the old ones with the washers.
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It was difficult to work from the dinghy but eventually the motor was installed. The socket headed machine screws use a 4mm allen wrench which could secure the screw from falling by punching through a piece of paper into the head of the screw. The trapped paper binds the screw to the wrench. A brick battery was used from the dinghy to power the tilt motor and lower the engine. The relay where the motor leads are connected are at the lower front of the engine and inaccessible when the motor is tilted up.
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I found myself sitting on top of the flywheel and working on electrical connections down near my heels. Fortunately the new motor had leads that were the same color coding as the original. The motor turned the correct direction, it came up when the up control was pressed. The new motor was much quieter than the old and the motor is tilting up and down better than new. Now we can leave the dock.
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The picture is from saatchiart.com called Red-on-Red by Stanko Ropic of Germany available, also as prints.