Flies in the Ointment
06 March 2019 | Hout Bay
Monday 4 March 2019
It's not just boat projects that see interminable delay. The two billion people worldwide who are colonized, but not infected by staphylococcus aureus will soon to be reduced by one as a program of bacillicide has started to exterminate all my fellow travelers. Apparently 25 to 30% of population provide a symptomless home for these guys, typically in the honker. My occasional digression into risky behavior does not include chancing a rancid leg, so a slight, but non-negligible risk of implant infection, which would be seriously bad juju, has moved surgery to Thursday. !@#$%^&*()_+ or stronger words to that effect. By the way, bacteria are not considered either plants or animals, but are prokaryotes. Among other attributes they cause organic decay. Hold forth with this bit of enlightenment and be the most fascinating attendee at your next kegger.
The upside is that this will allow first person supervision of Yanmar diesel mechanic who comes Wednesday to check transmission, injectors and compression. A few other projects that require a bit of contortion can also be advanced while ops personnel are still more or less limber.
Wednesday
It's almost an axiom that boat designers and builders pay little attention to future maintenance and augmentation. It's a tradeoff, but looking attractive for sales is of more immediate relevance even to buyers who try very hard to delude themselves that everything will forever work perfectly and nothing need be added. Apropos of that, running a cable for external satellite antenna from nav station to cockpit, about a meter and a half, took entirety of yesterday, removal of three overhead panels and cutting holes in previously handsome permanent woodwork that hid an empty, otherwise inaccessible, but useful conduit between two major compartments. Another restoration well forgotten is 2015 removal by hacking into pieces a leaking stainless steel water tank put in place before deck installation. Today diesel mechanics had a particularly arduous time removing injectors, frozen due failure to use anti-seize, that were nearly impossible to get at as numerous bits and pieces restricted access with normal tools.
The (possibly) good news is that tranny appears fine. This suggests, as nearly last possibility, that shaft is bent. Not only did mechanic in Richard's Bay not decouple motor from shaft when he lifted engine to replace mounts (source of possible deformation) while stating that he had performed an alignment, but apparently was otherwise not forthcoming. Yanmar guy noticed that motor mounts were painted, which is unusual. Closer examination when scraping off paint and checking brittleness of rubber indicates that these are very old, second-hand junk. They were charged as new. Andres seemed like such a nice fellow too. Probability of reimbursement does not quite descend into negative numbers. Nevertheless will email details to yard operator with CC to suspected miscreant.
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends...". Henry VIII couldn't have said it better. Don't think there will be another delay, so presumably a sore knee that's getting worse will be converted into a really, really sore knee that gets better. That's the theory. All to be revealed in the fullness of time.
Jack & Jan