Kaimusailing

Two days of intense heat and then a week of moderately hot days and very warm nights. A message came from up North, from Don’s, a bar and grill in Pocomoke City, Maryland. It was a photo of a pond with a fountain. It was from Cuddily and Eve. The weather is much nicer up there. I commented that it wasn’t hot enough yet.
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My approach of today was to do nothing and make sure I don’t pass out and expire from the heat. I got an emergency call that Helicopter Dave and Roughrider Lynn were back in St. Marys, anchored, engine problem, could I pick up some coolant and also some sliced ham at the local grocers and deliver them to the town dock. I did so. It seemed to take forever for Dave to get the dinghy going and get in to shore and then we had to do a few other things, but we got those settled and I went back to the boatyard. It was 102 in the shade.
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Later I was asked to drop the car off, again, in the morning, like 9 AM. What about giving you the car tonight. We ended up planning on doing the Happy Hour at the Grill, Southern River Walk, in St. Marys. I asked around if anyone wanted to join us, Pamela, Big Dave, no one, all busy.
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I picked up Dave on the town launching ramp and he said we have to get a battery first, so we did so. The battery was heavy and a store employee could put it in the vehicle, but how would Dave get it down the dock to his dinghy? Well, I had a hand truck back in the boatyard and he could borrow it when he dropped me off. We stopped at the restaurant, just me and Dave, I ordered food, he ordered bourbon. I had a cup of soup and a shrimp quesadilla. Good food. I think Dave was treating me to dinner, but instead I treated him to a couple bourbons. I pointed to Dave, the table next to us, that’s where Eloisa and I had my birthday dinner, and it was one of the best birthday dinners ever.
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Back to the boatyard and it turned out someone had stolen my little hand truck. It seems every few days something gets nicked. Big Dave was working with some hose clamps and very worked up about some work that should have already been done, paid for, and now he had to deal with diesel oil spraying around. He said he wanted to go up to the pub for a beer and do laundry next door and did I want to go? Yeah, sure.
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If I miss out on some of the details, please let me know.
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I had to pee in the porta-jon and he came out to go. I put the laptop aside and hopped in. I told him where to go, where to turn, you can’t do this with a woman, can you? But they can do it to you, if you listen. So he had a grim drive to the laundry, but after I explained why it was the best route, he brightened up, and drove the wrong way around the mall. It’s like an L, with the laundry and the pub located in the vertex, so he is like barreling down the inside of the L, but there’s no way through, you have to continue to the end of the lower leg of the L, and then you have to zig zag around the back of the L, and its all speed bumps.
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Yes, Editor, please save it.
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I went into the pub while he began washing his clothes. I drank ice cold beer in an air conditioned pub on the hottest day of the year, so far. Big Dave had a curious burger that he said was very good. When we returned to the boatyard it was too hot to stay inside the boat. I sat on the communal porch and absent mindedly visited some of my internet bookmarks that I hadn’t gone to in a while, including the Wharram Builders and Friends site, where I found a posting and a message for me from a fellow named Jim. He was the builder of an earlier catamaran that I owned in the mid ‘90’s. I spent a while writing him a detailed account of what happened with that boat. Glad to fill him in.
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The next day was a relief from the heat, but we got hit with a bad thunderstorm. I persisted working on the boat. I needed to test the engines and wanted to install a backup depth sounder. I spent considerable time looking for the bracket that the depth sounder transponder mounts to, but it was nowhere. The original depth sounder was mounted on the transom of the engine sled, a sort of hinged device that trails in the water when the engine is deployed. The new one would be mounted similarly, but it turned out it didn’t need a bracket, the cheap plastic transponder module mounts right onto the transom with two self tapping screws. Once I realized how simple it was, I mounted the transponder very quickly. The cable to the display was coiled around the engine control lines and brought into the pilothouse through #3 crossbeam trough. The display was mounted on a cheap right angle bracket from O’Reilly Auto Parts. The excess transponder cable was coiled and secured behind the display. Next I have to hook it up to power and it will be good to go.
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The thunderstorm hit and I retreated to Kaimu’s galley. I had an excess of free ham from Denis, the Canadian truck driver, who continues to buy $5.99 sub sandwiches from the grocers, but then takes off the meat, which contains pork, and substitutes turkey, and gives me the ham, pepperoni, and salami. Thanks Denis, but I’m having trouble keeping up with the flow of free meat. I made a grilled ham and cheese with tomato sandwich on the stove top. Start the pan on high heat with olive oil, build the sandwich right in the pan, cover, kill the flame after a few minutes. Check the underside, if it is brown and crispy, turn it over. The cast iron pan still has plenty of thermal energy, but give it time to make the cheese all melty.
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To test the Suzuki engine that Kaimu uses, and the Lehr outboard which I have no use for, I need to expropriate the outboard tub, a plastic drum about 40 gallons, some use water “earmuffs” to test outboard engines, I will always put the engine into a tub of water. If the impeller is bad, the earmuffs which are running under pressure from the hose from the boatyard spigot could provide enough water bypassing a damaged impeller, so the engine tests good. If you put it in the tub, then if the impeller is bad, you get no cooling water, the engine tests bad. I don’t expect any problems with either engine. The Lehr has only 10 hours on a rebuild and has been properly broken in with new rings, etc., the Suzuki has less than 200 hours but has sat for 2 years.
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Sometimes the coolant flow indicator, a “pisser” spigot on the back of the outboard can be plugged up, and often it is the mud dauber wasps that cause this. If the water doesn’t come out right away, shut it down and probe the pisser with a piece of wire. If it still doesn’t come out, remove the thermostat and cover (on most engines) and if water does not make it to the thermostat you have to start working on the impeller which usually means removing the lower unit. It is a good idea to do all this when the engine is relatively new and reassemble with antiseize or something like it to prevent the aluminum steel binding which can make it impossible to disassemble.
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Helicopter Lynn and Roughrider Dave, oops, it’s the other way around, Roughrider Lynn and Helicopter Dave, are still trying to solve an overheating problem, anchored in St. Marys harbor. They came around with their grandson to retrieve the title to their vehicle and an envelope with $100 in it, for gas, for the grandson, who was to take the vehicle back home. Let’s see, I could have taken their vehicle, its title, and a hundred bucks for gas, and absconded, drive up to Crisfield, register the vehicle. This had happened to them before with a different vehicle. The fellow who absconded got busted in some shady deal and the car was impounded. It was a couple years before they got it back, with questioning stares from law enforcement. The current vehicle wouldn’t pass vehicle inspection up in Maryland, so my scheme would be a bad idea. I was able to go shopping once with it, but I got ham, and now nobody wants ham, it’s unclean.
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I also have to set up my sails, sheets, and fairleads. This is a new rig made up of old parts and it should work just fine. I know when I hoist sail as a test in the yard, tons of mud wasp nests will fall down. I need a day with no wind, not a blisteringly hot day. I’m old and need to take it easy.
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I will try to sell the Lehr outboard and the Universal diesel M25, just to avoid having to transport them. I got a tentative offer for two of the windsurfers, but I will put the whole shooting match up for sale. If no one buys any of this I will take them with me. Crisfield is not really a place to try to sell things for profit.
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I needed to go shopping for pizza ingredients and begged Big Dave for a shopping trip. We left later in the day after I watched him work out in the sun, therapy work he called it. He looked shot when he backed his vehicle up and we took off. He needed a box knife to cut fiberglass. We stopped in the local Winn-Dixie where I got my ingredients, but he couldn’t find a knife. We went up to Harbor Freight in Kingsland and he got his knife and I got some new clip leads and a hose nozzle. Dave was nearly passing out from working in the sun and I suggested we get some sustenance at the Longhorn Steakhouse. He had never been there, yet he is from South Texas, longhorn country. We ate at the bar and I got my favorite steak salad with blue cheese dressing while Dave had a burger. We drank beer and watched NFL films “Greatest 100 Players”, footage of the old days when football was a knockout sport. Brutal. Boys only. Only one of the ladies I know likes to watch football, and that is because she is in love with one of the quarterbacks. Dave looked revived and we returned to the boatyard to continue his work and me to write.
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The image is of Clayton, son of the owner and chief crane operator, riding around in his dad’s model A pickup.