Some momentous news
24 February 2011
• Deltaville
by Mike
Greetings. I'm back again. Sorry about missing yesterday but something came up. On our trip south to Virginia we faced numerous obstacles but nothing did anything more than slow us down a bit. The blown fuse on the instrument panel only slowed us a bit. The US customs officer who was clearly having a bad day only slowed us long enough to go to a different agent. And the rest of the trip was simply time and distance.
Nelleke was launched within two hours of our arrival and it was only then that we faced the thing that stopped everything in its tracks. When we tried to start the engine there was water in the oil and we got the dreaded oil milkshake. Long and the short of it is that following the pressure test there was obviously leaks both in the raw water and coolant sides of the engine. The leaks were in the gasket and the cylinder liners so to fix it it will require hauling the engine out. Even after fixing it we would have a fixed 30 year or repairs engine and the cost would be a couple of thousand dollars. Barb and I talked it over and decided that it was time to repower Nelleke and retire Paula Perkins. Sad but necessary since she had served admirably for 30 plus years, especially as we intend to extend our offshore cruising range. This decision was made particularly easy as the marina had here for sale a 50hp Yanmar that was almost new (less than 500hrs on it) for $6000! With the exception of the tachometer we should be able to use all the instrumentation from the Perkins and we will have a reliable more modern and fuel efficient engine that will outlast our ownership of the boat. Add to that the resale attractiveness of her without the 30 year or questionable engine is much higher.
So that's our big news.
Smaller news is that I very nearly fell into the bay taking Peri out for his walk this morning and managed to save myself by scraping an acre of skin off my shin in a desperate lunge for dry land. I didn't fall in and \peri didn't seem to care so we continued on our walk.
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