Monday, November 17, 2014
Today, we meet Melvin, one of Bobby’s guys who is going to take care of our mechanical work. So while Melvin is working on draining the saildrive gear oil Jim and I are getting the pieces together to get the dingy hauled…
Wash the locking cars
Find the hoist lines (hidden in plain site right next the main sheet in the aft cabin)
Remember how they WERE run, and then run them the other way so the lines SHOULD no longer jump the rollers when moving…(should, such a powerful word).
Of course this is all much easier with the use of a ladder, which we borrowed from Bobby as well and with only one little oops, and re-run of the hoist, the lines and fenders are good to go.

I had to run out to see about getting a few things, and while I was away, Jim uncovered the dingy and disabled the lock securing it with the universal key (read Bolt cutters). Between the sea air, and the mud there was no way an actual KEY was going to turn that thing. So after I got back, with Melvin moved on to the engine oil, Jim is ready to tackle the outboard.

Again, the ladder is a huge benefit, as I am of little use hauling our 85lb outboard engine around. Fortunately Jim isn’t, and manages, with very little help from me, to maneuver the engine to the edge of the swim step, climb over it on to the ladder then pick up the engine one handed and walk it down to the ground. WOW!

With the engine on the ground we flip the dingy over and move it into position. It is 12 feet long and 125 lbs, but surprisingly easy to move..(except for slipping in the mud )…must be the Kettlebell training! This took maybe 10 minutes from the time we dropped the engine, and right about now a security guard stops by to talk to us.

Now, they have clearly beefed up security here and we see the guards driving regular routes every 20-30 minutes thru the yard all day long – but this is the first time one has stopped. In his limited English, and my non-existent Spanish it quickly becomes clear that he wants to know what we are planning to do with the engine. Ahhh, no worries, we explain, we are putting it ON the dingy, hoisting it up and locking it to the boat. Ok, Ok, that works for him, but still he takes the number off the engine, and makes a note of it on his clipboard. That is just Super with us…and we are very glad for all the extra steps to make sure our stuff is safe!

We finish hoisting the dingy, and Melvin comes out of the starboard engine area to ask us when our starting battery exploded. What, WHAT? Yeah – there is a Big hole in the top of it, it would have made a big noise ‘Boom!’, when did it happen? Uh…uh…WHAT? So he takes the battery out and sure enough there is a 3 x 3 inch–ish hole in the top of the battery. He tells us it probably happened a few months ago, as there was acid in the battery, but there was none active (read Corrosive) in the engine compartment. WOW! Talk about God’s protection – other than the battery itself, there does not appear to be any damage in the engine compartment (which, by the way is beneath our BED!), there was no fire, and no one was injured or even aware it occurred. Oddly enough, we had arranged with Bobby last Saturday to order new starting batteries…guess we REALLY need them!