Immediately after breakfast, Jerry got to work on the dingy motor adjustment per Chris' recommendation. Yesterday afternoon he used the handsaw to cut wood slices for the shim, then glued them together. At 1.5" higher, the screw-on motor mounts will be at the very top of the transom. No way they will hold the motor, so in addition to the shim he will need to drill holes to bolt the motor mount to transom. Doing this adjustment would be a quick and easy job on land. Over water it's tricky. Most importantly we need to avoid dropping the motor into the water when it is lifted off the transom. Almost as important is to avoid dropping any tools, bolts, washers and nuts into the water. We have only a basic tool set with us (until our household shipment arrives) and only one set of bolts, washers & nuts for this job.

Our new arch has a lifting arm, which Jerry outfitted with lines and pulleys just last week. With it, and a separate safety line attached to the motor lifting eye, we were able to lift the motor off the transom, insert the shim and drop the motor back down. A couple of hours later, the four bolts were in place and the adjustment ready to test. The result: Ha mejorado mucho! Jerry declares New Car operational.



After lunch Jerry checks in with the local Spectra watermaker contact. It's been a week since the local contact worked on our watermaker and talked with the factory so we expect the replacement watermaker pump to have arrived yesterday or earlier today. If so, we hope to make a quick stop at Nanny Cay (Tortola) for that work today, then check-out of BVI / into USVI and head to Red Hook for the arch reinforcement work. The local Spectra contact said the part had not arrived. Jerry calls Spectra. The parts have not yet shipped! Definitely not pleased with Spectra and their products at this point.

New Plan Time: With this seeming lack of a sense of urgency and customer care from Spectra, we can no longer allow it to be a critical path item. Coordinating the arch reinforcement installation around the household shipment arrival is now top priority. Jerry calls Coleman American for an update.