Wednesday was a day set aside for chores. The most important one was a visit from Ross Marine to install our new windlass controller box. Sarkis (yes it’s his first name, of French origin) arrived at 9:30 and began work. He was not the same fellow who diagnosed the problem a couple days before, so he had a little trouble deciphering the original man’s notes regarding the wiring. After installation, the windlass worked once, then quit! That was Murphy's first visit of the day.
Sarkis spent quite a bit of time checking the wiring and finally found a wire that was shorting out at the upper helm. No, we are not even going to THINK that maybe that was the problem all along and the $280 we spent on the new controller was unnecessary. It WAS a separate problem!
Then Sarkis began the second assignment: replacing all of the raw water impellers on both main engines and the generator. Chris Caldwell advised they’d potentially all been sandblasted by our “soft grounding” and it would be better to go ahead and change them out because having one break later could constitute an emergency. Murphy's second visit came when Sarkis found he did not have the tool required to remove the main engine’s impellers. Thinking through the options: go to the local hardware store and get a 3/4 inch fine thread bolt, which might be used. Bob went for a 3-block walk to True Value – no luck. However, Jerry and Jenny (see post below) had loaned us their car for the day, so next he went to the local NAPA store. Still no joy. We called a more distant specialty hardware store, but nope, but they didn’t have what we needed either. Finally we called the Caterpillar dealer 20 miles away. Yes, they had the special tool we needed! Bob made the run out to Summerville and back. Murphy's next visit was: this special part was too long to fit our application as an oil supply pipe was in the way!
After a few minutes thought, a hacksaw was brought to bear on said tool and it became short enough to fit. Bob took off to do more errand-running in the car, and Cathryn stayed on the boat to be taught by Sarkis how to change impellers as part of her co-captaincy commitment. She is still too intimidated to tackle electrical work, but is game for things of a mechanical nature. Access to the water pump wherein live the impellers was easy on the starboard engine. Unfortunately getting to the pump on the port engine required squirming behind the engine and lying on one’s shoulder and side scrunched between the engine and wall with feet in the air to do the work!
As usual, Cathryn does nothing in half measures. Here she is emerging from behind the port engine after installing the last clip and the plate on the impeller. What a “girl”!
About 6:15pm, just as Jerry and Jenny arrived for drinks before dinner, Sarkis packd up to head home. He was certainly ready to go, and we were ready to move on too.
Just a final note: Ross Marine discounted our bill by 2 1/4 labor hours to reflect that they should have known about the required tool ahead of time. We thought that was fair, and really appreciated Sarkis’ commitment to getting the job done for us by staying two hours beyond his normal quitting time.
Again, all’s well that ends well.
1 comment:
Good old Murphy!
Thank you for sharing the lessons-learned aspect of your day, as well as the testimony as to the way Ross Marine treated you.
Here's to the hope for the uneventful and less challenging days ahead of you!
Cheers!
Guy
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