This weekend was fairly mild and with sailing season right around the corner there was quite a crowd in the marina. Most people were working on their boats but there was also a number of people just walking around with their kids and dogs. Kinda like going to the park for the day. Then there was the usual power squadron crowd on the next dock over, started drinking at 1000, yelling and screaming by noon, totally obnoxious by 1400. We suddenly realized how pleasant it's been this Winter having the place all to ourselves.Saturday we splurged and bought a Blu-Ray player for our home theater. We'd been copying our DVD's onto the hard drive and found that we couldn't do the B-R movies. Some of our favorites are in B-R and we figured it was cheaper to buy the Blu-Ray drive than to replace the movies with regular DVD's. So we picked up a nice Samsung model that up-converts so we can get 1080p on regular DVD's too. Also has a lot of other nice features which we'll probably never use. What's really nice is it does a handshake with our Samsung 37" flatscreen and controls that too. When we sat down to watch our movies we were blown away by the quality of the picture. OK, now we have a pretty nice system. And all we need is enough power to run it when we're out on the hook. That's another project for the list.
The weather report for Sunday (2-27) was calling for temperatures in the high 50's, winds out of the SSW at 10 kts. and overcast skies turning to rain in the early evening. It sounded like it might be a good day for getting out on the Bay but we had some chores to take care of first. Cheri is working on a quilt for a niece's new baby which is due some time in March so she wanted to finish it up this weekend. I took on the laundry so she could finish her sewing. We both finished up by 1100, had the boat secured for sea by 1130 and were on our way.
We cruised out of the marina at a nice 6.2 knots. As we approached the breakwater I gave it a little more throttle to give our little Yanmar diesel a chance to stretch her legs at 2500 rpm's. As engine speed went over 2000 rpm's the boat began to vibrate. I mean visibly shake. What? I'm thinking broken motor mount, maybe something trapped in the prop. Who knows? I reduced throttle and the vibration stopped. I handed over the helm to Cheri and went below to investigate. Easiest access to the engine is through the galley. When I opened the door to the engine I shined my flashlight around but didn't see anything suspicious. I did a full look-see beginning at the front and worked my way back. As the light hit the transmission I noticed the propeller shaft swinging in a wide arc at 1500 rpm's. Uhm, it's not supposed to do that. I called up to Cheri to drop it into neutral and swing the boat around to head back to the marina.
Access to the rear of the engine is in the aft cabin under the bunk. It's also under about 1200 pounds of junk that we've stashed back there. That was planned out well. Took me about 5 minutes to get access to the engine and when I raised the panel I could clearly see what the problem was. The propeller shaft is connected to the transmission through a flange with four bolts. Three of the bolts were scattered around the trough under the engine. The fourth bolt was hanging on for dear life, but just barely. Yikes! I guess it's about time to do some maintenance on the engine!
I don't think we've put more than 40 hours on the engine since we bought the boat. I had been putting off maintenance until March, thinking I'd have her freshened up for the upcoming sailing season. Since March begins tomorrow I'll be getting started on that right away. I had been planning to do things like change the oil and fuel filters, replace the impeller and all the hoses, maybe clean the heat exchanger and adjust the valves. Now I think I'll go over this baby with a fine toothed comb. Maybe start with the propeller shaft and work my way forward.
OK, so back to the story. We're sitting dead in the water, with the engine off to save my ears. We're slowly drifting back towards the entrance to the harbor just outside the breakwater. We have plenty of room to drift for a while and there's not a single other boat in sight. I scrounged around under the engine and located all the bolts and lock washers and bolted the shaft back in place. Getting up from the bunk I notice this huge red stain on the cushion and realize I've shredded my arm on a hose clamp or something. Cheri's still manning (womaning?) the helm and asks if we're ready to head out. I take a minute to wash off my arm and find it's not as bad as it looked. OK Baby! Let's go sailing!
We fired up the engine and ran it up to 2500 rpm's. Sounded good, nice and smooth. We headed down towards red #2, raised the sails and killed the engine. That instant when you stop the engine and all you hear is wind and water is one of the most awesome moments in sailing.
We sailed out into the Bay on a course of 90 degrees magnetic. As soon as we got out there the wind died down and we just ghosted in an Easterly direction at about 3 knots until 1500. I had been watching a tanker coming up the Bay for quite a while. He was apparently moving pretty slow as our courses were converging and we were only going about 5 knots. As we came up to the edge of the deep water channel I luffed our sails a bit and waited for him to pass. It took forever. As he finally went by I decided we'd better head for home and we came about to course 270.
The temperature in our cockpit enclosure was 70 degrees up to this point but as we sailed home it dropped like a rock. Clouds had blocked out the sun and the temperature plummeted to 55 degrees. We were making pretty good time heading back to Herring Bay, 6.5 knots and heeled over at 8 degrees. Cheri went below and fired up the diesel heater which quickly restored the cockpit temperature to a comfortable 65 degrees. While she was down there she cooked up a batch of peanut butter cookies. We sailed back close hauled, steady on our course with flat seas and a constant breeze. I'm talking perfection here. I barely had to touch the wheel! And we had peanut butter cookies! Life is good! As we rounded red #2 for the return run home we dropped the genoa and staysail and let the main out on the port side, running before the wind at 3.2 knots all the way back to the harbor entrance.
This is Wintertime in Maryland and I'm thinking it's pretty nice.
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