Back in the Water

Let's see........ we are back in the water, everything is fixed that we needed to do while we where out of the water. We thought that the prop shaft was bent so we took it out and got to use a tool Warren made last year and it worked great.  The shaft was only out by .006 in the middle so Warren had it straightened anywise.  It was the prop shaft coupling that was wobbling. So we got a new coupling, had it faced and installed it.  Warren did replace the stuffing box seals for the rudder.(stuffing box is a large threaded tube that a shaft of some kind passes through with a cap that has a waxed type of flax rope in it and the cap tightens down on the tube preventing water from entering the boat where shafts go through the hull.) While he was taking that all apart. He noticed that the auto pilot arm needs to have a key way added to it because the actuator arm will pull it out of position due to its torque. So we sent it to Dad so he can work his magic. We should have it back in a week or two. Then we hope to go sailing! 

 And when Warren was working in the engine room on some wiring his hand bumped the air conditioning wires and they were very hot.  He just thought that the size 12 wires were not big enough.  So he got some number 10 wires, got it ready, ran it to the air conditioning relay box and when he went to remove one of the wires it  was hot, burnt and not even crimped into the connector.   Warren says that we just narrowly missed an engine room fire. 

<burnt wire it was really hot!!!!

Hurricane Irene is past, there is another one out there. And it will start with a K, I hope it stays out to sea. We just might have to wait and see were it goes.