Unpredictable Weather!

The weather here in Marathon swings from one end of the pendulum to the other just like elsewhere in the country.

Tuesday it was a beautiful day in paradise. We decided to take a sail out in Hawk Chanel just out side of Sisters Creek. This was the first time we ventured out the shallow creek known as Sisters Creek. It was just shy of high tide so we felt safe. We went slow and made it out with no less than a foot and a half to spare under the keel. There was very little wind about 8 knots but we put the sails up and got 3 1/2 knots of speed over ground. Hunters are light boats and do well in light winds. Everything was going well until I went below and noticed a strange noise. I ask Larry to come below and listen to it. Sometimes under sail the prop still continues to turn and makes a soft swishing sound. We had that sound but with a clicking sound, not good. Larry usually puts the transmission into reverse and the prop stops turning. It didn't work! He then, after starting the engine, put the transmission into forward gear but the boat didn't move. Oh Boy we had trouble. After bringing in the sails Larry began to investigate. He checked the transmission, which is located of course under our bed. He discovered that the shaft for the prop came out of the transmission. He then went into the water to make sure we had not wrapped a crab pot around the prop or shaft. No crab pot. After some working he was able to put the shaft back into the transmission. The forward motion and force kept the shaft in place under slow propulsion so we could limp back to our mooring. We had ask a friend to stand by just in case we missed the ball. We could not put the transmission into reverse because the the force would also be reversed and pull the shaft out. Our normal approach is to come up onto the ball and then put the boat into reverse, which will stop the boat. We were lucky there was very little wind and we made a safe landing. When we got settled, Larry decided to wait for the next morning to get a fresh start to tackle the job.

Wednesday morning I went to shore to do laundry and Larry started his repair. After working for several hours to remove four bolts that just would not budge, he called the diesel repair shop. He set up a time to take the boat to shore for the work to be done. We weren't looking forward to that bill at $90 dollars an hour. After lunch Larry decided to give it one more shot and off came the bolts after sitting with a product called Blaster soaking in for a few hours. Yeah! Now to find the proper fitting wrench (30 mil). After riding his bike for miles and visiting several possible sources with no luck, it looked like we were still going to need a mechanic. While I was in the laundry I met another cruiser and her husband was a mechanic. Yeah! He didn't have the proper metric tool we needed. Worth a try! Guess we still need to go to the mechanic tomorrow.

Well as you can see by the picture the weather turned foul again on Thursday. No way are we going to move the boat to a dock in this weather. We cancelled our appointment.

Here in Marathon we have what is known as the cruisers net, every morning at 9 AM. On this net you can ask for help from other cruisers. We did just that and ask if anyone had a wrench we could borrow. Unfortunately no one did but our friend from the laundry came to our rescue. He had the night before sat with conversion tables and found a wrench he had that would work. Yeah! With that wrench Larry was able to fix our transmission and shaft. Now we just have to wait for a new dip stick for the oil on the transmission. When he went to remove it to fill the oil that drained out the threads broke off. Go figure. All in the life of a sailor. We feel fortunate that all this didn't happen on a Bahama crossing over the Gulf Stream.