Friday, November 4, 2016

Titusville - Order parts and we see an alligator in the marina

Must be in a Florida marina, I see an alligator in the fairway
We took advantage of the usual $10/day weekend offer from Enterprise and picked up the car around noon. It's due back Monday at noon for a total cost with tax of about $40. Not all Enterprise offices have this offer but Titusville does. So we are now provisioned and did a wash in Titusville's new commercial grade washers and dryers ($1.50 for a wash and $0.75 for use of a dryer).

He's not all that big but big enough for Hoolie
Sitting on the back of the boat during lunch we saw a familiar sight in the water, an alligator. It wasn't a particularly big one, maybe 6 ft? Any size alligator is a threat to Hoolie so we keep him tight in the cockpit or below in the cabin. The alligator was moving very slowly through the fairway. Now we have a diver coming Saturday morning and I wonder what he thinks about being in the water with an alligator nearby.

The marina manager converted his office into an air conditioned Captain's Room for customers, great!
Meanwhile, we talked to the mechanic at the marina next door and  they have a travel-lift that easily handles Fleetwing. With that I ordered a new cutlass bearing to address the noise while rev'ing the engine in forward and I also ordered a new rear oil seal. The parts cost is modest, it's the labor and cost of hauling the boat that will be the major factor. We'll know more Saturday after the diver inspected the prop and shaft but I suspect we'll need to replace the cutlass bearing, it has 4400 hours on it anyway and suffered stress from the wrapped rope which had pits of cutlass bearing melted into the rope.

Another view of the Captain's Room
This will be the fourth time we've replaced the aft oil seal. They seem to last 1000 to 1500 hours at best before going bad. It seems to be a weak point with Volvo D2-55 engines. If all goes as expected, we'll haul the boat Wednesday and get the repairs done the same day (I even said that will a straight face...)

0 comments: