Well, after many bangs with my head the wall finally came tumbling down yesterday. Yes, the new prop is installed and appears to be working just fine. The in-water test will come tomorrow afternoon when we finally get back in the water and are able to use it. Then I will be able to determine if all the hassle, all the additional expense and emotional trauma were worth it! I had troubles right to the end as it took me half the day to remove the old prop body from the shaft. I had put the old one on thinking there was no way the new part I needed to install the new prop would arrive here in time and we had to get out of here. But it did, so the first order of the day yesterday morning was to remove the prop, and without going into detail, believe me when I say it was a genuine BITCH!!! But after trying the third different type of puller and heating it big time with my torch, it finally popped (and I do mean POPPED!) off. After that it was just following directions (yes, I actually read the directions), and it is now there at the end of our shaft looking pretty as hell and being admired by all who walk by. Now if only it works right and doesn´t fall off somewhere between here and the Galapagos.
The next couple of days will be full of preparations for the trip and a few more last minute small projects on Sidewinder, but most of that can be done while we are in the water waiting to check out of this harbor on Thursday. I can´t wait to get back into the water!!!
We´ll be in touch-
See ya, David
Suzi and David are on their way.
No comments:
Post a Comment