Stuck in Ecuador

Another intense week of these projects and I think I might melt. Aligning the shaft properly, taking the strut on and off until it was fine-tuned, meant, for me, going "into the sweat hole (hull)" from the back lazaret wearing my trusty headlamp and contorting the bod into a little ball with socket and wrench in hand while communicating by radio with David below. Inside it is dark and hot. It seemed like I did that a million times on Wednesday, but I think it was only 6 or 7 times.

In between those times, I sanded and painted the patches we have left to do on the hull and washed the interior cushion covers. Seems like I have never worked so hard in my life, and I know that David feels the same way.  I am so impressed with David`s amazing ability to solve all of these detailed problems with such non-stop tenacity, aligning the shaft with the engine, etc. It took him all day, grinding, measuring, shaking his head, more grinding, fitting, grunting and growling through sunset to finally finish.  Phew!  He finished the second coat of painting in the dark while I made him dinner.  Cold beers are always a sweet end of the work day treat; thank goodness we have the little refrigerator that was given to us by the couple who own Rachel II. 

We caught a ride with Marisol into Guayaquil yesterday, had our teeth cleaned by her dentist (a perfect experience I might add), and bought a brand new Yamaha 15 HP engine for the dinghy, which will be delivered tomorrow. Marisol was so helpful when it came time to getting our VISA okayed; we must have waited for 2 hours for the process to go through. I did get a chance to speak Spanish most of the day and it will be a long-awaited treat to be able to go with friends exploring without having to worry about power and efficiency. 

Today was the "install the new prop" day and a short while ago, we discovered that the new $2800 prop is the wrong size and will not work!  PHEW!  Each day seems to bring some kind of glitch and I am not sure what our next move is. Martec is not open on Friday, but I will try to email them hoping someone is in the office catching up on paperwork. I must get back to the boat to work on more stuff and to try to figure out our next move.