Well the crew change went smoothly, but a bit of a problem
trying to find the Amtrak station at 3:00 in the morning. Poorly marked and
just a dark platform with no office. Jim made his connection at 3:40 about 10
minutes late. Much thanks to Jim for traveling almost 700 miles on the boat
with me. I appreciate all his work and continual interest in the boat and the process
of moving forward.
The love of my life arrived at 4:55 AM this morning; I slept
in the car between the 3:30 Capitol Limited bound for Chicago and the Lake
Shore Limited coming from Chicago.
We did a bit of shopping, returned the rental car, planning
for a short trip to Middle Bass Island. But the wind had increased to 18 knots
and waves to 3 feet. As we were deciding on traveling, we asked some fishermen
if they had been out. Oh, yes they had and found 5 foot waves, no traveling for
us. They advised on Thursday the winds were to shift to the south and the waves
would lie down.
Considering we were a bit tired after our all-nighter, we stayed
in port today.
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| Stuffing Box Center Dish Pan and pump below |
I worked on one of my
boat projects to minimize the amount of water in the bilge by adding a catch
basin and sump pump under the stuffing box. The stuffing box provides a seal
between the prop shaft and the boat. It is lubricated by a constant drip of
water while the prop is turning. The proper drip rate is about 1 drop every 6
to 10 seconds. Currently, this cooling water collects in the bilge in an area 8
feet long by 2 feet wide by 6 inches deep. When the water reaches a high enough
level the bilge pump automatically pumps the water overboard. This leads to a
high moisture area under much of the boat. By adding the dish pan catch basin,
I reduced the wetted area to a 12X15X2 inch area greatly reducing the moisture
in the bilge. The pump is now operating properly and in time we will dry the
bilge completely.
Really nice to have Carol aboard again, being apart
certainly shows us the importance of our relationship.
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| Look Closely at the Captains name on the roof. |
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| Good night |
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