Saturday January 22, 2011

Garvin arrived at about 9:00AM. He showed me the old impeller. It was in terrible shape. The impeller looks like a water wheel with eight fins coming out of the center circle. Five of the fins had vanished! There were only three left. We quickly placed the Honda on the motor mount as a light rain had started. I pulled the starter grip and pulled. The engine jumped to life instantly. It also started spiting water from the cooling port. The engine was cooling properly. I put the engine in forward gear. The motor pushed the boat forward and Water Mark tugged at her dock lines. I put the engine in reverse. The propeller reversed. Again the boat tugged at her dock lines.

I paid Garvin and he headed off in the rain.

Once the motor was secure, I started drying out the carpet and inside cushions that had gotten wet during the rain yesterday. There was a slight leak from the starboard window and during the heavy rain, the boat leaked from the top side. Better leaks on the top that on the bottom.

I washed my clothes in a bucket of water. It was very cloudy today so drying the clothes and the boat was difficult. I finally took the clothes to the laundry room here at the marina and dried them in a machine. I guess the sun needs to be shining in order to dry clothes.

While trying to dry out a sailor named Mike came by the boat and invited me to a happy hour on his boat. He has a huge catamaran. (Dave, he has Manta hull #14.) His boat is 40 feet long and 20 feet wide and takes up to parking places. It has three bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, living room, a freezer as well as a washer and dryer. He sold his house in Atlanta and 2 cars. He has his wife and fourteen year old daughter with him. The name of their boat is Happy Times. I hope that it lives up to its name. As they build up enough confidence to sail around the world.

There is another huge catamaran in the marina from Sydney Australia. From here they are headed to Nassau and then south through the Panama Canal into the south Pacific and home to the land down under.

As I head for my bunk, the winds are howling at about 25 knots with gusts up to 30. Tonight the water and wind will rock me to sleep.