Josh has been spending more and more time in his "engine room man cave" than in his TV room man cave. He has replaced parts that he ordered and removed parts to take home to be worked on.
Al and Kay decided to head back to Seabrook for Halloween and asked us if we would like to ride along. Josh has tools at home to clean out the heat exchanger so we said yes. Back to the engine room Josh went checking everything out again to see if there was anything else he could take off for repair or cleaning while we were home.
Tuesday, October 28th, Road tripping with the Waghorne's back to Seabrook, TX. When we left Pensacola we detoured to Orange Beach to check out the Orange Beach Marina. Thank goodness we did because this will definitely be a stopover on our way back. This is going to be a great place to dinghy around!
The Waghorne's are interesting people and we really enjoyed our road trip. Thanks to the Waghornes, we now have two songs embedded in our brains (Pants on the Ground and I'm Gonna Whip Somebody's Ass). If there was any lull in our conversation they would start singing one of these songs. We are now doing it while riding our bikes around town!
The trip home was rushed. Josh cleaned the heat exchanger several times, took care of our mail, visited with the family, made several trips to West Marine and Home Depot and attended the Celebration of Life for Lorna Glasscock.
November 2nd, we headed back to the boat. Teak did really well during this road trip. She did not get sick, but she sure did make herself very comfortable between Josh and me in the back seat. We were both pushed or kicked close to the doors so she could stretch out.
Monday the 3rd, Josh got up early and started putting all the parts back on the engine and filled it with new antifreeze. Everything was in and engine ready to be started by lunch time. I made Josh a sandwich and after lunch we said "lets start her up and hope it solves the problem". Josh pushed the start button and it went rrr... rrr... rrr... and we went "Oh No - not the batteries". This is not turning into a good day. Our boat was trying to tell us it did not want to leave! Josh checked when we last replaced the batteries and it was almost five years ago. Now we need to see where we can get new ones and how to get them back to the boat. Randy and Beth, a really nice couple who had a sailboat at the marina told Josh they would take him for the batteries. Off they went and they came back with six new batteries, just in time for happy hour. We all decided to go out for dinner and when Josh got on his bike - guess what? Yup!!! He had a flat tire. This was definitely not Josh's day! I was hoping nothing else was going to happen.
Tuesday the 4th, we installed the new batteries and took out the old. These batteries weight about 65 pounds each. I could barely lift them. We should have done this before we left on this trip so we could have used "Daniel power". My poor hubby is going to be a bit sore for a few days! When everything was ready we pushed the start button and the engine came alive. Whoo Hoo!!!! Josh started checking for leaks and (of course...) guess what. The heat exchanger gaskets that he made were leaking and the belt tensioner was jumping and squealing. More parts ordered from Cummins and will be delivered on Monday. The good thing is that Josh will recover by then and will be able to bend, stoop, crawl, lift and do all that stuff you need to do when crawling around in the engine room.
Bummer! I can feel it in my bones that the next round of parts is going to fix it!!
ReplyDeleteCamille
Josh just installed the parts and the leaks have stopped and the belt is not squeling. We will take the boat out maybe tomorrow when the wind is low and see what happens.
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