Engine Maintenance
Tuesday 22nd December 2020
Today was an exciting day for Gloria. She got to open her Christmas presents three days early and play with them! This year Gloria got not one, but two new belts for our Yanmar diesel engine. How exciting is that? She’s such a lucky girl! So this morning we replaced both the alternator drive belt and also the fridge compressor drive belt. These jobs aren’t too tricky but we also replaced the impeller on our raw water pump and this is a pain in rear end. We’ve done it before and we know how to do it; it is just extremely difficult to get to. You need to assume an advanced yoga position like a contortionist to reach through an opening underneath the kitchen sink, round the back of the starter motor and remove four screws and a metal plate (without dropping them). You have to pull out the old impeller with needle nose pliers, then squeeze in the new one making sure the fins are folded back in the correct orientation for rotation. Finally the plate has to be screwed back on. I honestly can’t imagine doing this whilst out at sea. To finish off we cleaned out the raw water strainer, (which filters the sea water going into the water pump to cool the engine). It’s just as well we did this, as it was ¾ full of jellyfish.
We took a break midday and went to eat at the local waterside pub / restaurant, sitting out on the deck as far away from anyone else as we could. Then it was back to the boat and more jobs. In the afternoon we dismantled our bimini sunshade and cut 4” off the main legs so that it isn’t quite so high, then refitted and adjusted it so the additional zip-on sections of canvas still fit properly. We rounded off the day with a trip to Publix to buy some groceries. Thanks to Paul and Fran we have a car that we can use whist we are here. Now we are relaxing in the cabin, completely exhausted!
Mike
27 39.482 N, 80 22.215 W
It was a gorgeous sunset! Great shot!
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