Posted by Monty
We are on the final push. Only five more working days to go before we leave for the Wedding Cruise for the youngest son. We want to have the boat pretty much ready to go by then, so that when we come back we can immediately leave for warmer climes.
As we are going to be living "on the hook" (anchor), a pretty important accoutrement to a cruising boat is the dinghy. It's basically the family car. You get your groceries, go to the post office, etc. in this thing. Regular readers of this blog know that I have two dinghys and two engines, and have been rooting for the two stroke Mercury (lighter, has a built in fuel tank that I can use as a reserve, more bottom end torque) over the four stroke Tohatsu (better fuel economy and easier for Carol to start). The problem is that, for some reason, the Merc will not run for more than ten minutes before it mysteriously dies. Not to be outdone, I finally did the fine tuning adjustments to the carburetor and started her up.
As we are going to be living "on the hook" (anchor), a pretty important accoutrement to a cruising boat is the dinghy. It's basically the family car. You get your groceries, go to the post office, etc. in this thing. Regular readers of this blog know that I have two dinghys and two engines, and have been rooting for the two stroke Mercury (lighter, has a built in fuel tank that I can use as a reserve, more bottom end torque) over the four stroke Tohatsu (better fuel economy and easier for Carol to start). The problem is that, for some reason, the Merc will not run for more than ten minutes before it mysteriously dies. Not to be outdone, I finally did the fine tuning adjustments to the carburetor and started her up.
And it ran like it was stolen. Like never before. Like the fine tuned machine that it is.
And it ran and ran and ran. Thirty minutes, or more, and it was still going strong.
But you, dear reader, know where this is going, don't you? So does Carol.
OK, I'm done. While I'm willing to take some problems on the road with me, this is not one of them. Mount up the Japanese iron.
It runs, too. And for more than thirty minutes. As a final test, I took it to Paradise Cove for a beer. Carol took the car, and met me over there. It was flawless, and the Mercury was defeated. I am now going to sell this demonic engine (with full disclosure) to someone who loves it even more than me.
Turn the page.
The final stage in our "sole" project is reinforcing the weak wood that is not bad enough (I mean, too much trouble to) actually replace. This involves drilling holes partially through the floor and injecting an epoxy into the substrate, where it will wick it's way into the soft spots and make them hard again. The down side of this is that you cannot step on the repair, as there is a 24 hour cure time. So, I made Carol some "stepping stones". Just like in her garden.
Turn the page.
The final stage in our "sole" project is reinforcing the weak wood that is not bad enough (I mean, too much trouble to) actually replace. This involves drilling holes partially through the floor and injecting an epoxy into the substrate, where it will wick it's way into the soft spots and make them hard again. The down side of this is that you cannot step on the repair, as there is a 24 hour cure time. So, I made Carol some "stepping stones". Just like in her garden.
"X" marks the spot.