Transmission Transition on Tenthouse Creek

—Blogpost written by Bob

Our layover in Galesville was caused by problems with our v-drive transmission--there was a very long delay in shifting into forward and there was significant leakage of transmission fluid from the seal nearest the engine.  This layover began on Sunday, June 14.

Thursday, June 18

Yet another day of overcast sky and light rain was upon us.  The rain cleared up by about mid-morning and the day became sunny and pleasant. 

We were still in a waiting pattern for a mechanic to remove our transmission because the boatyard had been slammed with work, involving all the skills.   (Early next week is our best hope.  Then, we will probably be waiting in the queue of the offsite transmission specialist.)

Rain drops populate the outside of
our side cockpit windows
in the early morning.

The upgraded LED light bulbs I installed in the overhead fixture in the head yesterday (a project that was too insignificant to mention) made an enormous difference!  I can actually see enough to shave now—previously I was shaving mostly by feel. (I was lucky not to cut off one of my ears!)

One of the new LED light
bulbs I installed in the
overhead fixture
in the head.

The new light bulb is a 2-watt (Natural Light) LED (25-watt equivalent) with the marking “G4LX2W”.  There are two bulbs in the overhead fixture which has a switch for bulb #1 or both bulbs.  When the switch is set for both bulbs, we have 50-watt equivalent lighting!  I purchased the bulbs from SuperBrightLEDs.

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Another maintenance job done today was tightening the galley faucet—it tends to loosen up over time.  This was a job that was accomplished blind since everything is out of sight and nearly out of reach.  It took two hours to complete!  (Now, we are good for another six months.)  It doesn’t look any different—but now the faucet doesn’t easily rotate like it did previously.

Our recently re-tightened
galley faucet.

Re-tightening the galley faucet was a very frustrating job and there is no way I know of to make it easier or make it more permanent.

We had a light dinner and called it a day...

Friday, June 19

One of my goals for the next couple days is to convert our boat from "cruising mode" to "summer liveaboard" mode.  (Our "summer liveaboard" mode may eventually turn into "winter liveaboard" mode since we have been discussing staying in Baltimore this winter, unless a better opportunity comes up.)  This means unloading our bikes and other items from our quarter berth and removing some items (like our cat retrieval net, etc.) from outside the boat which we will not need in our summer slip.

We drove to Fairwinds Marina with our 6 HP outboard dinghy motor to get it repaired--you may recall the incident with the failed raw water pump after 20 hours of operation.  

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Since we missed a celebration for our 10-year anniversary on May 7 (we were anchored in Kilkenny Creek, GA), we celebrated today with a fabulous lunch outdoors at Carroll’s Creek Cafe.  (Maggie had a crab cake and I had my customary Greek Seafood Salad but, of course, we had their award-winning cream of crab soup as an appetizer.)

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When we returned to the boat we moved our folding bikes from our quarter berth into the folded down back seat of our car.  I also did some research online to support a couple more projects (like how to fix an erratic volume control on our satellite radio) I hoped to complete this weekend.

Saturday, June 20

In the early morning as the sun was rising, I walked around the marina and captured some images of a nearby yellow sailboat with my new (to me) NIKON D-750 camera:

A yellow sailboat really stands out
in a marina with lots of drab
surroundings.

I think this sailboat is an older
Tartan 27 but I'm not sure.

Someone is adding a lot of TLC
to this solid old boat!

Even though I have always had NIKON cameras, I am not yet familiar with all the added features on this camera--I am anxious to learn more about them!  One of the new features that I'm excited about is using Live View with the LCD screen on the back of the camera tilted up at 90 degrees for a lower point of view.

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We continued converting our boat to "summer liveaboard" mode by removing two extra propane tanks, cutting some worn areas from some dock lines, and blowing up our new fender and attaching lines to it.  I reworked some of the line hooks on the stern rail and placed all our (now shortened) dock lines to them.  Our boat started looking a lot more "yachty" and less "trashy" for its arrival at its summer home port.  (I still have a lot more work to do!)

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Today, I noticed that some of my sore body parts are starting to heal and feel better.  This week of relative rest has been good for both of us.  Stay tunes for our upcoming transmission repairs...


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