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.

Sunday, June 21

Fourteen hours and fifty-three minutes of daylight on this day in Maryland made it the longest day (light) of the year 2020. 

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I completed the remounting of the line holders on the stern pulpit while it was still cool outside.  I had previously used the white self-fusing tape beneath the mounts to prevent the holders from turning around the one-inch stainless steel rail of the stern pulpit but it was getting ratty looking.  So, I pulled off the old white tape and applied new red (electrical) tape to the rail where the line holders were located.

The remounted and re-spaced
line holders on the stern rail.

This past winter season has been very hard on our dock lines--several had badly worn areas and a couple others had already been cut down in length because of excessive wear.  We use 5/8-inch diameter 12-strand nylon dock lines, not undersized by any measure.  All the wear occurred while we stayed in Emerald Bay Marina on Great Exuma.

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We’ve been putting off the task of removing some of Lola’s hair mats for months.  We decided that today was the day that we get rid of them.  I captured her as she was returning to the cockpit from the foredeck.  I held onto her two back legs while Maggie used my electric shaver to cut out the mats.  As we completed the worst side I tried to turn her around and she bit into my wrist with all her might—she drew blood where all six of her incisors punctured my skin.  I angrily threw her into the boat, knowing that she would land on all four feet and would not be hurt.  I felt awful for the next couple hours, not because of her bite, but because the entire episode was so frightful for her.  When I reached into her little hiding place, she licked my hand.  (I guess we are OK now...)

Monday, June 22

On my list of things to do for the day was to upgrade two interior 12-volt fans:  one near the port settee (which has become very noisy) and the other in the navigation station (which doesn’t move enough air).  I have Hella-brand fans throughout the boat and I believe they move a lot of air using very little electrical power.

My preferred interior fan is the
HELLA 2-speed Turbo fan.

So, we drove into Annapolis (to Fawcetts) to pick up two fans only to find out that they seemed to not carry the HELLA-brand fans any longer.  Stopping by the nearby West Marine revealed the same thing.  So, from the parking lot, using my cell phone, I ordered two HELLA-brand fans from Amazon—they will be here (actually in Baltimore) tomorrow.  (I have to ask myself what is the point in supporting local stores when they don’t carry what I want to buy?)

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Late in the morning, we removed some of the canvas from the boat and cleaned all the salt out of it in preparation for coating it with water proofing this evening.  (Tomorrow, we will tackle the canvas aft of the dodger-bimini connector piece.)

This pic was taken of pieces of
our canvas spread out on
the dock just before
the thunderstorm.

The waterproofing was applied to the
thin area around the windows
with a foam brush.

At 5:45 PM the rain came down very suddenly and heavily which stopped our canvas waterproofing project dead in its tracks.  We moved the canvas sections off the dock and into the cockpit under the bimini.  Everything that wasn’t waterproofed yet got soaking wet.  (Now, we have to wait for the panels that were caught out in the rain to dry out again.)

Tuesday, June 23

We got up early in anticipation of our transmission being removed for repairs first thing in the morning.  While waiting for the mechanic to arrive at our boat (he finally arrived at 10:30 AM) we resumed our waterproofing of some of the canvas panels.  I removed the panels connecting to the hard dodger while Maggie applied the waterproofing to other panels. 

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The mechanic assigned to remove our transmission thought it was safer to pull the boat out of the water so that we didn’t get too much water leakage into the boat while removing the transmission—so, I agreed with the safer choice of doing a short haul.  We left the boatyard with Lola and went out for lunch at Lemongrass II outside Annapolis and had an absolutely delicious lunch!  (Lola waited in our car with the A/C running while we ate at outside tables in sight of our car.)

Then we drove to Baltimore to pick up some packages that had arrived and then stopped at West Marine’s rigging shop to pick up our replacement forward upper starboard lifeline.

We got back to the boat just before 5 PM and the boat was back in the water and the transmission was removed!  This was an accomplishment with celebrating at Happy Hour!

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Stay tuned for more progress on our transmission repairs...

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