YES......we are on the water again.

So we are back in the water headed south with a stronger Kasidah. Here is the latest with the prop shaft.

We were waiting to be pulled from the water again, (they had to turn us around because of our new radar and their hoist style, Plus launch another boat after the owner showed up to move it). There was an engine guy there and I invited him on the boat to look at the alternator. I had always wanted to put a 2nd one on the engine. He started looking at the alternator and said “Hey the bracket on the alternator is broken.” “No it’s not” I said. But it was. Come to find out it had been hitting a cabinet and broke. Well it never did before this. So we are looking around and see a front motor mount loose. The lags had been ripped out of the motor bunks. The front of the engine had lifted up, throwing the alignment out. But why did the front starboard mount rip out? Well on the opposite rear engine adjuster screw, the jacking bolt or bottom adjuster nut had backed down all the way, allowing the engine back to drop. This drove the prop-shaft onto the fiberglass tube where it finally burned up, let loose, started to leak and, the rest is history.

So I’m glad we found out the real cause of the failure. Now the fix was a lot easier than I thought. But the tank had to come out, the aft cabin torn apart. A new fiberglass tube installed, new drip-less fitting. We checked the shaft to make sure it was straight. The engine bunks were a concern to me now. But we were able to bore them out, fill with epoxy and filler, Got a couple of longer ones and they all are good now. The insurance company is being great and might cover a large part of the bill. This would be fantastic.

We left on Thursday for Swansboro NC but as the day went on a front we had been watching looked as it was going to be heading our way so we decided to head once again for a marina(this one is cheap really cheap). The wind has been steady 30 to 40 and lots of cold and rain. This pattern of weather is really started to get the best of me.
We are trying to get to a marina in South Carolina called Osprey Marina near Myrtle Beach where we would leave the boat and head north for a few weeks. We are trying to plan it now and may have found a way to get it there in the next few days.
One thing about living on the boat is that everything is written in sand at low tide............