This weekend we put the boats back together having dodged Hurricane Ike which had the possibility of coming here but instead slammed into Texas near Galveston.
Any way -- enough of the dreary. Today we cleaned the boats, and dressed them again in canvas and sails ready to do some fall cruising. But first more work. The agenda was for installing a new impeller in the main engine which went well and to study that hot packing nut on the prop shaft -- such a mystery. When it was all corroded and nasty and just two curls of packing it worked fine and cool. Now it runs hot -- very hot. If you take the packing nut off -- hardly any water flows out -- just weeps!! I can't believe it. Jim looked at it with me and we ran the engine with the packing nut free and still the threaded portion warmed up!! We determined that the tube and packing assembly must be meeting within the rubber log so I moved the rubber log 1" further out insuring at least 1 inch of separation. More water flowed when the engine ran. I reduced the number of curls in the nut from 3 to 2 and reassembled using the fancy Synthol grease -- now to test under a cruise.
The day was hot and sticky so I shut down around 4pm and cleaned up -- we had a party to attend to tonight. It was an Oktoberfest organized by our intrepid dock master Al. Al even dressed up for it.
The format was a pot luck with brats and sausages -- tame and game -- supplied. Lots of great eating and everyone had a great time. This could become an annual event now.
