I awoke to the same sound I fell asleep with. The sound of continuous raindrops descending steadily onto the deck of A B Sea. My first thought was "There go the plans for applying epoxy primer to the keel." My second thought was "I really need to empty my bladder and I'm going to get drenched."
Because A B Sea is still on the hard stands in the boatyard we have use of the bathroom facilities in one of the onsite apartments, it's only a short walk and I didn't get too soaked. In the apartment I noticed a package which was addressed to A B Sea and I brought it back to the boat for opening.
Inside we were pleasantly surprised to discover two packets of Swiss chocolate which had been sent to us by Heinz and Heidi as a thank you for showcasing their Brillean cleaning products in a couple of our videos. The chocolate was very tasty and it certainly brought a smile to our faces on a rainy day.
The impeller puller
The impeller is a small but vital part of the engine cooling system that gets checked at every engine service interval. The last time it was inspected I noticed that a couple of the little rubber arms had broken off, therefore it needed replacing. It took me close to 90 minutes the remove the broken impeller using a pair of pliers and that battle prompted me to search the Interwebs for a tool to make the job quick and easy. Amazon UK was where I found what I needed and I placed the order. I was very happy when a week or so later the shiny new impeller puller arrived and I stowed it away where the replacement impellers live and gave a little smile knowing that I'd just made one boat job a little easier. I was wrong.
The time came to inspect and possibly change the engine impeller and I confidently grabbed the puller and a replacement impeller.
The positioning of the impeller housing is different depending on engine manufacturer and engine type and our housing faces to the stern of the boat, it also faces the front of the starter motor and unfortunately I discovered that there is not enough space between the two to be able to get the impeller puller into position to remove the impeller. Bugger.
Luckily a visual inspection of the impeller showed that it was all in one piece and didn't require replacing. The keyway key
There are currently many boat jobs that are still in progress on A B Sea, most of them are that way because we're waiting on a particular part to be delivered. One big item is the cutlass bearing and I was going through that job in my mind and one area of concern was how we were going to persuade the small steel key back into the keyway at the end of the prop shaft.
I climbed down the ladder and walked under the boat to eyeball the two components. Then my little inner voice said "Are you sure the faces of that key are symmetrical?" At first glance they looked the same but when I rotated the key 90 degrees and placed it into the keyway it slipped all the way in quite easily. So that's one less thing to worry about.
Sailing plans
The last of our Interwebs orders should be arriving at the boat yard by next week and we plan on getting all the jobs finished by the end of June. Because the Greek cruising tax is payable by the calendar month we plan to be back in the water by the first of July and that will give us the whole month to sail east and south through the Aegean Sea towards Kas in Turkey and visit some of the Greek islands we didn't get to see on our journey west last year.
Word around the boaties is that both Greece and Turkey will fully open their borders by the first of July.
Bit of a short blog this week, I'll see if I can make up for it next week. Stay safe out there.
To watch the video that accompanies this blog click here.