Thursday, January 19, 2012 Last morning in the Work yard (Day 29) First day in the water…

Well, launch day! I went to the office to see where they were putting us.

I ran into Eric in the office… “We have you on the schedule today for the impeller” “oh, uhm, Wayne gave up and ended up doing it yesterday”. “Oh…well, okay… I’ll tear up the work order then.” “Uhm, okay.” We had an option of slip 13 or a couple places on the wall. After looking at 13 – it had a finger pier that would be difficult to load things on and off the boat, we decided on the corner of the face dock. Nothing against #13 being unlucky or anything, just figured we could get on and off easier at the main dock…

We got launched and into the water with no hitch. The engine started right up, white smoke, but it was all good, then Wayne started checking for leaks to see if we were taking on water. We had water… The bilge pump kicked on and vigorously started spewing water… Yikes… Wayne did some exploring below and discovered that we had water spraying all over the engine compartment from where he changed the impeller. He said once we cut the engine and closed the seacock that it would stop leaking so we got our boat around the corner of the dock quickly. Hmmmm we seem too big for the space allotted to us. Back up, and go to the front facing wall near the fuel pumps…bilge pump kicks on again…move the other two boats down a little further so we can fit too…tie up to the wall…cut the engine and close the seacock. Bilge pump kicked on then off. Wayne said “Well at least we know the bilge pump works” as it kicked on again…and again… Uhm, hun, now that the seacock is closed, why is the bilge pump still working so vigorously? “It will quit as soon as the water pump empties” “oh…okay…”

He went in search of Eric to see if we could get someone to look at it. I didn’t think Eric was going to like this much. He didn’t. “Your wife said you did it yesterday and I don’t know if we’ll be able to get to you today or not. I had to reschedule people again.” Wayne said to wait for them today. The bilge pump kicked on again… Yep, the bilge pump works… may it continue to work…

Debbie came and told us we had a package in the office. Yay! The new windlass is here! Heavy little sucker, but I got it back to the boat.

We worked on the wireless and now have a new hole in the boat and the wire run through the cabinets to the socket where the TV. was (it’s no longer on the boat – didn’t work much anyhow except for DVDs). After we got the wiring through the wall and hooked up, then the antenna up to the spreader and power on…it didn’t work… no signal… wreckin, frecking, smecher (insert favorite cuss words here)...

Just another one of those days…

On investigating, I noticed that where we are is directly behind a large metal gantry between us and the marina wireless antenna… hmmm… guess our wireless either doesn’t work or we don’t have line of sight for it to work with the steel gantry between us and the internet access point. Nice bee’s nest up there though… I’m going to assume for the sake of something going right today that our wireless works and we are just in the wrong spot. Go figure…

Bilge pump kicks on again and it’s almost time for the crew around here to quit and go home. Okay, Time to see if I can find Eric…

Okay… after tracking him down, he’s going to send someone our way tomorrow morning…

Sigh…

5:30pm bilge pump on again… I’m gritting my teeth…

I’m thinking it’s a Burger King kind of night for dinner…