Robin's Reports

Some new vocabulary for the novice/ mechanic wife:

Transom - Back end of the boat. Must stay dry (interior) to be worthy of holding engine.

Fittings - Anything round that goes through the boat or attaches to something else. Usually doesn't cost much to replace, so no freak-out necessary.

Engine - That big black thing hanging off the end of the boat.

Engine Bracket - The piece that holds the engine to the boat transom (silver on our boat)

Powerhead - Big head-like part of the outboard engine

Foot - lower part of the engine where the propeller attaches

Propeller - Shiny pin-wheel thingy that spins at the bottom of the foot. Don't touch.

Steer Shaft - Long silver rod that connects the foot to the powerhead and spins the propeller in the water.

Wet wood - Not good, but not bad. Possibly salvageable.

Worm wood - When the transom's wood gets so bad that it turns into a mush and has to be replaced. It is as bad as it sounds.

Trim tab - Evens the boat out when moving fast (called "on plane"). They sit on the bottom of the transom.

Ouch - Time to get the bandaids, peroxide and neosporin out. This is usually accompanied by lots of grunts, groans, red face covered in sweat and then blood appearing somewhere on the body.

Renee (SteppinHeavenward) talked today about how wonderful her hubby was to watch their 9 children and change out her gauze when she was konked out by pain meds for her wisdom teeth removal. Love is different in different homes. Jack only asked me to do 1 thing today with the boat. I had to hold the wrench in place while he placed torque (twisting) pressure on the end of it. I did my job pretty well, but he ended up raking his knuckles into the backside of a screw. Not just once, but twice. It looked so painful. He didn't once complain that I let the wrench slip a little. And then after I nursed him back to complete health, I cooked him a big vegan dinner. It was a terrible flop but he ate it. (new recipe)

Back to the boat...... for reasons too complicated to repeat at 11 pm, Jack took the foot of our engine over to the local boat shop to have the steer shaft shortened from 30" to 25". The goal is to take the engine off the extra brackets that raised it up and make the length work better in the water. A better solution is to have the engine at the right length in the first place and remove the extra heigth. I can explain this better once I have an "after" photo to compare. For those of you who love physics, it may be understandable to you.

Happy Boating,

Robin