Much More Difficult Than Expected

 As I wrote in my last entry, the process of installing a new engine in our boat has begun. On July 27th we moved the boat about 40 miles to Gautier, Mississippi. We were hoping to be in the yard about a week, boy were we wrong.

The following day, a mechanic named Michael came to begin unhooking our current Yanmar engine. In 3 hours he had the mechanical part done, but he does not do electronics. The company that we are using is very busy and they were not sure when someone would be available to do the electronics. That is when I offered to do that part, which they accepted. I spent Thursday and Friday pulling out the wiring harness and disconnecting the control panel. On Friday afternoon, the lead mechanic, Adam stopped by on his way home to check on the project. That was the first time he had seen the boat. 

We ordered the crane for Monday morning. The crane operator wanted to do it early because we have been under a heat advisory. We planned for him to arrive at 6AM. 

Michael arrived at 6 AM and the crane not much later. In less than an hour we had the motor removed and on a trailer that was brought over by the guy that was buying the engine. That part went very well. 

The crane just got done putting the old Yanmar on the trailer that the buyer brought to transport it to his shop.

Kim looking on as we say good bye to the Yanmar. That motor always concerned me, but never let me down.

About 7:30, Adam arrived with the new engine in an enclosed trailer. We quickly unpacked it and were ready to lift it into the boat. The crane charges $250/hour, so time was of the essence. The motor went high up in the air and then swung over the boat. All went well until we tried to move it into the motor compartment. We had measured the motor compartment and based on the dimensions on the Beta web site it should fit. Guess what, it didn't fit! The exhaust was hitting the back wall. We had to just set it down partially in the compartment and get it disconnected, so that we could send the crane on his way. We ended up only using him for 2 hours, so that was what we expected. 

There is the new engine getting dropped right in the middle of our living room.

Here is a shot of the empty motor compartment. We needed to take a minute and change the shaft coupling before we could set it in place. 

There is the new motor and transmission. The Beta 38, pretty, but the add-on exhaust manifold was much longer than the stock one.

Do I look concerned? Believe me, I was!

This is a shot of the very special Balmar Alternator that was on my old engine. I wanted to move it to the new Beta. This is a high output unit that is used to charge my very large battery bank, while we are running the engine. 

Now that the crane was gone, we left Michael and Adam to go to work. We came back at one o'clock and they were gone. The next day we found out that after removing the exhaust and cutting 5 inches off of the propeller shaft, they were able to make the motor fit. We also found out the next morning that Michael's wife had test positive for the COVID Delta Variant. He was now in quarantine for 14 days. Adam worked hard much of the day Tuesday, but was unable to get the engine and shaft aligned. By the end of the day he also had a very sore neck. He called on Wednesday morning to let me know that he was also unable to work. To say I was now concerned, would be a huge understatement. 

To Adams credit, he came to work on Thursday and worked as hard as he was able with my help to finally get the motor aligned and the motor mounts installed. I went to work installing the alternator and whatever else I could do. It was hard work, but thankfully we brought our window unit air conditioner from Missouri and were able to cool down the boat as we worked. 

I worked well into the evening on Thursday and then again on Friday to finally feel like we were getting close.  We even bumped the engine with the started to verify that all was hooked up correctly. The only problem was the propeller was spinning backwards! Adam did some research and determined that actually all was fine, we were just going to have to get used to an opposite lever direction for the transmission shifter at the helm. The two transmission linkages are set up backwards from each other.

Here is a shot of the motor almost finished. Check out the polished Stainless steel mounting bracket on the alternator. I bought one and had to modify it to make it work. 

I called Beta-USA to find out what we could do about the exhaust. They suggested we cut the exhaust and have it rewelded. I found out a guy that works in the yard was a welder. He could do it for me after work on Friday. I gave him the parts and on Saturday morning we had a perfectly welded exhaust. I installed it and it fit perfectly. 

As of Sunday, we have a few things left to do, but we are close to going back in the water and starting the engine. We are hoping to be ready on Tuesday. The problem with that is that we then need to sea trial and do final adjustments. That means that we will stay another week in the "roach motel". It seems that 3 weeks is what it takes every time we go to the yard. It has been tough, but the good news is that I know exactly how it was installed which will allow me to address problems down the road. 

In my next entry, I will hopefully document the final stages of this project. We can't wait to get back in our floating home and on the move. For now, the tropics are quiet, it doesn't look like that will last much longer. 

The Process Has begun

 It has been a busy time for us since we returned to Gulfport after our long trip. We were hoping to get started with the engine swap right away, but the installing company put us off a week. That actually was a good thing, because we really needed some down time to rest and get ready for the time in the yard. We have been keeping a close eye on the tropics and all is quiet for now. The main issue with the timing is that hurricane season looms, and the most active months will be here soon. We really want to have the boat up the river to give us the best protection possible. 

The delay also let us have time to say good bye to all of our new friends in Gulfport. We really had an awesome time there. One of the cool things about this marina is that it is a stopover point for many boats that are either moving east from Texas or boats headed back to Texas from Florida. We have had the pleasure of meeting many that were on one of those journeys. The other day a boat came in and took a slip just of our stern that looked very interesting. 

Two Guys from New Orleans sailed this boat from St. Pete directly across the Gulf of Mexico.

I walked over to them and said, "When I saw this boat I figured there had to be a good story". They both laughed and we begun an hour long conversation about their adventures. They had just sailed this steel boat from St. Pete directly across the Gulf of Mexico to Gulfport in 4 days. This is a French built boat that at one time was a race boat. It looked a little rough, but they assured me it was very seaworthy. They are from New Orleans and are heading home after spending some time along the Florida coasts. They, like all sailors, were very cool people and I really enjoyed the conversation. 

I had one issue that I needed to try to solve. I will be left with this Yanmar Diesel engine. I decided to list it on Facebook Marketplace and see if I could sell it. I had a buyer just a few hours after I listed it. He said he would be out to see it the next morning. I marked it as "Sold" and waited for him to come by. He never did, and after trying to reach him over the next three days, I gave up and listed it again. The good news is that the second time went better. The buyer was local and he came by and we made a deal. He lives 6 miles from the yard and will come by and pick it up when we get it out of the boat. Sweet! one less thing to worry about. 

The call came that we needed to be at the boat yard on Tuesday, July 27th to have the boat hauled out to replace the engine. We decided that pulling the boat out of the water was the best plan because we are probably going to have to pull the prop shaft to shorted it about an inch and a half. We will see if that was the right decision. 

The first problem is that we needed to move our truck to our new location, which is the coastal town of Gautier, Mississippi. The work is being done in a small yard on the Pascagoula River a little inland from the Mississippi Sound. This meant we needed to move both the truck and boat about 40 miles. I asked a dock neighbor if he could help and he said "Sure". Thanks Duane! So we both drove over to the yard and he brought me back. We did enjoy a nice dinner together. 

The only problem was when we talked to the yard manager they were not sure if they could haul us this week. A lack of available help and a full yard were the problems. He finally said, "bring it on, we will figure it out." Alrighty, then...

Kim and I were up at 4:30am the next morning and underway before sunrise. It was a beautiful calm morning and we headed out of the marina and out into the sound. A very different scene than when we arrived back in November, but we arrived in the dark and are now leaving in the dark. 

Watching the sunrise over the Mississippi Sound over the casinos of Biloxi.

While we were cruising along enjoying the sunrise, I recorded this update: Sunset Over Mississippi Sound 

Click the link to watch the video.

We had no wind at all, so we could not sail. The old Yanmar just purred along. It was putting out a little smoke, but I have to say that old engine never let me down. I ran at 2100 RPM, which gave us 5 knots.

We made the channel at Pascagoula at around noon after a very nice cruise along the coast. As we approached we saw the large ships of the Ingalls Shipbuilding Complex. This is where they build a number of US Navy Ships. They have a number that are under construction.

Ingalls Shipbuilding is a busy place. 

We cruised right by Ingalls and up the river. We had to open a rail bridge to get in, but had to wait about 15 minutes for a train to pass. 

When we arrived at the yard, they were waiting for us and in no time had us in the slings and then up in the yard. It was a long day, but we were very happy to get this part of the project completed. The one bad thing about this yard is that we are not allowed to live on the boat. 

We found an "interesting" place to stay. It is not nice, by any standards, but at about $250 per week it will work. The interesting part is they provide nothing. I mean no toilet paper, no sheets, just a bed, TV, Table and chairs, refrigerator, two burner stove and couch. It is like renting a furnished apartment. We do get regular visits from the little critters that call this place home, but we are on the gulf coast and roaches are just part of life. We learned that when we lived in Houston just after we got married over 41 years ago. To say we are motivated to get back to our floating home would be an understatement. 

SHIFT on the hard in Gautier, Mississippi. Ready for her new engine.

The work has begun unhooking everything on the old Yanmar engine. Some of that work was done by the company I hired to do it and some by me. That looks like the way this thing is going to go. I will explain how things are going in my next entry. 

Busy Time in Gulfport and the 3000 Mile Trip

 We made the decision to buy the new motor for the boat that I wrote about in my last entry. Now, we had some time to wait for it to arrive. We also had two very important to us, things happening. Our Son, Mark was getting married in Missouri on July 14th and my father was turning 90 in Colorado on July 11th. We were planning to wait until after the wedding to go see Dad, but now we saw an opening to get to Colorado at the same time as my three brothers and see Dad on his Birthday and then drive to Missouri in time for most of the festivities around the wedding. It was a crazy plan that would involve over 3000 miles of driving, but we decided to go for it, but first we had to wait for hurricane Elsa to stay on her projected path and turn east up through Florida and then the East coast. While we were waiting for that to happen, we had some things happening around the marina that were kind of cool. 

First, was a sailboat race. We had heard that there was a race to Gulfport on June 12th. We saw the boats come in and one of them pulled into the slip right next to us. We enjoyed getting to know the crew of "Madam J". She is a very fast boat and has a large crew. 

The "Madam J" from New Orleans, LA. 

 We found out that the sail to Gulfport was really just to get set up for the big race on June 25th from Gulfport to Pensacola, FL. The boats were in the marina during the Tropical Storm Claudette on June 18th. That storm was not too bad with some winds around 50 knots and water up to top of the docks, but there was no damage other than lost sleep. We even got up the next morning and drove the 70 miles to New Orleans for our soon to be Daughter in Law, Callie's, wedding shower. We spent some fun time over in New Orleans with Callie and her Mom Christie and our son Mark. New Orleans is a cool place to visit with a person that really knows the city. 

On June 25th, we went out on the Jetty to see the start of the big race. 

It was hard to see much, because the start was 3 miles off shore, but it was cool to see them mill around with partial sails and then right at noon, they all brought up full sails and they were off. 

They sailed through that day and all night and arrived in Pensacola before noon the next day. It was a tough race with 25+knots of wind coming right from the direction they wanted to go. The Madam J finished 2nd overall! We were watching the race on the tracker and found that a good friend from the marina was racing and did very well. Dwayne is a 74 year old captain and just had a total of 3 on the boat.  

The July 4th weekend was crazy around the marina. We had a big fishing tournament and live bands playing just outside the office and a carnival set up in our parking lot. 

We have private access to the office building because our bathrooms and showers are there, so that served as a private skybox to watch the live music. Some of the bands were very good. 

And then behind us was the carnival set up in our parking lot. We had to park a bit further away, but not too bad. 

We then had a great fireworks show on July 4th. They shot them off on the jetty at the end of the marina. We just sat out on our foredeck and enjoyed the show. No drama at the end, we just went below and went to bed. 

On July 6th we drove the 8 hours to the DFW area to see Kim's parents. They are both in their 80's and doing very well. We really enjoyed our time there. We left at 4:30am on July 9th to drive the 12 hours to the Denver Area. We got there in time to enjoy dinner with everyone on a deck at my parents complex. 

Much of my family. We had a great time seeing everyone. 

 The next day on the 10th, Dad and I went swimming in their pool. Dad, at 90 years young, swam 20 laps. I swam 14 and had enough. Dad is amazing, and it is so great to see both him and my Mom doing well again after a tough couple of years. Then we had the big birthday party around the pool area. It was a great time. 

On Dad's birthday, the 11th, we went to church and then out to brunch. We are so glad we decided to make it for this special time with all of my brothers and parents. Then about noon, we headed out for the 12 hour drive to Missouri. We thought we might stop half way, but I am not very good at that, so we arrived at our daughter, Shannon's at 12:30am. It was good to get that drive out of the way. 

The next day we went to the lake with Shannon and son Michael, his wife Audrey and their kids and Amelia. Fun Time! The next day we had to run out to the ranch to find clothes to wear to the wedding. My suit still fit, and we were good to go. We made it back in time for a BBQ at Mark and Callie's house.

I got this shot of our 4 kids. The youngest, Mark on the left, then Scott, Michael and Shannon. Oldest to youngest and tallest to shortest. It is so great to see them all together.

The next day was the big day. We were all so excited for the big wedding and it went off without a hitch. I did not take any pictures because there was a professional there for the whole thing. I think I will make that an entry by itself for the extended family to see. 

On the 16th, we drove the 3 hours to Michael and Audrey's house. After a nice evening with them. We slept well and then got up and made the final 8 hour drive back to Gulfport. It was a crazy trip, but we are so glad we did it. It has taken the past three days to catch up on sleep and get used to life on the boat again. We are so glad to be home. I called the guy who is replacing our engine and he wants to start next week the 26th. That is a week later than we wanted, but it is fine with us, we really needed the rest. 

In my next entry I will either write about and show some wedding pictures or we will begin documenting the engine replacement. My number of readers as dramatically increased in the past few months and I am not sure why. If you are new here, please leave a comment and let me know how you found out about this blog. 

We Have Made the Decision

 In my previous two entries, I have written about the work I have been doing to the engine in our sailboat. I knew this engine was 29 years old and had well over 3000 hours on it. I felt strongly that I was going to do whatever it took to get a reliable engine in our boat. We have big plans and I did not want to spend the entire trip worrying about the engine or worse, having a major breakdown in a place with no way to get service. 

I looked at what it would take to replace the engine. I ran into many roadblocks. The first problem was that Yanmar (the brand of the engine that we currently have) did not have any replacement engines. As we all know the supply lines on just about everything around the world have been disrupted by the Pandemic. We would have to wait until at least September to get a new engine. There is also the issue that I wrote about the local dealers and their complete lack of customer service. 

I felt like I had no option. I needed to see if my engine could be repaired. That is what I have been doing for the past month. About two weeks ago,  I was searching for information about repair options when I found a company that I had not considered. It is a UK company called Beta Marine. Beta takes the Kubota tractor engine and marinizes it for use in boats. They even have a specific line of engines for the sailboat replacement market. I am not the first person to do this. 

The funny part is that Kim and I were driving the other day and talking about our options, when a large tractor trailer truck was next to us loaded with Kubota tractors. I commented how nice the tractors looked. I guess someone was sending me a message. 

I was amazed to find that there was a company right here is Gulfport that does engine replacements for Beta. I made contact with them and they have been very responsive. They even helped me find a local mechanic that knows the Yanmar engine. He came out yesterday and spent about 45 minutes with us. The bad news is that he pointed out a noise the engine was making and even isolated it to which cylinder it was coming from. I had heard the "knock" , but didn't know enough about these engines to know if it was a problem. I told him about our plans and he said, "I would not trust this engine". That is all I needed to hear. After spending the time with us, I decided to trust him. He also would not take any payment. I was stunned. 

Kim and I have spent the last 24 hours doing research, measuring our engine compartment and making phone calls. I even called and spoke with the master dealer for Beta Marine USA. He talked to me for a half hour and answered all of my questions. He told me to call him anytime and promised I would be happy if I decided to install a Beta. 

We have decided to move forward with the engine replacement. We have ordered a Beta Marine 38. It is a little bigger in both horsepower and physical size than our current Yanmar 30 horsepower 3HM35F, but it should fit with a couple of small modifications.

The engine is in North Carolina now and will ship next week. We are hoping to begin the replacement just after we return from our son Mark's wedding on July 14. The replacement will be completed by the local dealer, but I am sure I will be right in there making sure I understand what is going on. 

I am sure this replacement will have it's challenges, but we are ready with an open wallet to make it as perfect as possible. We are expecting it to cost around $20K all in. 

I am hoping that this engine will give us the confidence to travel more freely on inland waterways. We are still planning to go to the Bahamas next year and then up the east coast of the US and much of that may be with the motor. The east coast is notorious for difficult sailing conditions off-shore. 

Today, we have a new tropical storm, Elsa. It is still a few days out before we will know if it will come to this area, but we have to be ready to evacuate our marina if it comes this way. Our life is full of challenges, but we still love what we are doing. We are happy to have this difficult decision out of the way and moving forward with the new plan. 

Just another beautiful sunset in Gulfport, Mississippi

The Latest on Engine Issues and Plans

 I have been trying to get myself to write this update, but it has been hard to get the motivation. I hate to deliver bad news. In my last entry, we had just removed the injectors and precombustion chambers and were ready to put the motor back together with new injectors. 

We scheduled the time with the mechanic to make sure the installation was done correctly. The good news is that it all went well and in about an hour we were ready to start the engine. The bad news is that when we did start the engine, we had the same problem as before. We are still getting white smoke at high RPM when the engine is under load. To say I was disappointed, would be an understatement. I spent the next couple of days consulting with every other person I could think of as to the next step. I was thinking the injection pump, which was recently rebuilt, but dismissed that when I called the place that rebuilds them and they told me that was not the problem. One thing that was suggested is that the prop was extremely fouled with either a fishing line or just growth. We decided to take the boat out and dive on the prop to check it out. We also really needed a day out on the water. 

We sailed out to Cat Island and dropped the hook. The water is not real clear, but with my mask, I could see and feel the prop. I was happy to see the prop only had two small barnacles on it that were easily removed. I checked the entire bottom of SHIFT and was very happy with the lack of growth. The new antifoul paint that was applied in Demopolis in November was working well. I did find some barnacle growth above the boot stripe on the stern of the boat, but was able to clean that up easily. It felt good to go for a swim and sail the boat for a while.

Kim enjoying a swim even if it included some cleaning of the boat.

We had an exciting return to the marina when a thunderstorm popped up. We were close to the inlet and decided to drop the sails and motor in. Just as we turned to line up for the channel the wind shifted 180 degrees and picked up to 25 knots. Not a big deal, but it was noisy. We still had the white smoke as I brought the engine up over 2500 RPM. Frustrating...

I put a post on a Yanmar facebook group that I am a member of. I had lots of good suggestions, so I spent the next week checking those out. I found nothing that looked like a problem and no change. Here is a link to a video I posted to show the group what it was doing: Engine Problems  

This has been my office for the past month. I was checking the raw water system to make sure we had good flow...we did. I also removed the exhaust system and had it cleaned at a local radiator shop...no change. I am beginning to think this engine is very worn and the smoke is coming from burning oil, which would mean that we will need to have the engine rebuilt or replaced. 

I have been searching all over this area to find someone that will come out to the boat and check out the engine that has significant experience with this Yanmar diesel. I have called three Yanmar Dealers, but can't get any of them to call me back. We even drove to Mobile one day to try to talk to one of them, but the service manager was not in and even after the secretary showed me the note that was on his desk, he still did not call me back. Unbelievable!

I was finally given a name of a single guy that is local in the Gulfport area that works out of his own small shop. He does not advertise, but I understand he is very good. I called and he answered the phone. He is busy, but has promised to get out here this week...we will see. 

While all of this has been going on, I have been watching the Tombigbee river. It is still our plan to head up the river for hurricane season. The river has been at flood stage, so going up the river has been impossible. The good news is that it is coming down and a passage might be possible as early as next week. We may be ready and we may not. I am really uncomfortable motoring the 300 miles from here up the river to Demopolis with an engine that is not solid. Once we leave Mobile it is 210 miles of no services of any kind.

I have also been looking into replacing the engine. I still need to do some more research, but I think I have found a good option. We may go that route, if the tech tells us the engine is not reliable.  So, that is the update for now. 

While this has all been going on, we had Tropical Storm Claudette pay us a visit. The storm was pretty much a direct hit on Gulfport. It came at night and brought with it some 50 knot gusts. and about 3 feet of storm surge. The good news is the marina did not evacuate because the forecast was for much less. Kim and I took turns getting up during the night to check on things, but we got through it unscathed. 

The following day was a wedding shower for our future Daughter in Law in her home town of New Orleans. We were not sure if Kim could make it, but we we awoke, the storm had mostly passed, and the water had receded. We made the 70 mile trip to New Orleans and had a great day visiting with Mark and Callie and Callies Mom, Christie. 

Last Saturday night, we had a dock party here in the marina. We are blessed to have a great band that is called Dock 4. We are on Dock 4 and many of the members are current or past slip holders on our dock. We had an enjoyable time listening to music and talking to other boaters. 

 

Dock 4 playing at our dock party. They are an excellent band and we really enjoyed listening to them. 

We had a nice sunset over the marina the night of the dock party.

Well, that is about it for this entry, I hope to write again after we get a diagnosis of the engine and finally we should have a plan going forward. 

Update on Engine Issues

 I think it is about time to write an entry about the last two weeks. To say that it has been difficult, would be a huge understatement. And the bad news is that it is not over yet. 

In my last entry, I wrote about me working on the engine to get it ready for the replacement of the fuel injectors. I hired a mechanic to do the injector job. That is unlike me. I normally like to do my own work, but I have never done this before, and was hoping to make it easier on my ageing body. 

When Steve the mechanic arrived, he went to work preparing for the removal. He did an excellent job getting everything out of the way and removing the fuel lines. I got in the area and cleaned around the injectors to ensure no debris would fall down into the engine and noticed that I was able to move the #3 injector by hand. That was a good sign, I thought. I have read and watched videos showing that removing them can be very difficult. Our Yanmar engine has three cylinders. Numbered 1,2,3 from front to back. In a short time we had #3 out and then just as easily removed the top precombustion chamber below.

This is a shot of the intake manifold below and the three injector ports above. #3 has been removed.

Steve then tried to remove #2. It would not budge. He tried all the tricks he had in his bag and it would not move at all. He tried #1 and it would not move either. After trying for about an hour, he left to think about what to do next. He has been working on diesel engines for a long time and had never seen injectors this tough to remove. 

I spent the evening doing research and reading horror stories of other people having a difficult time removing their injectors. Some had to disassemble the engine and take the head to a machine shop get them out. There are many reasons why I didn't want to do that. One major one is that we are now in hurricane season and the marina we are in, requires us to be operational. We have to be ready to leave if a storm is coming. They evacuated this marina 6 times last year for storms. At this point, I was still OK. I would reassemble the engine and get underway if needed. 

In my research, I found a tractor supply company in Texas that sold a slide hammer that was set up to remove Yanmar injectors. Yanmar engines are used in many John Deere tractors. It cost $100 to get it here, but I placed the order. Steve agreed it seemed like the best plan. We waited through the Memorial Day weekend and on Tuesday the beast arrived. 

The first problem was that it was too long to fit in my engine compartment. I made the first of many trips to Harbor Freight to buy a grinder to modify my new slide hammer. 

My 9 lb. slide hammer with a short shaft made of allthread for getting into tight spaces.

I then determined to use the hammer, I would have to remove the studs in the head and disassemble the injector. That sounds a lot easier than it was. It took me about 4 hours hard labor to be ready to try to pull #2 injector. All of that work paid off and within about 30 minutes of hammering the injector was out. Then came a small piece below called the precombustion chamber. I worked on it with a pick for about an hour and had it in my hand. Ok, now for #1.

As you move forward in the engine compartment, the front corner gets in the way. I had to further modify my slide hammer to barely fit it in there. I hammered well into the night and into the next day before it finally let go. I was happy, now to just remove the chamber. I worked on it all of the rest of the day and it would not budge. I made another trip to harbor freight to by a seal removal tool. I have one just like it at the ranch, but never thought I would need it on the boat. $75 for that. My hands at this point, were bruised and sore and every muscle in my body was sore from the contortions I had to make to get in the best position to work.  

I inserted the seal puller, which I had to modify with the grinder to fit, and began to hammer. The damn thing would not budge. It was at that point Kim told me to take a break. I walked the docks thinking about what to do next. I found a good friend that agreed to come take a look. We agreed that we may have to cut that thing out with a grinding bit on a rotary tool. I did not want to do that because of the fear of getting debris down in the engine. I decided to go by some allthread rod to replace the shaft of the hammer to get a better angle for hammering. That worked well, but the chamber still would not budge. It was at that point that the bit broke and the lip on chamber also broke. 

This is looking down in the injector port at the top of the precombustion chamber.

 Now, I was really screwed. I had to get that chamber out. I decided to drill it out to the next larger bit size, which was 5/8". I stuffed it full of rags to try to prevent any debris getting down into the engine. I attached a tube to the end of my shop vac to create a suction tube, like you see in a dentist office. Kim was right there with me during this entire ordeal. She would hold the suction tube as I drilled catching most of the debris. I think it worked well. 

I inserted the new larger bit and went to hammering, still no movement. I went for a walk on the docks and met another boater that was a diesel mechanic for 30 years. He brought over a torch to heat it up to see if that would help. No go. It was now 10 PM. He said, the best bet it to cut it up. I went to bed Wednesday night exhausted, depressed and nervous. 

I got up on Thursday and drained the coolant out of the motor. I wanted to try more heat first. After two hours, I gave up that effort. I went back to Lowes and bought a diamond cutting tool for my rotary tool. We went back to the dental office thing with the suction. I drilled and then ground for a couple of hours. I cut it into pieces. It still would not come out. I was beginning to think it was welded in. I then got a chisel and began to try to break the smallest piece loose. After about an hour it finally moved. And just like a dentist, I worked the piece back and forth until it came out. The rest still would not budge. I got my slide hammer reinstalled and hit it with my poor aching, bruised hands and after about 10 hard hits it was out. 

This is what is left of the chamber.

I am not sure who was happier, Kim or I. We spent the rest of yesterday getting everything ready to reinstall the injectors. I think I could do it myself, but I have asked Steve to help me. We are hoping for this afternoon, but it may be Monday. It will be after that, we can test the engine to see if this solves the original problem of emitting the smoke. I will try to update this blog after that test.

I was up early this morning and took my coffee in the cockpit and watched the sunrise. I needed that time to remember why I do this crazy life. 

Sunrise in Gulfport, the day after the ordeal was over. 

Update on Future Plans

 It once again has been over a month since I have written in this blog. I think it is about time for an update and some discussion of our future plans. 

We left the boat in Gulfport on April 8th, which is our son Mark's Birthday, and headed north in the truck. We first made a stop in Arkansas to see our son, Michael and his wife Audrey and their two boys, Connor and Cameron. We went for a fun hike at a place called Long Pool, which has an awesome waterfall. 

Kim, Michael, Audrey, Connor and Cameron along with some beautiful Dogwood flowers.

Then we headed north to the ranch in Missouri. 

We had a difficult time getting all of the systems in the trailer working after it sat for over 6 months through the winter. The biggest problem was the hot water heater. I was able to get the trailer livable, which was our home base for the next month and a half. We quickly made our way to Ozark to see the other 6 grandchildren. We went to soccer games and hung out at the house and caught up. Shannon decided that we all needed to go ice skating one afternoon. So off we went to Jordan Valley Ice park. Kim didn't skate, but I gave it a go after not skating in close to 20 years. 

Will doing his usual full on attack. All of the kids did great. 

We arrived at the ranch at a beautiful time of the year. The dogwoods and red buds were in full bloom. Kim loves to take a ride out to see the beauty this time of the year in the Ozarks.

Dogwoods

Redbuds

The forest is alive with the beautiful colors.

We had the crazy snow storm on April 20 that I mentioned in my last entry. We ended up getting about 3 inches of snow, but it was all gone in about 12 hours.

Snow on April 20 in the Ozarks, that is crazy!

One of my favorite young men is one of our local National Level Professional Riders, Noah Clark. It has been awesome to watch him grow up. He was at the ranch a lot while we were there to teach riding schools. I have known him since he was 7 years old. It was awesome catching up with him. 

National Pro, Noah Clark teaching a riding school

 I even got my bike out of the cobwebs and did some riding. I still love the feeling of going fast on the trails through the woods. 

The main focus of our time at the ranch was one of our races that we promote and organize. I love to spend time in the woods putting markers up on trees and marking off the course. The event went well this year with over 240 riders attending. We had no major injuries and the race went off without a hitch. Just the way we like it. 

We went to Will's Choir competition and Band concert (The boy does it all), Isabella's band concert and then Amelia's Ballet recital. It was a full schedule, but we loved it all.  

We left the ranch on May 18th. We spent the next few days at each of our children's houses. The first night was at Mark's new house. We had dinner with Mark and Callie, his soon to be wife, and then were the first houseguests in the guest room. The next day we spent at Shannon and Brian's house and then went to our oldest Grand Daughter, Hannah's College Graduation. She just completed a 3 year program in Occupational Therapy.  Then back to Michael's in Arkansas for a quick visit. It was a crazy busy trip, but we really love and need our family time. We ended up sleeping in 5 different beds in 6 days. 

Now we are back at the boat and we have had some time to relax, but I have been focused on getting our engine diagnosed and hopefully working perfectly. We had a mechanic come to the boat and told us the engine is solid, the smoke looks like a fuel injector problem, but he wanted me to go through the cooling system also. I have spent the last few days doing that. I pulled apart the heat exchanger, the raw water pump and replaced all gaskets and seals. That part should be good to go. I decided to order new injectors. The mechanic will be here tomorrow to install them. 

You may ask, why are we so focused on getting this engine perfect? Well, we have big plans for the next 2 years. We are going to be heading back up the river to Demopolis for hurricane season. It was bad down here last year and we want no part of that. We will leave Demopolis when the season is over and head for Florida. We would like to get the boat in South Florida by mid December. We will leave the boat and fly back to Missouri and then drive to Colorado for a family gathering with all of our kids and grandkids in the mountains. We are hoping to get everyone on the slopes, including us. We will then go back to the boat and hang out in the Keys until the Christmas winds die down in February to March. Then we will head to the Bahamas. We may sail with at least one other boat, but we will see how all of our plans sync up. Then in June or so, we will head north along the eastern US. We are hoping to make it to Maine for the hottest part of the summer. Then start heading south again. It has always been our dream to make this trip and the reason we started this crazy sailing adventure in the first place. We think we are ready, we are hoping the boat is ready. Pray for us, we will probably need it. 

That is about it for now. I will leave you with a nice sunset from our time in Missouri.