Back on the hard...

 As we reviewed the situation yesterday, we said out loud, "this is really gonna suck". Anyway it is what it is and Freedom is back up on the hard. We're not sure what the cause of the issue is, but it's better to get it resolved before we leave this marina and travel on risking more damage. Misaligned or bend shafts can lead to other failures that raise the cost of "poker".

 So what happened?

 At idle in gear tied down at the dock the port side propellor shaft was visably oscillating. One could look at the shaft seal and see it wooble quite a bit even at low speed. Good thing I checked it before we left.

 We're not sure yet but we suspect one of two things happened on the port side. The flange attached to the propellor shaft that mates the shaft with the transmission is warped or, the shaft is bent. I installed new shaft seals prior to the launch. That entailed separating the transmission and propellor shaft flanges, removing the flanges from the shafts, installing new seals, and then reattaching everything. The port side flange was a bear to remove from the propellor shaft. Quite a bit of pressure on the "gear puller" was required before it popped loose. That could have warped 1/2 inch steel. Tough to imagine I could do that with a few bolts while using a pattern of tightening to distribute the load but it's certainly possible. 

 Part of the process of reinstalling all of this was to hand lap the shafts into the flanges again. They are a self locking tapered fit with a key. While this was a chore considering the flange weighs about 15 pounds it all looked good. I should have stuck a dial indicator on it though. We all believe this was not the source of the issue. The pros removing everything this time have no explanation.

 So the running gear went to a shop for examination with all sorts of high tech gear and lathes. While all of this is happening we are dumping the GFO packing and Buck Algonquin spud type seals for Tide Marine dripless seals. Even though we were only idling at the dock in gear I could not get the temperature of the packing fittings on the shaft below a very hot to the touch temperature. Perhaps with two coils instead of three we'd get the temperature down but all recommendations were for three. Even with a large gap between the ends allowing for expansion on the starbord side, they both ran hot at a very loose setting of the spud.
 Fortunately we have great people around us here at Indiantown Marina. I can't say enough about them.

Life on the road and at Indiantown

 We left NY for Florida last Wednesday setting aside three days of driving at 8 hours per day. Traffic was good and on every day we made great time down I95 towards Florida. There was only one major delay where a bridge was being raised to allow taller traffic on I95. Several of the bridges passing over I95 have been raised already but as fate would have it while traversing North Carolina they had both Southbound lanes closed at one of the older I95 crossings. All traffic had to exit I95 then cross an intersection and then get back on I95. It sounds simple but the traffic had to squeeze down to a single lane. We were lucky we left early in the day so we were only backed up in traffic about a mile deep when it caught us. 

 Arriving in Savannah, we had a great Sushi dinner out with Michele where we combined efforts to consume 6 rolls. Great food at Miyabi in Savannah.  

 We were lucky we left NY when we did because that got us to Indiantown in the early afternoon on Friday. If we arrived on Saturday we would have lost the ability to work on Freedom for two days because they don't run the travelift on weekends and the boat was not in the work yard. After driving 8 hours, we unloaded the car hoisting everything up about 10 feet onto Freedom, and then we helped move the boat and reconnect it to some power. A long day. 

 The boat made it through the Summer very well. Having a dehumidifier running aboard with an over side drain kept the insides dry. This kept just about everything free of mildew. But grinding off all of the scale on the rudders, trim tabs and propeller shafts was a 2.5 day chore with 40 grit sand paper on a 5 inch random orbital sander. It was like trying to sand concrete. This photo of the aft most strut displays the level of encrustation that was common to all of hardware under the waterline. At first blush it doesn't look dense enough to be a problem and that's what we thought. We know much better now. There has to be a better way that works for the EPA. Anyway the shafts are cleaned up and can slide through the cutlass bearings easily and that facilitates removal and installation of shaft seals which let go and started leaking water into the bilge back in the Spring. When they quit working we were traveling to the Berry Islands across the Northwest Providence channel (big, deep water) from Lucaya. While the Eastern opening of this passage is mostly protected from the open Atlantic, it can still get ugly out there. But we waited quite while for calm weather and it paid dividends plus. The water was very calm for that crossing.

 With four full days of work done we still have two more and if we keep at it Freedom will be in the water Friday! But we still have install new shaft seals, lap the shafts into the flanges, connect the shafts to the transmissions and repack the rudders before we wash and wax the hull. By hand of course. I have to work off all of the conch fritters I consumed last season in the Bahamas somehow.

 Once in the water we are thinking it will be another week afloat before we start moving again. With all of the work going into Freedom we want to make sure she hasn't sprung a leak or two. And there are all of the electronics to reconnect and check out also.    

Tropical "storm" Nicole and getting ready

 Nicole came up our way and left quite a bit of rain in the hills to the Northwest of Kingston. Given some of the roads up around the Rondout Reservoir and Askokan offer good scenery we opted to go for a ride.

  The roads of particular interest were Route 42 and 55A. The later was open for all we wanted and so was Route 46 leading to 42. But 42 was closed somewhere along the way so we could not traverse the entire length. We did go up the road from each end, and while traveling from one side to the other we were able to locate many waterfalls that were in full force. As you can see the leaves have not started to change much yet so perhaps we'll need another ride so we get to see them before heading South.

 Parts are coming in all the time and we have a mountain in the basement that has to fit into the car. By the way, I am hoping our new webcam will behave well when we are hooked up to hotspots that play well with it. As it turns out some hotspots don't allow people to sign into the cam so merely looking at the photo will have to do. I'll update the blog with the link to the camera when it's stabilized as much as it can.