Three hours south of Hidden Harbor, Mainland, Alaska, 145-AUG-2020 — It had to happen, something of some consequence had to give. The workaround was thirty seconds and I realized that the moment I saw the problem, but I wasted 90 minutes second guessing myself.
Hidden Harbor is beautiful place and quite hidden. Fishing boats do not come in. It is probably the province of passing pleasure boats.The entrance is invisible after a turn. Anchorage and holding are good, though the bottom icomes up alarmingly fast. The mountains are again covered in ash.
Very healthy-looking bears, which we believe do not come in to contact with people often, gambol along the beach. There are squabbles and errant cubs.
Outside the harbor around a more even hidden corner is a lagoon, a mile across with more bears working the shore.
When we anchored yesterday morning, we took two tries to get the anchor to set. The Rocna has only failed to set, I think, four times. Two of then in the last two days.
Jennifer circled around, found the spot and backed down to the set anchor. The first time the anchor dragged, the second time it set. The anchor held well through changing winds and tides.
This morning, though it took a while to debug, the gear shift would not work properly. There is a lock out, a button that is pushed to allow the throttle to move without engaging the transmission.
Also, the transmission should move to neutral whenever the throttle is moved to the center position. After some detective work, we found the transmission was in forward and the gear shift linkage was not moving.
With the button out, the lever will not move, as if it is halfway out. Fully depressed, the lever moves but we found the transmission was in forward.
The correct answer, which I immediately knew, was to disconnect the linkage at the transmission and shift by hand. One bolt is removed and all works fine.
Instead I second guessed myself, worrying about transmission oil level and seized gears.
At the end, I removed the bolt from the transmission linkage at the transmission and the transmission slid easily into neutral. After raising the anchor, on command from Jennifer, I slid the transmission into forward and we left the anchorage.
Anchor will be easy, docking a little more involved, since I must be below switch gears, while Jennifer docks. Asking for someone to grab lines for us, will make it all easy.
The shift lever and mechanism is from 1975. It is by Volvo and was installed with the original Penta engine.
I’m hoping this is easily replaced in Kodiak city, otherwise, we’ll take care of it in Homer.
The gear shift lever with the depressed button is pictured below.
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Oh no.