June 2024 – Caro Babbo

Thirteen days in Seward

Puffin Cove, 60º 11’ N 148º 20 W, 27-JUN-2024 – Tom, who so nicely pulled our mast, told me not to rush things, I’ll be in Seward for three or more weeks and he hates guys who have a date in their mind and work hard to make it. Tom was very nice loaning his building jack to raise the deck, using his bucket truck to remove the mast, and bringing me the blank RectTube to build the new compression post, but I always have a date and I work hard to make my dates.

Never say, ‘‘All is Done.’’

Seward, AK 18-JUN-2024 – Monday, or whatever the next day was that we left, things took an immediate left turn when the V-Belt on the water pump disintegrated. The light on the instrument panel for Electric came on. No alarm, but there it was. It would overheat next.

We opened the table to look at the engine. There was the belt completely off and lying there. I had two more belts in a white envelope on the settee, so I opened the package and put the belt on.

I should have foreseen this. The belts I’ve been buying are not metric. The V on the pulley in cross section is deeper than the belt. I need to tighten the belt after a few hours and I did not. I replaced the belt and made a note to check it when we stopped again. Jennifer pointed out I should check the impeller belt as well, even though it should have the correct V. That night I checked and both were loose. I tightened each and all is good.

Everything is done, really done. Tomorrow is Sunday.

Home Cove, Nuka Passage, AK, 9-JUN-2024 – Another Saturday night and I’ve been working on things that don’t work well and I am completely finished. I’ll take tomorrow off, I tell Jennifer. We’ll relax, I’ll cook, we’ll listen to books and watch movies.

It is the sixth Sunday I’ve been in AK and all is finished.

I had thought everything was finished when the boat went in the water, but it overheated on the way to the harbor. There was a nice breeze, so we put up the sails and sailed the five miles. It was a nice sail, the engine cooled and we managed to make it in to the harbor, find a fishing boat to raft up to and then disassemble the exhaust elbow and clean out the clog: a piece of rust in the hole the salt water enters the exhaust elbow. That’s done, we’re done.