Port Townsend, WA, 15-OCT-2024 – We’re home, Jennifer, me, and Caro Babbo. Caro Babbo is floating higher on her waterline and will for the next bunch of months.
Continue reading “Point Hudson: Caro Babbo is home for the winter”Tag: Repair
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.
Continue reading “Thirteen days in Seward”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.
Continue reading “Never say, ‘‘All is Done.’’”Repair stories, #1
Iridium GO, won’t. Yoda saves us.
Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor, Honolulu, Hi, 22-Nov-2019 — For every story of breaking something, there is a story of fixing it. Most repairs on Caro Babbo are solitary endeavors, hopefully carried out on a dock with a reasonably priced chandlery near by. Many are carried out underway, and under pressure. All successful repairs are points of pride.
Continue reading “Repair stories, #1”An Unending Month
Feb 1, 2018, Port Townsend, WA – January was the longest month I remember in my entire life. Longer than months when I was a small child slogging through the school year waiting for summer vacation.
It was a month of unexpected travel, traversing the country and working on non-boat projects. It was also a month full of activities and friends: an unexpected sailor on his way to pickup replacement boat parts and a medieval music performance in a Victorian church in a Victorian Seaport. Continue reading “An Unending Month”
Many a slip ’twixt the dock and the ship
5-JAN-2018, Lake Union, Seattle, Wa – Standing fully clothed, soaking wet in the cockpit of CaroBabbo at the dock in Lake Union, Jennifer said, “Would you like to take a picture of me?”
Jennifer always has more sense than I have, but I merely said, “no.”
Instead, a few hours later I took this picture:
We tear out a cleat, anchor in tight quarters and see bears.
5-AUG-2017, Frosty Bay, AK – We ripped the aft starboard cleat out of the boat today, then glued it back it in at a little two-boat dock in Frosty Bay.
Continue reading “We tear out a cleat, anchor in tight quarters and see bears.”
Mac comes back to life, 12-Volt Adapter dies, Depth Sounder Packs up
22-JUL-2017 Echo Cove, AK – Electronics on a boat oftentimes act differently than ashore.
We’ll be in Auke Bay, which is part of Juneau, tomorrow so I can pick up the shipping container to send my Mac back to Apple for repair – except that I am writing this on my Mac. Continue reading “Mac comes back to life, 12-Volt Adapter dies, Depth Sounder Packs up”
AIS resurrects
16-jul-2017, Southern Lynn Canal — A quick note. Yesterday AIS stopped displaying error signals and all readings returned to normal, so we should be back on line.
Errors like this are worrisome.
New house batteries are great.
We’re on our way to Skagway and about to lose internet.
Push the button, the engine starts. What’s so strange about that?
Or simple pleasures…
A little more than two years ago, I started having trouble getting the engine to start if it sat more than three days.
To remedy the problem, I made sure I started it more often than than that. When went our three week trip up the west side of Vancouver Island that year, it was never a problem: we never went that long without starting the engine. Continue reading “Push the button, the engine starts. What’s so strange about that?”