Our own oil slick
I am a solid week behind. I was just meandering through the blogs I frequent and found myself reading about Mother’s Day. Which feels like a year ago.
Needless to say, it has been a long week. I spent Mother’s Day in the pool, at a party and at the park, trying to give John space to work on the engine (a messy, smelly job). After much debate, and many attempts to solve the problems with the old Bukh, we have decided to replace it. We can’t get parts for it, we can’t get it to work, we have so many questions about what condition it’s in . . . By Monday we felt confident that we’d found a great Japanese replacement. But much to our dismay, there is not one Yanmar 3YM available for sale in the United States. We are on the list for shipment in late June. Let’s just hope our engine gets on the boat from Japan! The good news is, it seems to be a fabulous fit. We shouldn’t have to modify much. The systems for fuel and water intake, etc. are already in place. This won’t be the same ground-up overhaul we did in 2004 (which you can still read about!). But still- the waiting . . .
We are trying to look on the bright side. We will have an engine we feel good about, that we’ve installed ourselves and know inside and out. We feel lucky to be able to even make this choice! There is much we can accomplish while we wait. Perhaps it was a nudge in the direction we were supposed to go in.
I will never forget the last frenzied days of our last engine installation. Putting in the exhaust fittings at night. The thrill of throwing off the docklines so we could chug down the Chelsea Creek, secretly hoping our neighbors would stick their heads up and notice us, under our own power! The sweetness of that day will come again. It was so close I think we both could taste it, and while it’s not far off, it feels like a few light years away.
Letting go is a hard thing to do. Especially when the crud comes at the tail end of an all-consuming four-year project (for John, more than me). I wish I could promise him a lifetime of relaxation after this ordeal, but he and I both know that that is simply not fitting with who we are. We’ll work through this and move on to the next challenge. Hopefully one that involves a more frequent change of scenery, a good breeze, a quiet anchorage, and the reliable chug-chug-chug of a job well done.
We had replace an engine (our old cat ran on outboards, but they were Yamaha 9 hp, 4 stroke, extra-extra long shaft difficult to get and geared up all funny). But the replacement happened at anchor in the Bahamas. We sweet talked a guy into flying the engine to us on his private plane and oy, the whole ordeal was crazy. But I SO know what you mean about finally making the decision and finally being able to chug-chug under your own power. Wishing you success with this boat project, and then the others that will pop up won’t seem so bad