When Brenda and I took Pandora to Newport a few weeks ago for a shake down cruise after all of the work I had done and had done this summer, we wanted to be sure that everything was in perfect order prior to heading south for the winter.
When we left the marina, bound for Newport, I noticed a vibration in the prop shaft at cruising speed. Now that Pandora is back in Deep River, I had the yard check into the problem. After several hours of messing around with things, about everything was ruled out except for a bent prop shaft. Unfortunately, the only way to really determine what the problem is is to haul Pandora out of the water again. Ugh… No make that double ugh…
Well, on Tuesday morning Pandora will yet again be on the hard. Paul, from the local machine shop will come down and do a rough check while the shaft is in the boat and then, if he thinks that the shaft is bent, I will remove the Max Prop, AGAIN, and the yard will take the shaft over to the shop for review. Fortunately, Paul at the machine shop, has agreed to work on it right away to identify what he thinks the problem is.
I really hope that it’s the shaft as just about everything else has been ruled out with the exception of the Max Prop, which I would hate to think was a problem yet again. Recall that I had the prop completely reworked in July by the manufacturer.
Fingers crossed. To make the pressure worse, if I am delayed more than a day or so I will miss the weather window to make it to Annapolis in time for the boat show. With all the plans we have for that event, I’d hate to miss it.
I am still hopeful that I will get going as planned on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning at the latest. If not, I risk loosing my crew as their own deadlines conflict with being underway later than planned. Double fingers crossed…
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Brenda and I have been shopping for provisions as putting them aboard now will be easier than when we are in Annapolis or Miami. Here’s a shot of what we put on board on Sunday. The pile looks a lot smaller than it is. That’s about 400 items. Each item had to be categorized in a spreadsheet so we can find them again when we need to. You’d be amazed how deeply buried things get on board. I think that the computer cataloging work took a lot longer than stowing things. 
Today we shopped for meat and yet more stuff. I vacuum packed about 30lbs of chicken, pork and some lovely steak fillets to take us through the winter. Funny how little the pile looked when I put it on the counter in the galley. And, it didn’t even fill the freezer. My routine is to pack everything into the freezer unfrozen so I can really pack it tight. Then everything freezes into a big block. And, you can’t get anything out without eating the top most food first. If you try and dig, everything gets “fluffed up” and won’t go back in. Not good.
The freezer still has room for more and the size of the bill for all of it made me think that it should have been 60lbs, not 30lbs. Alas, such is the nature of inflation…or deflation, as it were, with the vacuum shrink wrap machine. Perhaps I should have used my compressor to fluff them up so they would seem like enough to justify the $$$. Never mind…
Here’s hoping that Tuesday’s re-haul won’t prove to cost me mucho bacon as there’s already plenty in the freezer, three pounds, actually.
Yes, double crossed on my fingers, and toes. All I want to do is to go sailing. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?
I guess that it’s true, bigger boats means bigger trouble. I sure hope that Pandora is “little” tomorrow.