Struggling

Just sitting in the house. We never seem to have any free time. There is always a huge list of things to do. Every penny that comes in has to be carefully assigned to pay for some more work to be done. Will we be able to afford to do the conservatory this year, now that the attic, garage and bathroom are done? Should we pay as much as we can off the mortgage whilst the rates are so low, and leave spending on the house until we've paid it off?

Meanwhile, we want to go diving. We want to go sailing. We want to go away in the van, drink wine, eat good food, enjoy ourselves. We knew it was going to be hard. We're approaching the halfway point in our plans to move to West Wales, and everything is according to budget, and going really well.

Then our friend Tom visits, from the Phillippines. It was Tom that first got us interested in sailing, and, with whom, we got our first taste of what it could be like, crusing from Italy to the Greek islands in his 44ft ketch 'Perky Puffin' in 2007:

Here was a boat that we could live on. Long term. Here was a boat that we could travel on, cheaply. I've always wanted to dive in the Pacific. Rangiroa is near the top of my list. There are so many places we want to travel to, Galapagos, South Africa, back to Sudan, and, it keeps calling me, the Pacific.

Through Tom, we met John, from Tenby. John bought a boat in America, Chelone, and sailed her back across the North Atlantic:

The next year, John sailed down through Portugal, Morocco, the Azores, across the Caribbean, past beautiful islands where we ourselves have since cruised and dived, and then back to the UK. We often pop down to Tenby to visit John - he dives, too.

Then there are Brian and Sue, on their 33ft yacht, 'Blue Bear'. They left Cardiff in October 2010, sailed  the same way as John, but then went through the Panama canal and out into the Pacific. They are currently headed for Fiji.

These are not dreams. These are not adventures one reads about in magazines. These are friends of ours.

We need a boat, a scuba compressor and some time. We have three or four years to finish messing about with houses, and then we may be able to have those things.

Meanwhile, we work, and read about others who do. We plan, and talk. It's hard, and we're struggling.

I read this, earlier today:

"We shared meals ashore and on our boat in the Marshall Islands, drank kava with groups on several islands in Fiji, played with children, sang with locals, taught school children in Indonesia, picnicked with locals in the Cook Islands,  learned how to collect shellfish and prepare them the local way  in Kiribati, traded clothes for local produce in Guadalcanal, sponsored a model outrigger canoe race in the Louisiades, and repaired a solar power system and other equipment in Tikopia. We took locals aboard from several islands for overnight fishing trips, to visit their ancestral atoll in New Caledonia, took a family for two weeks to a Melanesian Arts Festival in Vanuatu and slept on crowded ferryboat decks on the Irrawaddy River in Burma"

http://www.arctracer.com/

The countdown is well underway.

And in with the new.

The new Engine is a Beta 20HP, 3 cylinder engine running at a max 3600rpm. Louise picked it up from the factory in Gloucester.

Beta were very nice to deal with, did us a great price and were very helpful and professional with great communication.

Here's our new engine, sitting in the garage at home.





I was working when the engine was lifted into Ishtar, using a JCB at the club. Louise organised it, with the help of my father.





Our club JCB driver, 'Big ray' did a sterling job of lowering the 100Kg+ engine, gently, into the cabin.





Then she was in. Hopefully, when the propshaft, prop, bearing and so on arrived, the installation would go like a dream......





Meanwhile, there was plenty to get on with. The original Rudder 'shoe', which bolted on to the base of the skeg to support the rudder was made from 3mm stainless stell, and badly pitted. I bought 2 x 10mm 316 stainless plates from a local supplier and, with my father's help, set about welding a new one.





It looks fine. It became clear why the original was made in such thin steel, however, getting all of the angles right in 10mm steel was a pain. In 3mm, you could just bend it to shape. It took 3 visits to the boat, and as many wooden templates to get it right. I think it may last........

I blagged a piece of scrap hardwood from Graham, a mate refitting his boat. Lots of sanding and polishing and it looked like it would make a suitable mount to cover up the hole where the Bukh control panel used to be:





It's quite frightening. managing the project, you break the task down into subtasks, such as the mechanics of fitting the engine, electrics, pipes, running gear and so on. Each of these breaks down further, so, in the scheme of things, making and fitting the new control panel plate was a minor job, as was, say, fitting an air intake fan for the engine room.

The reality, once you break down the project in this way, and add up all of the time required, is completely different to what you originally guesstimate.

Anyway, another small job ticked off:





The day of the fit arrived. Our friend Vince was on hand, and he, together with my father and I, gently slid the engine onto it's new mountings.



Disaster. The front mounting fitted, but the rear was out by 20mm. No idea how that happened. Crouching in the cramped space behind the engine, I could see the engine installation slide, new feet welded up, a new date for fitting, and us missing our agreed launch date with the club. My heart sank.

Then a brainwave. All we had to do was cut the plate bolted to the engine to support the feet slightly and it would work. I was convinced it would. I discussed it with my father, and less than an hour later, we started tightening the engine mountings, ready to take final measuments of the prop shaft for cutting.

Not long after that, we set the workbench up, cut the shaft and fitted the flange. I was starting to feel hopeful.





Tired now, and with just the two of us, we finally slid the engine in, and set about checking the alignment with feeler guages.

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0.125mm torerance was converted into thousands of an inch. Gradually spinning the adjustable feet up and down, we achieved half the allowable tolerance. We'd check again once she was in the water and had run for an hour or so, but for now, job done.