Despite being up several times during the night, Dick was up at 0600 hours and started preparations to get underway. We are not ready to depart until almost 0800. After releasing all lines to the mooring and my neighbor’s boat, we discover we again have no propulsion. We quickly threw lines back to our neighbor and re-secured the boat. As usual, it takes a lot of relocating or rearranging of the stuff in the aft berth (a.k.a. “the garage”) to get to the transmission. Once that was accomplished I found the aluminum pin had “fallen out“. With winds expected to increase, I decided a proper key was in order before we started out again.
Local knowledge on where to get square stock to manufacture a key was sorely lacking. After many fruitless calls to, WM, hardware stores and a machine shop, I decided to head out to Lowes and search for something to make the key. We caught the local shuttle bus, transferred routes and made it to Lowes near the big mall. There was no square stock in Lowes inventory and the search for substitute material was fruitless too. We started walking towards the mall and passed a Michael’s Arts & Crafts store. We went in to look for substitute material and found a picture easel made of quarter inch mild steel. Search over, bought it and headed to the mall food court to have lunch and catch the return shuttle.
When we returned to the boat, I fashioned a key from the easel material and installed it in the coupling/shaft. We started the engine and tested forward and reverse operation and all looked good. Repacked the “garage” and settled back to enjoy a brew and check the weather forecast as the wind was increasing all afternoon. Forecast called for 15-20 in AM increasing to 20-25 PM and gusts to 30 from where else…the north. Decided to check forecast on Tuesday AM and decide what to do.
Dinner, TV, zonk as usual.
Location: Still stuck in Vero Beach, FL
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