The outdated update
Trip Start
Feb 28, 2007
1
9
13
Trip End
Ongoing
Chagaramus, Trinidad and Tobago
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
I promised that i would try my best in keeping Sparrows Blog a lively and updated blog.... I even went so far as too mention to a select few that i would update it once a week. Well sadly that was just a sparkling promise from my optimism.
It has been WEEKS since the last update if not months and so i appologies again. What is the reason for my failure to deliver? Well i could say that is was the fact that we were pressed for time and in some cases this would be true, but the real reason would be that most times that i promised to update the blog i would either fall asleep at the computer, or be exhuasted by watching a DVD, no decent excuse!
Anyway enough of the excuses let me get to the update side of things. To be perfectly honest to you i cant remember where we were last time i updated....so I will just start somewhere and introduce you slowly to the goings on.
Our problem arose several weeks ago, sometime in early april when we were told by immergration officials that our visas for trini and tobago would expire today (the 15th of may) this would mean the end of our second term in trini, and a very unlikely chance of extending it further which ment that sparrow would need to be finnished and sailing.... Needless to say that that was just another bit of optomism shinning through.
Anyhow we kept at it with thomas finnishing up on phills custom built 55ft cat and starting to work full time on sparrow which made me feel guilty and frustrated at the fact that the work that i was supposed to be doing was being done by tom while is sat at work (fixing sparrows rig) doing nothing and only having an hour or so to do little fidlings at the end of each day. Except of course for weekends.
The majority of the work done during this time how ever was done to the insalation of the engine which ment cutting out the old ones and glassing and epoxing new ones in. The next little bit of delight was trying to get the propshaft to work and this is roughly how it planned out.
Becuase we had to move the engine backwards in order to get it to fit in the designated place the old shaft was too small which ment we had to buy a new shaft. No problem, we went and bought a 25mm shaft only to find that the old worn cutless bearing was for a one inch shaft which is equal to 25.something, which i had not picked up when i measured it. This ment that zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........ ..........
Sorry bout that must have fallen asleep! Where was I? Oh yes the engine saga... when we discovered the difference in shafts we were nocked back in our enthusiasm and drive and sat shaking our heads in frustration. Dear old Murphy seemed to have moved in with his entire family...all the way back to his uncle twice removed.
For another opinion we called in a friend of tom and johnesses that had been helping us with the engine instalation. Denis has an extensive perfectionists knowlegde and experience of engines and anything electrical. He took a look at our problem and came up with the idea of changing EVERYTHING! It would mean cutting out the origional cutless bearing and stern tube, and spending an extra TT$1000 on the shaft, cutless bearing, dripseal, and coupling...that unfortunately was out of the question. But sticking to the rough idea and to 25mm, we opted to cutout the cutless and about 20cm of the stern tube. But before that could be done we had to make shure we could get the parts.
As per usual, not one shop had everything we needed. We had to buy the cutless, shaft, and coupling from one shop, a foot of sterntube from the other, and get the prop machined to fit the 25mm shaft. This all went surprisingly well including the instalation...i still believe that Murphy had taken the family on vacation. anyhow inthe space of a week it was in.
By this stage the girls had finnished the sewing of the multi-coloured tiedyed cusion covers, painted the interior in an array of bright orange sponge blots, and managed to "accidently" have to paint half the floor boards. We had also attached the teak toe rail, and put the mast back up, excluding the new fore stay, and double backstays.
On the last weekend before we had to possibly leave the country for a week or two, we took a slow saturday, celebrated life over a delisouse meal out withour dear friends and card playing rivals Niels and Ruth that evening and lay low all of sunday watching movies and spending mothers day in an airconditioned boat with Mother Hubbord.
And now we are here with an unexpcted 6 week visa renewal and more time to finnish Sparrow off comfortably. AHH
