When I thought my burned foot had finally gained us a day of rest, as announced by the Captain...my wonderful husband...it was just the beginning. I was relaxing in the rack with the rest of the family. Poseidon pulling DVDs off of the shelf in the bed like we were at home, and waving them in my face wanting to watch them. Since we don't have the generator right now, the TV is secured. I have to take it off of the wall to reconnect the video cable anyway since it cut out the other day. My husband was curled up half dozing. In pops our sister-in-law's head asking for a slotted screwdriver. We both sat up immediately and asked why. If something on the boat required a screwdriver...
I remained bed bound watching Poseidon happily crawl around "mommy mountain" and chew on his toothbrush, the DVD case, and anything else in reach. I overheard "davit" and realized I was going to be working soon. A few minutes later, I was handing Poseidon up to his aunt while I strapped on my harness. The port side davit arm had broken a couple bolts and was hanging on by a prayer. We secured it a little, or at least felt better, with a line run through it to a winch. I was standing on the transom, leaning over it unscrewing the outboard bolts off the RHIB. How did we end up here you ask? Well, the best guess is that with the heavy swells, the engine was really working the davit...and we had not had a chance to reseat the machine screws before leaving. Back to the story...
I try to lift the outboard, and no luck. I am leaning out trying to do this one handed, off the back of a boat, in a 10-12 foot swell. Then I realize it is not just my lack of a good angle. (Here is where I quote Snatch..."It was at a funny angle." "What do you mean 'funny angle,' it was right behind you.") The were two additional 1/2" through bolts below the usual hand screw mounts. Two wrenches (one lost at sea), a screwdriver and hammer later, the bolts were out. Then I try to unscrew the hand screws and lift again. For those unfamiliar, outboards are heavy. They require two hand for big guys when pierside. I was not going to budge this thing. We then rigged the mizzen halyard to a sail tie. I took a single wrap with the sail tie around the handle and put a half-hitch in it. As tension came on, I unscrewed the hand mounts and on the lift I push the engine out and pull the loop on the hitch. One Yamaha overbaord, sail tie intact! Why waste a good engine? Well, we thought of craning it over to a spot amid ships aptly named the "garage" for all the random stuff piled there. However, if you read the ad above, you will notice that it was seized anyway. The only reason it came with us is because I was debating on trying to rebuild it completely when we hit Hawaii. Now, maybe I can get that new RHIB...
On watch the winds died out,and the engine starting having issues. So, guessing the post tomorrow will be about overcoming that and hopefully my final day of mending the main sail...Oh, and my husband and his brother replaced the screws in the davit while I cooked dinner. Bravely entering the kitchen once again.
Until then, Poseidon is happily crawling around on the floor with better balance than most of you on a good day on dry land. :)
Posit: 22 50.500N 146 53.308W
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