Oh, where to begin? Who knew the technical writing skills I practiced in my career would come in so handy for blogging? A couple of days ago Steve became concerned with a noise near the front of the engine and yesterday, while waiting for a lock, he diagnosed the problem. Still running okay, we proceeded to the Bluff Harbor Marina (http://www.bluffharbor.com/) where his suspicions were confirmed. The cooling system for the boat is quite complicated, and there's more to it than the system that pulls in the river water that caused our previous problem. The river water that gets pulled in doesn't really cool the engine, it just cools this other system via a "heat exchanger" This other system is filled with antifreeze which circulates to cool the engine and includes a pump attached to the front of the engine that keeps it going. Well, it seems that this pump, which is original equipment, has some worn bearings. When Steve rebuilt the diesel 15 years ago, he got his rebuild kit from Blue Ridge Marine in Washington State...the only place in the country that has parts for our engine. So this morning, Steve called Keith, who actually remembered him. A replacement pump would have to come from JAPAN to the tune of $2900 (that's not a typo), but the rebuild option is to send the pump to Washington. So....Steve pulled it out, we got on the bikes and rode up to the nicest hardware store ever and shipped it out. The UPS guy showed up at the store for the daily drop just as the package got sealed and labeled. Overnight air, Keith is going to expedite the rebuild, and send it back to the Marina. If the boat gods are with us, we might be outa here by the end of this week.
Not that Burlington, IA isn't a very nice little river town and everyone we've told our story to has been very kind and helpful, but staying here a week was not on our agenda. So it's been quite an experience so far, a bit discouraging, but we will carry on. The marina showers are out of commission, so we've used the boat shower for the first time this trip. We've got electric, which equals heat and we keep telling ourselves that this is so much better than if the pump had failed in the middle of the river. The towns and marinas are pretty far apart down here so that would have been a bad situation. The good news is that this marina has WiFi, so we're connected. We have grown pretty dependent on the internet, and always feel better when we have it.
We've heard from everyone about the SNOW back home, and although the weather here is still unseasonably cold, at least we're still heading in the right direction, or hope to be soon.
3 comments:
Wow! What a start! You know, I can see how that would be really frustrating. The thing that gets me through situations like my plans going awry, is realizing God must have some other opportunity for me, so I'll go with the flow and look for something new. I'm glad you're keeping us up on your journey. This is fun to read and live through you. I'm drooling thinking of cruising in a boat, even with cloudy days.
WOW is right! Makes for a good blog though. Is there really anything you can do to prevent that algae from getting sucked in, like a screen or something? Hm....well i suppose a cloudy day on the Great Loop Adventure is better than a sunny day working in MN! haha
What a dang bummer. Keep your heads on straight and do your best to stay sane. Once this is resolved you may find yourselves wondering what all the stress was about or you will find that a certain few expletives have worked their way in to your common vocabulary and are used with surprising ease. Make sure they are good ones, this video may help you decide. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jRhgNp-fNc Wishing you the best.
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