Viajador sails again!

[Jasper & Karen]

It's been some time since we've posted here and I have to admit that we shamelessly abandoned our Newporter to go live like landlubbers for the better part of a year, looking after a pretty nice house for some friends.  Of course, we intended to use the time to do all of the really dirty work that needed doing on Viajador, but somehow, the weather was never quite right when we had the time, etc., etc.

Just to bring you all up to date on our boat woes, the last trip we made ended up poorly.  The engine stalled just outside our home port in a fitful wind; we couldn't get up enough speed to maneuver properly and we couldn't get that engine to start again.  While we were trying, I saw a piece of metal come flinging itself out of the engine compartment and fall into the companionway.  Not that I know all that much about engines, but I do believe they're not designed to be flinging parts about.

Nobody we talked to could say what that part was.  Evidently, it was a piece of a really heavy-duty spring but where it had come from remained a mystery during that whole year we were on dry land.  During that time, both Jasper and our friendly mechanic had at the engine and replaced every last hose and line on the thing, trying to get to the root of the problem.

You'd just never guess.  I'll spare you the 17 occasions on which we thought it was licked, started it up and failed to go anywhere.  Cutting right to the chase, this is what appears to have happened:

There is a drive plate between the engine and the transmission--a sort of shock absorber, as I understand it; and it contains at least 6 of those heavy-duty springs, a piece of one of which I had recovered from our companionway.  It appears that our drive plate had had its day and shot about 3 of those springs into the engine compartment.  One of them dinged our fuel line, being the immediate cause of the engine failure.  In the absence of a functional drive plate, the transmission apparently will not transmit your intention to change gears.

We thought we had the problem solved when we put in the new drive plate, but it transpired that the transmission itself was having some issues.  One total rebuild later, we are finally functional again.  I will not dwell on the fact that for each installation and examination, it was necessary to remove all of the engine mounts to tilt the whole assembly at an angle that would allow removal of the transmission, as there is not enough room to slide the shaft out clear of the transmission.  Sometimes, I appreciate the division of labour on our boat:  I just had to clean up the blood, sweat and grease afterward.

One instructive note about this whole process:  our engine manual and the $75 manual we bought for the Borg-Warner transmission are both very complete on their respective subjects.  Neither one of them touches on the drive plate, it being the thing between the two manualized parts.  A Newporter owner's best friend is a mechanic with a mind for problem solving!

Next post, some pics from our trip!

[Clyde A. Phillips]

Karen, you can tell your carver friend I appreciate his fine art work. Fantabulus! Reminds me of a trip through Oklahoma.  We stopped at a Cherokee shop (large one, at that) to see what they had.  Being one who enjoys anyone’s native music (folk music) I was interested in getting an Indian courting flute.  All of them on display where fine works of art.  Looked like trained artists were making them for the tourist trade.  I finally asked if they had one that looked like I made it and they reached under the counter and pulled out one that looked like its final sanding was done with a handful of sand.  Rough built with nothing spectacular decorating it—perfect!  It looked like a young man with a gleam in his eye just made his first an surely only flute.  Your carver friend is on the high class end of this.  Maybe you should make some sort of waterproof cover with a fuzzy interior to protect them on the sitting-in-the-marina days.

We all will be patiently waiting for your posting of the pictures.  I’d be looking for some of the boat, heeled over a wee with the sails full of wind, but I know what you mean about sailing in a tunnel, so I guess you have none of those.

Keep in touch.  Peace, Clyde

[Jasper & Karen]

Good to hear from you, too, Uncle Clyde!

Yes, the carver is the same one who did our name-boards and you're right, they're not up at the moment--they weathered badly so Jasper took them down to sand.  They'll be up shortly, I'm sure.

We enjoyed the trip, but not the sailing!  As usual in these parts, even though we left in a southeaster to go northwest, as soon as the wind got a whiff of us it moved around to the northwest and stayed 'on the beak' as Jasper says, all the way up.  Because of the mountains here, those are the only directions of wind we get on the inside passage.  A good test of the newly rebuilt transmission, is about all we can say of that!

There were compensations, however:  a pod of transient orcas; several dolphins and lots of fish, some of which now resides in our freezer.

Have to collect the pics from various cameras and computers to upload, but I'll start now with what we've got on this computer.

Hope all is well with you and Mary,

Karen & Jasper

[bob mitchell]

The link for damper plates is www.ebasicpower.com 

[Clyde A. Phillips]

It is so good to hear from you again.  A year long house-sitting job is not to be sneezed at, as we say in these parts.  Sorry to hear of your troubles, but I can relate to them.  I had a damper go bad on me, but after a Coast Guard tow to our dock and a trip to the boat by a mechanic from the shipyard where NP's were built, it was all fixed up.  We had the room to get to it, and the mechanic knew (by experience--not manuals) the problem, so that was that.  I had no clean-up mess to go through as you did because the mechanic left no blood and the bilge was of workboat (I should say oyster boat) quality (ugh type dirty!).

Thanks for the pictures.  Is the carver of the totems the same carver that did your name board/belaying pin rails?  By the way, I missed them on your picture.  Hope you enjoyed your 5 day trip.  I'm sure you did.  There is nothing line a short cruise to get back in the habits of living aboard.  Enjoy!