final days, a change in plans

Were down the the last weekend before departure. Today was my last day at work, said goodby to the office and apparently I was already in vacation mode because I left my phone sitting on the desk. All afternoon I was lost without it because it is my electronic brain with all my contact information and phone numbers. Withhout it I could not even coordinate with Chris regarding a meeting place for the send off party at Dukes. A bunch of friends gathered for a few drinks, some food and lots of bad jokes and good stories. I got my phone back so now at least Chris and I can communicate. I had sent her to the wrong restaurant so I got the phone back just in time to divert her to the right one, not a good way to start a four month trip, send you wife off to a different restaurant. I wonder how long she would have waited for us to show up before I was a dead man.

Were not quite ready. Small repair job to the starboard engine. I noticed the raw water pump was dripping oil from the weep holes a few weeks ago. I debated whether I needed to change the pump or not, and initially figured I would chance it, surely the pump would last another 3000 miles. Bad decision Tom! I decided on Wednesday to make a better decision and do the preventive maintenance and to pull the pump and rebuild or replace it. Thankfully the other pump looks in great shape because getting to it would be not much fun. Getting this one off was hard enough and it was the one with easy access. I got it off then called around to get a price and pick one up. Well the best of plans usually overlooks a few small details, like no one has my pump in stock. Uh oh! Called Tacoma Diesel. The sales guy their said, uh oh, these are on back order. I might be able to have one next day or more likely in about a week. Not the answer I was looking for. He said he would get right back to me when he found one. I am still waiting for his call. I called fisheries supply and they found one right away. In Maine. they could have it in a couple days for a mere 650 bucks. Yikes that is 130 gallons of diesel. Everyting is now calculated in fuel units not dollars and cents.
I asked the guy at Fisheries if they had a rebuild kit and he said they did. I said I would be right up to pick it up, not even asking the price and I would let him know if I wanted him to order the new unit. I do need a spare but was not sure I wanted to spend the money on one so I would just rebuild the old one. and hope for the best As I headed North to Seattle I called the Cat dealer to see if they had a pump in stock. He could not tell me if they had one because they used cat part numbers not Sherwood pump numbers. He needed the engine serial numbers. The only place to get those is off the engines. I turned back around and made a short side trip from Tacoma to Port Orchar, got the numbers and called the Cat dealer back. Not only did they have one but it was only 25o dollars. Hmm, must be some problem here, how in the world can there be a 400 dollar difference in price for the same pump. I headed for the the Cat dealer figuring for sure there was going to be some mistake and the pumps would not be the same. Wrong! They were exactly the same. So I picked up the new pump but the salesman forgot to tell me over the phone there was a 250 dollar core fee. They wanted the old one to rebuild. I figured I was still money ahead if I picked up the rebuild kit from Fisheries, it could not be all that expensive, keep the old pump, rebuild it for the spare and install the new one.
I got to Fisheries about 3 hours later than planned and they had the rebuild kit waiting for me. The small box of parts cost a stunning 350, more than the entire new unit at Cat.

On my way home I started doing the math. If I return the rebuild kit, get my 350 back, go to Cat and buy another new pump and turn in the old one I would only be out 750. Right now I was out about 850. I could save a whole 100 dollars or 25 gallons of diesel.
I figured my time was worth something so instead of doing the driving to return things I decided to use the kit to rebuild the old one. After spending about 4 hours trying to get the old one apart, spending more money on tools to do that and then reading the instructions about how hard it is to rebuiild correctly unless you have the right tools, (I don't) I decided to go back to cat and pick up another new pump as a spare and get rid of the old one to get my 250 back.

I called them and the salesman told me that he sold the last one to some guy the day before. No kidding, what luck. But he could have another one by Monday. So Plans do change.

tomorrow I will install the new pump, put everything back together and pick up and clean the boat. Saturday afternoon we will finish sinking the boat with the additional clothing and food that Chris is convinced she needs. Sunday we will finish up around the house and have breakfast with the kids, dinner with the in laws and fret over last minute details.

Monday I run up to the Cat dealer and pick up the second spare water pump. Go to Fisheries to return the parts kit, head back to the house and have someone drive us to the boat. Hopefully we can be underway by mid morning. the morning tide runs north turning to flood and working against us by noon. I am going to try to use the tides to improve milage and gas consumption so we have to time our travels according the the currents and tides wherever possible.

The weather is finally showing signs of improvement, sun and calm weather for the next 5 to six days. so if the wind is in our favor (calm) we will go the west side of Whidby and across the straigts of Juan De Fuca. If not we will go the inside route to Deception Pass which is a bit longer but fare less bumpy.