Were off!

Ok, we are finally ready to head out on the boat for the rest of the Summer. Had to haul the boat to fix a vibration in the Port shaft that has been their since I bought the boat but has steadily got worse until I decided I needed to fix it before it broke something. Hated to delay our trip but the soonest I could haul the boat was July 5th. Good thing I hauled it. The prop was bent,two blades out of tune and the shaft was bent. But that was the least of the problem. The shaft and the coupling, the bronze piece that the shaft slips into and connects to the transmission, were never properly attached. Apparently the nut that holds the shaft onto the coupling was bottoming out before the shaft was fully engaged in the coupling which allowed for movement which had caused the key, which keeps the shaft from rotating in the coupling, to nearly shear off. This would have been very bad indeed. The guy at Tacoma Propeller said the key and keyway were way too small for such a large shaft so he enlarged them. The fix however caused more problems and a second trip to the propeller shop to shorten the shaft by 1/4 inch to properly mate with the transmission plate. Can't say enough about Tacoma Propeller, they were great to work with. While the boat was out I had the guys at the yard paint the bottom and I upgraded the trim tabs and lo and behold when we put it back in the water their were no leaks and no more vibrations, both good things. I spent all afternoon loading food water and other stuff on the boat. We had unloaded a bunch of stuff to lighten the boat as it is at the upper end of the boatyards lift capability. the last time I hauled it we had a full load of everything for Alaska and I am pretty sure we stressed the four lift straps just a bit. It was a bit nerve racking for everyone involved. Chris got one last day with Chloe, we will definitely miss our one day a week we get to babysit her but are hoping that they can make it up for a few days to visit us. We have no fixed agenda or schedule, wherever we end up each day is our destination.