The wife and I had planned a three day event for the last three days. I hate to admit it, but after being sick for two and a half months, it is going to take some time to get back where I was before this cellulitis thing started.
I brought the boat home last Monday to rebuild the water pump. I had ordered a kit for the rebuild and it showed up on Tuesday. Not a big deal, pulled it apart, went to pull the housing off, and had one heck of a problem, the housing wouldn't pop off. Turned out that the housing had gotten hot and started to melt, seizing on the washers that sit between the housing and the impeller. No biggie, I called around and found the extra parts I needed in Gladstone 45 miles up the freeway. Got home, slapped it back together and proceeded to pack for our three-day relaxing fishing trip. I spent the majority of Friday getting my punch list complete so that when the wife got home we could take off without a hiccup.
We pulled into Newport right on schedule, dumped the boat, unhitched and locked the trailer, then drove my wife over to D dock so she could assist docking in the wind. I ran back over to the loading dock, hopped in the boat, fired her up and let her warm up before running over to the slip. Once she was warm, I slipped the lines, hopped in and put her in reverse. The engine revved up, but didn't go into gear... with a sick feeling in my gut, I shifted into forward, again, nothing.
I knew exactly what was wrong, I had not paid attention and the shifter linkage hadn't lined up when I put it back together. I then ran back over to D dock to let my wife know we wouldn't be sleeping in the boat that night. I then hooked up the trailer, backed down the ramp and handlined the boat back on the trailer. By then it was dark out, and I was at the end of my energy, and really p*ssed of at myself. When loading up that morning gettin ready to head over I thought, no point in bringing my tool box, after all, I had just fixed the only thing that could have possibly gone wrong; right?
Well, no tools, nearing nine o'clock in the evening, in a small coastal town where the sidewalks are rolled up by seven, hotel and dinner became the priority.
We had a quick burger [emoji488], and surfed the phone to find a cheap hotel. Found one for a hundred bucks, and headed over to get some rest. By this time, I am so cranky I could chew my own leg off! Got into our room, real small, but nice and clean. Sat on the bed, and I am surprised I didn't get a broken spring stuck in my butt. Not going to let this ordeal get the best of me, I broke out a fifth of Brokentop bourbon to de stress the evening. Jan (my wife) had two glasses, I had several 🤠. Both of us also use CPAP's which are still in the boat, on the trailer, back at the Marina. Oh well, we will make it! Two AM, the wife wakes me up from a sound sleep [emoji42] to take the dog outside to pee. From that point on, I couldn't get back to sleep. My back was killing me and the broken springs were sticking me in the back so attaining any real rest was out of the question. We rolled out of bed at daylight, went and grabbed some coffee and a roll then headed to Walmart to buy some cheap sockets so I could pull the bottom end off. I was so burned out, I grabbed some 1/2 inch drive sockets and a 3/8th ratchet. Of coarse, I didn't figure that out until I got back to the boat. Soooo, hopped back in the truck, drove to the first auto part store I came to went in and found that they only had half of the sockets I needed. Bought what they had, then drove to the next parts place and got the last socket I needed.
Back at the boat, it took me about 15 minutes to drop the bottom end enough to get the shifter into the the splined socket, and bolt it back together.
Dropped the boat in, dropped the trailer, ran the wife over to D dock, walked back to the loading dock, motored over to the slip, tied off without incident, crawled into bed, slept till dinner time, ate a wee bit, went back to bed, slept till nine the next morning. Nice bed, boat rocking in the breeze, priceless!
We played around in the bay the next day, but my energy level was still low so no fishing or crabbing [emoji886]. We did stop at the Mad Dog tavern for some lunch, then back to the slip for some more R&R. Todd and his wife (don't know their last name) stopped by early evening for a look at the boat.
Another great nights sleep, rain tapping on the roof, just a nice evening with my wife. Next morning, our last day, we decided to bag it and come home. I'm retired, but my wife is not, and I hate to send her in to work feeling burned out.
I did walk over to CGRFISH's boat on dock A. I haven't seen a lot of Tolmans up close so it is nice to look at what others have done. His boat is nice! His finish puts mine to shame, but in truth I built to go fishing, although this year, that hasn't materialized. My hat is off to his craftsmanship!🤠
If you like bourbon, this is some great small batch stuff! Hiccup 🤡
Nothing but blue skies from now on!
