Friday the 28th of October and goodbye to Delaware City. Yesterday was a test of mettle, fortitude and stamina. David spent the entire day upside down over the Volvo engine – ovlov is imprinted in green on his chest now forever.
The repair that grew: We had arrived last Saturday night due to the coupler of the shaft. Turns out the shaft was misaligned and then upon closer inspection , the entire engine was too low at the front. It should have been .004 inches off at the most. But in reality its was .038 inches off. This is a dramatic difference which explained how the coupler was distorted and would shear off any bolts that joined the shaft to the transmission.
The fact that Delaware City is a beautiful but TINY city with basically a convenience store, a liquor store , a couple of restaurants and a marina added to the challenge. However, the people were amazing. We met Nancy, the pastor, her husband George who drove us for the right bolts to Midland, about a 30min drive away. Then we met Hamad another sailor who drove David to get more parts as the repair just kept growing. And lastly we met David and his new wife Clair, doppleganger in spirit if not in looks. Dave is a pilot for the rich and famous but has flown food and provisions for the poor in Africa for many years , a musician, an accomplished sailor and lots more. His wife works for the famous magazine BoatUS and knows just about everything boat related in the US. I accompanied them to a Neighbourhood Watch session with their sheriff (3 officers in total for this town including the Sheriff who patrols as well!) MMM our Chiefs usually have about 10 years of patrol experience before they move up the ladder. Then they have lots of sitting on boards experience. They could learn a thing or two from the sheriff who stays close to the streets. I had coordinated Neighbourhood Watch for 2 years for OPS and CPTED trained in level 2 so I figured it would be fun to see what US towns do. Plus, it was good to get out of the boat and see PEOPLE!
Today, I tried to use my creative boat cooking imagination and used leftover quinoa and cornmeal to make little pancakes. They were actually not too bad and due to the quinoa have a complete protein. You can tell when sailors are down on fresh provisions as their creativity in the galley soars in direct proportion.
So excited to move on and just revving the engine now, 11:52. It sounds smoother and praying that it is happy and leaves the shaft bolts in one piece. Off to the great Chesapeake Bay through the Delaware/Chesapeake Canal.
