Mechanical stuff

The boat seems to be running quite well but the depth meters are @#@%!!!.  I'll try putting some chokes on the cables and perhaps pulling the cables away from other possible sources of RFI and see what happens.  I'm tired of screwing with these things and will give them a couple more shots before I give what we used to call "the lindorfor stomp".  You had to have been there to understand.

I put new packing in this spring and I can't get it loose enough to leak to spec's.  We have a pressurized forward cutlass so there should be plenty of psi. so will tear that apart tomorrow before we leave and see if it's plugged from salt or sand residue in the heat exchanger.  A lot of people do the loop without a clue of the most basic mechanical or electrical know how and seem to do just fine.  Perhaps ignorance is bliss and the mechanical gremlins don't bother those people. 

These last few days we have had mostly port ties in locks and docks.  The Belle and I hates port dockings as the second you hit reverse the stern kicks out to the right as it has a mondo left hand prop.  Hence the reason most modern trawlers have thrusters.  Anyway,  we did fine and perhaps someday I will get over my panic followed by a blood pressure spike when a port tie comes up.  Chris knows that I have this problem and is patient when a port situation comes up.  Apparently my hearing abilities go down as my blood pressure goes up.

Any one of the Joes,  I'll try and call you tomorrow if we have cell.  The idle was set by the fuel injection guy at 600 but I had a couple of situations today where when I put it in gear it almost died.  I had to goose the throttle in neutral to clean it out.  These things only happen in a lock or docking. 

Kerm