Sump Wars and City Views

Professional mechanics are not cheap. Here in California you pay $100 per hour. But with tools such as a pump suck out the old oil from the sump while he attends to removing the old filter with a choice of wrenches for the job and and another pump for injecting the new oil a professional can do the job in less than an hour (plus travel, I guess). For my first solo oil change it was an all day job.
I started off the festivities by starting up the engine and putting a load on it by placing it in reverse at 1000 rpm. While this was going on I tightened up the stern gland and shot 25 squirts of grease into it, reducing the drip to about one drop per second. After running the engine for 30 minutes I turned my attention to the oil change.
The first problem was that the manual pump that I had purchased for $16 would suck out only dribbles of oil. Over and over I would position the thin tube down the dip stick hole to where by measurement I knew the bottom was, only to get a feeble dribble worthy of a ninety year old man. (Twenty years ago I would have said "a sixty year old man".) So what did this macho independent self sufficient world circumnavigator do? I asked for help!
Barry came over and try as we may we were not making much progress. Then I pointed out another tube further aft and I wondered if that may not be the place for extracting the oil. We looked at the tube and it curved down below the engine out of sight. I am terrified of doing things I know nothing about and that is where Barry came in. He said to unscrew the cap and have a look. I then mentioned a mysterious pumpy thing in my tools below the navigation seat and have a dim recollection of being presented with it by the mechanics at Fisherman's Engineering in Fremantle after my request for an extraction pump. The memory was so dim that I wasn't sure if I was imagining it. The pump had no insertion rod or tube but merely a nut. I tried the nut on the tube on the engine and it fit. I started pumping, and before I knew it I extracted 6 liters of oil from the engine sump. Ever since Fremantle I have had the means of extracting oil from the engine sump and didn't quite know it.
We then looked at the oil I had purchased and realized that I needed two containers, not just the one that I had purchased. That meant a return to the shop for more oil and a solution to the problems of the funnels that I had purchased being two large for the small openings into the engine. Barry returned to his boat (I owe him a few beers.) and I decided to remove the oil filter. Oops, there was no room between the end of the filter and some sort of engine fitting to insert the band of the wrench. Also, my pre-pay telephone was down to less than $3 and only on weekends (today is Sunday) does the no. 74 bus go to the Hilltop Mall where I know there is a Verizon agent so I broke off my effort to modify the oil filter wrench to visit Hilltop for the telephone prepay and anything that I could find at Walmart.
The $1 bus ride got me to Hilltop, many miles away. At Verizon I paid $60 prepay and got a receipt. I then visited WalMart and found an oil filter wrench that fits over the filter like a thin pipe wrench for only $2.88. I also noticed cans of CRC "QD Electronic Cleaner" that Arnold had recommended and purchased that too. From there it was to Burger King for two Junior Whoppers at $1 each and that put me back at the bus stop for the next hourly no. 74 bus with 15 minutes to spare.
On entering the bus I asked for a transfer (at an extra 25C would you believe) and got off at the back of the auto parts place where I purchased two more gallon containers of oil (giving me enough spare for another change further down the track) and a funnel with a small outlet. I used the transfer to get on the next no. 74 bus and soon after that I was back at the marina. The entire operation took about 3 hours and cost $2.25 in bus fares and $2 for lunch.
Using the new tool I was soon able to remove the old fuel filter and soon had the new filter on. Putting the new oil in turned out to be very time consuming (well over 30 minutes) but I managed to get 6 liters into the engine, bringing the level to just above the "full" mark. The manual states that 6.5 liters are required if you have changed the filter, but my plan was to run the engine for a while and see where the oil level would settle to.
Except that the engine would not start. It wouldn't even try to start. The starting circuit was on and the oil pressure alarm was screaming but when I pushed the button the solenoid would not be activated. I looked around for loose wiring but had no success. By then it was well after dark, it was raining, I was cold, so I slid the cover back over the engine, put the flooring back in the aft section over the stuffing box, put everything away, cleaned up the oily pumps and tools, then poured myself a stiff bourbon. After that I went for a shower through the rain.
Maybe I should have paid a mechanic to do the job. ... No ... Not really. I've got to learn how to do this myself and I'm sure that I'll be faster next time. Besides, I don't want to find myself in the future at the mercy of some questionable mechanic in some far away place who will put whatever he has at hand into my SABB engine.
My telephone still shows only $2.51. So where is the $60 that I put in? I know that it is Sunday, but I don't think that the Verizon computers will have been in church since 2 PM. If as I fear it is still $2.62 in the morning I'll have to find my way back to Hilltop tomorrow. (Remember that I said I got a receipt? :-)
On a brighter front is the view. I commented to Jim last night that I will always remember the view of San Francisco that I get whenever I emerge from my cabin into the cockpit. There it is: a million dollar view of the City of San Francisco perfectly framed between a small but high on the left and Ford Point on the right. I see the city during dawn, sunset, bright sun, rain, even thin fog. Sometimes she seems close and large, sometimes she seems distant and small. Sometimes she is clear and open, sometimes shrouded, mysterious and inscrutable. .. A bit like a woman - oops!, I mean person!
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