Shopping and Mercury Dunking

This morning I made the long walk to the CCC shop dragging the trolley while Arnold went to the town center looking for an ATM. Fortunately the shop was open on this Easter Saturday and I came back with 4 cartons of a dozen cans of beer each and two bottles of El Presidente brandy, along with minor things like bananas, cheese and Bimbo Bread. I arrived at The Dock restaurant hot and thirsty, and Arnold bought three rounds of beer which we sipped overlooking the marina. (Don't worry - 330 ml bottles of pretty light beer.) I made the effort because everything is so much cheaper at that large store.

After the second beer I realized that there was an opportunity to soak the outboard motor in fresh water because the place was very quiet and the office was closed. I finally hit on the idea of using one of the plastic jetty carts as a vat so I hauled one down to the water tap, plugged up the round holes in the corner with paper, and filled it up with water. I then pulled it out of view of the restaurant and for 15 minutes repeatedly dunked the motor. The idea was to purge all of the salt from the nooks and crannies. After this effort I mounted the outboard motor onto the Zodiac to dry and went back to the restaurant for an early dinner with Arnold. An hour later we cranked up the Mercury and headed back to the boat.

After a short nap I slid back the cover to the diesel engine to have a look at this mixer that I am supposed to remove. I developed several reservations about the project. I soon realized that Zee must have removed it doing his work on the engine in Port Townsend and would have had at least a quick look at it. Also, the mixer seems too big to clog up easily. Finally, the SABB manual says nothing about a possible blockage in the mixer in its troubleshooting section. However, I decided to proceed with the task and to that end I squirted various nuts, bolts, and screws with penetrating oil, though I did not expect any trouble in this area because of Zee's recent work.

In the evening we watch Monster's Ball, a gem of a movie that Arnold had never seen before.