Budget can rent a Chevrolet Coronado light pickup truck for $110 per day including insurance and unlimited miles. But assuming an optimistic 5 day round trip to San Diego I figure that the total cost of this option would be around $1,000 if I include motel stays and fuel. Other costs would be my time and the uncertain risks of doing the job myself. It is much more efficient to have a trucking company to do a one way trip from the border to La Paz than for me to do a round trip. The truck rental option is off the table.
In the afternoon I continued my interaction with Mark on the new engine. Fortunately I had sent him some photos of the stern of my boat when she had been on the hard stand and he raised the issue of the steep angle of the propeller shaft which I estimate to be 12.5 degrees. He thinks that this amount of tilt on the new engine could lead to problems later, so we are working to placing the engine at a 4 or 5 degree tilt and using a down angle gear behind the transmission to make up the difference. This will require more serious modification of the engine rails and it could have impact on the fit of the engine in the compartment. I've got top produce better drawings to explore this and to that end I am using the Open Office drawing package. The drawings will be no where professional standard but they will be to scale and very accurate. They will have the great advantage of being transmittable by email. (I'll have to convert the drawings to a generic standard before transmission.)
At 5 PM I noted that the gentle flood tide had almost finished and there was very little current or wind). So I went over the side for some more hull cleaning. To my surprise I was able to complete the starboard side of the hull, the section from aft of the keel all of the way to the bow. I was even more surprised to be able to dive down below the keel and clean its lower edge. I never thought that I would be able to do that. To finish the hull cleaning I must clean the lower third of the port side of the keel (now that I can do it) and a small and easy section from forward of the keel to the stem of the boat.
The top 6 meters of anchor chain are clean. I paid out the last 6 meters of my anchor rode chain partly to have the growth on some of the chain cleaned as the boat moves around, but mainly to feel more secure when the wind picks up at night. At present I have 36 meters (118 ft) of 10 mm (3/8") chain, which will give me a worst case ratio of 5.6:1 at high tide.
But not having an engine made me more careful. The first thing I did was to shackle my spare rode to the end of the anchor chain, just in case I lost the end of the rode into the water. At the moment I am in a position of either paying out another 12 meters of chain and 80 meters of rope or moving the spare rode to my storm anchor which is on deck and partially assembled. I would be able to deploy the storm anchor in 5-10 minutes, depending on how scared I am.
At 5 PM I noted that the gentle flood tide had almost finished and there was very little current or wind). So I went over the side for some more hull cleaning. To my surprise I was able to complete the starboard side of the hull, the section from aft of the keel all of the way to the bow. I was even more surprised to be able to dive down below the keel and clean its lower edge. I never thought that I would be able to do that. To finish the hull cleaning I must clean the lower third of the port side of the keel (now that I can do it) and a small and easy section from forward of the keel to the stem of the boat.
The top 6 meters of anchor chain are clean. I paid out the last 6 meters of my anchor rode chain partly to have the growth on some of the chain cleaned as the boat moves around, but mainly to feel more secure when the wind picks up at night. At present I have 36 meters (118 ft) of 10 mm (3/8") chain, which will give me a worst case ratio of 5.6:1 at high tide.
But not having an engine made me more careful. The first thing I did was to shackle my spare rode to the end of the anchor chain, just in case I lost the end of the rode into the water. At the moment I am in a position of either paying out another 12 meters of chain and 80 meters of rope or moving the spare rode to my storm anchor which is on deck and partially assembled. I would be able to deploy the storm anchor in 5-10 minutes, depending on how scared I am.
No comments:
Post a Comment