Dado at our wedding, 12/26/84

Propeller surgery

That's John, Matt and me heading down the bayou to a straight stretch of water to open up the engine full blast so we can measure the rpms. Monday she gets picked up and has a new shaft put in and the propeller gets balanced and tweaked. Still having trouble steering this puppy in tight quarters, the rudder really only functions when you're moving along. And she does move along quite nicely, 8 knots at 1600 rpm with very little wake.

John and I put in a muffler on the main engine stack and it cuts the noise way down.

Much better. It was physically painful before.

Toot Toot

The Christening

This morning we got together with John and Betty and christened the Eileen Farrell- with Muzz on the phone to say a few words. Poured the champagne all around the boat and asked King Neptune to look after her. Then Bill the tug boat captain and his wife came over and we all went for a spin down the bayou and out into the bay. Lots of fun. It's really hard learning to steer a boat this large into a tight ditch with other boats around, but I didn't hit anything. We dropped anchor and cooked up a bunch of steaks for lunch. It was incredibly lovely out there with the engines off just bobbing up and down.

Then, of course, the weather changed. Not storming, but raining really hard. The winch on the crane shorted out and opened the roof hatch of its own accord, and then jammed. The drive shaft started rattling around, the stuffing box started coming apart, and everyone ended up wading through knee-high water to get back to their cars.

The purpose of a sea trial is to find all the defects and bugs, and we did that. First of all, we have to put a muffler on that exhaust, the sound that puppy makes at 1600 rpm is unbearable. The shaft needs to pulled, welded up and turned, and the prop balanced and reinstalled with new bearings. Then we need to learn how to handle a boat that size.

The good news is that the engine is great and the boat itself is fabulous.

I came home, got in bed, and pulled the covers over my head.

toot toot

I was going to take her out this Saturday into the bay to check out systems when I took a hard look around at all the acetylene, propane and oxygen tanks just standing there. Thought maybe I should spend some time securing things and packing things away before I go out and play in traffic and swells. Just a few small things left to button up and we're good to go. We do of course have to move our stuff and cats and provision the boat and do sea trials, but it feels good having finally gotten to this point. Much more relaxed.

Toot Toot

named

we got the name on the boat!

toot toot

Moved the washer dryer on board and hooked it up. Joyce is nervously packing.

My anchor " Stay, anchor, stay ". Good anchor.

Got the winches working and the anchors set up, the electricians are finishing up the power and controls, built the beds and storage areas, got a 12 man life raft and a 26.5 mm Czech flare pistol with a box of blue smoke flares. Ready to rock and roll. Selling off my real guns- too much of a hassle entering and leaving other countries. Everybody knows gringos are gun-toting lunatics.