Day 16--finally success!

I went in search of a mechanic today.  I finally gave up on the one we had spoken to over the past month.  Found one that could come straight down to the boat!!  As it turns out, as I went up to the marina office, I saw a business across the way and there was a sign out front that said "Marine".  I stopped in and started talking to them about our problems. Their response was that they don't work on diesel engines.  I told them the engine was fine.  I simply needed the filters replace, the oil changed and the batteries looked at. They thought they could handle it just fine.   The mechanic came down to Zephyr and looked her over.  Didn't see anything hard about changing the filters and found the batteries were old and some were fried and all really need to be replaced.  They are almost 4 years old. Better safe than sorry.  We ordered a dozen of each filter--3 different ones plus a full sent of batteries.  With luck, we should have everything changed by Monday!!  It will be nice to have her up and running again.  He asked why I hadn't started the engine.  Did I think anything was wrong? Nope, I told him, I just want to make sure that the engine was getting nice clean fuel.  Prevention is primary to keeping the engine running smoothly.

Ran errands for several hours.  Ordered my winch driver--also know as a super powerful 90 degree drill as well as the bits for removing the teak.  Went to pick up the stainless steel tiller since I was sure it had been re-welded by now. After all, he told us on Tuesday that it would be done by Wednesday. Here comes that turnip truck again.  Yeah, that's right--it hadn't been touched.  At least he sat down and did it while I was there.  I even ordered a lift mechanism for holding open the lid of the navigation table.  It has to come from Portland, but may be here by tomorrow.

Tried to get up the mast this afternoon. Hooked up the Topclimber to a line and started up. Got about 1/3 of the way up before I gave out.  We had hooked up an extra line and attached it to the harness I was wearing.  Tracy kept it taut as I went up. Unfortunately, it crossed over the lift mechanism and made it hard to propel myself up the line.  We will try a different way tomorrow.

Enjoyed a nice warm sunny day today.  Warmest since we got here.  75 degrees.  It's 72 now according to the weather man.  Tomorrow--mid 80's.   Yeah!!