Day 348 Cloudy morning and a lovely afternoon.

This morning started out with a few showers and overcast but by this afternoon, it was beautiful! An afternoon that make you glad to be alive. Eagles and hawks flying above us in Reid Harbor where we are staying. Canadian geese over in Reid Harbor where I go to post the blog on the opposite side Stuart Island. A delightful time to be in the San Juan Islands.

I worked inside Zephyr this morning since it was cold and cloudy outside and checked on the steering assembly at the rudder post. It has had the habit of coming loose on several occasions in the past and I just wanted to make sure I had finally fixed it. The bolts were tight and it looks great.

While back there, I found the grease gun for injecting grease into the windlass that pulls the anchor up when we are ready to leave a harbor. I'd greased the center post of the windlass but this puts grease inside and under the unit where I can't get to. Now the unit is all set for the Summer.

I pulled out one of my bottles of motor oil and went on to the next project. The diesel injector pump. It controls the injection of diesel fuel into the engine and if you have followed our posts for a while you know that the service on it had been missed for quite some time and we were concerned that it might have a problem since the oil in it is supposed to be changed every 50 hours of operation and it had probably not been serviced in over 2000. It was one of the few things the previous owner never knew about the engine. No mechanic that had ever serviced Zephyr had told Bill about it and unless you know, you will easily pass it by. The only way I found out about it was when another live aboard in the yard at Sea Marine, who has the same engine I have, stopped by to chat and he showed it to me. When I pulled the plug, so to speak, on it to drain the 12 ounces of oil it was supposed to hold, I was greeted by closer to a quart of diesel fuel, not the oil it was supposed to have in it. It had gotten so diluted by the diesel that it controls that all the oil was basically gone only to be replaced by the diesel. I have since checked with several cruiser websites and they all tell me it is no big deal, just monitor it over the next few changes. When I opened the drain on it today, I was greeted by about 18 ounces of oil, not the 12 I had put in. So we are still getting some "blow by" from the diesel that it regulates. The engine runs great so we aren't that worried but I will continue to check it and change it regularly as the manual calls for. The actual owners manual says to change it every 50 hours but now they call for it to be changed every 100 hours when you change the oil in the engine. I think I'll stay with the 50 the original manual calls for for a while just to see how it goes. Better safe than sorry--or stuck some where when the engine malfunctions.

After a lovely lunch of a chicken greek salad, I rowed to shore and then walked to the opposite side of the island and after some doing, established a wifi connection so I could post yesterdays blog. It's slow out here in the islands so with checking other sites I regularly visit, I was gone a good 2 hours. It was just so nice to sit at a picnic table surrounded by everything Mother Nature had that for once I felt completely relaxed and could sit back and enjoy what was happening around me.
No one else was anywhere in sight. I had the entire harbor to myself.

After rowing back to Zephyr, I did a few more little jobs on "Puff", our dingy, stowed some gear on deck and watched as some kayakers went past us at the dock and settled in for a night at the camp grounds. I'll take Zephyr for my night stay. With it being Easter weekend, we had expected a few more boats but so far only one has joined us in our harbor. Another sailboat--from Canada. We're a lot closer to them than a big city in the US. Maybe more will show up tomorrow as this weekend is a four day holiday in Canada.

Out barometer says that the Sun is going to shine and we will have nice weather for the next day or so. The weather people in Seattle say different. I guess tomorrow will tell as to who to trust and who not to trust.

Have a great Easter weekend everyone.