Wednesday March 2: The Beast is OUT

But I am getting ahead of myself (how is that possible to do, anyway?).

The weather has not been agreeable to take the boat out for an overnight so instead one of the neighbors organized a dingy ride to Burdines - a restaurant on the other side of town in Boot Key Harbor.

An hour dinghy ride there and an hour back. But fun and good food was had by all.

Nice break for a change!

And the manatee have visited again - in force. There were four very large ones in a group that found dripping water near our dock.

They love fresh water to drink and seemed to be pushing each other out of the way as each one fought to catch the water dripping!

Of course it's more of a shoving match rather than a fight :-)

We also celebrated the sale of "I Think I Can ..." with Randy and Cindy. It was perfect timing as they were scheduled to trailer the boat back to Pennsylvania for the birth of their 3rd grandchild.

Instead of hauling the boat back, they sold it and then they packed a ridiculous amount of stuff from the boat into their pickup. There was literally NO space left. We thought about calling the SPCA to report the abuse of Cricket and Gigit but both seemed pretty happy in their center seat! Their plans include a new boat - larger and more comfortable for the dogs :-)

Anyway, back to the BEAST - a 7.5 kw, 1978 Onan diesel generator (the big white thing in the picture left).

It ran pretty well for us for the first 8 years we owned the boat. Since then it's been one thing after another - mostly related to the coolant systems.

Finally, the decision was made - get it out of the engine room! It weights 500 lbs so the challenge was to figure out how to physically remove it.

Time for professional help: call Billy!

First set up an A frame with a leveraged winch. Now detach it from the flooring. Done.

Carefully winch it up all the while twisting it sideways so it fit between the flooring and the engine.

Now replace the floor boards and lower the generator onto a two-wheel dolly.

Next step is to get it out of the boat!

Ramps were the solution. One pair from the cabin floor to the walkaround deck on the boat.

Second pair of ramps from the walkaround to the dock along with a bunch of boards to fill the gap inbetween.

All went amazingly well!! Way easier than we expected to be honest. Billy really knew what he was doing :-)




The last the generator was seen was when Steve and Billy wheeled it down the dock to his truck - hopefully he will be able to recycle at least the copper winding in the armature.

Wow! What to do with all of the new space!! Still lots of cleaning up of wires, hoses etc. that belonged to the generator but so much easier to do.

First job was to replace the water heater and the fresh water pump (since it was leaking!).

No problem now that it was easy to just crawling and sit up (well sort of!) while disconnecting and reconnecting the fittings.

Last job of the day: remove the manifold end plate (with help from George on Jenna Star).

This will have a hole drilled and tapped so we can reroute some hot water hoses - which will enable an easier connection from the engine to the hot water heater.

The connection will enable the hot water circulating around the engine to heat the water in the water heater. Gives us hot water after traveling all day - always a nice thing.

Heat: amazing how this helps to remove two broken bolts! The project could not have gone any better!!

Next day's project - replacing the oil cooler and the transmission cooler!

Both are painted in the Ford Leman rustoleum red :-)

Amazing what the handholds on the ceiling are good for - including tying things from strings!

Lots of projects completed over the next 3 days; new oil/transmission coolers, replace hydraulic hoses on the oil filter, new raw water impeller, drain and replace antifreeze in the closed coolant system. Mmmm... doesn't seem like a very impressive list but trust me it WAS.

Overall - everything went pretty well but I am DONE.

This boat is just too much work!!

Tomorrow we head out for at least an overnight and hopefully two nights if the weather holds (this equates to low winds :-) )