While it may not be snowing in Charleston, things are definitely looking white aboard Illusion. Although we had some difficulty finding a few decent weather windows amidst all the rain, we finally managed to finish painting the non non-skid areas and put down two coats of non-skid on the rest of the deck last week. Unfortunately, it rained the entire day afterward, so we need to put an additional coat of paint on the non-skid areas to fix some slight discoloration from the water and we still need to prime and paint the cockpit. The latter will probably be up to me to finish while Brian is reassembling our Westerbeke 27. Which brings me to my next topic: our seized engine. Yep, that’s right, our engine gave up the ghost. How convenient that we should discover this little nugget of information just a week before we were heading down to Hilton Head. Well such is life, especially on a sailboat. So after a week of feeling down about it, we are attempting to walk the road to recovery or rebuilding in this case. I say we, but really it is just Brian, with the aid of our good friend Chuck. Despite yet another departure setback, there are several positive outcomes to look forward to. The first being that Brian is learning all about diesel engines. He is also specifically learning about our engine, exactly what and where the parts go, how they all work together, etc. This will come in handy if he ever needs to work on it or take it apart again. Secondly, he will know exactly what parts have been machined or replaced and that the engine in its entirety has been cleaned, thoroughly inspected, and is in working order. Lastly, rebuilding the engine is pretty much the cheapest, most reliable solution at the moment, so we are trying to embrace it. Anyway I am off to Raleigh to spend the weekend with my family. I’ll be back around the new year.
Hope everyone has a warm safe holiday!
