Pottering around the marina later on, the steering on the RIB made a strange noise and then, stopped working. Please tell us this is not a broken cable - the one we replaced as one of those "jobs from hell" not long ago!!!
After getting up some enthusiasm, the RIB jockey seat was emptied out (fuel and battery) and the problem checked by phone camera as it is physically impossible to get your head in there to see the mechanism:
From the picture you can see that the fitting on the cable on the right hand side has pulled out from the casing. It should be anchored in place by the bolt that is still visibly in place and a little piece of bent tin on the other side. Great, it suggested that the "little piece of bent tin" had bent in the wrong way. As you can guess from the comments we are unimpressed with the quality of the steering assembly that was fitted!
It was one of those jobs. Deciding to remove the whole thing to check on the bent tin, we found that our biggest puller was not big enough to span the steering wheel hub properly and let us pull the wheel off. Dilemma time - buy / borrow a bigger puller to dismantle the thing and check it? Or should we refit the cable, try to route it better so that it is not at an angle to the steering assembly and test it. The latter was the chosen option as it could be done there and then - all by feel and with a few bad words of course.
A quick spin around the marina and it worked all OK. Got to try a high speed trip around the bay on the next nice day to put more strain on it, taking the required spanners with us just in case.....
Meanwhile, the marina folks had a "big boy's toy" for a morning:
They are moving some secondhand pontoons (boy, are they secondhand) into position near the closed Pier 64 restaurant to make a floating terrace area. Should be good. If we are lucky, we will not be around to try it out - meaning we might have escaped to sea by then.
On the to do list was a valve clearance check for the genset so on one of the (many) wind and rainy days, that was completed:
It also gave us the opportunity to tighten up the genset drive belt which is not the easiest / most accessible job in the world as the genset is mounted too far back for decent access:
Whilst the air cleaner and rocker cover are off, it is a good time to inspect the underside of the exhaust elbow by camera to check that all is well. The replacement stainless steel version that we fitted several years ago still looks good externally with no signs of leaks around the gasket. The phone camera struggled to focus as it had to be very close!
but we have no plan to remove to to check the inside. The original steel versions corroded through relatively quickly (hot exhaust gases and hot salty water not being good bedfellows). The replacement stainless version on the genset and wing have survived pretty well so far, certainly way longer than the originals. Another opportunity with the camera is to check the well hidden starter motor and thermostat housing / pipework:
Again, no leaks and all looked OK.
What about maintenance for us? Well, the captain was one of the folks randomly selected (yes, he is a bit random) by the government for a Covid-19 antibody trial. After manfully enduring the "little pinch" they said the tool was going to give to his finger (twice - not enough blood first time) he duly completed the test to be told that he had no Covid-19 antibodies:
However, based on that line, he might be pregnant.
The less enjoyable piece of maintenance was when the captain had a cracked tooth yanked out and an implant screwed into the jaw-bone. We feel no desire to go into any great detail about that activity as it might upset some of the more delicate blog readers, except to say that it makes a diesel top up seem quite good value.
It also gave us the opportunity to tighten up the genset drive belt which is not the easiest / most accessible job in the world as the genset is mounted too far back for decent access:
Whilst the air cleaner and rocker cover are off, it is a good time to inspect the underside of the exhaust elbow by camera to check that all is well. The replacement stainless steel version that we fitted several years ago still looks good externally with no signs of leaks around the gasket. The phone camera struggled to focus as it had to be very close!
but we have no plan to remove to to check the inside. The original steel versions corroded through relatively quickly (hot exhaust gases and hot salty water not being good bedfellows). The replacement stainless version on the genset and wing have survived pretty well so far, certainly way longer than the originals. Another opportunity with the camera is to check the well hidden starter motor and thermostat housing / pipework:
Again, no leaks and all looked OK.
What about maintenance for us? Well, the captain was one of the folks randomly selected (yes, he is a bit random) by the government for a Covid-19 antibody trial. After manfully enduring the "little pinch" they said the tool was going to give to his finger (twice - not enough blood first time) he duly completed the test to be told that he had no Covid-19 antibodies:
However, based on that line, he might be pregnant.
The less enjoyable piece of maintenance was when the captain had a cracked tooth yanked out and an implant screwed into the jaw-bone. We feel no desire to go into any great detail about that activity as it might upset some of the more delicate blog readers, except to say that it makes a diesel top up seem quite good value.
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Thanks for your ideas / cheek / corrections / whatever! They should hit the blog shortly after the system checks them to make sure they will not put us or you in jail.....