;

Voyage 2012: Chapter 4

Homeward Slowly

          Page 1

2012 Home     Map                         Chapter 1     Chapter 2     Chapter 3     Chapter 4     Chapter 5    

07 Apr 2013, Last days at Vero, 27 39.39 N/ 080 22.242 W

Last night, we were attacked by vile pirates from the notorious Boat Harbour gang. They were looking for grog and wenches but we fought them off. One of the pirates was already grogged up and almost fell out of his dinghy but the others were ready to rescue him. We bribed them with some cheap beer and they were off. Close call.
SV Endaxi came up from the Bahamas and Lake Worth and rafted up to us for our last couple of days. The plan was to leave today and head North. We would go out at Canaveral. Endaxi broke the raft and headed out. Jule was about ready to release the mooring line when we discovered the transmission was not working. We quickly secured the line and checked the shaft. Something was wrong down there. We called Tow Boat Larry and he arranged for a place at Cracker Boy's in Ft. Pierce and for Mike the mechanic to check it out. Larry will tow us tomorrow. Not a good day.

12 Apr 2013, Jule III at Cracker Boy's, 27 27.966 N/ 080 19.686 W

Tow Boat Larry picked us up at Vero around 0800 as he wanted to get us to Fort Pierce by high tide; which we did. The folks at Cracker Boy's were ready for us and before we knew it, Jule was hauled, pressure washed, and put on stands. It wasn't long before we discovered that the nut that holds the shaft and coupler to the transmission fell off. What seemed to be a minor issue turned out not to be. The nut is part of the Yanmar transmission and a special tool ($740) is required to screw it back on. Nobody had the tool. We finally found some kind folks in Fort Lauderdale that would lend us one. They did, Mike replaced the seal, the nut, and the transmission side of the coupler. He used lots of Loctite so it would not fall off again. Apparently this is not an unknown problem for Yanmar 4JHx series engines. Lots of money and 4 day later, we are ready to head North again.

    Page 1       Page 2       Page 3       Page 4       Page 5       Page 6       Page 7