On the Hard

On the hard is a term used by boaters that means the boat is not in the water by on a hard surface so you can work on it without the water coming in. Now Keeping the water out is great and you get access to the bottom but there is a lot of climbing up and down.

Things that happened on the hard? Well the first bad thing is I skied the halyard. For non-boaters that means I let the halyard go up the mast with out a way to get it back down. Joe got out the ladder, (this is a really old jute rope mast ladder) and started to climb. Now he didn't have a harness on and we are on the hard, so if you fall holy crap. the first step he took the ladder stretched to the deck. The second step the ladder stretched to the deck. The third step it stretched a little and up he went. My heart was beating like crazy as I watched my partner climb the mast to retrieve my mistake. I vowed I would never sky another halyard and that we would get a proper bosuns chair with safety back-ups. Well he made it up and down and it scared the hell out of him too.

We had to install or repair the engine we had. Joe found a Perkins 4108 on Ebay for $2500, what a deal. It had less than 500 hours and looked pretty good so the deal was made and Joe negotiated $500 for installation. Well the guy came and took the old engine out and said he would be back with the new engine. He called and said that the transmission didn't look good and for a fee his friend would test it. Getting suspicious yet? We weren't. So the transmission was bad but his friend had a refurbished one for $600. We bought it. He did come back with the "new" engine and the  "new" transmission and began the install. Joe stayed with them for hours. What should have taken a few hours took like eight. The guy that was doing the work was so heavy he broke the fasteners that hold the steps up. This becomes important later.

With the engine finally in the guy turns to Joe and says, "it took longer than expected so it will be $1200. All total the guy wanted $2200. Joe paid it and we went on with things. The next day we went in the water and guess what? The engine wouldn't start. The guy was unavailable. The port people were great and gave us many people to call. Only one was available and it was Louis to the rescue. 

Well there were many things wrong with the engine install and Louis was a wizard. $500 later we were back in the water and the engine was working. Thank you Louis Ball. We made our way to our slip.