The past summer or so has certainly been an emotional roller coaster regarding the engine.

Loosing the transmission was certainly an emotional trauma and finding someone to install that was trying. BUT we were able to get it installed and it seems to be working well.

Then of course the alternator dies. We motored all the way from Portland to Provincetown without a working alternator. We ran the batteries DANGEROUSLY low and I ended up swapping one of the batteries out for the one in the dinghy in the evening and even that wasn’t enough.

By morning we had essentially killed every battery on the boat and they are still recovering days later.

Repairing the alternator turned out to be a bit easier than I’d feared. There was a wire that had been torn from the alternator, probably during the installation of the new transmission. BUT it gave me a chance to learn more about how alternators work and then I was able to fix the wiring in the cockpit’s console so we now also have a working tachometer.

Then while testing and celebrating we sucked up some “goo” and clogged the engine’s raw water cooling system. SO the engine overheated and boiled out all of the coolant ! We didn’t know this at the time and I had assumed that we simply had a leak.

So I went hunting for the leak. Turns out while hunting for the leak we discovered that the brackets that hold the heat exchanger to the engine had BOTH snapped. I suspect they were tightened too tight when they were put back on after the transmission was installed.

SO I fixed that, replaced the raw water impeller, and then we cleaned out the clog from the line which included sending Ryan into the water to clean it out on that side.

I think I want to remove the protective covering from the through hull so that I can have an easier time knocking out clogs from the inside of the boat with a screwdriver.

And now.. At last I think we have a working engine.

I picked up a bottle of wine on the way back to the boat this afternoon so that I can celebrate with wine with dinner.

But overall I just want to relax and chill.