Wednesday 081215– in Harbor Springs, Michigan

Weather/Sea   Sunny, wind 5 to 10,  temp 65 to  75

Captain - John C. Kwak crew Chuck Livingston

I have been in Harbor Springs at Walstrom Marine since Sunday and will leave tomorrow. The charge rate here is $2/ft x 44’ x 4 days= $352.00 so it adds up. The main reason to come here was for engine work and the possibility that the boat had to be hauled. Luckily all the work was done without hauling the boat. Tomorrow I will move to the Harbor Springs Municipal Marina at only $65.00/day a little better. Harbor Springs is a very upscale resort community with huge houses for the wealthy from all over Michigan and Illinois and the charges reflect the area.

The Cummins Engine is repaired and we will run test it a little tomorrow. It took all day Monday to replace the rear seal. Dan the “Diesel Man” Panko lifted the engine about 4” off the rear mounts with a chain hoist that cleared the Borg Warner Transmission from the prop shaft and allowed him to remove the tranny. Then he removed the Marine Drive gear and Flywheel. Then we could see the seal and it obviously had been leaking. He drilled a hole in the old seal and using a slide hammer removed the seal.  I already had a new seal in my spare parts for the engine and it matched perfectly. But Dan did not have an installation tool  for this seal. It has to be pressed in perfectly square to the shaft. The main reason that I did not tackle this myself was because I did not have the tool either. So Dan went to the hardware store and got a 4” PVC coupling and a piece of 4” PVC pipe and made a tool which he used to hammer the new seal in place. Then he reinstalled the Tranny and lined up the engine with the prop shaft.

We discussed the Tranny leak but we could not find the source of the leak. So he called a Transmission rebuilding outfit and after some discussion it was thought that I had too much oil in the tranny. I had been told by Marcus of Trans Atlantic Diesel to overfill the tranny because it has a tranny oil cooler located above the tranny. Apparently that was wrong so Dan drained some oil out so it was between the oil marks on the dip stick. Only time will tell if the problem is solved. Now I am awaiting the bill from Cummins Bridgeway  for Dan’s services, that is his employer.

After Dan left on Monday the marina brought over a package, it was the replacement Simrad chart plotter. That surprised me because it was supposed to be shipped on Monday  that was Quick service! The box had actually been shipped on Thursday. I spent Tuesday installing the new chart plotter. The install is easy just plug and play but it would not play properly. Called SIMRAD 3 times to resolve the problem. I had to download updated software from SIMRAD on a Micro SD chip and insert that into the slot on the plotter, which after many snafus finally worked. Now the chart plotter stayed on and it immediately recognized the Radar so far so good!!!! I received an email from SIMRAD on Tuesday that the Chart plotter had been shipped. I called SIMRAD and we determined that a second unit had been shipped and should arrive today if they could not stop it enroute.  Fun and games in the marine industry.

Chuck took this opportunity to go to Kalamazoo MI to do some business I expect him back on Friday. Tonight I am having dinner with some people who live here but whom I met in Sault St. Mary. They were on a trawler next us, 2 ladies and a gentleman. One lady owns the trawler and she hired the guy (licensed captain) to take her and her friend up into Lake Superior for a cruise.