Memsahib's Voyage

We are still here, living on the boat while it is on the land (not easy) while the mystery engine knock remains undiagnosed.

The guys here are all friendly and competent, but nothing moves fast — there is no overtime, the place is locked up tight at 4, and deserted on the weekends.  I’ve tried to impress on them the meaning of a “rush charge” and that we will gladly pay for a faster way to get back on the trip, but that is apparently a totally alien, dangerous concept.

So we hauled the boat Monday, it rained Tuesday and rain stops everything, the forklift was broken on Wednesday, we finally got the engine out Thursday and it got to Tuscaloosa Friday.  And during all this time, we kept eliminating possible causes of the knock, so I am still not even close to a guesstimate on the time needed to fix it.

In the meantime, John and I are doing all the painting, varnishing and cleaning that we were going to do in Mobile and have cancelled our stay there.  The boat looks great — thanks to being in fresh water for six months, Memsahib looked like we’d just put her in when she came out of the water.  And still much better to be here than upriver in the really wild parts of Alabama and Mississippi.

Weather has been fantastic — 70s during the day, 50s at night.

Memsahib coming out of the water for surgery. After 6 months in fresh water, she is in extraordinarily good shape compared to a summer in salt water,

Beginning of the engine extraction.

Engine out and ready to go see the specialist in Tuscaloosa.

Repair from the Hangdog reef incident — a little epoxy and a lick of paint was all it took since all that really hit was the tip of the cast iron keel.