So Much To Do

The last WHILE has been busy as all get out. My friend of some 42 years came to help me pull the BMW diesel from Zulu's hull last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Heavy and dirty and, at times, dangerous work. The engine weighed some 300 kg/660 lbs and was NOT an easy thing to get off its mounts. Once loosened by disconnecting electrical, hydralic, steering, fuel lines, it had to lifted off using a hoist, only three inches to get it off the mounts but it took us over an hour to do the job. Then we waited for the owner of the yard to clearify how we were going to lift the engine from the engine room and place it on the bed of my truck. Smallish problem, he wasn't there. Yes, we worked in the yard alone. Not enough business to keep a staff either, times are hard in the boat maintenance business. People are more likely to want their boat pulled from the water but then to do the repairs, maintenance themselves instead of having Mr. Walton and his able crew do the work for them. Tough times indeed! Mr. C and I accomplished our deed in the same manner except that I've had Zulu up on blocks with a major hull repair for three years now. Eventually we completed the engine placement below the large deck openning and decided to call Tuesday a day, then as we drove north out of Rio Vista S saw a grouping of CRANES, not the birds, the giant winches (not wenches either!) and had me pull into the yard and stop in front of the office. Once inside we addressed our little job to the secretary who promptly forwarded our request for a price to another individual over the phone who quoted $650 at first then after S balked at the price, asked S how long did he think it would take...S replied 20 minutes and then the price went down to $50!!! Wow, what a deal! So back to Zulu we went to remove the rear roof and prep for the giant lift exercize. We completed the removal and positioned ourselves opposite Zulu on the other side of the fence. About 1/2 an hour later here came The Beast...a HUGE 35 foot long firetruck-like vehicle with a long hydralic powerred crane mounted thereon. This thing was huge! Capable of lifting Zulu herself if need be! Within 20 minutes it had lifted the diesel and placed it gently on my truck's bed. Then the travesty, upon going to pay the driver for the lift of the engine S gave him the 50 dollars, the driver BALKED...he wanted MORE, much more...550 USD! S Balked, the driver babbled about how much the rig normally charged for such a job then said $350. S balked again, "The guy said $50 dollars", another exchange and he called the BOSS. He reiterated the 550 dollar amount and finally S offered all he had on him...$120. They accepted and the deed was done. It was still a bargain. Steve and I spent Wednesday morning cleaning up around Zulu then came back to put both of the diesels in his van in preparation for his trip to NC in a couple of weeks. The van nearly touched the ground with the Farymann and BMW tied within. What a job that was. What a job. Thanks S!!

Zulu, The Boat That Is...

Well yesterday I ventured to Rio Vista and Walton's Marine Repair, Inc. to see how the ol' girl is doing these days. She has been in that yard now for three years and fed a diet of money intermittantly ever since. Mostly her problems came from the iron fasteners used to assemble her some 75 years ago in 1934. In the ensuing years they slowly began to disolve, being iron and subject to electrolysis and the result of same, rust. Yes they were closed over with red lead, typical for the time and that was that. Some of the fasteners began to allow trickles of water into her bilge several years ago and were difficult, no impossible, to find the location of. I tried many times to find these weepers but to no avail...all that could be seen was the trickle flowing down into the bilge and slowly to the mouth of the bilge pump. Little did I know or realize the ulrtimate catastrophe that was coming someday...Zulu would sink at the dock, which she finally did. Not good and arrangements were made to get her into Walton's for the ultimate fix...a new bottom.
Then before anything further could be done she sank a second time when a kindly neighbor relocated her bilge pump output to her own deck! She became a submarine again! What a job it was to get her afloat, my expert diver neighbors came to her (and my) rescue and helped by going inside (very dangerous proposition) and sealing the windows, toilet valves etc. so the 20,000 gallon per hour pump could do it's good work, as it did. Then we towed her to Walton's in Rio Vista for the gala pulling and she has been there since. She is close to being finished, the bottom is largely done, she needs caulking and bottom and top paint and a new diesel which I am currently trying to acquire. Then my buddy S who visited me in France this last summer is coming all the way from North Carolina to help me install the bloody diesel and take the old engine home with him. When this will all happen is somewhat mysterious as part of the bottom repair remains to be accomplished AFTER the BMW diesel is pulled from her. Bob the master of the yard will do that work himself as I have no clue. So that is the case with the "Z" boat.

___

We are due in Walnut Creek at 1:30 today to pick up a double convection oven we bought on eBay. It was a good buy from afar, we'll see when we get up close just how good a buy it is...I spy some greasy looking areas and some redish area that I cannot identify, the seller says it's all functional so I guess we will live with the sale one way or the other. I'm GOOD (but not terrific) at oven cleaning.

___

We are also headed to my son's place for a Halloween Party with many, many guests.
Hopefully someone will talk to us as that is a rarity at these events. We soon feel ignored and thus it leaves us somewhat sad and depressed. Families are hard on each other somehow. Different directions, differing interests, friends, activities all add to the confusion. There's no one to blame it's just the way it is.