Monday morning, as I said, the Elite Diesel mechanic turned up at 9.30am, 1 1/2 hrs late. He had obviously been called off another job to satisfy us! Dont know why, as we had an 8am appointment, according to the Foreman I spoke to in person on Friday.
This young man went down into the hole that is the engine room, and attempted to remove the hose from the Genset. Waz said he was struggling (with a smile on his face), because the hose had welded to the exhaust manifold, due to excessive heat. This was why we were having it replaced, remember?
The mech. came up holding a broken clamp...and said he had to go get another one. He also said he had cut the new length of hose to refit, after taking the old one off. Waz asked if he had measured the new hose. He said yes. Waz brought both pieces of hose (new and old) back up onto the cockpit deck and put them side by side. The new hose was a good six inches shorter than the old one.
I proceeded to give him a lecture about 'measure twice, cut once' and 'haste makes waste' and this is a classic example of why we were not happy with Elite Diesel. I added that if anything...ANYTHING goes wrong on our voyage as a result of their carelessness, they would be flying someone out to where our boat is at the time, and fixing it!. I hope he went back to the office and told his foreman!
Because of the short new hose, he had to go back to the office, ten mins away, and get a new one. We had noted that the length of hose he had cut was not of equal size to the original.
The new hose he brought back with him was a much better piece and we felt happier with him installing that.
Waz said something funny happened when they started the genset, after attaching everything, but it sounded better after a little bit. That doesnt fill me with confidence, frankly. I think we will run the Genset tomorrow for a bit to see how she goes. Half an hour at least.
Meanwhile, I couldnt just sit in the salon and do nothing, so I decided to have a cook-up.
We had a couple of bananas that needed eating, so I made them into some lovely muffins. I also put a loaf of bread to 'cook' in the new bread maker...orange cinnamon (with pecans)...and having taken some puff pastry out of the freezer earlier, made some corn and bacon and cheese savory pies...in muffin tins. We ate a couple for lunch with salad, and they were delish:)
Even though I made this recipe from the Bread Machine book and followed the instructions to the letter, it was way too much dough for the machine to function efficiently, and hit the roof, as it were.
Still, the bread tasted delicious, it was just a little challenging to get it out of the machine, out of the pan and onto a cooling rack.
After lunch we had an appointment in League City, and then dropped into Blackburns marine supply for a new battery. We thought we would be ahead of the field (meaning the electrician due tuesday am.) by having it at hand.
being pretty stressed, after all the genset stuff, we headed to Dairy Queen on the way home for a blizzard. Yes, ok, we have at least one per week!:)
I made a vege pizza for dinner which was delish, and we went for a walk to return a glass container to Veronica. She had given us a container of her lovely peach chutney. We texted her to put the kettle on, and arrived at 8pm. we stayed until just after 10pm, and made our way back to our boat...about 7 mins walk.
Waz went to bed around 11pm, but as I only had a couple of chapters of my book to finish, I decided to do it then and there. I put the red stair lights out at around 1am. Silly, I know!
We made a slow start this morning (Tuesday) getting up around 9am. I had procured some crumpets from somewhere...cant remember where...maybe Krogers...so we ate those for breakfast...not frightfully satisfactory! We will put that one down as not to be repeated. thank goodness we had some fresh fruit to eat afterwards!
Waz and Greg, the electrician had not set a time for the latter to come over, so we called him. He said 1pm. This time he was ON TIME! miracles! I think because we live by the sea, lots of people think Manana is good enough. Maui time, kind of !
Turns out we needed three new batteries. This includes the one we purchased yesterday. Greg and Waz were down in the engine room for about two hours , emerging dripping. They then had to haul these great big things up the vertical stairwell with ropes. Glad I wasnt roped in to do it! We put all three in the car and took them to Blackburns to purchase new ones, some new connectors, 600 AMP busbars and some spares. Just as we arrived back at the marina with our new batteries, we met Veronica who had promised to come by for tea around 3pm. She helped Waz onto the boat with the batteries...and I put the few groceries we had purchased at Target, on the way home, away in the meantime.
Greg turned up again and spent another hour or two downstairs with Waz. He isnt finished yet either.
Warren has to spent time tomorrow sorting out cables and wires in the Engine room. Greg will come back and run some tests and then hopefully we are good to go! we will see.
It appears that something is conspiring against our leaving.
Roy comes back into the USA from his overseas job, on Thursday, so we are happy that we wont be missing him. Veronica is going to come for Japanese curry tomorrow night, and we might just give her the leftovers for Roy, if she wants them.
I made meatballs for dinner, and put a pot of rice on. The young asparagus we purchased this avo was delightful, and we finished it all off with a walk, just now.
In between all this I managed to get some laundry done and a bit of housework.
So, tomorrow is Wednesday! We thought we would be leaving, but looks like we will still be here on the weekend. This is a bonus, I guess, as Roy and Dean will also be here. Time to get together with friends:)
Dishes duty is mine, so I am off to do that before starting a new book.
Ciao for now.
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