Post 100, another Fix-It post

I took my heavy duty, deep sea fishing rod to the man known in these parts as Chaparro, (which Google translate fails to recognize). It will be repaired for 300 pesos and I can pick it up at 4 this afternoon.

This morning, I open up the ER (engine room) and removed the raw water pump again. Since I bought this engine in 1996, the raw water pump is the one thing on this motor that needs repeated repairs and parts. It pushes a lot of seawater through the heat exchanger (which transfers the heat generated by the diesel from the closed loop freshwater cooing system to the flow of relatively cold sea water) and as we all should know, sea water is highly corrosive to almost every metal known to man. (That's why I have to replace the "stainless" steel rigging that holds the mast up every seven or eight years... the salt water corrodes it).

The pump works by spinning a little rubber water wheel called an impeller. This one is broken, as you can see. The last time (2003) I bought one of these in the states, it was about $27 and included a gasket for the pump.

Look at the packaging in this photo. The new price is 946 pesos, or about $74. And it doesn't include a gasket. I drove to Santiago to buy two of these (a backup is great idea, because I could be stranded at sea under certain conditions where I would be more than happy to pay $74 for a functioning diesel engine). They've ordered the gaskets and I'd have to drive back to pick them up on Saturday.

Now that the pump was out, I took it to my FLDM (friendly, local diesel mechanic) Luis, who had rebuilt my engine in 2005. I asked him if he knew a machinist who could remove and replace the little brass bolts that hold the cover on the pump, and he said he could do it... and he could close it up without a gasket, or make one if needed, I'm not quite sure. One thing I know about Luis is that he's really good and is used to working with close tolerances.  And he's really affordable.

Tomorrow morning I should get the pump back and BLISS will be ready to go on a shakedown cruise, after sitting for 9 months. Oh, yes, I had a local diver clean the bottom and the Trinidad paint I put on two years ago is still good.

Maybe I'll be posting photos of actual sailing activity before too long- you know what they say about sailors who spend too much time ashore...