Sigh....

Location: Zimmerman Marine, Inc. - near Matthews, VA
Position: 37 24.446 N 076 21.203

When you live on your boat, you have to become a bit philosophical about things. Patience is a virtue. All things come in time. Even sailing trips to Maine. Hopefully.

We stopped in here on Tuesday July 25th to have some drive train vibration we've had for a while diagnosed. The mechanic, Chris, came out to the boat on Wednesday morning and took a look. He couldn't be sure at anchor, so we took a spin up the East River during which time he diagnosed a fairly severe alignment problem and possibly a bad cutlass bearing. He decided we needed to haul so he could thoroughly inspect the drive train.

The yard is really busy and we couldn't get on the haulout schedule until Monday July 30th. Luckily, the anchorage is beautiful and there's usually a nice breeze. We made use of the downtime to begin repairs on the dinghy. It's coming along nicely with one more coat of paint required before we put the two halves back together and take her out for a sea trial.

Zimmerman's is not a "do-it-yourself" yard, but as they are really busy at the moment they've been letting Mark do as much of the work as he can. Mark's been relearning his old mechanic skills down in the "basement" in 90 degree humid heat. Chris will decide what needs doing, Mark does it and then Chris will return to test, diagnose, offer Mark advice and loan us the tools we don't have. It has turned out to be a win-win situation and Mark is learning a lot about our 30 year old engine and it's associated bits.

During the week we've eliminated several theories and now have the problem narrowed down to either a bent or worn coupling or a bent transmission output shaft or a bit of both. The coupling is the cheaper of the two options so, even though it will take a few days, we've decided to go ahead and order the parts and see how much that improves the problem.

That's where we are now. The coupling halves are due in next Monday, so we'll be here at least until then. If it's good news, we should be back in the water on Monday or Tuesday. If it's bad news, we'll then need to make a decision whether to buy a used transmission or have ours rebuilt.

Shep, our extra crew member for the trip, came aboard last Sunday. The poor guy got to spend one night on the water then left Thursday afternoon after spending most of his time here living in the heat on the hard and doing miscellaneous boat jobs. He was a real trooper, maintained a good attitude even during our frustration and disappointment, and will be welcomed aboard again.

Our experience here at Zimmerman's has been great. Everyone we've met has been courteous, helpful, and friendly. The yard is clean and the staff is very professional and willing to help. The workmanship we've seen has been top notch, too. Communication seems to be the watchword here - a valuable but, unfortunately in our experience, not all that common commodity.

Our awnings have been a Godsend. It's been really hot and humid and, being a working boatyard not a marina, there's no pool here. The haulout guys were nice enough to put us at the end of the yard near some trees, so we receive some good shade during the most brutal part of the afternoon. If we're going to be here much longer, though, we're going to have to go get an air conditioner. We should know whether that's going to be necessary on Monday.

We're in pretty good spirits given the circumstances, and are using our time here to take care of
some other boat jobs that hadn't made it up to the "A" list yet.