Mary
and Jackie, the Two Musketeers, will be shopping today, while Jim and I putter
about the boats fixing things. That’s
what they say cruising is, fixing your boat in exotic places. Maybe TS is not the most exotic of locales,
but nonetheless, stuff needs fixing. In
Calypso’s case, it is the failure of yet another main engine starter
button.
We
have four main engine starter buttons aboard, two on the flying bridge and two
at the lower helm, and last September we had the port engine starter button on
the flying bridge stick “on”, which caused the port starter motor to run until
it burnt out. We got luckier this time
when I stopped one engine at a time, just before we went into the Gulf of Mexico
to check lube and transmission oil levels for the last time in what was
expected to be a nearly 20-hour transit.
Upon hitting the starboard starter button after checking its fluid
levels, I got nothing, nada, zilch, zip.
At least it did not stick like the flying bridge starter button had
done. We got the engine restarted using
the flying bridge button and decided to continue on our way.
Yesterday,
we rode our bikes out to Walmart and West Marine to buy sundries and a new
starter button. This will be the fourth
one I have replaced on this 42-year old vessel since 2002. Maybe it will be the last.
Weather
continues to be Florida-perfect spring days with cool nights making for
comfortable sleeping sans air conditioning.
