Motor Cables September 25, 2008

Looking out on the grey fog that descented over the Michigan City Coastline during the night, we wonder if the four motor cables would actually arrive today. We waited and waited to hear from Cindy, Tom's new telephone friend at B & E Marine. While we waited we made good use of the time by sorting our storage areas and rearranging many items. Since remembering the two areas under the beds, we were able to move inside items that would not be used frequently from our outside back storage.

Finally about noon the phone rang! Tom departed for B&E Marine up the river and Debbie took off in the other direction to the Lighthouse Outlet Malls. She wanted to get some flax oil at the Vitamin World but on the way she found a Liz Claiborne shirt and some corelle bowls for salads. Don't forget the Iris pattern of our Florida dishes--we now have six more plates and bowls! Debbie remarked it was so hard to shop at all those wonderful stores and realize she had to lug anything she bought all the way back to the boat! And the second sad thought was that she hadn't found the Lighthouse stores a few days earlier!

When Debbie returned, she found Tom on the cockpit floor between the two motors with many tools around him. He had already replaced the throttle and gear cables in the starboard motor (the one that broke).

First she saw him remove the old cables and mark each area. He then threaded the two bright red 14 foot new cables through the narrow channel on the starboard side from the shiftbox down to the starboard motor, then under the door to the mid section, over to the port side and around the battery to the port motor. It was imperative that he connect the gear cable at the shiftbox to the gear area in the motor. Mixing the two cables would leave us with a non-functioning motor!

All this may sound like a piece of cake but with all the many parts and the tight areas, it would be very easy to lose a small nut or screw or do something in the wrong order. Debbie was there to hold, find and not say a word (the hardest task).

When the cables were properly hooked up, the shift box was then put back together and slid back into its hole.

Lastly, we tested the motors and found the port motor worked but the starboard one needed some adjustments on the gear cable. Tom did something and after a while he had it working.

He cleaned the battery terminals with baking soda paste and put the covers back on. Finally he put the motor covers back on. All these things may have bored you but that is what we spent many hours doing today. Finally we hit the showers and treated ourselves to wine and beer!