GOOD NEWS! BAD NEWS! GOOD NEWS! BAD NEWS!
Las Brisas de Amador anchorage, Panamá City, Panamá, Monday, 14 September 2009
Tom the Pole has worked diligently to re-install an engine that he did not himself take apart. He also had never worked on a Lister engine before. Although he has had to do it slowly and figure out everything a step at a time, the Lister engine was re-installed and running last week. That’s the first bit of good news.
The bad news, however, is that the transmission seemed to be locked in forward. When the engine started, Tom and I were in the main cabin and giving each other the high five until we realised we were going forward on the anchor chain and damned close to a neighbouring boat. The whole engine has had to be pulled again and the transmission removed once more. I suppose the fact that we did not have to crack open the actual engine again could be regarded as good news. But it hardly compensates, does it?
As the transmission was pulled off (again!), a gear fell out the bottom. Klink! More bad news. Amazingly, it did not, fortunately, fall into the bilge (Splash!). So, I suppose that’s good news, right? The part is a portion of the drive gears that operate the hydraulic pump in the transmission which is needed to shift gears. This I guess explains why the transmission is locked in forward.
The spindle that the gear was on has fractured through. That’s bad news. I spend a few hours on the internet and Skype calling Lister Petter’s parts centre in Olahe, Kansas. More bad news! They don’t carry that part. I Skyped to Lister Petter in the UK and am referred to Sleeman & Hawken in Teignmouth, Devon. Sleemans are major parts distributors and will even source parts for you for old engines. They at least have some good news for me in response to my urgently-emailed request: Yes, indeed! They do have the little spindle (smaller than my little finger), only one of them in stock. Please tell us where to ship it. The bad news is that it will cost approx $350 including a 25% discount (for what?) and $20 for shipping to our Airbox address in Florida. This is a real downer. $350! Bad news!
But there is good news! I get the names of several machine shops in Panamá city. There is some quite advanced stuff done here thanks to the long presence of the Canal and associated repair yards. I get a lift into town this morning with a fellow cruiser with his wife own a computer store in El Dorado, they drop me right in front of Taller Alfredo, a very efficient and modern-looking operation indeed. So, two good news items for this morning! That’s a good start, at least. The first bad news, however, is that Alfredo’s doesn’t do things as small as this small spindle. Huh? But, then the owner/manager, a friendly fluent English-speaking engineer named Alfredo Young, starts chatting with me and tells me all about his trips to Vancouver and Frankfurt (to the Automechanica trade fair) and then he re-considers. The good news is that Alfredo’s will do the little job. And there is even more good news! It will be ready tomorrow before noon and will only cost $25.
OK! Maybe it will not fit when it is done or it won’t be ready when promised or there may be some other hitch. But, we deserve a little good news once in a while. Maybe Tom can get the whole thing working again before he leaves for the islands next week.
On another front, we managed to extend our Cruising Permit for another month on the grounds that our engine is still not repaired. $20 + $9 admin fee. No bribery required this time. Good news again.
I report all of this because doing repairs on a boat in a foreign port can be such a frustrating and frequently expensive proposition. We had to pull the engine in order to replace a $4 oil seal. So far we have invested about 12 working days, have had to replace two or three people who have worked on the project successively, we have been living in squalor for weeks now. I can only laugh ironically when I recall we told our friends a month ago that we would be out to The Perlas by the weekend. LOL!
In the anchorage, the cruisers are once again being charged $5 to use the dinghy dock, a seriously outrageous price considering that there are no showers, toilets or the like. There is, at least, a tap at the dock for drinking water. Jakob took his small yacht in for the day in order to unload his old engine and load the new one for later installation at anchor. The “marina” charged him $100! Wow! I also talked a few days ago to a yacht captain from BVI whose boat has been on a buoy here for the last few weeks. He has been paying $700 a month! I was bowled over. He asked where else he could go, and I suggested he could get the same for $230 at Taboga Mooring. He was gone from here two days later. The good news is that so far they are not charging if someone just drops somebody off at the dock without stopping. So, the cruisers are sharing rides and costs.
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
The good news today is that I picked up the newly fabricated part. Alfredo is a really nice guy and his machine shop would be a credit in any country. And $25! What a relief. Now we only have to get it installed on the weekend when Tom is available. He is worried about how to slip the transmission onto the holding bolts without damaging the spindle again. There is some good news here too, though. We met Deenys Guzman of Field Engineering Services on the dock yesterday evening. He has been refitting a couple of pilot boats in our anchorage. He says he knows Listers and can give us some help. Let’s hope!
Las Brisas de Amador anchorage, Panamá City, Panamá, Monday, 14 September 2009
Tom the Pole has worked diligently to re-install an engine that he did not himself take apart. He also had never worked on a Lister engine before. Although he has had to do it slowly and figure out everything a step at a time, the Lister engine was re-installed and running last week. That’s the first bit of good news.
The bad news, however, is that the transmission seemed to be locked in forward. When the engine started, Tom and I were in the main cabin and giving each other the high five until we realised we were going forward on the anchor chain and damned close to a neighbouring boat. The whole engine has had to be pulled again and the transmission removed once more. I suppose the fact that we did not have to crack open the actual engine again could be regarded as good news. But it hardly compensates, does it?
As the transmission was pulled off (again!), a gear fell out the bottom. Klink! More bad news. Amazingly, it did not, fortunately, fall into the bilge (Splash!). So, I suppose that’s good news, right? The part is a portion of the drive gears that operate the hydraulic pump in the transmission which is needed to shift gears. This I guess explains why the transmission is locked in forward.
The spindle that the gear was on has fractured through. That’s bad news. I spend a few hours on the internet and Skype calling Lister Petter’s parts centre in Olahe, Kansas. More bad news! They don’t carry that part. I Skyped to Lister Petter in the UK and am referred to Sleeman & Hawken in Teignmouth, Devon. Sleemans are major parts distributors and will even source parts for you for old engines. They at least have some good news for me in response to my urgently-emailed request: Yes, indeed! They do have the little spindle (smaller than my little finger), only one of them in stock. Please tell us where to ship it. The bad news is that it will cost approx $350 including a 25% discount (for what?) and $20 for shipping to our Airbox address in Florida. This is a real downer. $350! Bad news!
But there is good news! I get the names of several machine shops in Panamá city. There is some quite advanced stuff done here thanks to the long presence of the Canal and associated repair yards. I get a lift into town this morning with a fellow cruiser with his wife own a computer store in El Dorado, they drop me right in front of Taller Alfredo, a very efficient and modern-looking operation indeed. So, two good news items for this morning! That’s a good start, at least. The first bad news, however, is that Alfredo’s doesn’t do things as small as this small spindle. Huh? But, then the owner/manager, a friendly fluent English-speaking engineer named Alfredo Young, starts chatting with me and tells me all about his trips to Vancouver and Frankfurt (to the Automechanica trade fair) and then he re-considers. The good news is that Alfredo’s will do the little job. And there is even more good news! It will be ready tomorrow before noon and will only cost $25.
OK! Maybe it will not fit when it is done or it won’t be ready when promised or there may be some other hitch. But, we deserve a little good news once in a while. Maybe Tom can get the whole thing working again before he leaves for the islands next week.
On another front, we managed to extend our Cruising Permit for another month on the grounds that our engine is still not repaired. $20 + $9 admin fee. No bribery required this time. Good news again.
I report all of this because doing repairs on a boat in a foreign port can be such a frustrating and frequently expensive proposition. We had to pull the engine in order to replace a $4 oil seal. So far we have invested about 12 working days, have had to replace two or three people who have worked on the project successively, we have been living in squalor for weeks now. I can only laugh ironically when I recall we told our friends a month ago that we would be out to The Perlas by the weekend. LOL!
In the anchorage, the cruisers are once again being charged $5 to use the dinghy dock, a seriously outrageous price considering that there are no showers, toilets or the like. There is, at least, a tap at the dock for drinking water. Jakob took his small yacht in for the day in order to unload his old engine and load the new one for later installation at anchor. The “marina” charged him $100! Wow! I also talked a few days ago to a yacht captain from BVI whose boat has been on a buoy here for the last few weeks. He has been paying $700 a month! I was bowled over. He asked where else he could go, and I suggested he could get the same for $230 at Taboga Mooring. He was gone from here two days later. The good news is that so far they are not charging if someone just drops somebody off at the dock without stopping. So, the cruisers are sharing rides and costs.
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
The good news today is that I picked up the newly fabricated part. Alfredo is a really nice guy and his machine shop would be a credit in any country. And $25! What a relief. Now we only have to get it installed on the weekend when Tom is available. He is worried about how to slip the transmission onto the holding bolts without damaging the spindle again. There is some good news here too, though. We met Deenys Guzman of Field Engineering Services on the dock yesterday evening. He has been refitting a couple of pilot boats in our anchorage. He says he knows Listers and can give us some help. Let’s hope!
posted by rjb @ Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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