Everywhere & Everything Except Mahdee

We’re now back in Arizona for a bit with David’s father. He was in the hospital again but was released on Monday and we’re enjoying this opportunity to spend more time with him.

When we returned to Mahdee from DC, I excitedly said “great, lets do more of the main saloon!” and David said “well…I want to get Buttercup’s transmission done and over with.” So, rather than work on Mahdee’s main saloon, David did a two day whirlwind of a transmission replacement on Buttercup. He pulled the engine and got the replacement on there faster than I could say “whaa??”. At the same time, he replaced the clutch, clutch plate, release bearing, engine seals and clutch slave cylinder. I’d ordered a clutch master cylinder rebuild kit but it didn’t arrive in time to be part of the party. So no surprise that after bleeding the clutch and all the gunk that gets moving around with that…yep…the clutch master cylinder failed. Still no rebuild kit when we left town. Hopefully when we go back (Tomorrow or Saturday at the latest) there will be a kit waiting for us in San Diego. In the meanwhile, Buttercup sits forlorn in the parking lot at the North Island Auto Hobby Shop whilst Wesley gets all the fun of driving to Mesa, AZ and playing “top car” for a bit.

Hopefully rebuilding the master cylinder will be quick so we can get some work done on Mahdee before we have to leave town again.

Mahdee has sat far too long on the mooring at Fiddlers Cove while we go gallivanting. We’ll resume the San Diego Samba upon our return this weekend but will have to put her back on the mooring for the last week of February while we go back to DC again. I’m now looking to March as the “month of Mahdee” and getting things done aboard. Time flies when we’re everywhere but aboard and doing everything except finishing out our Mahdee projects.

The Sun is Shining and Buttercup Lives

The sun came out this morning. Rainbows and sparkles. Ah, Much better now. Late last night I sat up reading and websurfing for several hours as the winds piped up to the “howling” stage and the boat shuddered and rocked with the power of it all against the hull and rig. In the early morning light, the wind died down and I slept until 10 am!

As I dragged David out of bed (his excuse for sleeping in was that I blocked the exit from the bed, asleep myself) and shooed him out the companionway door saying “fix Buttercup” he mumbled and grumbled but went outside. A few minutes later he returned, grabbing my bathroom hand-held mirror and a few wire leads and headed back out to Buttercup. Thirty minutes passed and I could stand the suspense no more. I put on my jacket and went looking for him–thinking he might need help. However, as soon as I walked up the gangway I heard David’s distinctive laughter and saw him standing talking with fellows who have boats at this military marina. As I reached him, I asked if he fixed the car. “Yep. It was no problem.” he said with a big grin. Relief. Whatever it was, it was no big deal.

After a few days of steady rain and then last night’s total deluge, several boats at the marina were in danger of sinking. The marina manager, dockmaster and crew spent the day pumping out dingies, making sure bilge pumps were working on the boats that belong to active duty military people deployed and bringing a couple boats in from the mooring field–boats that looked “low” in the water and in need of bilge pumping. I’m thankful that the marina manager has such a good attitude about keeping everyone’s boat afloat and making sure deployed military don’t have reason to worry about their vessels.

Later, as we were going out to run our various errands, David told me a wire had come undone from the starter motor–one that was hidden behind the header and not easy to see (thus the mirror) but all was well now. Buttercup, what a bad girl you’re been! Disconnecting wires! That’s a low shot. I’m so happy that David saw through your ruse!

We finished the day by stopping by our storage unit to retrieve a cable and video card for the Shuttle computer, stopping at the grocery, stopping at our favorite marine bookstore to chat with the owner, Ann, stopping by Downwind Marine and picking up many important packages delivered there for us–my car registration (expires this month!) and a wonderful gift from my brother, Brad, and sister-in-law, Alina. They studied all the pictures of Mahdee that we have on the blog and then Alina drew a lovely profile of the boat that she had an embroidery shop put onto two soft and warm merino wool sweater-jackets for David and I. I’m wearing mine now and we’ll have to take pictures shortly to post here.

All-in-all, a very good day for us. Tonight David is futzing around with the Shuttle computer and I’m catching up on reading; shortly we’ll watch a DVD about John Adams. Yes, all-in-all a very good day.

Buttercup is Jealous

Yes, it’s true. Our vehicles have always been jealous of the time we spend with “the other vehicle.” We can tell. Wesley, the newer car, has been getting all our maintenance attention for the past few days as we pull together parts and get to work on his transmission. There couldn’t be a worse time for Buttercup to hiccup than now. So, of course, who isn’t starting? Who has always been amazingly reliable but now has decided to flip-out and not start? Yes, that would be our dear old girl, Buttercup. David got in the car this morning to go to the North Island hobby shop to do a couple things for Wesley even though it is cold, wet, and miserable. And, Buttercup started, went 30 feet, and then said “I’m done for the day.”

David and a passing boat owner pushed Buttercup back into a parking spot. And, here we sit, warm and dry inside Mahdee looking out at the wet and cold surroundings and wondering when David will be able to get some test leads onto Buttercup to trace her problem. Somehow it doesn’t seem right in the pouring rain. She’s not a finicky car that gives us problems in wet weather. However, she KNEW we were dependent upon her and she has taken advantage of the situation. All the engine tools are sitting in Wesley. All toolboxes, everything. It’s all a couple miles away at the hobby shop. So, we hope there’s not much wrong since it will have to be fixed with our woodworking tools, a screw driver and a dental pick.

It is the perfect excuse, says David, for sitting inside and doing…nothing. This, I totally agree with him on. We have shore power. So we’re downloading Debian updates for one of the computers, doing laundry, and eating various munchies while we watch the winds whip the furled jibs of neighboring boats and the dockmaster scramble to deal with it.

I wonder what tomorrow will hold.

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