After resting as best as we could assess our systems. After a quick call to Galen at Johnson & Hicks it turns out that the depth sounder does in fact work. It just does not have the power to read high depths so it goes haywire and reads really low numbers or no numbers at all. We also discover that our amp meter does not read the battery charge from the engine. We had fully charged batteries, but the meter read 26% charged. This tool will be best used at anchorage or while sailing only. Now all we have to do is change the transmission and engine oil on our new engine and we are outta here!
Simply unscrew the bolt on the bottom, let 200 mL of ATF (automatic transmission fluid) drain out, put the bolt and washer back in, pour new ATF in the top. Then use the super easy pump on the engine to pump out the oil then use oil funnel to add new oil. No big deal, right? Well, here is what happened instead:
- Drain ATF and refill transmission with engine oil instead of ATF
- Have a mini freak out!
- Call Hirschfeld for advice and find out we don’t need to freak out, just change it a couple more times
- Drain engine oil from transmission and add ATF
- Pump engine oil out of engine, put new oil in and get oil smudges all over the boat
- Run the engine for about an hour and go through all the gears
- Drain ATF from transmission again and refill with new ATF again
- Run the engine for a couple more hours, go through all the gears
- Decide to change ATF one more time the next day since our next stop is not for 215 miles… bad idea
- Drain ATF, put bolt back in (very weird awkward angle) and accidentally strip the threads
- Try to make it work anyway, refill with ATF, try to leave the harbor, ATF is obviously leaking, turn back to Monterey Harbor
- Call Hirschfeld for reinforcements and Shane (we love him!) drives from Sausalito to retap the threads in our transmission, put in a new bolt, change our belt on the engine, and we vow to pump the ATF from the top opening and never touch the bottom bolt again! This vow is second in importance only to our marriage vows.
At this point we are sooo thankful we can safely leave the harbor and make our way to Santa Barbara. However, we also realize that our steaming light on the mast is out (deck light works but steaming light does not work) so I go up the mast and try to fix it.
Going up the Mast- photo courtesy of Dan Haynes
In the process I also manage to loosen/short the wire to the deck light so now neither of the lights work. Seriously?!?! Forget it, we’ll deal with it later and just use our anchor light when motoring at night. So… tired… of… boat… work…
