Rudder Packing Gland to Steering Quadrant Leak

[Wotname]

Sorry to hear about the camera.

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

Ok. We hauled out yesterday. They replaced the cracked engine shaft stuffing box with the PSS dripless( sweet).
As far as the rudder packing. We still needed to remove the steering quadrant( or at least move it up a few inches) to repack the leaky rudder gland.
First the mechanic tried getting the frozen steering quadrant bolts by hand, nothing. Then moved to battery powered impact wrench, nothing. Then pneumatic impact wrench, which worked for all but one which he cut( inside lower bolt). Steering quad is now over at the machine shop being drilled out.

I'm so glad I handed it over to the yard, there was a lot of grunting, cussing, and banging while I sat comfy reading my book and sipping my tea😊.
Hopefully we will be back in the water in a couple hours( sleeping aboard while hauled out is Creepy!!).

I had pictures but dropped my camera( cannon sure shot) in the drink getting out of the dinghy :-(.

Our next good weather window is Friday, so that gives us a chance to run around here for a few hours to break in the new dripless packing gland and to make sure the rudder is leak free. Then on to Rabbit Island or maybe Cat Island if we make good time/ wind direction allows etc.

Dang shame about the cam... Your pics were great....

Hope you guys are splashed and headed out!

Originally Posted by minaret

Grunting and cussing are key ingredients. Profanity is the ultimate lubricant!


Know anything about the history of Cat Island? The WWII war dog training center there has a grim history. They trained dogs to sniff out and attack Japanese people there, the idea being that dogs know the difference by smell. Of course they don't, and it didn't work. But they used Japanese people from the internment camps and even the odd POW for their morally questionable training program. It did eventually lead to a more realistic and ultimately much more productive training program, however. Read about it in "War Dogs", or there's a PBS special.


Cat Island (Mississippi) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Min-a-pedia strikes again.... Crazy what ya got stored up there!

[JPA Cate]

Sorry about your camera. Happened to us, once, the strap came loose (it was an old fashioned film camera), and into the drink it went, along with all the pictures from a whale calf visit.

I hope you get a new one soon.

Ann

[HappyMdRSailor]

Maybe time for a welfare hail ???

Yooo Hoooo..... OG...... RD...... ????

[RTB]

They splashed, and waiting out weather. Looks like Erika bought a new camera - https://raindogps34.wordpress.com/

Ralph

[Boatyarddog]

Well, something good should always come from something not so good.


Sent from my iPad SV Cloud Duster

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by RTB

They splashed, and waiting out weather. Looks like Erika bought a new camera - https://raindogps34.wordpress.com/

Ralph

Well.... of all the nerve.... Updating the blog before the thread... Hmph!

[Ocean Girl]

Haha, yes we splashed! Dry bilge!! We are underway about 30 miles from our anchorage, Rabbit Island. Then out into the sound. We are to have a westerly wind on Sunday!! Spinnaker time

The rudder looks great. The engine is running great, had a little bit of a vibration, so slight it could of been our imagination, but now it is gone. Our cockpit floorboard comes up so we have Birdseye view of engine, stuffing box and parts of steering quadrant. All look nice and tight. We had broken the packing in when we splashed on Thursday morning, but there was nothing to do or note. So far so good. Glad it will all get a work out before crossing over to Pensacola. We probably won't have signal for a week as we want to anchor out, we both prefer to anchor then stay at a marina. So will pop back in here at cf when we can.
Hugs to all, thanks for the excellent advice.
Erika

PS
NOT staying at Cat Island, that sounds like a haunted place! We were maybe trying for deer island then daulphin island( southeast side) But it all depends on weather, we will decide as we go.

[HappyMdRSailor]

WOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!