I took a deep breath along with a serious reality check. Maybe it was yesterday’s comedy of errors collecting our new exhaust elbows or maybe it was the leaky new raw water strainers I’d just installed, a five minute job that just took me two and a half hours, but I was certainly in need of a shot of confidence. I call these small victories because sometimes you just need something to go according to plan. Well, dear Escapees, the truth is I installed them twice. The first location was convenient to check for debris but it could cause a vapor lock so far above the engine. The second location was at the waterline and caused me to work in the tightest spot imaginable even though EV has great access to the beast normally.
My good friend and mechanical spiritual guru Kris warned me that one of the four nuts that hold the exhaust elbow onto the heat exchanger would be almost impossible to get off. It was one of those, turn it a sixteenth of an inch and then flip the wrench around and turn the nut another sixteenth, repeat ad-infinitem, kind of like an inch worm only it was more like a sixteenth worm. Eventually I was able to unscrew the bugger by hand. A slight tap and the elbow was loose in my hand. Amazing! It was quite clogged and rusted but it was out and the new one was a perfect fit. Two new gaskets and “Bob’s your uncle!” I had my small victory and with that my mojo’s back.
Now if it would only stop blowing so hard we could change out our toggles on the shrouds and be off to Carriacou.
