The Part

Friday, midday. The forecast is for rain but right now it is beautiful, dry, calm, 60 degrees.

The week has been marked with ups and downs. Tuesday afternoon Dirk called to say he had just put the part I ordered for the engine in the mail. Thursday, it was in the local post office! Well done USPS! When I got back to the boat I found that the part would not fit on my engine. Two silver linings, however. I learned that the part number was cast into the housing and was able to get the part number off of my part. The other silver lining was that the box that held the part also had oatmeal cookies from my niece Dana. Thank you so much, Dana!

I called Kelley, the parts guy with my part number. He said it was a valid number, but not on engines sold into the US and that he couldn’t get it. I have e-mailed a parts guy in Vancouver, BC, to find out if it was on engines sold in Canada and if it is still available.

Sitka is a really nice town. I continue to enjoy roaming around. As I mentioned earlier, I got the bicycle out. I quickly discovered that the chain was jumping when I was climbing a hill. Because there are hills just about everywhere I want to go, the bike was unusable as it was. This presented me with a dilemma. The bike is old and tired and wasn’t an expensive bike to begin with. It needs pedals, a seat, a brake/derailleur lever cassette, and now a new chain. Sitka has a bike shop so off I went to see what they had in the way of new and used bikes. Unfortunately, they had sold all of the used bikes from their rental fleet. The mechanic assured me that I was going to have to replace the chain rings with the chain. I told him I had replaced them last April. He copped such an attitude that I put buying a new bike there totally out of the question. The new chain cured the problem.

Wednesday, the harbormaster office called to say they needed me to move over to the transient dock. I told her that I was expecting the parts and she told me to sit tight until I had made the repairs. I’m relieved because there is no AC on the transient dock. It did start me thinking of moving on though. I’ve decided to go to Tenakee Springs from here.

Update: I just got a response from Vancouver vis a vis The Part. It was used on vehicles in Europe only. This means finding it used in North America will be almost impossible. Apparently it is available by special order from Germany. He said it will take about two weeks for it to get to him. I went up to the harbormaster office to let them know. She said it will be OK to stay where I am for the next several days but depending on their impounds I will probably have to move within two weeks. This is another dilemma as the only way to charge the batteries right now is via the shore power charger or by means of the large alternator on the engine. Obviously, the engine can’t be used unless I am able to effect repairs. I guess I’d better be successful repairing the engine.

The pic is the view from the transient dock to where I am now. Nice view. I just hope it doesn’t become mine for the next two weeks.

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