So excited - for a day

June 10-13

On Tuesday Joe, the diesel mechanic returned with the grommets.  After a couple of hours down in the engine room putting them in and bleeding the air out, it started! I did the happy dance this time!!  Joe turned it off and restarted it several times to be sure he didn't have to drive all the way back.

We could now leave on Wednesday after lifting our dinghy and motor  it to its perch on the boat.
Well, the motor wouldn't start. The carburator would have to be rebuilt as a result of the dinghy with the motor on it sinking while tied to the back of our boat after we left in the fall. An employee told us not to pull it out, they would take care of it!

Now its Thursday and we are planning to pay our bill and leave on a rising tide at 10:30 am. We made arrangements with the marina owner for the motor to be brought to us when it is fixed.  At noon we put the dinghy up on the roof of the aft deck, pay our bill and head North towards Troy. Our hope was to make it through the Troy and Waterford locks today.

It felt so good to be away from the dock and on the water. Then about 3 miles North of the marina an alarm starts to screech. It is an overheat alarm on the engine with all the new parts!! We shut it down, make a U-turn  and head back to the marina. I was not in the mood to hear the funny comments made "loved it here so much you had to come back"  Tom would laugh and come back with a funny. I had to walk away, because I just wanted to cry.

The marina mechanic comes down to the boat and we all began to brainstorm what on earth could be wrong! It was a brand new water pump and hoses for goodness sake. We talked and checked and talked and checked. A heat gun verifies that the new water pump is getting hot.That shouldn't happen because it is drawing in river water which is cool. He makes a comment that the only thing he could think of is that it is on backwards. He said if that was the case bubbles would be coming up beside the boat.  I explained that there were and since I had never seen that happen before I told Tom about it.  Eureka! the water pump was put on backwards. It was drawing hot water from the exhaust instead of cool water from the outside! The marina mechanic gives Tom some instruction on how to turn it around. Tom got it done and the mechanic came back to check on his work, thank goodness😂
We will head out again in the morning.

                        Tom in the engine room. He actually has room to move now that the generator is gone.