Re-entry

Hi! Everyone:

No, we haven’t disappeared. Re-entry to landlubber life has been chaotic and exhausting. Our belongings remain scattered in four Texas cities and seem to defy any attempts to gather them all in one place. I’m embarrassed to admit that our large storage unit was so full that when I opened the door stuff fell out. Now we have another, small storage unit so that I have some breathing room to shuffle stuff around and pack yet more into the main space. Sigh!

Raven has been taking a well-earned rest and demanding some TLC. She brought us safely to Clear Lake, TX, but stopped me in my tracks when I attempted to move her to Corpus Christi. Maybe she knew that Hurricane Dolly was coming and didn’t want to deal with that.

A friend had driven from Dallas to help me move Raven and all was going well until we were about half way out of the marina. Mister P (our workhorse Perkins diesel) began to run away. This is a technical term for “Oh, My God! Pulling the stop lever hasn’t stopped the engine.” I quickly ran below and cut off the air supply at the intake before the revs got very high, so at least it didn’t race at high rpm. TowBoatUS earned themselves the easiest tow they’ve ever had by taking us 700 yards back to the slip.

That was mid June. One month later, the injector pump and four injectors have been rebuilt. ($1250) The heat exchanger is being refurbished. (Probably another $200.) I’ll add details of the repairs in a later blog.

In the meantime, I’ve repaired the air conditioner ($400), so my life on Raven is again comfortable. I had spread awnings over the deck and tried to live without a/c, but when the outside air is in the nineties and still, it is miserable below deck. Cooking is out of the question and sleep is next to impossible.

Until the heat exchanger is ready for pickup, I am cleaning up the engine, the fuel lines, and the exhaust gooseneck. Final assembly should begin this weekend.

The plan is still to take Raven to Corpus Christi. The next full moon is August 16th and I hope to have all repairs finished well before then. A night sail along the coast can be a delightful experience. The oil platforms are surprisingly beautiful. They are compact, isolated cities at sea, brilliantly illuminated, and bustling with life. NOAA’s vector charts show all of these obstructions, including the enormous, unlit mooring buoys used by the service boats. The full moon adds an extra level of safety.

Captain Dave