Since the end of February a steady stream of fellow "looper" boaters have been leaving the marina to continue their great adventures. The day before Evelyn left for Connecticut, Namaste pulled out of the marina.
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| Namaste Leaving Faro Blanco |
Also on that same day, Ben and Jane moved Jammin Jane to a marina on the other side of Route 1 to get some engine work done. Clark moaned, "Everyone is leaving me!" True! Too true! Only a few loopers remained.
Clark kept busy while Evelyn was in Connecticut. After testing the refurbished props we encountered an overheat problem with the port engine. Clark's main mission during Ev's "vacation" was to hunt down the source of that overheat alarm. In between attempts at diagnosing the engine, he managed to get out to see some sights.
The day before Ev left for her trip, a "Trumpy" vintage 1930s boat came into the marina - a real classic wooden boat and a true beauty! Her name was Enticer and she haled from Newport.
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| Wooden Classic - Enticer from Newport |
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| The port-side Yanmar engine with the overheat alarm |
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| Engine Transmission Cooler |
When he wasn't doing that, he
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| watched a manatee play by the boat. |
On Wednesday, since rodding out the transmission cooler did not appear to address the root cause of the overheat problem, he changed the impeller on the raw water pump.
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| Raw-Water Pump minus its impeller |
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| enjoyed the sunset. |
The next day, Thursday, Clark biked to the far end of Marathon to visit a local dentist. On the way he stopped at a store to buy a switch and Permatex. When he rodded out the transmission cooler on Tuesday, a drain plug head fell off. He bought the Permatex to fill in the resultant hole. Other than picking up engine supplies, the trip to the dentist proved fruitless as no problem was found. Unfortunately, he still has some pain when he bites down on anything hard.
Since he was down that end of town, Clark decided to visit the free Aviation Museum. He said that he basically "got what he paid for", i.e. it was not all that wonderful, but he got some pictures just the same.
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| Note the girl in the martini glass in the emblem. |
He has read Scientific American faithfully as a kid and throughout his life, but this August 30, 1913 issue certainly predates him by quite a few years.
When Friday morning rolled around, he grabbed Ben from Jammin Jane for a test run of the boat. Sadly the overheat problem persisted, so more work was needed. Before working on the engine again, however, Clark enjoyed some by-the-pool time with Ben, Jane and Crockett from Jammin Jane and Deb and Brent from Haley's Comet.
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| Crockett by the pool hiding from the bugs |
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| Ben tormenting his wife Jane |
After dinner Clark went back to work on the engine. This time, thinking that a bad thermostat in the fresh water system may be the issue, Clark decided to tackle replacing the thermostat. After he had it out, he tested the old thermostat by placing it in boiling water and then putting both the water and the thermostat in the microwave and bringing the water back to boil. The thermostat should open about 8 mm and only opened about 5 mm max. Perhaps the culprit??
Saturday morning, Ben and Clark went for another test run of the boat with the new thermostat. Once again the fix appeared to help but was not a magic bullet to address the root of the problem. Back to the drawing board!
Having had enough time spent with the boat engine to last a lifetime, Clark was happy to have a get away planned for Saturday night to visit an old friend, Rich, he knows from Boy Scouts at the Florida Sea Base high-adventure camp. To get there Clark took the Miami-Dade County "Dade Monroe Express" bus to Islamorada. Since the bus stop was near the Publix grocery store, he rode his bike to get there. When he boarded the bus, he had the bike cover over his foldable bike, so it was doubtful the bus driver even knew he brought a bike with him.
The bike came in handy at the Islamorada end of the trip as well since even though Clark had asked for a specific stop, the bus went right on by. As Clark saw the place with the Rhinoceros sign where he wanted to get off fly by, he asked the bus driver to stop so he could get off. By the time the bus driver did stop, Clark needed to bike probably a good half mile back down the road to get back to his requested stop.
All told, Clark had a great evening checking out the base and catching up with an old buddy.
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| Clark and his friend Rich |
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| Day Dive Boats (as opposed to overnight boats for live aboard) |
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| The chapel |
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| Housing for the Troops / Venture Scouts |
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| Sunset at Sea Base |
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| Also Sunset at Sea Base |
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