18 August 2026
We had so much fun last time, that our neighbor, Marina, invited us over to her place again for another musical evening. This time her daughter, Jenny, was visiting from her home in the Boston area and joined in the fun. Jenny and her mom put together a delicious meal. Next we had a guitar / piano sing-along. Lastly, we ended the evening with Strawberry Rhubarb pie from Delicious Orchards with vanilla ice cream on the side. Fun night!
Clark brought some music to share. The day before he had spent the afternoon playing a number of songs. At one point I joined him to sing while he played. I helped him work out the placement of chord changes on some songs. I thought he would play some of those this evening with Marina, but he had other songs in mind for her.
They frequently had to "put their heads together" to work through some of the songs.
I am fascinated as I watch Marina play the piano. Many times, the music pieces Clark presents to her are ones she is not familiar with. Even so, her fingers fly over the keys to produce beautiful music. Never once does she appear to look at her fingers as they move up and down the piano's keyboard.
As she played, Marina discovered that she loved the composition of a song from Carole King's Tapestry album (Will You Love Me Tomorrow), so Clark loaned her the CD to hear more of Carole King's tunes.
21 August 2026
A little over a month ago, in mid-July, Clark and I found an oily fluid at the base of the crane used to lift our dinghy off the boat and into the water. That led to us taking the crane apart to determine the source of the leakage. I described the disassembly in my August 5th posting of the blog. The pictures taken at that time are shown below.
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| Leaking hydraulics |
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| Cables shedding their skin |
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| Looking up from under the crane |
After a month of waiting for the new parts to arrive, we were finally able to start repairs today. Thankfully, the weather cooperated. We had temps in the 70s with a cool breeze. This repair was difficult for a variety of reasons, but it would have been tortuous on a hot day!
When we removed the cylinder and cable to be sent away for repair work, we boosted the crane up and propped it on a tall block of wood we use to support the mast when we lower it for bridges, etc. For what we needed to do at that time, it was sufficient. However, to do the replacement work, Clark felt we needed more visibility and headroom, so he propped the crane up on a ladder while we worked.
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| Ladder propping up crane with white board next to it being what we used last time |
Fortunately, there was a ring bolt on the end of the crane that nestled nicely into a groove in the top of the ladder and held the rather precarious assembly stable.
Clark said we had to run the new cables first - there were 6 of them, and then we could reinstall the hydraulic cylinder to complete the project. We had removed one cable to determine length and sent it, as well as the cylinder, to the repair shop as a model for production of the new replacement cables.
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| New cables! Yay! |
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| First cable in place! |
When we did the first cable, we had to tape it to the pulling string. The tape although necessary, added bulk we did not need. For the remaining three cables to be pulled from top to bottom, Clark had a connector with male fittings on each end that allowed us to connect the old cable to the new one. With this done, each new cable easily followed its old cable partner down the hole and out the other end!
The crane moves up, down, in, out, left, right ... it's a busy bee when its working! The connections of the cables make all that happen. When we removed the one cable to send to the repair shop, Clark had me label its partner that remained behind with an "F" for forward. The cable we removed, he said, was for aft.
Clark and I both got a workout with this project - he more than me! Each cable required going repeatedly from work at the upper helm to work in the bilge. Access to the crane's motor is the worst! It is via the lazarette where Clark has to move a lot of stuff out of the way, including spare power cables, kayak paddles, buckets of cleaning supplies, and more, to create a crawl space. He then crawls over items that were not removed to climb into the compartment where the motor resides.
He cannot stand up and even turning around is difficult. When he is in there and needs something, I am the runner to go get it. We can pass items back and forth to each other under the exhaust hose shown in the picture. Whatever lovely breeze we could feel was entirely blocked down here. Clark had a fan running for some air and a flashlight nearby to see what he was doing.
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| Clark in the cramped compartment in the bottom of the boat that holds the motor |
To install the replacement hydraulic cylinder, we had a bit of a puzzle to solve. Two metal rods hold the cylinder in place. Taking the old cylinder out had been relatively easy and included removing those metal rods. Even so, removing one of them had been a bit of a trick requiring Clark to contact the sellers of our type of boat to learn what needed to be done. It had a short locking screw holding it in place that had to be removed.
To insert the rod back in place we had to line up the hole for the locking screw, and then hammer the rod into place. To reattach the other end of the cylinder, we had an even bigger puzzle to solve. Two washers needed to be set in place as the metal rod was driven through. How did the washers get in that tight of a space?
We had optimistically hoped to complete the crane repair in one day. However, that was not meant to be. By the time we got the cables installed and one end of the cylinder in place, it was late and we had no plan for how to resolve the washer issue.
Since it was past time for dinner, we decided, i.e. Clark decided, that we should "call it a day". He said he would call his contacts at Krogen Express for insight on how to proceed. Anticipating that it might rain the next day, we dragged in our tools, etc. but kept them handy for the next day's work. After that, I was happy to head to the house to get dinner going. Fortunately, I had leftovers I could throw on top of a frozen pizza for a delicious dinner.
From rolling around on the floor of the compartment with the motor, Clark's clothes were a disgusting, oily mess. When he returned to the house, I made him remove his clothes immediately. I was ready to throw his shirt in the garbage, but he asked me to run it through the washer to see if we can keep it for future use as a work shirt. (insert eye roll here!)
22 August 2026
When I looked out the window this morning, it had just started to rain. I checked the forecast / radar, and it looked like any weather would be gone by 11:00. However, the few "spits" of rain I saw earlier were the only ones we received in our area for the day, and work on the crane could begin as soon as we finished breakfast. Great?!
Yesterday, not knowing that there was a piece of the crane that could be removed to replace the cylinder, we had tried to work around it. Our attempts at taping the washers to the cylinder had failed spectacularly. With input from those with experience, Clark learned that a protective, decorative plate could be pried off the bottom of the crane. Doing this improved the situation considerably.
Of course nothing ever seems to go seamlessly, and the work to pry to plate off caused a bit of damage that had to be repaired. Clark pulled out the epoxy kit while I cleaned the plate to be worked on. I then assisted as he applied the epoxy, and we set it aside to be reinstalled when ready.
To insert the second of the metal rods, we had to align the holes in the cylinder block with the holes in the crane perfectly. Both the crane and the cylinder are heavy in weight. I can hold the cylinder, but I cannot lift the crane even a smidgeon. I had the job of lifting the cylinder into place while Clark fidgeted with lifting the crane up and down. As we both set down our parts of the endeavor for a rest, I had come to the conclusion that our efforts were futile.
I said, "We need a jack hammer!" Clark looked at me and said, "I have no idea what that is!" By then I knew I had said the wrong thing. "We need a jack like you use to lift a car. Then we can get it in place and hold it there." He actually thought it was a good idea and went off to the house in search of one. When he came back and started to work on the crane, I noticed a blood stain on the deck.
"Did you hurt yourself? I see blood." I examined him and found his knee was scraped. He explained that in his search for a jack in our overcrowded garage, he had tripped over a bicycle, fell against a garbage can, and struggled with my "little red wagon" (that I mostly use while gardening) as it rolled across the garage. We later found two red marks striping his abdomen! It must have been a spectacular fall! Earlier when he was working on the cylinder, a wrench fell and hit him on the cheek. Ouch! I was glad it had not hit his eye!
I am sure I would have taken a long time to recover from the accident in the garage, but he just returned to work on the crane as if nothing had happened. If I hadn't seen the blood, I would never have known, well, at least not until later when I saw the red marks across his stomach!
Clark wanted a jack that was not hydraulic, and he found what he wanted in the trunk of our car. The jack worked well as it allowed us to finetune the placement of the crane. First, Clark inserted the pin from the back side of the arm just enough to insert one of the nylon washers that has to fit between the cylinder and the inside of the case onto the pin leaving room to swing up the cylinder. The jack was adjusted to align the hole lengthwise while we pushed the cylinder up to align the hole vertically. Tapping on the pin got is started through the hole in the end of the cylinder.
Next, the second nylon washer for the other side was inserted with screwdrivers between the cylinder and the case and carefully aligned. Eventually, we were able to tap the pin through the second washer. Continued tapping on the pin pushed the bearing material out of the hole in the side of the arm requiring further alignment and tugging to get the pin aligned to the center of the hole so that the bearing material could be reinserted. Eventually, we got it started and were able to screw the bearing covers onto the end of the shaft and tap the pin back into the centered position and put on the remaining bearing cover.
The dinghy was still in place making the space tight, and the railing was aligned with the position of the pin complicating that work. As we got closer to the end, the longer each item took. There was a problem with the bearing cover threads so the tap and die set had to come out for the covers to go back on. The process of running the rod through the holes while inserting the washers was frustrating and took a significant amount of time, but finally the cylinder was installed!
Clark replaced the panel we had epoxied, and it was time for a test. Rotate left and right worked just fine. However, when Clark depressed the "luff up" button, nothing happened. At first we thought it might just take time for the air to get pushed through the long cables, but eventually, Clark decided that just maybe the up an down cables were reversed. He pushed the "down" button, and sure enough, the crane went up. Apparently, we still got them swapped even with all our care and labeling. Now the two cables needed to be reversed.
Clark hoped he would not need to climb back to the cables by going into and through the lazarette. Unfortunately the connectors for forward and aft were on top of the cylinder and therefore no longer accessible without uninstalling the pin we had just installed. Thus, climbing into the lazarette was his only other choice. All the items in the lazarette removed for accessing the cables had been put back, so once again we had to pull it all back out.
The cables had been secured in place with wire ties that had to be disconnected, the connections swapped, and the cables then resecured with wire ties. Through all this up and down and in and out, I had to be the "runner" for whatever he needed. That meant I was up and down stairs to get things - sometimes from the upper helm, sometimes from the engine room, etc. Since I can't reach him in his cubbyhole without descending into the lazarette, I was in and out of there multiple times as well. Needless to say, we both got a lot of exercise over the last couple of days.
With the cable swap completed, we were back up top with the crane for another test. This time it worked as designed, and our repair appeared to be completed.
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| Yay! Crane goes up when it should go up! |
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| Front of crane to be removed |
One very long rope weaves through the crane to make action happen. Years ago we took the crane apart and restrung it as the line was old and had stretched. Today, it looked all too familiar!
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| Checking the lines and sheaves |
Clark examined the line, and all appeared to be in order. He was afraid one might be out of its appropriate track and causing friction, but we could find nothing out of place. Before putting the cover back on the crane, Clark attached a line to the end of the crane rope and fed it through the crane's hook so as not lose the end of the line as we put the crane back together. We had a box under the crane to collect anything that fell or came off the assembly as we worked on it. We did not want any parts falling overboard.
With the crane back together, it was time for the real test -- could we lift the dinghy and get it into the water from the top of the boat? The consequences of a crane failure with the dinghy in the air would be severe to say the least. I held my breath as the crane started to lift the dinghy. When it looked like it would be successful, I went below to grab lines as it reached the water.
Given the dinghy was now in the water, we decided to go for a cruise for a fun break from the work. We headed out of our creek to see what we could see.
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| "Taking my picture, again!?" |
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| Happy to be on the water! |
Sunset Delight requires at least 4 feet of water under the keel. There are places local to us that we do not go in that boat for depth, and maneuverability, reasons. I took some pictures as we explored waters we have not traveled in a few years. Our travels took us into the Little Silver lagoons.
We passed a house that has been here "forever". It is clearly old, and given the number of chimneys (Clark counted 8), it must date back to before central heating existed.
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| Older home on Little Silver Creek |
As we motored around, Clark kept an eye on the depths. He made me nervous as we approached the end of one lagoon. The trees were crowding in and the water was getting shallower. He asked me, "Do you want to have your hair combed?" (I was facing the stern and did not know what was coming up behind me) I looked around and saw a low-hanging branch from a tree. "Ah ... no thanks? Please turn around!"
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| Branch hanging over water at end of lagoon |
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| "Boy Fishing" statue at the edge of one property |
We saw the mom sitting by her pool in the backyard. As we motored by a young boy started calling out hello to us, so I waved. I guess he thought we hadn't heard him, so he yelled again, and yet again. Clark said, "What is he saying?" I replied that he is saying, "Hello Doofus". I had understood him the second and third times and waved back all the harder apparently frustrating him. Eventually, his mother grabbed him and told him to be quiet.
Of course out trip on the water took us past a few birds of varying types.
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| 2 Cormorant sentries guarding the boat behind them |
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| Osprey fishing from a red marker |
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| Blue Heron on a dock |
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| Another Blue Heron on another dock |
Coming into our creek, I noticed a boat that catches my attention every time. I wonder how they chose the boat name.
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| "Weekend at Bernie's" |
With our little excursion completed, we returned home to put the dinghy back in place for the final crane test. It was successful and the dinghy is back where it belongs. Clark decided that he needed to make himself more work by washing the bottom of the dinghy. When I went to put the rail covers back in place, I found stitching had come out, so I found my sewing tools and sat down to do a repair.
We still had tools out from the earlier crane work, so all that had to be cleaned up and put away where it belonged. As I walked up to the house, I noticed some really tall crabgrass and pulled that out on my way by. Even the house, when I returned there, presented work as Clark had left the box the crane parts were delivered in sitting in the middle of the floor in the den. That had to be discarded / sorted into garbage vs recycle vs packing material to keep.
We were both tired and grimy. I made meatloaf with mashed potatoes and baby peas for dinner. We ended the day by watching a few episodes from the Netflix series "Outer Banks". Season 5 was just released this past Thursday!
23 August 2026
After the work done yesterday and the day before, my legs are telling me how many stairs I climbed and how often I climbed into the lazarette. Clark pulled out his guitar for some relaxing strumming, and I decided to update the blog. No boating today!
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