Mary E is shaftless, propless and rudderless but not rumless !

June 26. We arose early since Crazy was due to stop by and remove the shaft around 7:30 AM. We had already slid the dripless coupling loose and removed the thrubolt on the coupling. We only had two bolts left to free the shaft. Since we were afraid that the shaft may slip out overnight we hadn’t removed the bolts figuring it would only take a few minutes in the morning. Famous last words! Crazy said since we didn’t have the shaft loose right then he’d stop by later, he had another grounding to take care of. Apparently four or five boats had hit the same spot in the channel and were having work done. Anyway, back in the bilge we went. First things first, what size are those two bolts? Let me try a ¾”, nope, a bit bigger. Here’s a 7/8”, nope, still bigger. Fumbling thru the tool boxes and finally spilling them on the floor we had nothing bigger. Looks like we need a wrench and since the bolts are rusty we don’t want to round them off with an adjustable. We really need a 6 point box wrench. Not wanting to buy extra wrenches on this island, we carefully measure for the size we’ll need, 15/16” is agreed. Right about now, it would be really nice if Bob didn’t have his misfortune this past winter in the Marina Bay parking lot when thieves broke into his car and stole all his power tools and good set of sockets and box wrenches. But we have to deal with what is sent our way and so we walk across the marina and speak with Crazy. He checks his tool boxes in the shed and nothing. Crazy tells us there is a Napa Auto Store not too far away up the hill and to the right. I told Bob that we might as well rent a car at Scooter Bob’s in the marina since we’ll be here for a few days. So off we go to Scooter’s. We tell them we need to rent a car for a few days and he asks us if it’s for the two of us cause he’s got a real nice economy car but we tell him no, there will be three of us. Ok he says, I’ve got a Toyota Corolla. Perfect we’ll take that, how much? $59 a day, hmmm a bit steep but not really thinking I tell him ok. I’m more concerned about faring on the roads since they drive on the opposite side. Do you want insurance? After having read some horror stories about not getting insurance and being in a really strange traffic environment I agree to the extra $15 a day. Great, we sign the papers and off we go to the parking lot. There’s our little beauty ! A beat up little egg beater of a car, we’re not in Kansas anymore. At least it’s clean inside. We hop in and welcome the relief from the sweltering heat the air conditioned cabin provides. Since this will be the first time I drive on the opposite side of the road, I check my brain at the door and slide the shifter into reverse. Whining, creaking and groaning the Toyota reluctantly backs up. We pull up to the edge of the road and I double check with Bobby which side I’m suppose to travel on. Looking in both directions I timidly accelerate to the opposite side and climb the hill towards Napa. As we climb, Bobby and I are grateful that we rented the car and didn’t decide to walk there as Crazy suggested. Arriving at the highway intersection, we’re greeted by our first “rotary”. Their rotaries, as we’ll find out, come in many different shapes. Round, oval and shapes that can’t easily be described. We watch a couple of cars negotiate the roundabout and make our stab it, the traffic is heavy and trying to negotiate the turn and watch cars coming from directions you’re not accustomed to is almost overwhelming but we do it and see the Napa just ahead on the left. I could go on with stories about driving on an island that has no traffic lights and hundreds of rotaries built into two lane highways but this is a story about the Mary E. We enter the store and quickly find a 15/16” box wrench, price $80 ! There’s got to be something cheaper. We finally find another 6 point box wrench for $33 and decide we might also need a socket and an extension, another $33 dollars. Working in the bilge as much as we have, we found that the battery powered lamps we’ve been using to illuminate our work area are marginal at best so we look for a drop light. The cheapest drop light, an astonishing $174 dollars! Looking around, we find a clamp on light that would cost 4 bucks in the states for $22 dollars. Beggars can’t be choosers. We pick up a few other needed things and head back to the boat.
Back in the cramped bilge, Bobby and I put our new wrench and socket to the nut and bolt. It’ll take two of us since the spot they are in is extremely difficult to get to. We pull on the wrench and nothing. We pull harder, nothing still. We had soaked the nuts with lubricant but it was obvious we needed a breaker bar that we didn’t have. The one at Napa was an outrageous $100 so we started getting creative and used other wrenches to add leverage to our wrenches. With all our might and soaking in sweat with slippery hands we get our first painful creak as the nut ever so slightly turns. We didn’t know what we were in for. We thought once we broke the bond we’d have a difficult time removing them but at least they’d turn. No dice, for the next 2 and a half hours we took turns struggling to get the tiniest movement from the nuts. Each minute movement was greeted by an awful but welcomed creaking sound. After much slipping of hands and leveraged wrenches coming apart the nuts finally released their tenacious grasp at the final thread. Using a hammer and a couple of screwdrivers we budged the split on the collar to free the shaft or so we thought. Spent and drenched, we emerged victoriously from the bilge. Let’s find Crazy and tell him we’re ready to drop the shaft.
Crazy stops by and asks us if we removed the collar from the shaft, no we reply, we removed the bolts and loosened it. It should slide out from the collar now. Crazy says no way, you must remove the collar from the shaft. “There is no way I can pull it out while in the water from the bottom side of the boat.” Arghh. “We have to remove the six bolts attaching the collar to the engine?” “Yup, and slide the shaft down a little to get the collar off.” Back to the bilge. At least these bolts are stainless. Removing the six bolts was relatively painless but sliding the shaft and removing the coupling was anything but. Another hour and we finally free the collar. Great, let’s get Crazy again. Crazy dons his snuba gear and jumps into the water. He checks the diameter of the plug he brought to jam into the shaft opening after he pulls the shaft but it is too small so with a couple of plastic shopping bags and a bit of duct tape he makes it larger. Bobby and I glance at each other with a disbelieving look but say nothing since we believe in Crazy’s abilities. “That’ll work” Crazy says “let’s pull the shaft.” Bobby heads to the bilge with a few towels to temporarily stop the rush of water into the boat when the shaft is removed. I slide the boat forward with Gina on the bow to take up any slack. Crazy ducks under the boat and gives the shaft a tug. After a bit of struggling, Crazy comes up and says he’ll have to try something different. He ties a timberline hitch to the shaft with a strap and has us back up the boat. From the strap, he ties a rope to the crossbar on the retaining wall at the stern. He tells me I’ll have to pull the boat forward while he turns the shaft. I grab the stern line and when Crazy’s ready I struggle with everything I’ve got to pull the boat forward. After a bit of this, I’m totally spent and nothing seems like it budged. I can hear Crazy working on the bottom of the boat a bit more but I can’t help. He finally comes up and I tell him I can’t pull for that long. I need help. So with Bobby in the bilge, I enlist Gina’s help. We both grab the stern line and Crazy dives under. Struggling with all our might again we’re finally spent and Crazy resurfaces. “Are we making any progress?” Bobby hollers from the bilge “Yes, It’s almost ready to exit the dripless.” After a few more attempts, Crazy tells us we have to drop the rudder, the shaft offset isn’t enough. We sigh exasperated and Crazy sensing our crushed spirit says let’s try turning the rudder. We give this a few more attempts and finally Crazy announces, “No way, the rudder must be dropped.” Despondent, we agree. Bobby tells us we slid the shaft back so far that water is gushing in from the keyway. We have to push the shaft back in. Crazy gives it a shot by hand but the shaft won’t be budged so he spins a nut on the end and with a few taps of the sledge moves it far enough back in that Bobby can slide the dripless collar back on to stop the influx of water. Crazy climbs out of the water and asks for the time. We tell him it’s near 3 PM. He says “Good, we have time. You should be able to drop the rudder within the hour and then we can pull the shaft. In any case, I’m out of the water by five PM.” “Is that when you’re done for the day?” “Nope, I’ve lost three pairs of booties to bull sharks so far this year and I don’t intend to lose another pair.” Astounded we ask him, “Bull sharks here in the marina?” “Yeah, they move in after five PM chasing the bait.” I’m glad it was around 9 AM when I checked the damage the previous day.
Space is really tight in the rudder area, so it’s a one man job. Bobby climbs down, quickly removes the steering knuckle and loosens the retaining collar. He tries to slide the rudder down but nothing doing. I suggest he should loosen the packing nuts. Agreeing, he repositions himself to access the tiny cramped area where the packing nuts are and loosens them. Trying to slide the rudder down again, nothing moves. He asks for the block of wood and a hammer so he can tap the end. Reluctantly the shaft moves down a tiny bit. Are the packing nuts holding it? Nope, he can easily pull the rudder up. The collar is binding. He adds a little grease to the shaft and starts hammering away with the block and hammer. After a half hour of hammering, the rudder shaft suddenly drops from the coupling only to remain poking thru the packing nuts by an inch or so. It’s low tide, is it sitting on the bottom? No matter, let’s find Crazy before time runs out.
Crazy dives under and finds the rudder is hung up on the shaft, he loosens it and it falls to the bottom. Bobby stuffs a few plastic bags into the hole to stop the gushing water. I get in position on the back platform and Crazy dives to retrieve the rudder. Raising it to the surface just barely enough to grab, I pull it up onto the swim platform. Throwing a wad of paper towels into a couple of plastic shopping bags, Crazy stuffs them into the hole from the underside with a screwdriver to pack it. Back to pulling the shaft.
This time Gina heads to the bilge to stop the influx of water, Bobby and I will pull on the boat. Crazy sets himself up and Bobby and I pull. After several attempts, we’re thoroughly exhausted and I’m thinking out loud “I don’t want to be a boater anymore!” but the shaft exited and Gina stuffed the towels in the hole.
Now we had to stuff the hole with the plug Crazy made. Searching for some string to secure it from the inside, Gina finds a couple of shoelaces. Crazy tied the laces onto the eyelet and explained he would tap on the hull when he was ready. That’s when Bobby and Gina would remove the towels from the hole and Crazy would send the string into the rush of water thru the hole to Bobby and Gina waiting on the other side. It worked perfectly with one exception. As Bobby tied the laces to secure the plug, the laces broke. We’d have to remove it and try again. Remembering the monel wire I’d seen in the bilge I suggested that we use that. Cutting off a couple of feet and attaching it to the eyelet we were ready to try it again. This time it worked perfectly.
We only had two struts to pull the shaft thru before our work was done. Time and time again we backed up the boat, reset the lines and with the three of us pulling to exhaustion and Crazy twisting the shaft we seemed to make a little progress. At one point a boat threw a good size wake at us and Crazy George came up screaming and hollering at him. Not only was it dangerous down there with a wake but it also loosens millions of tiny hydra that are acidic and cause burns on your skin. Crazy had gotten badly burned the day before and had to take some antihistamines to counter the reaction.
It was very frustrating with Crazy because we’d ask how we’re doing because we needed encouragement, but he’d just grunt and occasionally give us a bit of info on our progress. I had developed a huge blister that had broken open on my palm from the rope and was causing such pain that I couldn’t pull anymore. At this point Crazy was tying the rope so that the stern of the boat was almost touching the retainer wall. I decided I could push instead of pulling. Getting myself in position I braced my feet against the stern and pushed with all my might, Gina and Bob pulled with all theirs. Finally, after a few times of doing this, Crazy asked for the yellow bag near his truck. We tossed it down to him and he dove filling the bag with air. Wondering what he was doing we finally realized he was lifting the shaft from the bottom with the air. Confirming it we all let out a big sigh of relief. Crazy tied a rope to it and had us pull it up and out.
With the shaft lying on the dock we could roll it like you roll a cue stick and see the end was out of alignment by at least ¾”. We picked up the tools, and then relaxed to a few rum cocktails. No one felt like cooking and I remembered seeing a sign that said tonight was King Crab leg night at the Tiki Hut. Bobby and I were all over that in a flash. We took showers and off to the Tiki Hut we went.After a heaping plate of excellent King Crab and more rum we retired to the boat for a nightcap and bed.
Cap’n Gina is threatening to indenture us into servitude with the amount of money this trip is beginning to cost.