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BOAT = Break Out Another Thousand

So.....

Clearly I couldn't ignore a wobbly engine, so we hot tailed it around Porto Khelli (our second home) to meet up with "Nugget", an engineer who works for Neilson and was recommended by Pedro with a view to replacing the propeller.

On our way, we passed through Poros, where Vangellis at Vikos Marine amazingly managed to fish out a slightly encrusted but functional matching prop from the back of a cupboard. What's more, he lent it to us on a "sale or return" basis - amazing service.

Today, Nugget swapped the propeller three times, duck diving under the boat. We tried the second hand one, a re-conned one out of his workshop, and both made the problem worse, so we put the original back.



After consultation with the Nidri Engineering Underground, the conclusion was that it was likely the vibration damper. Worn out ones look a little like this (look at the little bits of rubber, poking out where they shouldn't).



New ones from Volvo are very expensive. But we're reminded by the great philosopher Petos of the meaning of BOAT (see the title). So we have one on order.

I've left out the long, long story of getting at this thing and getting the engine plugged back into the sail drive because 1. we've got to do it all again next week, and 2. grub's up.


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