May 19, 2014 Up the
river.
We are now up a little way up the River.(four hours motoring from
Livingston) It was spectacular,
sheer cliffs on both sides 600 feet high all green with dense vegetation. (The
Tarzan movies were made here.) We
are anchored in a little cove along-side the jungle amid a few thatched huts. It
is hard to sleep as the Howler monkeys calling to each other make a terrible
noise. There are fire flies flying through the trees, The Mayan people paddling
about in their dugout canoes. Just amazing.
Now we have no cutlass
bearing..(propeller bearing) That fender we use to locate the anchor got
caught in the prop as we were leaving Tres Puntas . I got it out and could
not get the last bit of rope away leaving a bit secured to the shaft between
the cutlass and the rope cutter thus blocking the water flow that goes
through to cool the bearing.. With the mud at the bar and revving the motor
at 3000 rpm for an hour destroyed the cutlass.
We motored here to Texas
Bay (actually the bay before texas) not realizing
the problem. I have
now cut out the remaining bit of rope and the shaft has
a 1/4 inch play in
the housing...
We plan on sailing as far as we can then either pull the boat
with the dingy
or organizing a tow to the marina, NanaJuana..
According
to Tom the sail repair guy here there is usually enough wind in
the
afternoons to sail.
We hope to go on Monday afternoon, then if we get to the
end of the lake too
late in the day to go all the way we will anchor and
then do the tow the
next day. I think that I could motor briefy with out too
much being
destroyed, at least I hope so.
Wish us luck...
I think that
this will be the last of the blog except for the next log “Looking Back” as the
subscription for this service will run out on the 20th UTC. If you
are interested in how we will get to the marina without the cutlass bearing
email me.