On Fri, 19 Nov 2010 20:49:12 -0500, you wrote: We hauled the boat earlier this week. Bob has had to take the sails down and do most of the stuff by himself. After I was sick with bronchitis in 2008, I was left with significantly reduced lung function (86% overall)
I'm doing pulmonary rehab twice a week at the hospital. They checked my capacity by having me walk as far as I could in 6 minutes. About 4 minutes in, my heart rate went up to 130 bpm and they stopped me and made me rest until my heart rate went back down. [I've had all the tests on my heart and they all come back that my heart is just fine - if I believe them.] Because of back pain I can't stand for very long. So I have to chose between walking slowly and the pain catching me and walking fast and having to stop and catch my breath. I also can't work with my hands over my head for any length of time, and I have significant balance issues. If I am fresh, I can walk the length of the pier to the boat without stopping, but after working on the boat I've gone ahead and gotten a handicapped hang tag. Ugh Anyway - that's why Bob has to do a lot by himself. We went to take the sails and bimini off the boat and we did the bimini and the staysail, but when we got to the jib, I just had to lie down on the dock and could not help with the folding of the sail. Bob had to do the main by himself. He made an appointment to have the boat hauled and I met him at the dock. Perfect day for it - really high tide and no wind. My job was just to be to handle the docking lines. Bob tried to start the engine to motor over - would not start. Finally he told them that he'd come the next day, and put the battery on charge. I walked back down the dock to the parking lot (once up the dock and once back down the dock is about all I can do in a day) and left and went home. He was about to leave too and he tried once more and got it started so he went over and had it hauled without me. I guess I'm redundant to the situation now. >Capt Norm goes to Diesel School > >I set out from Jacksonville FL for Gulfport MS to visit Jan who was taking >care of her injured son. Having loaned her my Ford Windstar minivan to >carry her invalid patient around, I had the use of her 1981 Mercedes 240D >(D for diesel), "Baby Car". <snip> >Shortly after I got underway again there was a pronounced drop in engine >power. This condition came and went from that time on until I pulled into >a rest area and changed the fuel filters, a quick and easy job on the >240D. I blessed myself for carrying spare filters and tools. I did >notice the small transparent primary filter seemed quite dirty so when I >put the new ones in (and remembered to fill them fuel oil from the spare >gallon in the trunk) I was confident the problem was dealt with. > >Silly me... We had two 300D Mercedes - 1982 and 1985. Bob made me trade mine (the 1982 one) in because he said it was in worse shape than his. It wasn't really - the body was better, but the pax window didn't work, it leaked a bit in heavy rain and the cruise control didn't work. But whatever - I traded it --- first new car we've had since 1970. I've got a 2010 Hyundai now. Looks just like the other cars in the parking lot. You pull on the handbrake instead of stepping on it. Yuk. No glow plugs. I still turn on the ignition and put on my seat belt before I start it up like I did waiting for the glow plugs to warm it up. Anyway we did several long trips in Bob's car (the 1985 Mercedes) and we had two serious problems on two different trips. 1) We were in Charleston on the AF base in the dead of winter. Bob had a severe bronchitis and could not sleep because of coughing. And the Mercedes would not start. The base would not let us have a tow truck driver onto the base unless we went to the gate to meet him and it was too far for either of us to walk. They wouldn't let my son come to the base either. Eventually I figured out that there was an Enterprise place ON the base, so we rented a car and drove that to meet the tow truck. Turned out that ALL the glow plugs were bad. Dealer fixed it - everything now fine. 2) We had been in Branson Mo. - again in the dead of winter. Snow, ice, cold. The MB had no pep going up hills. We started to go east back to Maryland, and we were on the interstate which was fairly flat approaching Memphis, but the car would not go more that 50 mph flat out, and we had trucks breathing down our back bumper and very annoyed. We finally limped into Memphis and went to Millington to stay in at the base there. Took the car to the dealership on Monday This time they tried to tell us it was the vacuum system and took that apart and then couldn't get the parts. Things dragged on until Thursday. Meanwhile Bob figured that it was a fuel delivery problem. He kept asking them if they had changed the fuel filters. Well they changed one, but "it is such an old car that we can't get the part for it until next week" and they were still fooling with the vacuum system. Bob finally said - put the damn car back together and I will take it as is. Then he went to Autozone and bought the other fuel filter for about $1.25 and fixed it himself. He also figured out what they'd done to the door locks - the mechanism was disconnected - he fixed it with a piece of wire tie or a paper clip. We don't use this car much anymore and he just had to replace the battery on it. _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
