A Little Bit of Progress

A little bit of success is like a little bit of sunshine! I am happy that a few hours work and the help of my old and dear friend Bryan Conover stopped the leak at the stuffing box. Bryan, my great friend from high school, Boy Scouts, Explorer Scouts, and Sea Scouts, now lives on Pine Island, FL, just a few miles down the Caloosahatchee River from my location in the Fort Meyers Yacht Basin. He owns a great Striker van full of tools and gadgets, and volunteered to help with my boat problems. Here is what he looks like now:

Like me, he has somehow managed to get older since I last knew him in Fullerton, California!

Bryan had a long stainless steel rod and I used it to bang on the stuffing box to loosen it from its lock nut. Here is a photo of a brand new unit. The stuffing nut is to the front, the lock nut behind it:

Now, realize that this stuffing box is in the deepest part of the boat and I could not reach it by hand from the port lazarette, but I could see it, and was able to hit it with Bryan's rod, loosening it. Then, I crawled into the starboard lazarette where I could feel the box, but not see it. I was able to slowly tighten the stuffing nut until the leak stopped, then back it off so that it just barely dripped (necessary to lubricate the propeller shaft while the engine is driving the boat). Bryan, from the port lazarette, was able to advise me when it was just barely dripping. Finally, I got one of Bryan's big channel lock pliers on the stuffing nut, and Bryan tapped the lock nut until everything was tight enough.
Not bad! The job took two people and could have used more, since no one could hold the light when everyone was holding other tools. So, as Bryan commented, it was a "two men and a boy" kind of job.
So, I will no longer have to pump the bilge every morning, nor worry about the boat sinking while I was away, i.e. maybe the little reserve electric bilge pump would stop working. What will I do with all that time and absence of anxiety?
Clean the fuel tank, of course! Next project is to drain all the contaminated fuel and scrub the fuel tank by hand. I will start on that today.