After a long morning working on the aft cabin we started the preparation for removing the engine.
It is one of those jobs that takes ages without seeing any progress.
However, we have detached all the hoses (fuel, cooling, exhaust, domestic water heating) and electronics.
We have also removed the floor of the cockpit which is above the engine.
That was tricky. There is normally a wood grating on the cockpit floor, when we took that up there was a huge amount of dirt and debris to clear up. Then 22 bolts to remove with Jane reaching in over the engine to put a socket set on the nuts while I unscrewed the bolts.
The next step was to plan and start preparing the gantry (lots of big timber to carry up the ladder) that we will attach two block and tackles to, in order to to lift the engine. That included removing the window in the wheelhouse roof (no pics yet as it had got dark). We will take this opportunity to replace the two sheets of acrylic as they are badly crazed.
We still have gear and throttle cables plus the propeller shaft to disconnect. Then the four engine mounts.
I’ll put up the pictures of the over engineered hoisting system tomorrow if these last connections come apart ok.
Now dinner is nearly ready in the multi-cooker (aduki bean and pearl barley stew with sweet potato, carrot, swede, onion and a tomato sauce).
As soon as the cooking is done we can put the fan heater back on which will be nice. Meanwhile the saloon is extremely crowded with all the aft cabin cushions so not much space for us 😂
Sustainable Sailing 