Just after 7:30am the lady Iris has been pulled out of the water and sitting securely on her stands in the shipyard at Mile 533 Marine Ways … wow, that is a mess of barnacles covering the hull. It was fascinating to watch that huge crain pull my boat up effortlessly, and a little startling to see the amount of scraping to be done.
The plan is to fix the packing box, scrape the bottom and paint, wax the hull and put the name on the back … I’m anxious to get started.
The dock got extremely busy so I ended up running errands to get the paint and introduce myself to the boat repair shop that has worked on this boat in the past, Gatewoods in Rockport. That was a great idea … after talking with these guys for quite a while I now know that I have a Yanmar 2QM 2 cylinder 15 horsepower diesel engine in this baby.
I went in to buy some oil, as mine is low, but really wanted it changed; these guys verbally taught me what to do. Since Darin had taught me to change the oil in my jeep I could apply the knowledge to this project.
But that engine well is REALLY tight, but these guys introduced me to a gadget they called an oil change pump. It allows you to slide a thin tube down the dipstick hole and then prime the pump with about 60 manual pumps and let the system pump out the existing oil in to an enclosed container.
Ok, got an oil filter, oil and the borrowed oil change pump … it’s time. I remember the first week I bought the boat my dad checking the oil from the front entry of the engine and it was extremely difficult to get to the dipstick, so I do need to access the engine from the back through the engine well under the cockpit.
So far so good, found the dipstick and got the oil out … moving on to the oil filter. Which is right in the front of the engine, I put down my deisel diaper dad got me under the engine to absorb any dripping from removing the filter and twisted the filter off. Darin had taught me to ALWAYS check that the old gasket comes off when you pull the old filter. Sure enough I look down and no gasket, but it was easy to locate on the engine where I just removed the filter. Almost done, I took a little oil and ran it over the new gasket and twisted on the filter.
OK, but there is about 10? of space above this engine where you put the new oil in and I bought a 5 quart jug of oil. hmmm … ok, run to walmart buy a smaller container and a flexible funnel to get the job done.
I did it! The oil is changed and I’m moving on to the fuel filter … I can’t even describe what 115 degrees feels like in an engine well, but I survived just fine and know a whole lot more about my engine. Gatewoods has been extremely heplful and getting my hands dirty has really allowed me to connect with the lady Iris … I’m glad I took the plunge to take on a little maintenance work while she is in dry dock.