Thursday, April 7, 2016

Trouble comes in threes

We were out on the boat shooting some video. On the way back to the mooring field, we started feeling a vibration. I throttled back and put it in reverse to see if we picked up something on the prop. That didn't help. We limped back to the mooring and the vibration got real bad but did get the boat tied up. Looking all around I noticed the prop shaft was loose. Hmmm. Transmission problems. Brought out a mechanic and he confirmed, we needed to replace the 30 year old transmission. We were in good hands and had him do a few other maintenance items.

We took a slip in the marina to do the transmission work. While there prepping for the transmission replacement, I noticed the bed felt hot. No, not from Chris. Under the bed is our 900 amp battery bank. One of the batteries was smoking and gurgling. Not good! I pulled all sources of power to the batteries and texted my marine electrician friend Rod. The other batteries that were wired in were continuing to feed the runaway battery. I took it out of the loop. My laser heat gun read 160 degrees! Rod advised that if one went, after 8 years, others would soon follow. Soooo, time to pull the 6 100 lb batteries out and buy a new set.

The good news was how easy it was to do! The battery box is directly below a large hatch. The hatch is directly below the end of the boom. The end of the boom swung perfectly over to the end of the finger pier. Easy up, easy over easy gone!


Ready to hoist


Up thru the hatch


Over to the dock


Away they go

Oh yea, threes. I picked up a job in Miami for Harken, a sailboat equipment manufacturer. They saw drone work I did and wanted something similar. So I went off to practice with my drone before the shoot. Flew four flights and all went well. On the fifth flight, the drone just decided to decend on its own. It sleeps with the fishes. That was Sunday. Had to borrow a car and run to Ft Lauderdale to buy another one Monday for the shoot Thursday. Sigh.

Oh, it's warming up now so I fired up the fairly new air conditioner. No joy, it blew hot air. So much for threes. At least the bees are gone.

Livin the dream!