Out with old and in with the new.

Our day began with a bumping sound coming from the bow. The manatee pictured a few days ago was back. Dan went topsides and spotted his "swirl" a few slips over and we figured he was heading back out of the lagoon - - we forgot him for the moment and headed to the veranda for breakfast. Ed Dooley joined us and we discussed the proposed changing of the prop, among other things. I headed up to the bathrooms after breakfast and by the time I returned there were several people aboard Brunelle ready to help with the procedure.

Dan had it all worked out in his head how he wanted to do it, and as impossible as it seemed - pulling off the old three bladed prop(that comes apart when you take off the hub) and getting it back to the surface without losing any parts - it went like clockwork! He took a weighted bucket down with him, got all the pieces in the bucket, the three blades resting on the top of the bucket and got it to the surface where we got all of it aboard without incident! Just to add to the excitement, the manatee returned while Dan was down working on the removal, but luckily he wasn't inclined to leave his grazing along the bulkhead to check out the project! We were prop-less, but proud. This "we" is sort of a royal we, as ALL the credit goes to Dan!

The ONLY part Dan didn't remove is #2 - the shaft!

We took a break, had a lovely lunch prepared by John, waited out a rain squall and prepared for step 2 - the installation of the Ecowind. Luckily the Ecowind does not come apart, so it had only two major pieces, but HEAVY! John added a bit of muscle to help lower the new propeller down to Dan. Dan had a tether on it to help him pull it over to and onto the shaft. The "beast" was so heavy he had to put his line around the skeg to get enough leverage to pull it into place. It was almost 3 pm by the time the job was completed, but what a job! Tomorrow we'll take a little jaunt out into Hawks Channel to test it out. Betty and I took a bike ride to check out a few restaurants for tonight and finally decided on Bogie's, right here at the Holiday Inn. We had a great celebratory meal and early to bed. ~~~_/)~~~M&D

Clockwise starting lower left: Kathy attaches Dan's hookah regulator to the back of his weight belt. A curious visitor doesn't stop the project. A very heavy precariously laden bucket is safely aboard. A blade from the old 3 blade prop is compared to the new 4 blade one. I hand Dan the last set screw that completes the installation. And there it is - all shiny and new and ready to roar.