our berth opened at the terminal so we shifted in, and while the dockers got to work loading cargo, our C/E and port engineer set to work finding us a replacement lifeboat motor, it took a few hours but a motor was found and delivered to the ship.
The motor was used and needed to be rebuilt, but a complete rebuild kit came with it, so this was not a huge problem, and this was my job.
The bigger problem fell to Maria, as the motor procured in China was of course metric, and the motor installed in the life boat back in 1979 in Bath Maine was of course standard (though why we call our system “standard is beyond me, standard is what is standard all over the world).
Maria set to work on the lathe, and between her watches she fabricated a coupling that would connect the metric motor to our standard gear box.
Coast Guard and ABS both signed off on the repair.
Cargo complete, a fire and a boat drill were conducted to the satisfaction of the Coast Guard inspectors, we set sail for Xiamen.
about six hours out of Shanghai Amanda offered up the news that we were almost out of make up feed water…
To be cont…