I've got Good News, and I've got...

Today was Haul day.   We were up, breakfasted, and on our way to the Wrangell Travelift (cradle crane for picking up boats) by 1015 for a 1045 appointment to be hauled.

Here are a bunch of pictures of us being hauled.

Here's a picture of our prop - looks like new.   The good news... no dings, not even a scratch.   So, what's the source of the vibration?   And now the bad news... it turns out that two of the four blades are 3/16" shorter than the other two blades, throwing the prop out of balance and creating a thrust difference on the blades, thus the vibration.   This is actually a significant manufacturing error.   

Nothing to do about it until we are back in Anacortes.  I will just run below 1280 rpm to keep the vibration tolerable.   This prop was repaired by Kruger & Son's in Seattle.   I will request them to repair this on their dime.

While out of the water, we changed out the zincs on the bow thruster as they were totally gone.   The zincs protect the metal parts from electrolysis as the zincs get eaten first.   So, the zincs are sacrificial, and we just replace them whenever they need it.

Then we went back into the water and motored back to Heritage Harbor.   Here are some pictures of our return trip to the water.

Now that we know our immediate future, we can make plans again.

Tomorrow, we will do a few more tasks like change the main engine oil & filters, fix the forward sump, and maybe fix the fuel transfer pump.   If we get all that done by EOD on Thursday, we will head to Anan Bear Conservatory (about 30 miles away) early Friday morning to see grizzly bears feasting on salmon.

Tonight, we walked into town to do a bit of shopping for boat supplies (bilge cleaner, SaltAway, degreaser, etc.).

Then we decided to stay in town and have dinner at the Stikine Inn.  11,800 steps today, Yea!

And that is/was a triple chocolate decadence cake.   Yummy indeed!