Bite me

 3/7-Vero Beach 

   Well all the love I gave Mr Perkins yesterday didn’t seem to make him happy. A friend told me about a hole in his mixing elbow and so I thought I’d take a tug on mine. Sure enough it came right off in my hand. 

   In case you don’t know the mixing elbow is part of the exhaust system. The exhaust from the motor comes out of the manifold and up and elbow. At the down side of the elbow water is injected to cool the gases before going into the muffler and out of the boat. It is usually made of steel plumbing parts which when mixed with salt water have a tendency to corrode. This one has lasted 10+ years which is a really long time. 

    It took most of the morning and some pretzel like maneuvers to get the old one out. About this time the diver came by who was supposed to clean the bottom. We agreed there was no point in that and he said he could drive me to the metal fabricator. We are having them make a copy of the old one in stainless steel. It will be expensive but what can you do. The real issue is that it will delay our leaving by around 2 weeks. Maybe that’s why this is called Velcro Beach. I’m glad this happened here as this is a nice place to be and it’s also one of the cheapest places. 

    One thing about this place that is bugging me ( pun intended) is the no see ums. There has been very little wind lately which means the little buggers ( yes intended) have been prolific. We made special screens in an effort to stop the ingress but all it did was slow them down.  As our mooring is right next to the mangroves there seems to be an endless supply. My Kindle screen is now littered with crushed carcasses of these gnats as they are attracted to the light. Mosquitos you can at least see coming. 

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