February 3, 2008 - Whangarei

New engine mount next to the worst of the old mounts

Sten spent most of the weekend in the engine room, removing and replacing the mounts on our engine. This was a long, difficult project, involving some tricky contortionistic maneuvers. Of the four mounts, two were somewhat accessible, one was a little buried, and one had so much other equipment mounted around it that he couldn't even see it - he had to operate by touch alone to find the bolts and undo them. Many of the bolts were seized up with rust, and took a bit of persuasion to break free. During the process of removing the old mounts, he discovered that some parts of the engine were so rusted that they needed replacing too. So he'll order those first thing on Monday. I spent the weekend working on my varnish projects and sanding the bottom.

The most important thing we had to do this weekend was to find a place to watch the Super Bowl, which is showing here at noon on Monday. Our hometown team is going for a 19-0 season record. And while I'm not a big football fan, that seems like a reasonable excuse to escape from the boat yard for an afternoon. We were concerned that there would be a conflict with the Sevens rugby tournament, which is of much more interest here. As it turns out, the diviest pub in town will have the game on, so that's where we'll be spending Monday afternoon.

We've been entertained by how much attention is paid to the US presidential election here. Primary results and concession speeches are given as much air time as local politics. The other morning we found ourselves parked behind a caravan with an Obama '08 sticker on it. Seems Americans aren't the only ones ready for a change.