3 March, 2000
Just catching up ... Marty came back the next day with more tools. The last 2 nuts on the bottom of the gear case were just not accessible without jacking the engine and using crows-feet and flexible coupler sockets. I'm glad that I don't have Marty's tool budget. Once the bolts came off, Marty had to crawl into the compartment and exercise a little aggression therapy before the beast came off, but man was victorious over machine. This time. I hope that reassembly won't be more than twice as bad. I got a call a day later with the news: a drive gear, some bearings. Oddly enough, reverse looked worse than forward, which is the opposite of the problems we were experiencing. Barbara is due to call with the really sad news (replacement costs) in a few more days.
Now that the tranny is out, it seemed like a good idea to investigate installing some upgrades like a Drive Saver (rubber donut between the shaft couplings) or a dripless shaft seal. We've decided against both for a variety of reasons that aren't worth writing to much about. They just seemed to be more trouble than they were worth or cost. You'll have to do your own research and see if they're right for you anyway. We did and they weren't. Your mileage may vary, as they say.
Well, now we're really stuck in the marina for awhile, but fortunately we have more than a few side attractions to keep us busy. We spent Sunday and Monday on the coast; kind of a late birthday get-away. I worked at the office Saturday so I could get Monday off. Sunday afternoon we drove down to Pigeon Point Lighthouse in Pescadero (only about an hour away). We'd reserved a private room at the hostel there. After checking in, we had dinner at Duarte's Tavern. This was a bit of an adventure since the main road to Pescadero was flooded with about a foot of water. The Toyota didn't float away, but Suzy was a bit pale so we took the Stage Road back to the hostel afterwards. The Hostel itself is on the lighthouse grounds itself and has a hottub that you can rent by the half-hour. And it was oh so very nice: We turned out the light and had a great view of the ocean with the waves crashing below us and the stars above.
The next morning we got up and did the usual hostel things before heading to our next stop, Ano Nuevo Reserve. We had reserved spots in a docent tour of the Elephant Seal colony. We had excellent views of nursing pups, harems, weaners and a few bulls (although most had already left). The weaners hadn't quite discovered water yet, much less swimming, so what we saw were a lot of fat, sleepy bags of fur with cute faces.
After the tour, we had a leisurely drive up the coast. We stopped to check out the Montara Lighthouse, which also has a hostel (and a hottub). We wonder why we didn't figure out these hostel/hottub spots earlier. They are cheap, romantic hotels.
Copyright © 2000 Ken Mayer