JADIP Cruising

10-21-18   Ahhhhhhh! %#@&%X*!!! I have a potentially serious problem that I can only describe now after several hours of screaming, hair pulling, gnashing of teeth, and using up my entire, and I might say rather extensive, vocabulary of curse words..several times over.  Here is the situation. I was sampling the transmission oil on my starboard engine and when I tried to withdraw the 12 inch long, 1/4" tubing from the dipstick hole, it popped off the suction mechanism.  I watched in frozen horror as it gently slid down into the transmission out of sight. After regaining my composure, oh, say twenty minutes, maybe more... I wasn't keeping track.   I tried unsuccessfully to extract the tubing with a four-finger spring grabber for over an hour. I actually got a hold of it four times but because I had gripped it somewhere in the middle, I could not pull it up through the dipstick hole. After that fourth time though, I was unable to even find/feel it w...

10-26-18 Another problem.. Now that the plastic tube in the transmission situation is at least not getting worse, (mainly because I haven't run the engine), a new wrinkle has developed that will again delay our departure from Hampton, VA to warmer regions further south. We had a diver come yesterday to tend the bottom since we have been sitting in a marina for over two months. It was just a routine scrub to slick up the bottom before we headed south after the current weather front passes through over the next two days. We had planned to start on Sunday. After he was finished cleaning, I had the diver take my GoPro camera and give me a tour of the bottom and running gear. He did a good job of cleaning the areas coated with anti-fouling and since there was no preventative on the prop, I expected some minor growth that could be scraped off. I mean, it was shiny clean when the boat went into the water in late August so it shouldn't have too much. I was also interested in the stat...