Captain's Blog

For the summer we made a deal with a gentleman who was taking his boat North, to rent his slip in Tampa at Westshore Yacht Club  for 6 months. Our trip down here in April took 2 days (see "Movin' on up...or Down" ). We make the short 1 hour 27 minute drive as many Fridays as we can & then make our way back to Crystal River Monday morning. Most weekends we  run the dinghy around, explore the area by bike or just hangout at the pool & on Pau Hana. We have met some great folks here in the marina. This particular Saturday was just too darn nice to sit around so we decided to cruise down to St. Petersburg. St. Pete is about 1 hour 10 minutes away. We straightened up and stowed everything, performed engine checks, started the gen set & engine & pulled out of the slip. We glided easily at 9 kts across a glassy Tampa Bay. The only waves were from passing boats and we saw numerous Dolphins swimming. At about the half way point we saw the victims of the current Red ...

 My Camano has 2 stations, one on the flybridge & the other down below in the main salon. The helm steering is a Sea Star 1.7 pump, which means it takes 7 turns of the wheel lock to lock. So in other words, if you turn the wheel completely one direction, then spin it 3 1/2 times in the opposite direction, the rudder will be midship.  A very small leak developed, a slight inconsistent drip really at the upper station. I decided to install a new seal at both helms. It never fails, as soon as you repair one the other will start to have problems so might as well do it now. I ordered 2 kits. The kit comes with a new Lock Nut, woodruff key, 3 stainless steel screws, seal cover & rubber seal. I really could have just used the rubber seal itself but could only find bulk quantities so the kit was the easiest way to go.   Starting with the upper station, the first thing was to remove the wheel cap. There is a 3/32” set screw to back out & then gently pry the plastic cov...