Feeling Overwhelmed!

This week has been just problem after another.  We finally received the replacement CV joint ($2000 NZD) and installed it with Tom's help...  OK, he installed it and I handed him tools....  We started the engine and put it in gear....

The old CV joint!

The NEW CV joint! (I just painted it to try to keep the rust at bay...)

We heard a really horrible sound at idle speed, in both directions.....

Apparently, when we had the mechanic assess our problems back in November, the horrible noise made by the CV joint covered the horrible noise in the transmission. We had short lived hope that the problem was in the drive plate between the engine and the  transmission...  Nope. It turns out that we most likely damaged the transmission when the motor mount bracket broke.  The engine ran at a bad angle and likely caused a bearing to go in the transmission.

The new motor mount bracket and motor mount.

That meant we had to fix or replace the transmission.  Fixing stuff around here seem to be very difficult and VERY expensive.  They charge $80 per hour for labour, and everything seems to take a very long time....

In the end, we have ordered a NEW transmission from the USA and hope to see it sometime around the end of the month. Why, you might ask, do we order it from the States? The cost of a new transmission here in New Zealand without installation - $10,000 NZD... Our cost from the States including shipping - $6,000 NZD.  The only downside so far is that the company where we bought it used UPS for shipping.  Based on our experience with UPS, we can only hope we eventually get it.

Here is the old transmission in the cockpit.  I have removed all the bits we will need to put on the new one.  Unfortunately, by the time it arrives, Tom will be gone.  I am desperately looking for someone to help me install the new one when it gets here..

We re-installed the genoa and it looks great!  For the first time in our sailing life, all our sail covers MATCH!

I also made a replacement surround for the fish cleaning station...

We have sold a few things we don't want or need any more.  Here in New Zealand they have a local Buy/Sell site that everyone seems to use.  For the most part it has worked well for us.  That said, in December we listed our old dinghy davits for sale with a starting bid of $500.  They are worth about $3000 new.  We didn't get any action so when this guy offered us $350 we said, what the heck, and took it.

This was on December 24, 2016.  It took half a dozen emails, and 2 weeks before the guy who bought it finally transferred the money to our account.  YESTERDAY, his parents finally picked them up! (January 18th, 2017).  Today I get an email from the idiot, saying they weren't in excellent condition, and that he wanted his money back!  Really? He claimed that between yesterday afternoon and 7 am this morning he had an engineer inspect them and that one of the welds on one of the bases was faulty, AND he has a quote from a welder that it would cost $250 to "fix"...

Those davits have lifted our dinghy since 2010, and I am sure they were in service many years before that by the previous owner....  This is all we needed this week.

As politely as possible, I have told him "All Sales Final" and to stop bothering us...  We will see....

Anyway, hopefully things will start going better this week....

Cheers.