F* the Tech Troubles

Never mind the tech troubles. The 3 part series is over before I even wrote the second story.

Tuesday, 3/12, the Word Daily was "longanimity". I could not help but laugh at that and shared it with Brad while I sat on my yoga ball at my stand-up desk. I balance the time of stand and sit and go through phases of stand or sit, but of late, sit, and was probably best.

Last I left you dear reader was with hope. My hope. Maybe your hope. Hope of the universe. Screw the universe and the Martian ship it rode in on. Why? Because when the engine guy texts you to call when you can while the yard has you on the phone and sharing the latest news... OMG, what could possibly be the story after that?

However, the engine guy is a hero, he rocks! He did it! He made it happen. That is the good part. This isn't all bad, but the bad is looking pretty bad at the moment.

This could be an epic post, in terms of how long I could go on... So I will do my best to distill this from episode 1, through parts 2 and 3, and skip to Tuesday because what I thought I'd write became pointless with the day's news. Mind you I meant to post this almost immediately, but luckily, a couple of glasses of fine red wine had me fumbling around on the keyboard and favorably a few days later the news has brought some hope.

Sidebar: my sorority symbol is the anchor. The symbol of hope. You must see the irony, or is that just Alanis Morrisette?

Anyway, rewind to three weeks ago Monday, 3/4, after the unsatisfactory outing. There was a follow-up outing that same week on Friday. The engine guy had researched and determined a part that was the issue and got it replaced; a palm-of-your-hand-sized electrical device called the Ignition Control Module, "ICM". The picture is of the good one from the starboard engine. The newer replacement ICM we had on port, while it fit properly, turned out to be the wrong technical replacement, of course. The correct part was ordered and arrived quickly so we went for another afternoon ride.

In comparison to Monday, we went FAST. The issue of the engine stop was solved at high speed. Yes, there are more troubles, trials, and tribulations, because, and I can't believe it, the engine has decided to stop at low RPM and even at idle. It was a glorious hour of being on the water until all heck broke loose.

I was having the best Zen moment of the combined 2022, 2023, and up to now, 2024 years because I was on the water with the boat in motion.

At the end of that Friday, which started with engine man elated and at ease, closed with him being on edge, unhappy, and exasperated. Oh, come on! We fix one thing, we fix another, we fix something else, and it is never ending!!!...!...!!...

But again, that got fixed. After calls to multiple companies by a determined engine guru, he went through a slew of technical tests with various devices and checked every single last wire. That led to an uninterrupted (by any engine issue) couple of hours when Spencer, the yard owner (and an artist at driving a very large boat trailer), and the engine guru put the boat through its paces and could not replicate the problem at any level of speed or situation, thus ruled, problem solved.

But it didn't stop the s***show of getting CAYUGA back in working water order from going easy.

Nothing is easy with an old boat.

Something on port has decided to be fussy, perhaps to leak, or it's something that looks like a leak.

You read that right. Haha, right, no, this is left (port). We spent all of last summer hostage to the starboard (right) transmission situation. My conversation with the engine man that fateful Tuesday was epic. He is a calm, dispassionate, professional person who said exactly how he really felt. That was a moment. On the other hand, Spencer's voice was a dead giveaway the second he spoke and went to, "How are you doing".

So we went from a Monday with the first away from the dock trials and it was amazing until the port engine said NO to FAST and then to a Friday when everyone was feeling good and the port engine said NOPE to SLOW and even NADA to IDLE. Then to a Tuesday, with all the speeds, all the performance, everything everyone has been crossing fingers for to be. But for a new problem.

I think I mentioned hope somewhere earlier in this stream of consciousness, hope, i.e. that tricky Elpis (AKA a Greek goddess of hope). I apologize for the limited elaboration as I can't find my Bulfinch's Mythology book, however, I may need to dust off the Oracles of Nostrasdamos to see what he predicted about this mess.

But back to Tuesday's call from Spencer followed by my call back to engine man's text, both conversations were so depressing, my heart sank past the center of the earth. It had been a week of March weather akin to early May, and Tuesday was fantastic at just over 70 degrees. Next week we'll probably have snow or a blizzard. So there's an upside? The boat won't sink with 3 feet of heavy spring snow freezing up the bilge pumps.

I'll leave you with the fact that I had a massive meltdown that night. I called or texted many people who know of our journey and all were just as depressed but all were very supportive and hopeful we'd get through this latest setback. And Brad has been on the phone ever since with some incredibly knowledgeable and talented people in their field about what could be the cause. Various theories are under discussion and we know an answer is imminent, but just how long it will take scares me. My meltdown even entailed me telling Spencer I was so upset that I had a flashing thought of, "Just put a fucking 'For Sale' sign on it". I regret thinking that, but it's the truth.

One last thing, about Elpis, while said to be a minor goddess, she had a relatively starring role in the Pandora's Box story. You know the story and while all the other bad bits escaped, Elpis was trapped inside when the lid was put back and therefore has been a source of debate; was hope actually another evil, and thus we are spared its torment, or was hope truly good and without it we are meant to suffer?

Is CAYUGA my Pandora's pithos?