Solomons Island, MD

[Kevin's Post]When we were in the Bahamas, our outboard propeller hub got damaged rendering it unusable. There is this rubber part in the hub of the propeller which is designed to fail if you hit something (or several somethings) and protects the engine and the transmission from damage. In our case, ours failed just from throttling up too fast (we were in 20 feet of water). But most likely it was already damaged and just finally gave out. It is supposed to be easy and cheap to fix, but nobody in the Exumas could do it so we broke down and bought a new one. We waited 2 weeks and paid $265 for an $85 propeller that wasn't even the right pitch. That's boat maintenance in the Bahamas. The reason I am bringing all this up is because last week I shipped the old prop to get it rehubbed (to Kansas of all places). They rehubbed it and shipped it back to me the same day they received it. They charged us $33 and it is good as new. I could have fedexed it from the Bahamas, had it repaired and shipped back cheaper and faster than what we did. Another expensive boat maintenance lesson. Anyway, the silver lining is that at least now we have a spare prop for the outboard which is a very good thing to have. We met lots of other boaters that also damaged their prop hubs, one of them even resorted to buying a whole new outboard (faster than getting a new prop). If you ever need a propeller repaired, I highly recommend Midwest Propeller Service in Olathe, Kansas. http://www.midwestpropeller.com/

Amanda abandoned ship this morning to go spend the weekend at Carrie's new house and help paint their kitchen. I am staying with the boat babysitting the air conditioning strainer. There is a commuter bus that runs from nearby to DC and she will take the Metro from there. It only runs Monday-Friday so she won't be back till Monday.


We finally got our professional wedding photos recently (also on Bahamas time) and uploaded them to snapfish. So, if you wanted any prints but didn't want to pay 6 bucks, you can get them now for 12 cents. Or, if you want a pillowcase with my picture on it those are $19.99. The wedding album link on the left is updated to go to the new snapfish album.