Oil change

It is with a heavy heart and oily fingers that I type this post.

My excellent plan had been to do a drip-free oil change this afternoon. After all, what could go wrong? I installed, last fall, an oil change pump hardwired into the 12 volt system aboard. The system is plumbed to a tube running from the oil pan, to a little pump, finally to a drain tube. All I need to do is put that drain tube in an empty jug and flip the switch (toggle switch, of course). No reason to get dirty at all. Then I just watch and leave everything alone until the old oil is effortlessly sucked out of the engine. All this using electricity we generate ourselves with the solar panels.

Did I leave everything alone? I did not. I fussed with things. I adjusted things. I peeked at things. And finally, I pulled the drain hose out of the jug, just a little, to check how the filthy black oil was flowing. Then I dropped the hose into the previously oil-free bilge. So now I have banished myself to the computer to type this post while the pump does its thing.

When the oil is out I will go back and remove the filter (from the remote filter base I installed a few years ago…big improvement), clean up, put on the new filter and spill the new oil all over the engine block, no doubt.

Nevertheless, I am having a fine time. Been fantasizing about this task literally for years. This boat maintenance business is the stuff of dreams. Seriously.

The scene pre-catastrophe.