Disaster strikes

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A week ago, just as we were entering our berth, the whole boat gave a mighty shudder and almost jumped out of the water. For a second I thought we might have hit a submerged log but when we ran inside to check on the engine the problem quickly became apparent
The engine had almost detached from the propeller shaft except for the last bolt and managed to leverage itself out of the mount and partly thru the wall. The shudder I had felt was 800kg of steel moving 10cm to starboard. All 4 engine mounts were scrap metal and it was quite possible the shaft was bent. My initial estimate was 20-100k€ of damage, outhaul and 2 months of work to fix this. We were devastated, it wasn’t a showstopper but very inconvenient. 

However 7 days later and 150€ poorer I have replace all the mounts and the shaft seems to be mainly OK. It was a bit wonky already before the accident and it doesn’t seem to gotten worse. I will put in a flexible coupling to compensate. 

Lessons learned: I shouldn’t be so upset over problems, they are usually smaller than I expect. The emergency jack from my old car is a great tool to have onboard.

It is now 10 days left to the official start of our circumnavigation. Please please please no more major scares like this!

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