Cruisers have a saying, “Sailboat cruising is simply boat repair in exotic places.” That may be slightly tongue-in-cheek but boy what I wouldn’t give to be in an exotic place right now. This time last year I was reinstalling Billabong’s motor. Unfortunately the shaft seal failed shortly after and became progressively worse over the summer.

While I have the Yanmar 3GMD motor out of the boat I want to knock off the rust that is slowly creeping in. The paint on the motor is starting to fail, which makes sense after 34+ years of service. Today I spent a few hours and 10 canisters of brake cleaner getting the build