Drip drip drip goes the rudder shaft

So, just to get it out of the way, we did go to the boat show, and I was pretty severely unimpressed. Very few boats (very, very few sailboats) to look at, morose salesmen who looked as if their next step might be off the edge of the dock seeking the comfort of a watery grave, and nothing particularly new or interesting to hold our attention. I very much regret having bought tickets for two days, as both turned out to basically be a waste of time and money (well, except I got a cool light-up yo-yo from the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority booth).

So anyway, I put Mandy on a bus for Hadlock this morning and got down to the business of preparing the boat for the trip to Canada next week. If that doesn't sound like a lot of time to prepare to you, well, it doesn't to me either.

But it was sunny out today, and warm, and reasonably dry, and things went pretty well. I cranked the engine over and it started up on the first shot and ran solidly despite some really cruddy fuel coming in to the separator. I changed the primary fuel filter, and we'll fuel up before we head out, which should dilute the remaining crud and hopefully filter it all out. I checked and topped off the transmission fluid, and checked the transmission itself... it shifted smoothly in and out of forward and reverse. I lubed the steering gear and the transmission cable, and stowed our spare mainsail in some unused space under the helm lazarette.

The oil change went smoothly, too, and without much mess. Since everything was going so well, I decided to take a crack at tightening up the leaking rudder post, and that's where I hit a wall.

Apparently the thing seals with two very large (2"? I can't really see them) counter-rotating nuts atop the shaft. They are, however, right beneath a fiberglass shelf which apparently provides support for the entire rudder assembly, so they are the very devil to get at. This all happens, I should mention, at that point in the hull where it is sweeping up toward the transom, so the closer one gets, the more squeezed one becomes.

Anyway, I didn't have a wrench large enough to get on the nuts, let alone two, and if I had two, and they were big enough, I doubt I could fit them both into the space at the same time, and if by some miracle of modern industry all that could happen, I don't think I could spare enough arms to turn them.

This wasn't what I had expected to find at all. I had done some research when I first discovered the leak and the few references I could find to my model of boat talked only about a single packing nut; or maybe the whole assembly is referred to as the "packing nut" even though there are two components. I found someone discussing another model of boat talking about holding the top nut in place and rotating the bottom to tighten, which I suppose is basically what I would try anyway... but it's the sort of thing (hole in boat) where I would like to have a little confirmation before I go messing with it.

I would take a picture but it's dark out now and I don't have my flash camera with me. Anyway, I'm posting the question to HunterOwners.com and there is probably someone there who can clear me up on the matter, hopefully before I am back next weekend to finish all this up.

As far as finishing goes, the big thing I would like to have done is radar troubleshooting. I am pretty much resigned to having to send Mandy up to look at it again. She can't lift me, and even if she could, I'm really the only one who can operate the controls on the console to test it adequately (and safely) with someone up there. Bizarrely, it's easier to talk her through tracing wiring connections and measuring impedance and voltage values than the display console controls. Either way, I am pretty well resigned to the thing still not working, which is bad considering much of the trip will be happening at night and quite possibly in marginal visibility.

Fueling up and pumping out are really the only other things, and assuming the engine doesn't quit on us, that should all be done next weekend.