Well, there’s a trip report from our last trip, around the central and south sound for five days that’s far more exciting, and that trip report is coming, but I should post about the oil change. Oil change no big deal right?

With a car we just go to the nearest oil change place or jiffy lube or crawl under the car and it’s generally not a big deal.  With the boat, it’s not quite so easy.  Yes, you can motor the boat to a service center, but to have them change the oil, would be ridiculous and a waste of time.  Service folks can also come to you, less of a waste of time, but as a friend once said, “where’s the self reliance”.

When we got Pasargada, there were a few things I was sure of right off the bat. First, I was going to do as much of the work on the boat as I could.  The J/24 is no 36 foot cruising boat but she has brought me a lot of experience about boat projects.  The second thing I was sure of was that I was going to enjoy the work, relish it and really learn every aspect of the boat to the best of my ability.

After all, one of our goals is to go sailing around the watery parts of the world.  I need confidence in the boat, in our abilities and in myself.  The past six months I’ve been very happy with a number of boat projects, including changes to the electrical charging system, changing out the head pump, figuring out and fixing up the NMEA system and some other odds and ends.

And so we come to the oil change today.  I always knew I’d do my own oil changes.  I also knew it wasn’t going to be difficult. Run the engine a bit to warm the oil, extract the oil from the handy extractor outlet provided on the Volvo Penta MD-22P, change the oil filter, fill the oil and voila, done (except clean-up, recycling the oil, etc).

Yeah….I also knew, in the back of my head, where that oil filter was actually located.  I’d looked at it very closely when we surveyed the boat.  I’d looked at it every time we took the boat out sailing.  Perhaps even dreamed about it.

And so today I faced my fears and changed the oil.  And the oil filter, yes, it was as impossibly difficult and horrendously inconvenient as I’d imagined.  Imagine sitting on your side, shoving your arm and part of your head through a small opening at the front of the engine, and then trying to get a grip (with the only three fingers that could actually reach) of the oil filter.  Then imagine trying to screw it in, blind, and at an awkward angle to the engine, all the while trying to do the normal things your body requires, like, breathe, have a circulatory system and the like.

I’m proud to say I got it done.  Yes, it took me 3 1/2 hours to screw in an oil filter. Yes, I’m covered in bruises and yes I almost broke down and decided to give up and call Hatton Marine in the morning.  But I persevered, used a variety of methods including a mirror to try to see better, duct tape for better grip, gloves, no gloves, oh, so many things I tried.

In the end it was just a matter of cleaning all the surfaces before every attempt, memorizing the picture with the mirror as best I could, going in with the best angle I could mange and then praying that I could grip the filter with my three fingers long enough to spin it until the threads caught.  Finally it happened and oh man was I happy.

Small victories.  One man changed the oil, big deal.  But it’s another step towards confidence, knowledge and experience to take Pasargada out in the wide world.

This winter I’m taking a whole diesel mechanic course at Seattle Central College.  That will be really fun and I will learn a ton, but I know anything I learn in that classroom will only be knowledge that I can draw on as I’m wedged into painful and horrendous contortions, knowing in the back of my head  that I know how to the work, if only my fingers would stop slipping from the grease.  What school teaches that? None.