![\"Harbor](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aleta.life\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Harbor-Freight-Deadblow-Hammer.jpg?resize=335%2C335&ssl=1\")
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Every project deserves a new tool. It’s part of the guy credo. That tool can be a 20-ton sheet metal press or a new carpenter\u2019s pencil. It doesn\u2019t matter, it\u2019s all about the tool. Given that the definition of cruising is \u2018fixing your boat underway\u2019, what\u2019s the most essential tool in the toolkit? Well, before we answer that, let\u2019s back up a step.<\/p>\n
The perfect boat hosts drinks for 6 in the cockpit, dinner for 4 in the cabin and room for 2 to sleep. That means, like in every other aspect of life, there is space on Aleta that is under occupied and now filled with \u2018stuff\u2019, including my tools. In our case it\u2019s the quarterberth that we have renamed \u2018the garage\u2019.<\/p>\n
Fins, sails, weatherboards, drills, crimps, fishing rods, gaffs, luggage and ditch bags are all stuffed into the garage. It drives Carol crazy! But short of remounting our Monitor Windvane, which would prevent the use of our davits, the spare sails have to live someplace. Besides, at any one point I\u2019ll need access to my wrenches, screwdrivers, socket sets, wire, tape and well, all of that stuff.<\/p>\n
In the past couple of weeks I\u2019ve had a chance to learn the following: how to change the engine oil and filter, troubleshoot and repair a faulty LED light on the propane circuit, test the battery monitor wiring harness for continuity (it wasn\u2019t continuous), replace a fan, fix the water pump, repair the dinghy, and remount the life raft. The last three jobs\u2026 Wait for it! We\u2019re getting there! \u2026we fixed with the guy\u2019s time-tested method of, if it ain\u2019t working \u2013 whack it with a big hammer!<\/p>\n
While it lacks the finesse of a multi-meter, or even the pleasurable finality of heat-shrink-wrapping an electrical connection, the humble lump hammer definitely has a place in anyone\u2019s arsenal of repair equipment. Take our water pump, please. It stopped working. Just stopped. No brrrrr as it came up to pressure, no spitting water, nothing. Without water pressure we have to use a foot pump. That\u2019s not bad, especially if you\u2019re rationing water; you literally feel every ounce, but it means that we can\u2019t get hot water out of the tank.<\/p>\n
So, I broke out the multi-meter \u2013 a tool near the top of the fix-it intellectual hierarchy. Lots of buttons and settings to examine Ohms, Volts, Amps, continuity, all down to the itty-bitty micro level. So cool! But while it proved the electrics were okay, the pump still didn\u2019t pump. Time to climb down the family tree and try something simpler. If we\u2019d had another pump I would have swapped it out. Trouble is our spare water pump is in my sister\u2019s basement in Baltimore \u2013 duh-oh! Given that, it was time to get all Neanderthal on its ass. Now we are way, waaay down the repair man’s evolutionary ladder and well into limbic territory.<\/p>\n
![\"Whack](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aleta.life\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2001-Monkey.gif?resize=439%2C199&ssl=1\")
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Here\u2019s the logic: pump doesn\u2019t work, no spare, there\u2019s nothing to lose by whacking it with a big hammer, right? WHACK! Brrrrr! The water pump winds up and we have pressure. Piltdown Man stands erect and throws a bone into the air. It falls back to earth as a satellite. Cue the Blue Danube Waltz happy dance.<\/p>\n
My advice? Go buy a big orange deadblow hammer from Harbor Freight. You\u2019ll appreciate its simplicity. Its raw pent up energy. Its ability to release your inner Cro-Magnon and its unparalleled ability to unstick mechanically sticky parts. They\u2019re awesome!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every project deserves a new tool. It’s part of the guy credo. That tool can be a 20-ton sheet metal press or a new carpenter\u2019s pencil. It doesn\u2019t matter, it\u2019s all about the tool. Given that the definition of cruising …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[8,26,84,83,82],"class_list":["post-726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learnin-and-doin","tag-aleta","tag-aleta-life","tag-lump-hammer","tag-neanderthal","tag-tools"],"yoast_head":"\n