Yup, that's what the mechanic said.  Went out for a sail on coming into the harbor on the way back the engine started making "expensive" noises.  You know, the screeching, grinding ones.  I initially thought it was the fresh water pump, but when I took off the fan belt and tugged on the pump shaft it was tight and spun freely.  Started the engine again and realized it was coming from the transmission area.  Time to call in the mechanic.  He immediately diagnosed it as a broken stress plate spring.  Turned out that was close.  It was the fan on the stress plate that broke.  Pieces were flailing around inside the bell housing.  The "tranny" was fine, but the stress plate was toast.  We pulled the bell housing, took off the stress plate and it turned out the flywheel had to come out too due to some bolts on the stress plate corroding onto the flywheel.  A week later and a new stress plate and we're back in motion (oh, and about $1500!)                           

Took a week off to get some work done.  Wanted to do some varnishing (OK, "Cetoling"), but the weather wasn't cooperating.  Fog and threat of rain.  Instead did a bunch of the "little" projects that are always on "the list" but don't get done.  Biggest among these was the dreaded chainplate sealing.  Taking the deck covers off the chainplates, digging out the old bedding compound and resealing all.  Takes about an hour per chainplate times four!  Backbreaking, as you are on hands and knees removing screws, prying covers off the deck, digging out old bedding, etc.Also removed and replaced the anchor washdown pump.  I had "fixed" the old pump that had seized, but it seized again and I decided just to buy a new one.  However, it sat on the "to do" list for about six months since it wasn't a big priority.  When I finally got to it this week, it took about an hour and a half.     Some other small but important stuff:  Bringing my collection of flares up to date.  Now I'm legal till 2013 (but what do I do with the other 15 year old flares?).  Taking all three fire extinguishers for pressure testing, reloading and re-certification.   Now Charisma's 100% legal if stopped for inspection by the Coasties.Also, fixed the head which again broke.  This time the water inlet refused to work.  As I thought, it turned out to be the float valve.  Took off the bowl, "jiggled" the float ball, reassembled and voila, it works!  Nice to be able to pump water again and not have to pour fresh water into the bowl to flush.

Finally, the weather cooperated; sort of.  Steep chop and light wind meant motor sailing the first half of the trip, but North of Bolinas, we got 20knots, gusting to 25 and some nice sailing into Drake's Bay.  Windy night, gusting up to 30 knots, but anchor deeply embedded in the sand and the anchor alarm set to 120 feet, meant a good sleep.  On the way back, saw two whales (probably Gray's) and a dozen or more dolphins that swam with us, surfing on the six foot waves for 15 minutes during one session and 10 minutes during another.  Really fun to watch!                         By the way the Monitor (now known as "Wilson") steered all the way back.  In 15 knots true, a double reefed main and yankee jib, Wilson steered brilliantly.  We just sat, read books and looked up from time to time to make sure we didn't hit something.  The trick is the heavily reefed main.  Keeps weather helm from overpowering the self-steering.  We made about 5+ knots with this set up.  Even better would have been the 130, but I was too lazy to put it up!

Went to China Camp.  Wanted to go to Drake's Bay, but winds were 35+ and waves 12 feet at 9 second periods--not a fun ride.

China Camp was nice though.  Warm, good anchoring and a chance to test out the new hammock!

Wow, hard to believe it's already been over four months. Seems like yesterday I moved aboard.It's such a joy to be living on "Charisma".  Great neighbors, beautiful boat and easy to go for a sail.  All I have to do is disconnect the internet and I'm off (well, almost all).  Nonetheless, I keep everything put away, so it's as easy to go sailing as before I moved aboard.So far, I've loved falling asleep at night listening to the rain on the overhead, hearing the wind in the rigging and feeling the gentle rocking on the water.  Sunrises and Sunsets in the Marina are also a treat.     
Now I can't wait for the warmer weather to try out the hammock I got for my birthday!

Went sailing the other day with another Tayana; "Alchemy" just down the dock from me.
What a fun day and some great pics to boot!

Yep, the complete disassembly of the toilet!The head over a period of months was having a harder and harder time pumping out.  Finally it stopped flushing, so no other alternative other than taking it completely apart to find out the mystery of the marine head.I've never taken one apart or seen one taken apart, so this was completely new territory.  I removed the intake and discharge hoses (yuck), and rubber-banded a plastic bag over the discharge side since it went directly into the holding tank.  Then unbolted the head from the floor and took it outside into the cockpit for further disassembly.Once completely taken apart, the problem become apparent.  There's a rocker valve that pushes a float ball up to seal the air into the toilet that allowed the pump to go from pulling water into the bowl to sealing it and pumping water out.  The rocker had a set screw that had come loose, which allowed the rocker to slip.  Hence the whole discharge function stopped functioning!OK, $80 worth of parts from Groco later and I was ready to reassemble.  (As a brief aside: the Groco rep I talked to on the the phone was the person who actually built my toilet back in 1998!  Talk about customer service).Everything went back together quite easily with the exception of a leaky gasket.  In plumbing there's always a leaky gasket!  In this case, it was the gasket that linked the toilet bowl to the base. I had tightened it too much as is often the case in plumbing problems.  Once you over-tighten a gasket, it collapses and you're out of luck.  I took the bowl off-worried that I had broken the porcelain by overtightening, but hadn't-removed the gasket, cleaned it and put it back on.  Then reassembled the bowl "loosely" this time.  Re-attached the intake and discharge and pumped.  Leaking.  Tighten the bowl a little.  Still leaking.  Tighten a little more.  Leaking, but a little less. Tighten a liiiittttlee more.  Leak stopped.  It's a fine line.Toilet works better than ever and leak has stopped.   All in all, not as bad as I thought it would be and another adventure complete!