The Hurricane season in Grenada had almost ended when we decided to make preparations to explore other islands.
We made an inspection of the boat and found a squeak in the steering (helm) and the fluid level in the gearbox to be low.
The squeak in the Helm had been here for a while and I had tried to oil everything in an attempt to lubricate the offending part.
It was now at a point that it upset the cat as well as Kathy. A deeper inspection of the Rudder system revealed that we had a seized sheave and for four days we tried to remove the offending part by hammering the pin out .It was in tight seized to the sheave and would not move despite our best attempts. The only solution was to disassemble the steering system.
The base plate the sheave was mounted on also held the Binnacle. Three of the four bolts that held the Binnacle to the cockpit pit floor they were seized they had to be drilled out.

The steering cables had been installed with steel clamps and had turned into balls of rust they could only be cut off .Despite my best attempts I nicked the cables with the Dremmel and now would have to replace the cables as well as the service the sheave.
Once the Binnacle and cables were removed the frozen sheave could be worked on . .
After cleaning and oiling the sheave was freed and reattached to the base plate.
I paid careful attention to the rudder position, the chain center and cable lengths as we started to resemble the steering system. When we finally attached the wheel we are off center or the chain is one link to far to port or the cable is too long on the starboard OR? Or!

The solution.
I cut the Turks head off and retie it and all is well. Or SO we hope. We motored for two hours too test the rebuilt helm and anchored. Again we checked the boat over for problems.

(if you look for a problem you will find them) .
The fluid level was down in the gear box. We had topped it up before we left two hours ago and it was down again. We had lost four oz of oil in two hours any trip would possibly empty the gearbox of oil and ruin it. A hunt ensued to find the leak no obvious leaks were found.
We had to remove the gearbox and inspect it move closely.
Should we drag anchor or be required to move we would be unable to move under our own power with the gear box out. The thought did not please me. We set the anchor as good as possible and considered setting a second anchor but decided to hold in reserve.

I reinforced the companion step to create a solid lifting point and installed a pulley to assist in lifting the thirty pound gearbox.
We started to unbolt the gearbox from the engine and uncouple the prop shaft from the gearbox. The shaft did not want to slide back out of the way to make room for the gearbox too come out.. We hammered the shaft back… gently so as to not disturb the bearings. Once it was out we still could not find the leak. We delivered it to the shop for a closer inspection. A week later it was fixed the leak was in the shifting arm seal. And the shop had the part. We quickly bolted the gearbox to the engine and we had to go swimming to the gently push the shaft into position to attach it to the gearbox. It was now close to Christmas and our plans to celebrate Christmas in Carriacou was not practical. We needed to extend our stay in Grenada and that can only be done in St George at the Immigration office on the main island. We stayed at Hog Island. Not our first choice. We will celebrate Christmas with friends that have just arrived back in Grenada.

We tested the gear box and found it still leaked!!!!!!. We called the mechanic and he found a loose bolt??