booktalesy Chapter 45 Spring Flood
Chapter 45 Spring Flood
The spring floods arrived right after we finished eating glutinous rice balls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
The ribbonfish season is the biggest fishing season of the year, and the fishermen of Moon Island have been waiting all winter for these two weeks.
The docks are filled with the sounds of fish being unloaded from morning till night. The ribbonfish are silvery and shiny, the pomfret are the size of a palm, and baskets of small yellow croakers are being carried ashore.
The fishmongers squatted by the dock, weighing fish, keeping accounts, and paying customers. They were so busy they didn't even have time to smoke.
The air was thick with the stench of fish and diesel engine exhaust, mixed with the salty smell of the sea breeze, making one's eyes sting.
The service station also got busy.
During the spring fishing season, fishing boats go out to sea during the day and return to port at night. Boat repairs can only be done during the one hour when the fishing boats dock for lunch.
Old Fang divided the service station staff into two groups. He led Ah Hai in one group, responsible for the main engine and gearbox; Ding Haisheng led Ah Guang and Hong Xiaobing in another group, responsible for welding and rudder repairs; Qiu Changhai and Master Song were on the move, going to whichever ship had grouting work available.
Jiang Haiping was in charge of the workshop, receiving one phone call after another. He wrote down each emergency repair request on the schedule and arranged for people to go to the dock for emergency repairs.
At noon, fishing boats docked at the pier, and Lao Fang boarded Lao Chen's boat carrying his tool bag.
Old Chen squatted at the cabin door, his face full of worry, saying that the main engine's water temperature was too high and it would boil over if it ran too fast.
Old Fang crawled into the cabin, used a flashlight to check the cooling pipes, and found that the seawater filter was clogged, filled with seaweed and broken shells.
He removed the filter, rinsed it clean with a high-pressure water gun, reinstalled it, and checked the water pump belt again. The belt was loose, so he tightened it two turns with a wrench. He restarted the main unit, and the water temperature remained stable.
"How long has it been since you cleaned this filter?" Old Fang crawled out of the engine compartment and wiped the oil off his hands with a cotton swab.
Old Chen squatted at the cabin door, somewhat embarrassed, and said that he hadn't used it all winter and forgot to wash it in the spring.
Old Fang put the wrench into his tool bag and said, "Next time before going out to sea, check the filter first, so it won't break down at sea."
Old Chen nodded repeatedly, watching as Old Fang carried his tool bag off the boat and walked towards another fishing boat on the dock.
There were several fishing boats waiting for Lao Fang to check on at the dock. They all had minor problems accumulated over the past few days of the spring fishing season. He had to check on several boats in that one hour at noon.
Ding Haisheng led Hong Xiaobing onto another fishing boat. The boat owner, surnamed Ma, said the gearbox made a creaking noise when shifting gears, which was irritating to listen to.
Ding Haisheng squatted down, disassembled the gearbox housing, and shone a flashlight on it to examine it. He found that the clutch plates were worn thin and the shift fork was also somewhat deformed.
Without turning his head, he asked Hong Xiaobing, "Besides the clutch disc, what other reasons could there be for the gear shifting noise?"
Hong Xiaobing squatted down beside him and handed him the tools. After thinking for a moment, he said that a deformed fork would also make a sound.
Ding Haisheng asked him to disassemble the shift fork for inspection as well.
Hong Xiaobing measured the dimensions with calipers and found that the shift fork was not deformed. He then handed over the new clutch disc and said that Master Ding would let him install it next time.
Ding Haisheng stepped aside, saying, "You're faking it."
Hong Xiaobing squatted down, wiped the mounting surface of the clutch disc clean with cotton yarn, applied grease to the new clutch disc, and tightened the bolts diagonally.
After installation, I tested shifting gears, and it was smooth and quiet.
The afternoon sun beat down on the dock, and the steam rising from the seawater mixed with the fishy smell made people sweat profusely.
Jiang Haiping walked out of the workshop, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, and stood at the entrance of the courtyard wall, looking towards the dock.
Fishing boats docked at the pier and set sail again, the small flags on their masts fluttering in the sea breeze.
Old Chen's boat has been repaired and has set sail again.
Ding Haisheng and Hong Xiaobing had just gotten off Lao Ma's boat. Hong Xiaobing was still carrying a wrench, and his trousers were covered in oil stains.
The service station has a backlog of government vessels awaiting repair in the past few days. These vessels were scheduled before the spring flood season, and the problems include gearbox oil leaks, abnormal noises in the rudder system, and excessive oil consumption in the main engine. Each vessel needs to be disassembled for inspection and parts replacement.
Ah-Guang is in charge of the old parts warehouse, and the logbook has several more pages of records showing the entry and exit of refurbished parts.
He took a set of clutch plates of the same model from the old parts shelf and handed them to Hong Xiaobing. He then registered the old clutch plates that had been replaced into the warehouse and wrote a few words in the remarks column: Old Ma fishing boat, clutch plates worn, replace with new ones.
His handwriting was neat and tidy, and it was becoming more and more like Ahai's handwriting in the first registration book.
Lin Xiu'e has stayed at the service station these past few days and hasn't boarded the ship.
Several fishing boats were lined up for repair by the stone trough, and she, Xiao Zhou, and Master Song had to work together to mortar each boat.
Xiao Zhou was in charge of cutting grooves and installing panels, Lin Xiu'e was in charge of grouting and mixing tung oil putty, and Master Song was in charge of supervising. If any groove was not grouted tightly, he would tap it twice with a chisel and make them start over.
The three men squatted by the stone trough from morning till night, the sound of chisels striking hemp fibers rising and falling.
Lin Xiu'e gets up before dawn every day to mix tung oil putty, and four basins are neatly arranged on the windowsill, covered with a damp cloth.
After finishing one batch of lime, a new batch was prepared. The lime was sifted three times, tung oil was poured in, and the mixture was kneaded repeatedly with a shovel until it was evenly mixed.
Her fingers were covered in tung oil residue. She wiped them with a damp cloth again and again, but grayish-white marks were still left under her fingernails.
On the fifth day of the spring flood season, the Ping'an also went out to sea, but not to fish, but to haul cargo.
Lin's father was at the helm, and Lin Xiu'e's younger brother worked as a crew member on the boat. They were transporting several boxes of newly arrived machine repair tools from the aquatic products company's dock to Moon Island. Some of these tools were allocated by the province to the service station's training center.
Jiang Haiping received a call from Wang Cunzhi in advance, saying that this batch of tools was allocated by the province to the pilot units this year, with one set for each pilot unit, and the Moon Island service station was at the front of the list. They were all brand new products made in Shanghai.
It was already evening when the Ping An docked. Lin's father stood at the helm and steadily brought the ship to a stop. Lin Xiu'e's younger brother jumped off the ship and tied the mooring rope to the dock post. His movements were much more efficient than last year. He coiled the rope around and tucked the end underneath.
Ahai led Hong Xiaobing upstairs to unload the goods.
The box wasn't big, but it was very heavy; it was difficult for two people to lift it.
They carefully carried the crate into the workshop, placed it next to the workbench, pried open the wooden crate lid, and revealed the new tools inside.
Two torque wrenches, made in Shanghai, with dials, slightly more precise than the one currently used at the service station.
A set of feeler gauges, ranging from a few tenths of a millimeter to one millimeter, a dozen or so stacked together and secured with clamps. A set of fuel injector cleaning tools, specifically for cleaning carbon deposits on fuel injectors, much better than manually cleaning them with a thin steel wire.
There are also a few new, cheap wrenches, made in Shanghai, the same brand as the old wrench that Lao Fang has used for over ten years.
Old Fang picked up the new, worn-out wrench and weighed it in his hand. The weight was just right, and the curve of the handle fit snugly in his palm.
He placed the new wrench on the tool wall, hanging it side by side with his old one.
One blade was old, its teeth worn down; the other was new, its blade still gleaming with a dark silver light.
Old Fang picked up the new torque wrench, looked at the dial, and handed it to Ahai, saying, "For future maintenance of the official vessel, use this new wrench to tighten the cylinder head bolts. Record the torque value on the maintenance slip after tightening. Keep the old torque wrench for the trainees in the training course to practice with."
Ahai took the torque wrench, wiped the dial with cotton yarn, and put it on the top shelf of the tool wall.
Hong Xiaobing came over to take a look and asked what the difference was between the new wrench and the old one.
Ahai said that a slight increase in precision makes the dial reading clearer.
Hong Xiaobing then asked how much that one thread was.
Ah Hai pulled out a 0.01-millimeter-thin slice with a feeler gauge and held it up to show him under the fluorescent light.
It's as thin as paper and translucent.
Hong Xiaobing squinted at the feeler gauge, touched it lightly with his finger, and then thoughtfully withdrew his hand.
Jiang Haiping registered the tool list and the date of receipt for the batch of tools delivered by the Ping An ship, and also sorted out the list of new teaching aids allocated by the province to the service station training points.
The fuel injector cleaning tool is specially designed for training students. In the future, when teaching fuel injector cleaning, you won't need to use a thin steel wire to poke it anymore. This tool will clean it thoroughly.
He also went through the instruction manuals for the new torque wrench and feeler gauge, and jotted down a few key points in his notebook, planning to explain how to use the new tools to the trainees during tomorrow's training session.
After finishing work in the evening, Lao Fang squatted at the workshop entrance and did some accounting.
In the past few days of the spring flood season, nearly forty boats have been repaired, and the service station has earned a gross profit of more than three thousand yuan.
The spring flood season is still about ten days away, and this year's spring harvest is much better than last year's.
Jiang Haiping walked out of the workshop with a schedule in his hand, explaining that three more government vessels would be coming for maintenance tomorrow.
The oil leak in the gearbox is already scheduled. Ding Haisheng and A Guang will disassemble and inspect it tomorrow, and then they can reinstall it once the new seals arrive.
Old Fang nodded and then asked Ah Hai how his troubleshooting practice was going.
Jiang Haiping said that Ah Hai had been helping him with emergency repairs at the dock these past few days and reacted very quickly. Last time, when the gearbox on Lao Ma's ship made a noise while shifting gears, Ah Hai immediately judged from the sound that the clutch plates were worn. When he took it apart, he found that it was indeed the case.
After dark, the Ping An returned to the dock.
Lin Xiu'e's younger brother jumped off the boat, carrying two ribbonfish in his hand. He said that the Ping An had made a round trip to the aquatic products company today and had also brought back a few baskets of pomfret for the fishermen's cooperative.
Lin Xiue took the ribbonfish, pressed the fish body with her finger, and found that the fish meat was firm and elastic.
She carried the ribbonfish into the kitchen, salted it, and hung it under the eaves. The sea breeze carried its fishy, fragrant aroma.
Jiang Haiping sat on the rocks at the entrance of the courtyard wall and checked tomorrow's schedule again.
The waves gently lapped against the stone trough, and the lights in the service station workshop were still on. Ah Hai and Hong Xiaobing were working overtime to disassemble and inspect the gearbox of the official vessel.
The aroma of fish ball soup wafted from the kitchen, and Lin Xiu'e's voice came from the window: "Just a quarter of an hour more."