I have a rather high-tech car. Instead of a mechanical steering column lock, it has an electronic one (that allows the ignition key to be mounted on the dash which is way cooler than not). The electronic steering column lock is controlled by one of the many, many computers in this car. And sometimes that computer gets a little confused.

It either forgets that it is supposed to release the steering column, or it decides to engage it. At speed that would make for an interesting few minutes. GM has had two recalls for this problem. My car has had both services. Yet once again I fire up the engine and find the steering column refused to unlock. Nothing to do but call a tow-truck and ship it off to the nearest GM dealer.

Said GM dealer said "This is not covered by warranty. The car is a '99 and the last recall service was done over 12 months ago." I'm a little pissed. This is supposed to be a premium car yet they can't engineer a fix. I don't yet know how much this is going to cost me, but it won't be cheap.

UPDATE: They finished the work today. They only charged me a couple hundred dollars. But they said (in writing) that the other dealership didn't do the recall work properly. Now I have to go back to that place and do battle. Overall, I'm pleased with the way this is turning out.


So I'm stuck here at the marina. That's not too bad since I'm working on Galena while waiting for the dealer to work his magic. But I'm stuck here. Fortunately there are several bars restaurants within crawling walking distance.

And there is oh so much work to do on Galena. Her teak caprail is relinquishing its grip on the bulwarks reluctantly. I've had to drill-out several of the over 100 screws that held the forward 10-feet of teak on both port and starboard bows. Also, the sparrow-beak on the side of each bow was well-glued to the adjoining caprails. They had to remain together and those sparrow-beaks had to be removed as well. I've scraped out the tired old calking/sealant. I'll start the glassing of the hull-deck joint seam soon.