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Larry's LogLife "on the hard" though was, in general, very difficult. Getting on or off the boat involved going up or down an eight-foot ladder, but you also must realize that we couldn't use the toilet on the boat since it requires seawater to flush and the discharge would just go onto the ground (not too nice). Using the holding tank was impossible because there was no way to pump it out, even if we used fresh water to flush. Getting groceries onto the boat was difficult at best and every day we had to lower tools and such down the ladder and then hoist them back up when we finished, or whenever it rained (which in Trinidad is quite frequent). We did have fresh water and electricity available though, but the power did fail periodically. Needless to say, we wanted to get back in the water as fast as possible. Other miscellaneous things to do while on the hard included changing the zincs, cleaning and greasing the prop and repairing some minor dings in the hull and some fairing of the hull where the Travelift strap had gouged out some old fairing putty. While waiting for the rain to end one day, I replaced the old galley faucet with a new one we had bought in from the States. Of course, this involved then fixing some leaks that developed at the new water connections. Finally though, we finished all the work and got launched. We had made a reservation at CrewsInn for a Monday but had contacted them and asked if we could postpone our arrival by one week. They had said fine. We had paid a $100 US deposit that was supposed to be forfeit if we missed our arrival by more than 3 days. They were very nice about it and then extended our arrival date by another 3 days. The day had arrived. We were due to be launched in the early afternoon and they had brought the Travelift to the boat at noon. After lunch and after they had lifted the boat, I quickly painted the spots I couldn't paint, like under the keel. I had already gotten the spots where the jackstands were because the yard staff had moved them for me after the bottom paint had dried. I walked along after the boat while the Travelift crawled toward the water. As the boat was lowered, I got a feeling that I had forgotten something, but everything seemed fine. After the launch, but while the boat was still in the Travelift pit at Powerboats Yard, the staff waited while I quickly checked to see if we had any leaks. Everything looked fine so the Travelift moved away and we powered away and toward CrewsInn. Wally had stopped by and at the last minute jumped aboard and helped us bring the boat across the channel into CrewsInn. It had been a VERY long 3 and one-half weeks. After we got into our slip and hooked up to shore power, water and cable TV, we just collapsed. We still didn't have propane available for cooking though because when I had replaced the last through-hull fitting, it had required that I remove the propane locker to access it. That was the last one and was done separately from the others, which I did all at once. While still on the hard, Diane wasn't sure if I should do it since it would take more time and she didn't want to lose our slip reservation. I insisted it should be done because it was so inaccessible and that I should be able to finish it in time. It was a struggle but it was finished. Fortunately we didn't lose our deposit or have to pay extra to keep the slip. However, I didn't have time to reinstall the locker before we were launched. The day we got to CrewsInn though was the weekly potluck dinner and so Diane simply made a cold dish to share with people and pulled out some frozen hamburgers to grill on the barbeque. I would have to address it the next day, even though all I really wanted to do was relax! Before I could install the propane locker and then the propane tanks though, I needed to connect the bonding wires to the new seacock and also reconnect the wind generator feed wires. That wiring took a fair amount of time since I needed to get some slack in the wire to put in a terminal block I bought for the purpose. I had simply spliced the wires before but felt that if I ever needed to remove the wind generator again, I would eventually run out of wire to splice, and I didn't want to run new wires. It had been difficult to run the feed wire because it runs over the engine and fuel tank and is suspended in a plastic (fire resistant) conduit. So I had to cut some wire ties and then mounted everything and connected it under the cockpit. No water could get there but I used some heat shrink tubing to protect the wires from any moisture anyway. I could then start to install the locker, but of course there was a complication. All propane lockers have a vent at the bottom so escaping propane can escape overboard. I had modified mine so that the hose from the vent fitting is removable so I can take out the locker itself. The only way to do this since the locker is inaccessible from below is to make it so that it can come up through the locker bottom and the hose to the through hull be released. Well, the vent fitting for the locker bottom separated from the aluminum plate that screwed into the bottom of the locker. I fixed that and then to make sure that the bottom plate in the locker wouldn't move, I epoxied it in place. After the epoxy cured, I made sure that the fitting and hose would fit through, so I sanded it a little. I was then ready to install the locker. This process had taken another day so we had to eat out another night. The next day I looked forward to getting the locker in and then the propane tanks so I could make my morning coffee. I had been without for almost a week! After installing the locker, I put in the tanks and hooked them up to the stove hose. I changed over the connection for the solenoid and connected that and then turned on the valve on the tank. When I tested for leaks though, with soapy water, I found that the fitting between the regulator and the gauge was making bubbles. I had often thought I smelled propane when I opened the locker lid but thought it was normal to have a little smell. The annoying thing was that I had purchased the regulator that way and all the gas fittings I put in were fine. I couldn't turn the leaking fitting and I was afraid if I applied too much force, the regulator would break, so I decided to try to seal it another way. If it couldn't be fixed, I would have to replace the regulator and gauge anyway. |