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Larry's LogFriday, after the net and my weather report, I made some biscuits (again, just fine) and started on the starboard toerail. I drilled out the corroded metal while standing in the dinghy, then cleaned the holes with alcohol and then filled them with epoxy mixed with aluminum dust and silica. Saying it takes 30 seconds - doing it took from 9am to 3:30. There was no rain today but no rain makes for a lot of heat so it easily hit into the 90s. I heard that there was a blackout on the East Coast yesterday so it must have been interesting for Diane. You almost expect it in the Caribbean but not in the States, and certainly not on that scale. That was why I didn't get any emails from her last night. After finishing the toerail in the afternoon, I organized the starboard cockpit locker a bit and put some things away that had been out in the sun. Its amazing the effect that the sun had -fading plastic bottles and such. Of course, I can only imagine what it does to us. Elias did some more prep work on the nav station today and before he left for the day, we had a beer together. I was pretty tired so I just made some spaghetti and meatballs for myself (Diane made the meatballs before she left) and relaxed. The next day was hectic but I didn't get too much done. After the net, I retaped some areas of the nav station that I felt needed it. Elias hadn't done as good a job as he had in other spots so I just touched up some. I then went to Vemasca, a local chandlery, to get some fishing weights that I wanted to use to weigh down the cover that we were going to get made for the air conditioner. I got a taxi and when we got there, he offered to wait. Since I thought it would be quick, I said 'si'. Unfortunately, although they had the weights, it took about 30 minutes since they had problems with their computers and were busy. The driver waited though - I guess he didn't have much else to do - and drove me back. Once I got back I started stringing them on some monofilament. It took a while to figure out the best way since I couldn't just let them slide down to a stop - I wanted a small space in between each one so they had to individually tied. Once I got a satisfactory method, it still took about 2 hours to get a string of weights about 5 feet long. I had spoken to Tom and he said they were going to lunch and invited me so after I finished with the weights, I took the dinghy over to CMO. They were having major problems getting a hose replaced. They had bought replacement hose but it was very soft and kept kinking going around very large bends. After Tom tried some other things, we decided to get lunch and they would go to another store and try to get some fittings to help the process of installation. So we took a cab to Plaza Mayor and went to have lunch in a restaurant that was recommended by some friends. The waiter took our drink order, got our drinks and never came back. Since I needed to get back to the boat by 4:30 to pay Elias, we eventually got up, paid for our drinks at the bar and went to another restaurant. We started to have the same problem and so we just went to the fast food court and we ate in 10 minutes after getting there. We finished eating lunch at about 4:15 so while they stayed at the mall, I went back to CMO, got the dinghy and went back to Destiny just in time to see Elias came back from the room. I paid him, got back out of the boat, hoisted the dinghy and tried to get the boat a little straightened out. Then I just relaxed the rest of the evening. Sunday started out OK but didn't end up that way. Since I was alone on the boat and wouldn't be disturbed, I decided to organize the plumbing under the galley sink. It was a real mess (we got the boat that way) and I had promised myself that I would make more sense out of it at some point. I also wanted to move the fresh water pump to the back bulkhead to get it off the floor and make more room for storage of small items. To make moving hoses easier, I decided to take most of it apart first, so after turning off the water pressure, I drained the system by opening all the faucets and finally relieved all the pressure by taking off the hose from the end of the pump. I was moving hoses and saw a good way to arrange things so I figured that it was time to remove the pump. I took off the hoses, got it off it mounting board but couldn't remove the electrical connector that attaches to the front. Its held by a small 'spade' connector to a little tab on a micro-switch inside the pump. Naturally, as I tried to get it off, the tab broke. Well, I wasn't too worried as I have a spare switch assembly and a spare entire pump. It was just annoying that the designer used such a little delicate piece that will obviously get a little corroded and require some force to remove. Especially since my spares were under the aft cabin berth and would now take about 30 minutes just to find. Before I did that though, Tom and Steph had invited me over for an early lunch/late breakfast of pancakes (Diane doesn't make pancakes so I never get any). So I went over around 11 and we ate and visited for a while but I came back around 1 to try to finish up with the water system. Once I got back and looked at the problem, I realized that I would have to remove the pump from under the sink to replace the switch so I cut the wires to the pump and finally had the whole thing out. Then I started to empty the aft cabin. Since the main cabin was full of stuff I had removed from the nav station, putting more stuff there was a challenge - when I was done you couldn't even walk from one end of the boat to the other. But I managed to find my spare switch and the spare pump and took both out, just in case. Of course, when I tried to replace the switch, the spring inside popped out and I couldn't tell how all the little pieces fit back together. So I had to find the manual for the pump that had an exploded diagram. Another 20 minutes of moving stuff again. Once I found the manual and the diagram, I tried putting the new switch assembly on only to discover that it was slightly different from the original. It wouldn't fit on the same way. Well, the replacement outer housing and the micro-switch were the same so I used that with the old parts (it was only the electrical switch that broke), put it back together, mounted it on the new position, rearranged all the hoses the way I wanted, tightened all the hose clamps, turned on the water and the water pressure and ran under the sink to see if there were any leaks. There were a couple of minor ones, but the water pump just kept running, even though the tap was off. Obviously, the switch was either defective or I had put it back in wrong. At this point, it was close to 6 so I decided just to change pumps. Changing pumps was straightforward, if not easy, and once installed, it ran fine. I fixed all the leaks and now it was 9pm and I still hadn't eaten dinner or done an email to Diane. We were communicating by email every day, as she had questions about parts I wanted her to buy and about other stuff so I wrote her an email, setup the radio and PC to send it, (the radio needed to be disconnected while Elias was sanding and varnishing the nav station) got connected to the shore station and after that was sent, I received one from her with some more questions. OK, I disconnected and wrote a reply, but I needed to get her some prices and more exact product descriptions. I thought they were pretty self explanatory but there were still questions so I re-wrote the list with the item number, description, page number and price from the West Marine catalog on the email for all the things I needed, about a page and one-half of items. Looking it all up and transcribing everything took to about midnight and I sent that off so she would get it in the morning. Oh well, I could stand to loose some weight anyway. Monday morning I put some more stuff away from yesterday after I did the weather, and then went to the Internet to do some more research on things we were thinking about getting. I had left Elias a note to come up and meet me there so we could setup his email address. He came by around 10 and we did that. I was making up a business card for him and wanted to get an email address on there when I did it. After that was done, I finished my research, sent Diane another email and went back to the boat. When I got back, I looked under the sink and considered either painting or epoxying the floor there. Then I noticed that it was wet. The hose clamp on the intake side was loose and there was water all over. I know it was tightened but I tightened it again and cleaned up all the water. Then, on a hunch, I looked in the aft cabin where the floor under the sink meets the floor there. It was also wet meaning every time the cabinet under the sink got wet, the floor in the aft cabin did also. I had suspected it but never actually saw it before. After seeing that, in order to protect the varnish in the aft cabin floor, I decided to epoxy the cabinet floor under the galley sink, particularly the seam at the bulkhead. That would keep water contained where it couldn't do much harm. I dried everything and used my heat gun on a low setting to further dry the aft cabin floor and also used it to get the galley cabinet floor as dry as possible. After working on it for about an hour, letting the wood cool every 10 minutes, it was still a bit damp so I decided to let it dry overnight. Tom and Steph had invited me to dinner anyway so I wouldn't have to worry about using the water. In the meantime, Elias had done two test spots on the nav station where the wood was badly stained. He had cleaned and sanded them again and one was now fine but the other was still noticeable so I asked that he sand and clean again tomorrow. We were making progress though - the companionway steps now had 3 coats and I hope one more by tomorrow. I went to dinner at Mima around 5:30 and had a good time, as usual. They were being very nice about inviting me, especially since the boat was so ripped up. Much appreciated. The next day was also busy. In the morning, after the weather and breakfast, I went shopping at the supermarket in the mall. Steph came with me but she only bought some things. The hardest part was ordering at the deli counter - they were very slow. By the time we got back and I dropped off Steph at Mima, it was lunchtime. It had been a successful trip and I got everything I wanted - some stuff that Diane doesn't buy! After lunch, I started to do the epoxy under the galley sink to prevent leaking water from entering the aft cabin. I cleaned the wood again and mixed some epoxy and wet out the wood with a brush and unthickened epoxy. Then I mixed some silica in to thicken it and applied it with a mixing stick with a rounded end to get a nice fillet between the floor and bulkhead. I needed to mix another batch to complete the bulkhead so I went to get another cup for mixing but when I stepped in the forward head, where I keep my supplies, it was wet! I looked at the toilet and sure enough, it had overflowed. Somehow, the valve that turns to "flush/dry" had been turned to "flush" and water had leaked in slowly, and eventually overflowed the bowl. It had evidently been going on for some time since there was a nice layer of scum on top of the water. I couldn't deal with emptying it at that time since I needed to finish the epoxy before the first batch started to harden so I just took out the tool boxes sitting on the floor, removed the now soaking wet rug protecting the floor and mopped up the worst of the water. I then went back to finish the epoxy. In the meantime, Elias was working on the spot that was still stained near the nav station. He had managed to get it much better by sanding and cleaning it with Chlorox and then lacquer thinner. He had then put some varnish on to get a feel for the color when it was completely varnished. It was much better although you could still make out the spot if you knew where to look. We agreed that it was about the best it was going to be and I was afraid that any more sanding might go through the thin veneer of the plywood bulkhead so he did a little more, varnished some trim and went back to work in the room to put another coat on the companionway steps. With the epoxy now drying I went into the forward head and started to clean everything. I emptied the bowl, first by the cupful and then started pumping it. Of course, since we never use that head, I had to first open the seacock, which meant removing the v berth cushion, emptying the locker where the seacock is and turning the valve - luckily it wasn't frozen. I could then pump out the remaining water. After cleaning the floor and rinsing it with fresh water, I got out a clean rug and put everything back inside. Then, of course, I had to rinse out the rug and the things that got wet. By that time, I was tired so I called Mima to say I wasn't coming over. I just warmed up some leftovers and relaxed the rest of the evening. |