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Larry's LogI didn't get too much done on Sunday except for some painting. I finished the anchor well and put a first coat of paint on the switch box and support. Other than that I just straightened out the boat a little. Later on, after Diane got back from dominoes, we went over to Janice and Weedie's apartment for a little party. They had bought the apartment (not finished) some months ago and had been working on it, both themselves and with several contractors. They planned to leave it for a while they went back to the States for a visit and then had to go to Trinidad since their 18 months in Venezuela was up. It looked really great although it still wasn't fully furnished. There were about 5 other couples there and we had a very nice time. Monday was tough because I was working in the sun all day. I got started a little late, about 10, but I had decided to make some small shelves for the forward head to hold the spray cans that I always carry, like WD40, carburetor cleaner, etc. Diane helped me get everything over to the small work area near the gate. It was actually easier there since I could put the plywood on a barbeque table and work standing up rather than stooping over the wood constantly. She ran some errands and cooked most of the day, which was fine since I was off the boat. I had made a rough design of the shelves and figured out what the dimensions were by measuring the objects I wanted to put in them and the space available. I used my saber saw to cut everything and it all went fairly well. I quit for lunch and took all the tools back to the boat but left the wood there. I finished cutting the pieces after lunch and then put them together with stainless steel brads. I planned to use epoxy to reinforce the joints so I wasn't too concerned about strength. After finished that and bringing all the stuff back to the boat, I went over to the metal shop in the yard to have them polish the inner forestay chainplate and fabricate the backing plate for the windlass that goes inside the forward cabin. Hopefully it will be ready by Thursday. I did some small things on Tuesday like sand and put a coat of epoxy on the shelves I built yesterday. Diane went to do some shopping and bought some provisions for when we finally leave here but after I did the net this morning, I just wasn't very ambitious. I picked up the newly polished inner forestay chainplate so I can install that and made sure that the backing plate they were going to make was understood. I also checked to see if they had some U-shaped stock. I had pulled out the scuba tanks and put them in the dinghy to see how a bracket would fit. I had made a preliminary design using just plywood but saw it was too bulky. I then thought of a design where a piece of doubled plywood (doubled to make it 1 inch thick) could slide into a piece of metal and held in place with two pins. The shop didn't have any U-shaped stock (or even any angle stock) but they said they would look. Wednesday was an uneventful day as I first helped Diane drop off the laundry and then went to EPA with Geoffrey from Panache. We also stopped at the small screw, nuts and bolts store on the way back to the boat to get some things we needed. After lunch, I put some epoxy inside a small void I discovered in the deck hole for the inner forestay chainplate. I just finished it when it started to rain again - it rained very hard yesterday so I couldn't do much then either. Later in the day we met David and Suzi for dinner at the restaurant and had a nice meal and enjoyed their company. Amazingly, it had stopped raining. The next day was busy. We went to the doctor in the late morning, but first Diane went to the fresh food market and I put another coat of epoxy on the shelves I built. We went to the dermatologist with Suzie and waited for him to show up for about 40 minutes; he finally did and we all saw him. By he time we left it was almost 1:30 so we went to MacDonalds for lunch, ran an errand to the DHL office to pick up something that came for Suzie and David and then went back to the marina. It was raining pretty hard but during one of the lighter periods I went to get the backing plate that was ready yesterday but not fully polished. It was ready and looked good although the edges weren't completely straight. It wouldn't be in plain sight though so I didn't care too much. Friday was another washout - it threatened to rain all morning and did rain all afternoon. Actually, it was a minor wind reversal again, and you could hear the first gust coming through the rigging in the other boats to the west of us. Fortunately, it wasn't very bad at all. Most of the morning was taken up with checking Ray's boat, Drivers Wanted, and bringing his paperwork to one of the local agents to renew his cruising permit. He had called the marina and asked Arnoldo to ask me to bring it in for renewal since he was delayed in coming back to the boat. I had been watching it since he was gone but now I brought the stuff to the agent and gave the key to Arnoldo, who would watch the boat now. I figured we were leaving fairly soon and Ray wouldn't be back before we left anyway. After lunch, I enlarged the holes on the backing plate I picked up yesterday and was trying (with the rain) to paint the switch box and wood pad and did manage to get a coat on. Since it was raining pretty constantly, I just worked on the PC below for most of the afternoon. The next day was July 31 - I had hoped to be able to leave by now but hopefully I'll get everything done soon and we can head back to Bonaire. I knew of several people getting ready to leave and saw some others I didn't know about. We'll get out there!! In the morning though, I didn't get too much done except put another coat of paint on the switch box and the mounting pad. Suzie and David came over and Suzie cut my hair. We went to the location where I cut the plywood so there would be power and some shade and she did a very nice job (almost as good as the barber I had in Plaza Mayor) - thanks Suzie. We then all had lunch and visited for a while. By the time we finished, it looked like rain again (naturally), so I couldn't put in the inner forestay chainplate. Instead, I organized the boat a little, moving my books back where they belonged and putting the things in one of the v berth lockers back where they belonged so Diane could start putting the provisions for the cruise there. Sunday was a crazy day. In the morning, I started reinstalling the inner forestay chainplate and that went OK except the bolts I had taken out were now too short! Well, there were 2 sizes, and the 2 longer ones were OK but the 3 shorter ones were a little too short (to be honest, they were really too short before but I managed). Anyway, the way it was built originally, the top plate is welded to the main part of the chainplate (not the right way to do it) so I bedded it down with a generous amount of polysulphide caulk after cleaning everything and using the metal primer. I put in the 4 bolts holding the plate to the deck and put the chainplate bolts through but didn't bed them. I could still get some longer ones tomorrow and finish bedding everything correctly then. That took until lunchtime and since Diane was going to play dominoes, we ate around noon. After she left, I decided to start organizing everything and tried to put some things away. It was going well until I started to put some plumbing fittings away in the bilge, where I keep the large bronze and plastic fittings. When I took off the floorboard, I was shocked to find water almost up to the bottom of the cabin sole! Obviously, the bilge pump switch had jammed and I figured out that when Diane filled the water tanks a few days ago, she overfilled them and the water spilled over through the vent into the bilge. Usually the bilge pump comes on when that happens and she stops filling the tanks, as they are obviously full, but this time the pump didn't come on so she just kept filling them. Well, the first thing was to empty the bilge, no easy task since the electric pump wasn't working. Fortunately, the manual one was fine so I started pumping. Eventually I tried the electric one again and it started working - the float switch must have been moved by the swirl of water as I pumped manually. Anyway, I took about 25 minutes with both pumps going to empty the bilge. I figure there must have been about 60-70 gallons of water. I was just finishing when Diane came back and asked what happened - she had seen water coming out of the boat as she was talking to someone on the other dock. I started getting things out of the bilge and she started washing the bags of stuff that I got out as well as one of the spare anchor rodes. We rinsed or washed everything that was down there and then I rinsed out the bilge also since there was slime already growing. We may have to use a detergent to wash it but I'll see how it smells tomorrow. I put everything away temporarily that was scattered around the cabin since I didn't have a chance to store it properly once I found all the water when we finally came below. By the time we finished all that, it was about 6, time for a shower and dinner. I didn't get to do much the next day on my projects but I did go to the fastener store - I went with Diane and Nancy, from Panache, in a taxi - we first went to my store, then dropped them off at their store and then I went back in the same cab to the marina. I had bought some more quarter-inch hex head cap screws for the inner forestay chainplate and I needed to trim them to the right length. I put each in from below and then went outside and marked each where they needed to be cut. I cut each to the right length with the Dremel and by lunchtime, had 5 individually sized bolts. They needed to be different sizes because the back bulkhead of the anchor well was sloped and the inside surface of the bulkhead was at a slightly different angle. I wanted to use acorn nuts on the ends so they had to be trimmed enough (but not too much) to provide a grip for the nut. Once I finished cutting the fasteners, I just waited for Diane to come back, which she did about 12:30. I needed help to get the washers and nuts on since the bolts would turn inside the holes without someone holding them on the inside. After lunch, she helped me by holding each bolt in turn while I was outside putting on the washers and nuts. I didn't tighten them all the way so I could get a better seal once the polysulphide caulk dried. Diane wanted to go to the potluck barbeque this evening - and I went back and forth on it. We hadn't gone in quite a while. Before I got to do anything else though, Paul and Vivian on Autumn Wind came into the marina. Diane and I went over to give them a hand but with Edgar in the chase boat and Arnoldo on the dock, they were fine. We welcomed them and talked for a while after they got tied up. Coming back down the dock, I talked with the guy on Ismael, an Island Packet similar to, but newer than, Autumn Wind, about the 'radar arch' he had. It was a really nice one - evidently a guy from Barrow Sails built it in Trinidad, not the shop where I had some metal work done. Diane and I had discussed having an arch but we would have to remove the windvane - something I was actually willing to do. But it would have to wait. We ultimately did go to the potluck and we had a nice time talking to Paul and Vivian. The next few days were frustrating; I was finally ready to install the windlass but couldn't because of the rain. Thursday though I finally managed to get the windlass mounted and the major cabling completed. Of course, it rained in the afternoon but by the time it started, I was working below. The process of installation was relatively straightforward since I tried to plan it out. I had cleaned the area and the underside of the wood pad and then used some plastic mixing cups to elevate the pad over the bottom of the anchor well. I then put polysulphide caulk on the areas near the boltholes and the chain pipe hole and the opening for the motor cables. When I was ready. Diane removed the cups while I held the mounting pad and then lowered it into position. Once that was done, I got the windlass (I had already greased it, put the rope drum back on and treated the motor exterior and gear case with some anti-corrosion spray). I balanced it upright on the front of the wood pad and attached the cables that I had already marked. I then put one bolt through the hole under the rope drum (of course I had to take the drum off to get the bolt inserted), put some silicone sealant on the bolt and near the bolt holes and then lowered the windlass in place, slightly sliding it around until the bolt dropped all the way down. I decided to use silicone between the windlass and the mounting pad because it would be easier to remove if necessary and was not going to be under any severe pressure except from the bolts holding down the unit itself. I then put in the other 3 bolts (threaded rod with cap nuts on one end) and the windlass was finally in place. The rest of the installation was straightforward if not easy - I went below to attach the backing plate, washers and nuts while Diane held the bolts on deck. I then ran a bead of sealant around the wood pad where it sat on the bottom of the anchor well and used silicone around the windlass where it sat on top of the pad. That would keep and stray leaks out from under the windlass. Once the windlass was in its final place, I could finish the cabling, Hooking up the cables was quite a job, even though I had already put in tie wrap holders and planned exactly how the cables would run. It took almost 4 hours to finish the cabling from the windlass to the solenoid box I had already installed. Finally it was finished at 5:30 on Thursday, and the most difficult part of the installation was done. "All" that I had to do now was mount the switch box and install and wire the switches. The switch box was completed, as was the small support to go under it, so I could start that tomorrow. I had made a replacement board to go between the chain locker and the opening to the v berth during these few days. I had made one several years ago but it was a little inadequate as it wasn't high enough to prevent the chain from spilling over the board and onto the v berth, pushing the door open. It was a simple thing, just a board that wedged into the chain locker just in front of the door but it would save the wear on the inside of the door. Of course, I made this one stronger, with a second layer of plywood along the bottom - it was easy to cut with the saber saw. Wednesday night we went to Autumn Wind for dinner, to catch up some more with Paul and Vivian. We had a very nice time, with a good meal and nice people. |