Nov. 17, 2009
The last few days haven't been incredibly eventful, but we are of course always making more steps towards the ultimate goal. Our particular one this time: making things shipshape. We took a whole day to organize just the cabin. The whole area had become virtually unusable due to the clutter it had taken on. Frequently items would get placed on the top layer of debris and soon fall between the cracks and into the depths. We'd just been getting so caught up in completing our various projects that we'd virtually neglected order.
So yesterday we went through every random item that we had strewn about and placed it in its proper position. On a cruising boat, this entails finding a secure position that this object can be stationed for the entirety of our voyage. While being a logical, easy-to-access position, it's location must be secure enough to keep it static with the boat heeled either way. The boat “heels” one way or the other based on what tack you lie on. A port tack meaning the wind is hitting the port side, bringing the starboard side closer to the water, and the opposite with a starboard tack. We did manage to find a good place for nearly every item in our cabin, being a drawer, in a cupboard, or thrown into the cockpit for future sorting. The left overs amounted to only about a cubic meter (that's taken down from about five) of debris. After completing this task, I thought “Oh, man I should have taken a before picture,” but I'm glad I never did. Yes, it was that terrible.
Other than organizing, we've been cleaning up the port-a-boat for sale to our lovely dock neighbors and applying coats of Bristol to our solar panel mounting plank. Soon enough it will be ready for mounting and we'll have to figure out the crazy electric system this boat has been fitted with. We got a glimpse of it's ruin tonight when we tried to find the depth of our slip using the depth finder. We flipped on the GPS, being that the depth finder is linked into it, and let it run for a bit. The cabin lights were flickering which we figured was normal because the transducer must be drawing amps. No reading was coming up on the screen, though. So I sit there and watch it for a while, hoping something will happen. When all of a sudden a number flashes, 44.5 feet, and the screen goes blank. We try turning it back on to no avail. So we go searching for fuses.
We search high and low, trace wires back and forth, but can't find any sort of fuse box. I hop down into a lazarette where the AC/DC battery charger resides and make an interesting discovery. The orange light that usually flickers has stopped flickering. After a bit of investigation with a flashlight, I realize its bouts of flashing were directly correlated with whether or not there was light shining on the gauge. When I take the light off it, it shuts off. That's why it wasn't flashing, last time I took a look at it, it was day time. I wish it made any sense.
Another system that we have yet to truly pin down is Leeway's plumbing. We soon discovered, by a recurrence of wet bilges, that both of our fresh water tanks leak. The stainless steel one seems to have corroded around the welds allowing water to seep out. And the second, one made of polyethylene, has a loose connection. The plan for the stainless tank is to pour about an inch of penetrating epoxy into it to fill the corroded welds. The other tank requires a very rare plumbing connector that we've still yet to acquire. Dan did however create an access hole for the polylethylene tank for future work on it. Here's him throwing some "marine grade" silicone on as a gasket.
The last few days we've just been readying ourselves to head over to Catalina. We've decided we need a bit of a break and figure Catalina is a good place to take it. We've been stowing away tools, organizing, and sealing up the boat. Today we screwed up plywood portlights. It's a, hopefully, temporary implement to get us to Catalina and back without filling our cabin with ocean spray. Tomorrow should be the shakedown date. We need to find a couple more cubbies to stow tools, seal up the plywood windows and we should be able to go!
I'll leave you guys with a couple more pictures:
This is Katie, the resident marina yorkshire terrier. She loves her belly rubs:
And here's a shot of the same area I took that night picture, but this time it's dusk. Maybe one day I'll get my lazy butt out of bed early enough to get a sunrise picture.
The last few days haven't been incredibly eventful, but we are of course always making more steps towards the ultimate goal. Our particular one this time: making things shipshape. We took a whole day to organize just the cabin. The whole area had become virtually unusable due to the clutter it had taken on. Frequently items would get placed on the top layer of debris and soon fall between the cracks and into the depths. We'd just been getting so caught up in completing our various projects that we'd virtually neglected order.
So yesterday we went through every random item that we had strewn about and placed it in its proper position. On a cruising boat, this entails finding a secure position that this object can be stationed for the entirety of our voyage. While being a logical, easy-to-access position, it's location must be secure enough to keep it static with the boat heeled either way. The boat “heels” one way or the other based on what tack you lie on. A port tack meaning the wind is hitting the port side, bringing the starboard side closer to the water, and the opposite with a starboard tack. We did manage to find a good place for nearly every item in our cabin, being a drawer, in a cupboard, or thrown into the cockpit for future sorting. The left overs amounted to only about a cubic meter (that's taken down from about five) of debris. After completing this task, I thought “Oh, man I should have taken a before picture,” but I'm glad I never did. Yes, it was that terrible.
Other than organizing, we've been cleaning up the port-a-boat for sale to our lovely dock neighbors and applying coats of Bristol to our solar panel mounting plank. Soon enough it will be ready for mounting and we'll have to figure out the crazy electric system this boat has been fitted with. We got a glimpse of it's ruin tonight when we tried to find the depth of our slip using the depth finder. We flipped on the GPS, being that the depth finder is linked into it, and let it run for a bit. The cabin lights were flickering which we figured was normal because the transducer must be drawing amps. No reading was coming up on the screen, though. So I sit there and watch it for a while, hoping something will happen. When all of a sudden a number flashes, 44.5 feet, and the screen goes blank. We try turning it back on to no avail. So we go searching for fuses.
We search high and low, trace wires back and forth, but can't find any sort of fuse box. I hop down into a lazarette where the AC/DC battery charger resides and make an interesting discovery. The orange light that usually flickers has stopped flickering. After a bit of investigation with a flashlight, I realize its bouts of flashing were directly correlated with whether or not there was light shining on the gauge. When I take the light off it, it shuts off. That's why it wasn't flashing, last time I took a look at it, it was day time. I wish it made any sense.
Another system that we have yet to truly pin down is Leeway's plumbing. We soon discovered, by a recurrence of wet bilges, that both of our fresh water tanks leak. The stainless steel one seems to have corroded around the welds allowing water to seep out. And the second, one made of polyethylene, has a loose connection. The plan for the stainless tank is to pour about an inch of penetrating epoxy into it to fill the corroded welds. The other tank requires a very rare plumbing connector that we've still yet to acquire. Dan did however create an access hole for the polylethylene tank for future work on it. Here's him throwing some "marine grade" silicone on as a gasket.
The last few days we've just been readying ourselves to head over to Catalina. We've decided we need a bit of a break and figure Catalina is a good place to take it. We've been stowing away tools, organizing, and sealing up the boat. Today we screwed up plywood portlights. It's a, hopefully, temporary implement to get us to Catalina and back without filling our cabin with ocean spray. Tomorrow should be the shakedown date. We need to find a couple more cubbies to stow tools, seal up the plywood windows and we should be able to go!
I'll leave you guys with a couple more pictures:
This is Katie, the resident marina yorkshire terrier. She loves her belly rubs:
And here's a shot of the same area I took that night picture, but this time it's dusk. Maybe one day I'll get my lazy butt out of bed early enough to get a sunrise picture.
you guys should be up working at 5 am and back for dinner no earlier than 5 pm. that's why it's taking so long.
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