Thursday, December 17, 2009
Howdy there friends and family! Things are still moving along for us at a quick pace. The anxiety of our departure have a definite positive effect. For the past few days, we've risen early and worked until the last rays of sun light were secluded behind West Hill. The hours are being put in and the tasks getting finished. In order to best highlight the progress we've made and define how close we are to departure, I'll organize this post into explaining what we have done and have yet to do for each of our boat's systems. Let's start with plumbing.
Plumbing
Now that we have a freshwater system that doesn't leak, we're looking good. We got the forward polyethelyne back in working shape by dripping crack creep into the areas that were leaking. All that is left on that one is a fair-sized crack on the top around the input hose. As there not a single man-made chemical that adheres to polyethelene, we'll have to live with it. It shouldn't end up presenting too much of a problem. The next issue to tackle was the, even larger, stainless steel freshwater tank located amidships.
This is an especially important tank for use to utilize for a few reasons. It has a larger capacity than the forward tank, being of an obvious benefit. But even more importantly, it lies in the middle of the ship. It's best to have most weight of a sailboat in the middle because it stabilizes the craft. With an unstable boat (as ours has been in our limited sailing experience), the boat doesn't track well. Meaning: it takes a lot of minor adjustments to keep a steady course rather than balancing itself to stay on track. This makes for a lot of work for the helmsman. The problem with the stainless steel tank is that it was left with standing water in it for a long period of time prior to our acquisition of the Leeway. While stainless is a good maritime metal, it doesn't perform well when constantly submerged. It will eventually corrode without exposure to oxygen and that's what happened, around every weld.
Presented with this problem, there were few documented solutions, all of which required the complete removal of the tank for either re-welding or manual filling. But removal of the tank was not an option, so something else had to be come up with. While at Louis Equipment Supply (the place where we get all our marine supplies), Dan spotted some penetrating epoxy. The main design for it, however, was mending water-damaged timber, not sealing stainless tanks. So, we gave the inventor a call and asked him what he thought of our plan for its use. He, while commenting that it was unorthodox, stated it would adequately seal up the corroded welds if the surface was clean and dry. So we had a new task: clean the crevices of the unreachable welds and then dry them. The solution: pour acid on them! So we did just that, dried it out with a hair dryer, and poured in the epoxy. I came back from an outing with my lovely Jordan (she visited me!) and the smell inside the cabin was unbearable. Being inside was as if someone was holding a bottle of nail polish remover under your nose for every painful breath of your existence. It stayed like this for three days before finally solidifying. We still have to keep a fan on and a few hatches open to fall asleep without fear of not waking up. The next task is our head.
We have a brand new Jabsco marine toilet ready for installation. All we need to do now is set up some plumbing, and bolt her into place. The plumbing is where the issue lies mainly. The toilet obviously uses seawater to do its business and that means it must use through-hulls to access the ocean blue. These are meant to lie underwater at all times, so we can't work on them without harbor water rushing in and ending Leeway's days. So we've hired a marina patron to dive down there and bung the holes while we connect the piping. That will probably be a task for tomorrow. Other than a new water heater (not a top priority at the moment) and the toilet, plumbing is ready to go. Next system, electric.
Electricity
We have our solar panels mounted on a board above the aft cabin, but we still have a lot of work to do before we have these up and charging our system. We need a few more supplies and a bit more knowledge to connect everything appropriately. We need a charge regulator (to prevent the solar panels from overcharging our new batteries) and an AC inverter (to give us AC power from the DC electrical system in place). We also need to mount three batteries directly under my berth and figure out how to wire the whole system to include a solar panel Leeway was already equipped with. This system needs a bit more work. Neither of us are electric gurus, so we've been putting it off a bit. It's also not the biggest priority because our diesel's alternator is a viable method of charging the system. Next let's goto ground tackle.
Ground Tackle
Saturday, December 19, 2009
We have finally got all the necessary parts to set up a good quality ground tackle system. From Louis Equip, we bought 600 feet of nylon 5/8 in. twist, 150 ft of 5/16 high test chain, and various and sundry shackles to attach all this to our slightly-oversized Rocna anchor. This is about as good as it gets for an anchoring setup. We'll be able to put out storm scope of 10:1 in 75 feet of water, which is much deeper than most of our anchorages (until we reach French Polynesia). Dan is very satisfied with the completion of this system and so am I. Let's move onto the exterior of the boat.
Cabinsides
It's very obvious the fact that we have no windows, but that won't be much longer! Just yesterday I finished sanding the sides of the cabin and we put a coat of high-fill two-part epoxy primer. The original plan was to continue on and sand the primer and then put two coats of Chevy White LPU, but we've decided to just bolt on some windows and get a move on it. Dan and I both agree we've been stuck here at Larson's for way too long. One of the main things holding us back was our lack of a water-tight boat and we're soon to fix that. We'll pull off the windows somewhere in Mexico perhaps and roll and tip the Chevy White on. That's definitely no longer a task for the United States. Now that the majority of the systems we've worked on are covered, let's continue with some cool events down here at LA Harbor.
The Good Times
One of the more interesting things that have happened here at the marina was a seal rescue. Dan and I were just hanging around on an overcast day when we heard some commotion coming from the next dock down, E dock. We peered over and saw a LA Fire Department Lifeguard boat backed up against the dock and people wrestling with a netted seal. So we headed over to see how we could help.
We made our way over there tingling with the anticipation of being able to help one of our beloved harbor seals get some help. The reason for rescuing this guy was rather apparent; his jaw was very mangled. The likely culprit: a seal bomb. Fisherman put these in their fish catches to scare away seals. These same fisherman are also know to put them in bait fish and feed them to seals causing this kind of damage. Anyway, they somehow had managed to get this guy in a net (which he was not very happy about) and were attempting to haul him into the lifeboat for further transportation. They finally managed to pull the 500+ pound seal into the boat with the brute strength of four guys tugging him. Then they had to complete the humorous task of wrestling the now not-so-bound seal and tying him down. It took a few, but they did it. From there, they motored over to the Al Larson Boat Yard crane for a lift into the truck.
By the time we all got over there, the seal had calmed down and was much more easy to manage. A few more minutes of tangoing and the seal was in the cargo net ready for lifting.
They picked him up and plopped his big butt right down on the work dock. Peter (the guy wearing the blue helmet, who orchestrated this all) winched the seal into a crate and then winched the crate up a ramp into the bed of his seal rescue mobile.
The event wasn't nearly as easy as I've explained it, however. While Peter has completely dedicated his life to seal rescue, (he lives in a trailer park for easy of movement and relies on donations to complete his work) he and all the involved crew seemed very unsure of how to complete most of the tasks. Once the beast was into the boat, the Lifeguards made a call to various Coast Guard stations all of which told him there were no crane operators to be found. Luckily we had one right next door to complete the task. At one point, one of the Lifeguards told us why they seemed so inexperienced while still claiming to do this quite often: it's very rare that they rescue seals from docks. The normal procedure is all done on sandy beaches where they wrangle the seals into pens and go from there. So, this was an unusal experience for both them and I.
Another wonderful thing that has happened was that we got to babysit Katie! While momma was out, we were appointed the task of taking care of the darling doggie. She was oh-so happy to be perched upon each of our laps and it made for a wonderful night. He's the girl lounging on Dan's bed.
Dan also finally finished his hard-bottomed dinghy. He did a great job and exhibited much attention to detail when finishing her. Here's a picture of her from the front (she still needs a name) and a picture of the maiden row completed by him:
One more thing (the best thing of all!) is my baby girl visited me! It was a wonderful break from all the work and we got mucho cuddling time in. We mostly hung around San Pedro walking around and went back to bed for cuddle time when the sun set. She also gave me a superb Christmas present, topping off the whole event. Here's one more with us two sitting on a bench by the San Pedro fountains:
We should be heading down to San Diego pretty soon (in the next few days) so posts might become (even) less frequent as I struggle to find hotspots, but I'll keep snapping and keep writing for you guys. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Years!
Howdy there friends and family! Things are still moving along for us at a quick pace. The anxiety of our departure have a definite positive effect. For the past few days, we've risen early and worked until the last rays of sun light were secluded behind West Hill. The hours are being put in and the tasks getting finished. In order to best highlight the progress we've made and define how close we are to departure, I'll organize this post into explaining what we have done and have yet to do for each of our boat's systems. Let's start with plumbing.
Plumbing
Now that we have a freshwater system that doesn't leak, we're looking good. We got the forward polyethelyne back in working shape by dripping crack creep into the areas that were leaking. All that is left on that one is a fair-sized crack on the top around the input hose. As there not a single man-made chemical that adheres to polyethelene, we'll have to live with it. It shouldn't end up presenting too much of a problem. The next issue to tackle was the, even larger, stainless steel freshwater tank located amidships.
This is an especially important tank for use to utilize for a few reasons. It has a larger capacity than the forward tank, being of an obvious benefit. But even more importantly, it lies in the middle of the ship. It's best to have most weight of a sailboat in the middle because it stabilizes the craft. With an unstable boat (as ours has been in our limited sailing experience), the boat doesn't track well. Meaning: it takes a lot of minor adjustments to keep a steady course rather than balancing itself to stay on track. This makes for a lot of work for the helmsman. The problem with the stainless steel tank is that it was left with standing water in it for a long period of time prior to our acquisition of the Leeway. While stainless is a good maritime metal, it doesn't perform well when constantly submerged. It will eventually corrode without exposure to oxygen and that's what happened, around every weld.
Presented with this problem, there were few documented solutions, all of which required the complete removal of the tank for either re-welding or manual filling. But removal of the tank was not an option, so something else had to be come up with. While at Louis Equipment Supply (the place where we get all our marine supplies), Dan spotted some penetrating epoxy. The main design for it, however, was mending water-damaged timber, not sealing stainless tanks. So, we gave the inventor a call and asked him what he thought of our plan for its use. He, while commenting that it was unorthodox, stated it would adequately seal up the corroded welds if the surface was clean and dry. So we had a new task: clean the crevices of the unreachable welds and then dry them. The solution: pour acid on them! So we did just that, dried it out with a hair dryer, and poured in the epoxy. I came back from an outing with my lovely Jordan (she visited me!) and the smell inside the cabin was unbearable. Being inside was as if someone was holding a bottle of nail polish remover under your nose for every painful breath of your existence. It stayed like this for three days before finally solidifying. We still have to keep a fan on and a few hatches open to fall asleep without fear of not waking up. The next task is our head.
We have a brand new Jabsco marine toilet ready for installation. All we need to do now is set up some plumbing, and bolt her into place. The plumbing is where the issue lies mainly. The toilet obviously uses seawater to do its business and that means it must use through-hulls to access the ocean blue. These are meant to lie underwater at all times, so we can't work on them without harbor water rushing in and ending Leeway's days. So we've hired a marina patron to dive down there and bung the holes while we connect the piping. That will probably be a task for tomorrow. Other than a new water heater (not a top priority at the moment) and the toilet, plumbing is ready to go. Next system, electric.
Electricity
We have our solar panels mounted on a board above the aft cabin, but we still have a lot of work to do before we have these up and charging our system. We need a few more supplies and a bit more knowledge to connect everything appropriately. We need a charge regulator (to prevent the solar panels from overcharging our new batteries) and an AC inverter (to give us AC power from the DC electrical system in place). We also need to mount three batteries directly under my berth and figure out how to wire the whole system to include a solar panel Leeway was already equipped with. This system needs a bit more work. Neither of us are electric gurus, so we've been putting it off a bit. It's also not the biggest priority because our diesel's alternator is a viable method of charging the system. Next let's goto ground tackle.
Ground Tackle
Saturday, December 19, 2009
We have finally got all the necessary parts to set up a good quality ground tackle system. From Louis Equip, we bought 600 feet of nylon 5/8 in. twist, 150 ft of 5/16 high test chain, and various and sundry shackles to attach all this to our slightly-oversized Rocna anchor. This is about as good as it gets for an anchoring setup. We'll be able to put out storm scope of 10:1 in 75 feet of water, which is much deeper than most of our anchorages (until we reach French Polynesia). Dan is very satisfied with the completion of this system and so am I. Let's move onto the exterior of the boat.
Cabinsides
It's very obvious the fact that we have no windows, but that won't be much longer! Just yesterday I finished sanding the sides of the cabin and we put a coat of high-fill two-part epoxy primer. The original plan was to continue on and sand the primer and then put two coats of Chevy White LPU, but we've decided to just bolt on some windows and get a move on it. Dan and I both agree we've been stuck here at Larson's for way too long. One of the main things holding us back was our lack of a water-tight boat and we're soon to fix that. We'll pull off the windows somewhere in Mexico perhaps and roll and tip the Chevy White on. That's definitely no longer a task for the United States. Now that the majority of the systems we've worked on are covered, let's continue with some cool events down here at LA Harbor.
The Good Times
One of the more interesting things that have happened here at the marina was a seal rescue. Dan and I were just hanging around on an overcast day when we heard some commotion coming from the next dock down, E dock. We peered over and saw a LA Fire Department Lifeguard boat backed up against the dock and people wrestling with a netted seal. So we headed over to see how we could help.
We made our way over there tingling with the anticipation of being able to help one of our beloved harbor seals get some help. The reason for rescuing this guy was rather apparent; his jaw was very mangled. The likely culprit: a seal bomb. Fisherman put these in their fish catches to scare away seals. These same fisherman are also know to put them in bait fish and feed them to seals causing this kind of damage. Anyway, they somehow had managed to get this guy in a net (which he was not very happy about) and were attempting to haul him into the lifeboat for further transportation. They finally managed to pull the 500+ pound seal into the boat with the brute strength of four guys tugging him. Then they had to complete the humorous task of wrestling the now not-so-bound seal and tying him down. It took a few, but they did it. From there, they motored over to the Al Larson Boat Yard crane for a lift into the truck.
By the time we all got over there, the seal had calmed down and was much more easy to manage. A few more minutes of tangoing and the seal was in the cargo net ready for lifting.
They picked him up and plopped his big butt right down on the work dock. Peter (the guy wearing the blue helmet, who orchestrated this all) winched the seal into a crate and then winched the crate up a ramp into the bed of his seal rescue mobile.
The event wasn't nearly as easy as I've explained it, however. While Peter has completely dedicated his life to seal rescue, (he lives in a trailer park for easy of movement and relies on donations to complete his work) he and all the involved crew seemed very unsure of how to complete most of the tasks. Once the beast was into the boat, the Lifeguards made a call to various Coast Guard stations all of which told him there were no crane operators to be found. Luckily we had one right next door to complete the task. At one point, one of the Lifeguards told us why they seemed so inexperienced while still claiming to do this quite often: it's very rare that they rescue seals from docks. The normal procedure is all done on sandy beaches where they wrangle the seals into pens and go from there. So, this was an unusal experience for both them and I.
Another wonderful thing that has happened was that we got to babysit Katie! While momma was out, we were appointed the task of taking care of the darling doggie. She was oh-so happy to be perched upon each of our laps and it made for a wonderful night. He's the girl lounging on Dan's bed.
Dan also finally finished his hard-bottomed dinghy. He did a great job and exhibited much attention to detail when finishing her. Here's a picture of her from the front (she still needs a name) and a picture of the maiden row completed by him:
One more thing (the best thing of all!) is my baby girl visited me! It was a wonderful break from all the work and we got mucho cuddling time in. We mostly hung around San Pedro walking around and went back to bed for cuddle time when the sun set. She also gave me a superb Christmas present, topping off the whole event. Here's one more with us two sitting on a bench by the San Pedro fountains:
We should be heading down to San Diego pretty soon (in the next few days) so posts might become (even) less frequent as I struggle to find hotspots, but I'll keep snapping and keep writing for you guys. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Years!
Very cool! I've just finished reading all your updates for 2009. What an awesome opportunity! Great photos by the way. Look forward to the next installments. Aloha!
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