December 9, 2009
We've been putting in the hours in the last few weeks to get this whole thing closer to the blue water. A new project is started nearly every day and usually completed soon after. One of the problems facing us has been our been our plumbing system. Since Dan fixed the leak in our forward water tank, we filled up the system and started using our water again. But every time we turned on the fresh water pump, there was a disconcerting dripping sound coming from behind the engine. Since I am the only one small enough to fit in the lazarette accessing this area, it was deemed my territory.
Sliding into the crawl space is a bit of a squeeze, but once I was in there it wasn't too terrible of a work area. The first thing that caught my eye was the water heater practically spewing water from the back, where it mounts to the wall. The next thing that caught my eye was the fact that neither the freshwater pump nor the strainer were attached to anything down there. They were both just flopping about asking for a hose kink or failure. First thing I try to fix, however, is the immediate leak coming from the heater. As I try to look around the back with a mirror and a flashlight, the heater falls off it's mount (two loose screws) revealing a very sad patch of plywood bulkhead. The marineply was soft and flaky due to the abuse instilled upon it by leaking water flowing over it for who knows how long. After hauling out the water heater, a more careful examination revealed it was a household water heater never designed for marine use. It had been doomed from the start to suffer a painful, rusty death. She bled brown.
After properly disposing of our water heater's oxidized corpse (a mournful walk to the dumpster), I got to work on hooking back up the water system. It was easy enough to bypass the location of the water heater because it was connected in with a nylon T fitting. I replaced it with a simple double barbed piece and shoved a cork in the hot water outlet hose (of course only after it rudely spat water on me when operating the new system). And we are now fitted with a working freshwater system.
More recent developments include the acquirement of a super sweet Rocna 20 anchor. This is a top-of-line anchor right now. It's holding power is unparalleled, effectively making it our storm anchor. As it might be the only thing holding us off a lee shore in gale-force winds, Dan opted for a size bigger than the one recommended for our sized boat. Our Rocna 20 is rated for up to a 44-foot craft (we're a 36 if you forgot) and it could probably do much more with the rode scope we'll be able to put out. The shiniest addition yet:
Recently, a lot of our lives have been breathed by in the confines of the marina. We have a lot of a projects that we are completing, so we don't need to travel much. Luckily for you guys, Larson's isn't devoid of photographic opportunities. I've been sticking with the auto-focus 50mm and it has been continually netting me beautiful pictures. One morning, as I was striving to satiate Dan's coffee pangs, I peered outside to this sight:
I thought this was one of the best composed shots I've taken. I would be a liar though if I said I noticed the sunbeams aligned with the sailboat stays when I shot it. It was just pleasing to look at and so I took a picture. Later this geometrical discovery made me squeal with glee. Not really. Another picture presented by nature was of some of Larson's bird life. These pelicans decided to raise the bar for me one marina afternoon.
Other projects include getting transparent windows for the Leeway (it's like the new thing to do now or something). This requires removal of our previous plywood windows, the polysulfide used to seal them, and a lot of sanding. Sadly, almost the entire gelcoat (the first coat of paint on top of fiberglass) applied the cabinsides was put on too thick. This resulted in alligatoring, which are cracks all the way through to the fiberglass due to the gelcoat's inability to expand and contract with temperature changes. These all have to be sanded straight down to fiberglass and then filled with a putty. Needless to say, it takes a long time to complete this task. But I finished sanding the starboard cabinside today and tomorrow I'll head over to port. A little bit of a fill and some primer, and our lexan deadlights will be ready for installation.
The newly, newly revised departure date is December 15th or soon after. We'll be doing a lot of sailing to catch up with all the cruisers that left in October and November (along with a marinamate who we'll be joining on particularly treacherous passages). It's still cruising season down the coast of Central America and we will be sure to enjoy it with the other cruisers once we get a couple thousand miles down the coast. Alright, I'll leave you guys with a panorama of the marina that I stitched together:
We've been putting in the hours in the last few weeks to get this whole thing closer to the blue water. A new project is started nearly every day and usually completed soon after. One of the problems facing us has been our been our plumbing system. Since Dan fixed the leak in our forward water tank, we filled up the system and started using our water again. But every time we turned on the fresh water pump, there was a disconcerting dripping sound coming from behind the engine. Since I am the only one small enough to fit in the lazarette accessing this area, it was deemed my territory.
Sliding into the crawl space is a bit of a squeeze, but once I was in there it wasn't too terrible of a work area. The first thing that caught my eye was the water heater practically spewing water from the back, where it mounts to the wall. The next thing that caught my eye was the fact that neither the freshwater pump nor the strainer were attached to anything down there. They were both just flopping about asking for a hose kink or failure. First thing I try to fix, however, is the immediate leak coming from the heater. As I try to look around the back with a mirror and a flashlight, the heater falls off it's mount (two loose screws) revealing a very sad patch of plywood bulkhead. The marineply was soft and flaky due to the abuse instilled upon it by leaking water flowing over it for who knows how long. After hauling out the water heater, a more careful examination revealed it was a household water heater never designed for marine use. It had been doomed from the start to suffer a painful, rusty death. She bled brown.
After properly disposing of our water heater's oxidized corpse (a mournful walk to the dumpster), I got to work on hooking back up the water system. It was easy enough to bypass the location of the water heater because it was connected in with a nylon T fitting. I replaced it with a simple double barbed piece and shoved a cork in the hot water outlet hose (of course only after it rudely spat water on me when operating the new system). And we are now fitted with a working freshwater system.
More recent developments include the acquirement of a super sweet Rocna 20 anchor. This is a top-of-line anchor right now. It's holding power is unparalleled, effectively making it our storm anchor. As it might be the only thing holding us off a lee shore in gale-force winds, Dan opted for a size bigger than the one recommended for our sized boat. Our Rocna 20 is rated for up to a 44-foot craft (we're a 36 if you forgot) and it could probably do much more with the rode scope we'll be able to put out. The shiniest addition yet:
Recently, a lot of our lives have been breathed by in the confines of the marina. We have a lot of a projects that we are completing, so we don't need to travel much. Luckily for you guys, Larson's isn't devoid of photographic opportunities. I've been sticking with the auto-focus 50mm and it has been continually netting me beautiful pictures. One morning, as I was striving to satiate Dan's coffee pangs, I peered outside to this sight:
I thought this was one of the best composed shots I've taken. I would be a liar though if I said I noticed the sunbeams aligned with the sailboat stays when I shot it. It was just pleasing to look at and so I took a picture. Later this geometrical discovery made me squeal with glee. Not really. Another picture presented by nature was of some of Larson's bird life. These pelicans decided to raise the bar for me one marina afternoon.
Other projects include getting transparent windows for the Leeway (it's like the new thing to do now or something). This requires removal of our previous plywood windows, the polysulfide used to seal them, and a lot of sanding. Sadly, almost the entire gelcoat (the first coat of paint on top of fiberglass) applied the cabinsides was put on too thick. This resulted in alligatoring, which are cracks all the way through to the fiberglass due to the gelcoat's inability to expand and contract with temperature changes. These all have to be sanded straight down to fiberglass and then filled with a putty. Needless to say, it takes a long time to complete this task. But I finished sanding the starboard cabinside today and tomorrow I'll head over to port. A little bit of a fill and some primer, and our lexan deadlights will be ready for installation.
The newly, newly revised departure date is December 15th or soon after. We'll be doing a lot of sailing to catch up with all the cruisers that left in October and November (along with a marinamate who we'll be joining on particularly treacherous passages). It's still cruising season down the coast of Central America and we will be sure to enjoy it with the other cruisers once we get a couple thousand miles down the coast. Alright, I'll leave you guys with a panorama of the marina that I stitched together:
That panorama is WAY too small for me to enjoy. I don't even know what I'm looking at... I mean, it could be boats, but who knows?
ReplyDelete+1 Reader<3
ReplyDeleteThe last pic was a great pic! We can see our boat in it! I think I'm going to redo my blog and use that as a header, if you don't mind. :)
ReplyDeleteleaving on tuesday? wow
ReplyDeleteHey sure, you can use it. I'm glad you liked it. Welll, maybe not that soon. But very soon. We almost have portlights on. Our dinghy is complete. We're pretty much ready to make our way down to San Diego and then on from there.
ReplyDelete