Slow day, late start. I must be getting older. Lots of phone calls to welders, boat yards, vendors etc. Nurse Joan called from Phoenix to report that my cholesterol was "excellent". Cleaned up on the fly bridge and started to varnish (at last) only to discover that the varnish was "off" (I have no clue why, it was all milky) so I tossed the brush and the varnish and will have to replace tomorrow. Filled in the daylight hours by handling the chain and breaking out any stickers with a mallet. I am starting to stress a bit that I am running out of time!
Thursday December 19, 2013
Out the door at 8 AM on the way 180 miles to Greenwood to pick up the chrome plated windlass parts. Arrived about 11:30 AM only to find that one of the parts (the biggest!) had not been done correctly. The fellow immediately said that he would fix it and freight it to us at the IOP so we loaded the rest and headed back to the boat. On the way back we stopped and purchased new varnish and brushes (and Xmas lights for the boat, now installed.) Dinner with the young Taylors tonight.
Friday December 20, 2013
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| My shiny chain |
Went to town and bought Deidre's Xmas present.
Not a bad day.
Saturday December 21, 2013
Fellow came to look at the outboard - no dice, pricing issue.
Sunday December 22, 2013
Progress! The French drain down the side of the house is complete. Ryan helped me shovel the rest of the gravel into the trench and redistribute the dirt from the trench. The area needs landscaping, but the drain is done.
Progress! Good varnish morning and I put coat #3 onto the stb side. One more and it will be even port/stb and then just 4 or 5 more coats overall and can start putting the flybridge back together again.
Three more responses on the outboard, no result. Breakfast out this AM with Mason (and Deidre, Ky and Ryan). Added another string of Xmas lights on the boat. One of the neighbors helped me take a 1/16" of the cabinet door that does not close. (Now I need a new chisel to countersink the hinge) Fired up the ElectroScan today (our tank is filling up again) and we managed a half dozen cycles! Has been a pleasant warm sunny day, but big fog bank has just rolled in off the ocean ahead of a cool change.
Monday December 23, 2013
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| Christmas lights on the boat |
Tuesday December 24, 2013
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| Engine room mats |
Couple more calls on the motor with no result.
Wednesday December 25, 2013
We walked over at 4 PM and opened presents and had dinner. It was a very pleasant afternoon.
Tomorrow we are taking Mason to the doctor.
Thursday December 26, 2013
Spent all day on the computer researching what "hot-spot" to buy. The cell phone companies have made the industry such a mess with all their restrictions. I eventually gave up and bought a unit that I hope will do the trick. Also researched antennas for the hot-spot and purchased one. Researched "Morse" control cables as I need a couple of spares. Quiet evening.
Friday December 27, 2013
Called the chrome guy to ask where my part was - surprise, it was sitting on his desk as he "did not know where to ship it." (This is a family blog so I will not comment further.) Spent an hour or so on EP accounting and printed all the February rent invoices. Too cold for varnish. So I cleaned up the Fly Bridge and wet sanded all of the varnished wood. There is a chance that it will be warm enough tomorrow to varnish. Going out for Mexican dinner with Stan and Nancy.
Saturday December 28, 2013
Deidre was up sick all night. I slept OK but woke up feeling like I had been hit by a bus. Deidre went back to bed after "breakfast". I zipped up the Flying Bridge and put a small room heater to warm it up. Seemed to have an effect so I varnished the seating area and parts of the rail - maybe 75%. Its going to be warmer tomorrow, but rain is forecast. After that focused on a few inside jobs but really dragged. No more Mexican for a while.
Kylie and Mason seem to be steadily recovering. At least the cricket news was good.
Sunday December 29, 2013
Better day today. Went out for breakfast, then drove to Summerville to look at an outboard motor. Absolutely poured with rain, clouds down to the ground. Weather cleared as we returned and I decided to attempt to varnish - getting a bit desperate. Deidre helped. It was reasonable warm with quite a breeze, and it did not rain for the rest of the day and the wind has died. So we have maybe 5 coats applied overall. Couple more and we will can start putting the boat back together. Spent the rest of the day sorting at the house.
Monday, December 30, 2013
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| Beautiful! |
Tuesday December 31, 2013
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| Loading the chain |
After a 1/2 dozen pancakes (gotta keep up the energy) I headed onto the flybridge and wet/dry sanded yesterday's coat. Then over to Ky's and loaded the chain into the trunk of the rental. Unloaded the chain at the top of the path to the marina and dragged it out into a straight line - turns out it is actually 225' long. Deidre helped me mark it every 25 feet then attach the colored zip ties. Then we dragged the chain down to the dock and the boat.
I had been promised "minimum stickers" (chain links that are stuck together with zinc) but as we threaded the chain thru the windlass it became apparent that we had lots of stickers - maybe even 10%? It was impractical to try and deal with them thru the windlass, so I set up on the dock and inspected each link and broke the stuck one apart with a hammer. Hard work and took all afternoon.
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| First "teething" rusk |
Tonight we have invited friends over for dinner. Should be fun if I can stay awake.
Wednesday, January 1st, 2014
So much for 2014 - cold and windy all day. I managed to get outside long enough to cut a foot or so from the end of the anchor chain, where the links looked a bit worn. Then we took the boat over to the marina for a pump out - seems simple but took us about 2 hours. Since the anchor project is complete I was able to back the boat in. After that - shopping for mats and some hardware for the solar panels. Its still raining.
Thursday, January 2nd, 2014
I am starting to stress about getting getting it all done in time - only 10 days remaining. Rained all day. It's hard to get anything done. We spent some time shopping and now have the "mat situation" under control. The new Salon "runner" looks good, ditto the Pilot House. (We have some stains to cover-up.)
Came across another potential used motor today but after some initial excitement had to nix it. So I changed plan and started researching the new option. By 9PM purchased a new Nissan 9.8HP short shaft. Done.
Friday, January 3rd, 2014
Bitterly cold and windy night. I got up about 4 AM to check on some noises and got very cold. The temp was 32F when we got up at about 7:30 AM and headed off to the welder. The place was closed when I got there and after a couple of phone calls our plans were changed to Sunday! It was a two hour drive for me!
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| A few more boxes |
Went to bed at 8:30 PM
Saturday January 4th, 2014
Another cold night, down to freezing. The freezing seems to be affecting the varnish on parts of the boat, as if there is moisture under it that is turning to ice. Not a happy thought.
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| Stb Side |
Dinner at Ky's tonight.
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| Port Side |
Sunday January 5, 2014
Breakfast out with Don and Barb from Cavarra. Looks like we are both planning to head south about the same time and may cruise to Stuart together. The temperature had recovered into the 60s (but with rain threatening) and so as soon as we returned to the boat I scurried to give the rails another coat. The rain held off but a cold fog rolled in about 5PM.
Last thing at the house is our hose inventory - Deidre helped me make a detailed list and then returned them to the boat. The garage is now about 99% clear of boat stuff.
Opened up one of the main engine heat exchanges and found a moderate amount of clogging so started to "rod" the tubes with a 1/8" dowel. Interrupted by a visit from the welder with the new Sat TV antenna post to test. Ky popped in after dinner for a chat. We kicked her out at 9PM for the first episode of "Downton Abby". First things first!!
Monday January 6, 2014
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| Deidre picking out debris after rodding |
The weather is really deteriorating. Wind is up and the temp is dropping. Most of the country is caught in a deep freeze, and we expect to go down to 22 F tonight.
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| Some of the result |
I have turned off the water pump and drained the pipes as best I can. I have put the small room heater in the ER to run all night. The wind is gusting, it is frigid outside.
Tuesday January 7, 2014
The temp was 22 degrees when we got up. Two of the outside taps had frozen but came to life after a minute of the heat gun. Ky called and told me their outside taps have frozen so I went over there and gave them the same treatment and left them dripping.
Back at the boat the temp was dropping fast again and the water was still off. We received an email that Fedex had tried to deliver the new outboard while we were away.
Wednesday January 8, 2014
We were back at the welders by 10 AM and had fitted the two remaining panels by Noon. Then took the whole thing apart and packed up the panels so they could be independently transported to the yard next week.
Ryan called and asked us to pick up Mason from day care and look after him till one of them made it home.
Still no water on the dock and since we had not filled our tanks we ran dry. After dinner I put a bucket of sea water in the bathroom so we could flush the toilet during the night.
Thursday January 9, 2014
The water was turned back on nice and early. First job was to toss out the un-used saltwater in the bathroom bucket, only to discover that there were 1/2 dozen small fish in it! I feel bad for their friends who will make it back into the ICW via a less direct route. Installed the roll bar and the motor on the dinghy. I expect we will relaunch it Saturday when Ryan is home.
Lunch with our "dock host" Charlie Ridley. Charlie is a recently retired attorney and is an excellent cabinet maker. Hearing of the problem with our cabinet door he swung into action, and we already have the door back and in one piece. I headed down to the ER and installed the new heat exchange gaskets and bled and started the engines, and tried to put stuff away. Deidre drove to COSCO and returned loaded with more stuff. I am starting to worry about our Plimsoll line. Three days remaining.
Friday January 10, 2014
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| Glare screen, knick-knack boxes and varnish! |
Saturday January 11, 2014
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| Back from Cosco or Walmart |
Re-installed the knick-knack tray on the fly-bridge. Ryan came over and we lifted the freezer back into place. Then we used his truck to launch the dinghy. The new motor (eventually) started and I motored back to Tide Hiker in the marina. We have to turn Tide Hiker tomorrow and load the dinghy. Took the rental back to the airport.
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| Bloody miserable weather |
One day to go.
Sunday January 12, 2014
King Neptune must think highly of us because today's weather was perfect - sunny and cool.
We needed to turn the boat to load the dinghy, so since we were under way we headed over to the marina for a pump out. It was good to see the dink back on deck. Deidre runs the hoist - her immediate reaction was that the dinghy was "obviously much lighter!" Success!The kids came over for lunch. Mason was in a great mood.
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| Dink is back - new engine and new roll bar! |
