February 12, 2014 completed projects

I was impressed with all the things Dave completed while I was away.  He is still waiting for a part for the water maker.  And the canvas work is in progress.  I will dedicate a full blog to each of these topics when they are completed.  

We made a project list on 1-10-14.  So I am going down the list in no particular order. 

Dave climbed the mast on his own while I was gone.  I don't think this was the smartest move, but this is from a guy who will go scuba diving without a buddy.  He has two jumars, a climbing device that slides up the rope and lifts him as he goes.  He installed a lightning arrester with a DC block to hopefully slow down a lightning strike and decrease interference on our radios.  He refurbished our VHF antenna and was happy with the results.  He also replaced the hand held VHF in our cockpit.  Both of these should help with our transmissions.

The dorades on the deck (that bring air below without the rain) were sanded and painted.

He placed preventers on our boom.  This "prevents" the boom from accidentally swinging to the opposite side should the wind accidentally get behind the sail.  That motion is usually hard and fast and can break things and hurt people.

He placed an LED light in the cockpit and close to the floor inside the cabin that can be turned on with a remote control.  That way we can turn on some lights when we return to the boat after dark.  The cockpit one still needs to be wired (need another part).

Dave also placed a couple battery operated LED lights inside my cabinets under the sink.  Now I see that I need to clean those cabinets.   Mildew is my enemy.

He also mounted our smoke alarms, Carbon Monoxide monitor, our fire extinguishers.  He also mounted in our cockpit a "Dan Buoy".  This is something you throw overboard if you have a "man overboard".  It is registered with the company and will alert the Coast Guard of our position.   

While I was gone, our hot water heater quit working.  So Dave had to order a new one and install it.  That includes researching what we need, ordering it, waiting for it to arrive, then installing.  Usually he finds out that he needs another part in the middle of an installation, so everything is on hold until that part arrives.  We were getting some water in our bilge and this appears to be the reason.

Dave moved our boat to a dock by himself in the fog to have an air conditioner/heater person work on our boat.   The $750 for parts and labor were worth it because Dave also received an air conditioner/heater class from this guy.  

We had a neighbor in the mooring field dive our hull for $1.50/foot.  He cleaned the bottom, replaced zincs (they protect all the other metals, by corroding first), and checked our paint job.  Things looked good.

Dave installed a diesel whistle.  This whistle is in the vent for the overflow of the diesel tank.  As you fill your tank, the airflow past the vent creates the whistle.  Once the fuel reaches the vent, the pitch will change and the whistle will stop.  This helps prevent spillage, which is always a concern because you can be fined big time.  We heard the obnoxious noise coming from another boat and decided we wanted to be obnoxious, too. 

Dave also installed a bilge alarm.  If you are taking on water, it ends up in the bilge.  If it's a small amount, you taste it to see if it's fresh or sea water (blue job) to help determine where it is coming from.  If you are taking on a lot water, the bilge pump kicks in.  The alarm will let you know the pump is running, in case you are sleeping or have the engine running and don't hear the pump.

This week, Dave adjusted all the rigging-the shrouds and stays are the lines that hold the mast in place.  They need the correct tension and balance.  Dave placed a coating on all the threads to help control corrosion.  He described the coating material as smelling like sheep's butts.  Don't ask me how he knew that smell.  This included going up the mast again with the jumars.  It was much easier having me control a backup line on a winch instead of using other climbing devices.

   

Dave has been cutting inside our boat for installation of the water maker and running all kinds of lines.  He is waiting for one more part, so we are going to put our boat back together.  We have sailing plans with the Killions this weekend.  Then my sister, Beverly, is going to visit for a week.  She will need to sleep in our dinette area.  But we promised to leave for about 3 days so he could keep working. I think a trip to Key West is in order.