Breaking Away

October 25, 2013.

Because of all the new equipment and systems on the boat I agreed with Christy to do the Chesapeake in a series of jumps rather than our usual overnighter. It's always easier to deal with issues in the daylight.

We left Annapolis at 0900 on Tuesday and headed out into a calm bay with very light winds.

I usually don't like motoring but the new engine only had 2 hours on it so it had to be broken in sooner or later. We ended up sailing for about half the day so we got to try out the new mainsail that I still had never raised. Either power or sail, the boats pretty fast. I'm happy. The only issues we had the first day was getting used to the sound of the new engine and some smells. At first we thought it was something burning but I guess it was just everything in the engine room getting cured by the first prolonged bout with heat. We anchored in the Mill Creek side in Solomons Island for our first night on the hook in a year and a half.

Wednesday morning we woke to heavy rain and debated heading out. Then we did. We had cold, we had rain, we had wind. It was dreary and miserable but we also had ample wind from a good direction and we blasted south. We had wind with the tidal flow at the mouth of the Potomac so it was flat and fast.

The rain did abate long enough to see some of the icebergs of the Chesapeake along our route.

On Thursday we had a nice day of sailing down to Mill Creek in Hampton Roads. With 3 days underway under our belts we decided to apply ourselves.

Transiting Norfolk can be a pain in the ass. And the pimple on that ass is the Gilmerton Bridge. The Gilmerton is closed from 0630 until 0930 every day for rush hour. We timed our leaving from Hampton Roads to allow us to make the 0930 opening.

We caught a train bridge, missed the Gilmerton, circled for an hour, caught another train bridge, seriously?

We got to the lock at the Dismal Swamp after it should have been closed and made it in by the skin of our teeth. It turned out that the reason the locking wasn't done yet was that the temporary lock keeper was slow a shit. We didn't get out of the 1100 lock until 1230.

The lock keeper assigned which boats would leave first so we were stuck behind 2 tiny boats that cruised the swamp at less than 5 knots. Fortunately they stopped at the welcome center and we roared the last 5 miles to the second lock. Which had started the locking process early. Damn. We thought we were condemned to spending the night in the swamp when the lock keepers conscience got the better of him. He drove back down, reopened the bridge, reopened the lock and let us and 2 other boats in. We all locked through quickly and while 2 of the boats opted to anchor at Goat Island we decided to try to cover the 19 miles to Elizabeth City in 2 and a half hours before dark.

You don't want to be doing this section of the ICW in the dark. Crab pots, cypress stumps and Boogeymen are around every corner. We were in the last few turns when sunset came, we had a corner to go when Nautical Twilight ended and we arrived at the bridge in the pitch damn dark. We were happy though, once through the bridge we were going to anchor in a familiar spot so we called and requested a bridge opening.

The bridge keeper answered immediately, stopped traffic, hit the big “UP” button and nothing. He called down and said he was having a problem with the bridge. What is it with bridges today? Damn. He opened the gates and traffic started across the bridge again. He let traffic clear and tried the whole process again. Success!

We drove a couple hundred yards and dropped the hook after a 12 and a half hour day happy to be in North Carolina

October 23, 2013.

We finally managed to break away after 18 months in Annapolis. The big reason we opted to stay in Annapolis for the winter was to give the Veranda a facelift. I guess a facelift is a bad analogy, it was more like a multiple organ transplant.

The refit included the installation of a new engine and the removal of the God forsaken Fischer Panda generator. The engine room was completely stripped down to the bare walls so new soundproofing, engine bed and lighting could be installed. The mast was pulled from the boat and painted. Then I rewired it with all new lighting and a new radar before being restepped. We even went for a new Schaefer Roller Furler. I moved the location of the raw water strainer, the dual Racor fuel filters, the fresh water pump and its manifold and I installed a proper monster of a bilge pump.  There was also a new oven, a new head, new chain, a new windlass and chaps for the dinghy.

We completely changed the arrangement of our nav instruments in the cockpit. We eliminated 3 separate nav pods by upgrading the chartplotter to a more modern unit that could interface with the rest of the equipment as one central display. Then we decided to go with a Maretron wind instrument. Its a bit pricey but has no moving parts and gives you barometric pressure, air temperature as well as wind speed and direction. I'm sure it does some other crap but I just haven't got a handle on all the new toys yet. The new Airmar transducer supplies depth and water temperature. The new digital radar and all the other toys display their info on the new Garmin chartplotter.

One of the biggest changes was a new mainsail. That upgrade almost killed me and its the only thing we didn't do ourselves. I dropped the old sail off at the sailmakers in January and left a 33% deposit and asked to pick the new sail up in June or July, no rush. Imagine my surprise when I walked in in 6 months later and the sail hadn't even been started. I got a sob story about lawsuits and an aborted take over. I did get an assurance that the sail would be done without fail by September first. I've done business with him before and recommended this guy to others so like an asshole I believed him.

I walked over to the loft in the first week of September and the place was pretty much empty. There was a guy sitting there and he introduced himself as Scott Gibbs of Evolution Sails. I explained why I was there and he said “Oh no, not another one”. It seems that the former owner of the sailoft had taken more than a few deposits and failed to produce those sails. Evolution Sails had bought his business and was now embroiled in a huge legal battle with the former owner.

I was like, “that sucks but where does that leave me?” Because it is all about me, ask my wife. He assured me that Evolution Sails would stand behind the previous owners promises. They honored the price and the deposit that the previous owner had kept for himself, showed up the next day to measure the boat and promised a new sail in 2 weeks.

It did take a bit longer than that but to be fair I wasn't the only customer to blindside him at the time. They came and installed the new sail but thats when I found out that they don't actually make the stack packs but farm them out. The problem was that there was a backlog of 5 to 6 weeks in getting a new stack pack. That would have run us into November and you know how we feel about the cold.

I'm not sure what she said but on Friday Christy called him up and must have pitched a bit of a bitch. On the following Tuesday morning Scott Simmons for the Cambridge Canvas and Coverloft showed up to measure the boat. He called me that afternoon at work and told me he'd be by the next day for a dry fit but needed some fittings installed on the mast.

When I got home that night Christy hoisted me up the mast and I installed the fittings for the Lazy Jacks even though I thought it was probably a waste of time. Color me surprised, no shocked, when I got home on Wednesday evening and the new bag was done and installed. A new stack pack measured, fabricated and installed, 2 days.

As far as I'm concerned Scott Gibbs from Evolution Sails stepped into a mess of a situation and saved the day for us on the Veranda. And as for Scott Simmons of the Cambridge Canvas and Coverloft, he only performed an f'ing miracle. Kudos.

Veranda

has left the building.  Annapolis has been good to us but its time to go.....

October 7,2013.

Lets talk healthy crap for a bit. My wife has me on a diet that includes coconut oil as a staple. She uses coconut oil for all cooking ie sauteing, baking and as a substitute for butter across the board.

Christy just had me read a book titled “Alzheimer’s Disease, What if there was a cure?” by Dr. Mary Newport. It was VERY interesting and made me glad to be a coconut oil user.

One of the cool things about coconut oil is that above 76° Fahrenheit its a liquid. Once the temperature falls below 76° the oil congeals into a Crisco like solid. Its nice when you can look at a jar of coconut oil and tell the temperature. Now if I could just get apple pie to give me the wave height and wind speed we'd be all set.

At the end of the book are a few pages of typical coconut oil recipes.

Christy made the coconut oil fudge yesterday and its absolutely delicious. You have to eat them quickly though. When you take them out of the fridge they start to melt as soon as they hit the magical temperature.

I know we're (read that, Christy) are a little over the top when it comes to healthy eating but the diver who cleaned our bottom made me think we might be headed in the right direction after all. She showed up and cleaned the bottom so we can depart soon and she presented us with our bill plus a hand out on the 20 benefits of using apple cider vinegar.

Christy has had apple cider vinegar as a part of our diet for about 2 years. So the benefits of ACV were not new to us but it was comforting to see that we're not alone in our dietary eccentricities.

October 13, 2013.

The Annapolis Fall Sailboat is ending tomorrow. Its been a great year if you're selling foulies. Its done nothing but rain ridiculously hard for days. I don't remember it ever raining this much on consecutive days.

We didn't even go to the show this year as we're both just so busy with work and getting our boat ready to head south. The highlight of my workweek was when an owner came back from running errands and thought my toolbag sitting in his cockpit looked like a promising spot to stand his wet umbrella. My toolbag is sitting high and dry under his bimini and he thinks it would make a perfect umbrella stand. Idiot.

Oddly enough when he went to claim it to go back out it had disappeared. It was nowhere to be found. Perhaps he left it on the bus or a gust of wind blew it over the side. There was some wind. Some.....

October 4, 2013.

Tom was an old guy down the dock. He was like 56 or something, maybe a little older, okay, maybe 15 or 20 years older but anyway, one morning he didn't make it topsides. He passed peacefully in the night in the aft cabin of his Hunter 45.

Tom was living alone and several months passed before somebody came to lay claim to the Hunter. By the time the family showed up to claim the boat it seemed that close to a year had passed and the marina owner was sitting there with a year of back slip fees waiting to be paid.

During the back and forth between the parties the boat partially sank. It went bow down a foot but was pumped out and floats just fine today. The family looted the boat for anything of value and left the boat to sit. The marina owner did what ever it is that they do to take possession of the boat. He now owns it free and clear, wants to sell it and called me about seeing whether or not the Hunter would run.

I went over to check the boat out and was surprised at what I found. It's powered by a 75 horsepower Yanmar. There’s some really bad corrosion on the injectors and the turbo is a solid wad of rust but other than that it wasn't as bad as I expected. Its got an 8KW Kohler generator that was in decent shape with only 289 hours showing on the clock. It looks as if the high water never got as high as either the engine or generator.

The salon floor will need to be completely refinished as the water seems to have made it up to the forward floorboards. The house bank lived under the salon floor and thats where it died when the water rose above it. All the moisture being in the boat has really compromised everything in the electrical system and grew some ferocious mildew throughout.

All of the wiring below the floors will have to be replaced as corrosion is just rampant. I opened up the electrical panel and found rust on the screw heads of the entire negative 12 volt bus that was so bad I couldn't tell if the screws were Philips or slotted. The starting battery for the engine and generator lives high and dry behind the electrical panel. Unfortunately it looks as if it had frozen and split as the battery box was full of acid.

SO the new owner wants to sell the boat and wants to know what runs and what doesn't. He doesn't want to invest any money other than me doing the minimum necessary to try and get the engine and genset running. Tom moved on to the ethereal realm of the eternal beam reach 3 years ago and I don't think he ever left the dock in the 2 preceding years. Five years without being run is a long time for any engine. Throw in excessive corrosion and the prospects look dim.

I brought a new starting battery and a few gallons of diesel down to the boat to see whats what. I installed the new starting battery and gave the generator a flick of the switch just to see if it would even spin. There is voltage at the starter but the solenoid doesn't move at all, just a muted buzz. Attempting to introduce an artificial harmonic vibration (beating it) didn't help. The main engine spins over by hand but it doesn't crank over either.

So it looks as if its going to be listed with a non running engine and generator. She's going to need a complete rewiring and some cosmetics below. The refrigeration and air conditioners are rusted wads that still work but who can say for how long. The chartplotter boots up but doesn't see its antenna, the radar can't find its radome and about a quarter of the breakers in the panel don't work. On the bright side though, for an unloved boat the topsides are in remarkably good shape.

I looked at comparable boats (in decent condition) on yachtworld and they all seem to be between 100K and 160K. The owner doesn't want to invest in starters and other assorted parts that might get the Hunter to fire up. It looks as if hes going to be listing her as unrunning. If she goes for 60K it could be a fabulous deal for a dreamer with the soul of a gambler or possible grounds for divorce.  It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

September 28, 2013.

Happy Birthday to My Sweet Babu.

In general we've been busy as hell. On the home front I completed the installation of the new windlass. While we were at it we retired our old chain and replaced it with 200 feet of squeaky clean 3/8s inch galvanized chain.

Every 25 feet along its length we painted 2 foot sections of it red to eliminate the guesswork when deploying the anchor. We also cleaned up the anchor and applied some cold galvanizing paint. I figured that the

paint would only last a single anchoring but we had a friend that did the same and his anchor looked revitalized for a surprisingly long amount of time, so, what the hell.

This week was the big sale at Bay Ridge Liquors. Every thing in the store is 1 dollar over cost so its worth it to do a little binge shopping. As usual we arrived early, each grabbed our own cart and went a-gathering. Christy picked up 86 litres of boxed wine while I grabbed 22 handles of rum. Not bad for opening day. With so much of our adult beverage needs met on the first day Christy soloed the second day. She picked up another 50 litres of wine and 6 handles of rum. We should be set. I hope. If not there might be an issue.

I'm in the midst of making new dinghy chaps.

I don't like doing it but we find them to be a necessary evil.

A couple of yards of Sunbrella, some UV resistant thread, all the swearing the neighbors can stand and I’m suddenly a 1 man sweatshop.

At work I’ve recently had an interesting couple of jobs. This catamaran had an electrolosis issue. Yes, in the photo you can see completely through his saildrive.

Great access led to a quickly swapped transmission and drive leg in a touch over 4 hours. The owner was pretty happy about the lower than estimated labor cost since he had just dropped almost $7000 on the new parts.

While I’m on the subject of catamarans. This is another of those Nautitech Cats where the helmsman is sitting out practically on the sugar scoop exposed to the elements.

This little bench seat is inboard on the stern rail so the Captain and the admiral can both be seated near each other while broiling in the sun.

Of course it helps if the person seated there has an ass the size of a 9 year old child. What were they thinking? The average skateboard is twice the size of this “seat”.

On the monohull front I got to install a watermaker on a 51 foot Passport Yacht. It is a modular unit but all of the components fit nicely under the vee berth. The guys owned and lived on the boat for about a year and I couldn't believe that there was a space this large in a liveaboard that didn't have anything in it.

The thru hull for the watermaker had been installed during the original commissioning so that made things that much easier.

Locating a spot for the brine discharge was a bit challenging but other than that the install went very nicely and in less than 30 hours the guys completely automatic system is making high quality H²O.

September 17, 2013.

Today was a great day at work. No, not another day of dealing with other people's fecal adventures. Solar panels.

I really enjoy installing alternative energy on people's boats. Today was a first for me though. I've installed a lot of traditional hard panels like the very popular Kyocera 130's. Today's panels were Solbian 100's.

When I first heard about the Solbian flexible panels I had some preconceived notions. I know that flexible panels are less efficient than rigid panels but evidently that has recently changed. New generation flexible panels can actually generate an impressive amount of power. So with the output difference between rigid and flexible panels being negligible there’s not really a downside to flexible panels except....the price.

Good flexible panels like the Solbians cost about 3 times as much as what rigid panels cost. After today's installation I realized that even with the higher price the flexible panels are competitive because of the ease of installation. In this case the panels are mounted directly on top of the bimini. The panels are attached to the bimini by zippers running around the perimeter of the panels.

I removed the bimini and took it and the panels to a local canvas shop. We laid the panels out on the bimini and the canvas people went to work. For $350 in labor and a $100 for zippers the mounting was pretty much taken care of.

Back at the boat, I remounted the bimini and zipped each panel in place in just over an hour. The topside wiring connections are all weather proof quick disconnect fittings so the wiring is as easy as it could be. Route the wires to the deck, a couple of clamshells and the wirings into the boat.

These panels each have their own regulator. So its mount the regulators, add a couple of terminal strips, fuse the whole enchilada, wire it to the ships batteries and pretty quickly you can be making power.

Even though the panels are a lot more expensive the installation is a lot quicker. If you're paying for labor, the savings could offset the priciness of the panels. I've installed 400 or 500 watts of panels on boats and it can take a couple of days. It just depends on what type of frame you have to build to support several large rigid panels. These flexible panels can be sewn to your existing dodger and bimini and they weigh virtually nothing. So for all those boats that “have no room for solar”, thats all changed....

September 9, 2013.

The eldest girlchild called us the other day and invited us to a wedding. Hers. Weddings are fun so whenever we're invited, we do our best to attend.

The ceremony was to be performed at the City Hall in Manhattan, NY. Being new to all this, I found the whole process interesting. They had to go to the city a few days before the big day to pay for and pick up their marriage license.

On Monday we all trekked to the city to meet at City Hall at around 1100 hours. The staff averages about 70 weddings a day beginning at 0900. Just like a New York deli when you arrive the bridal party gets a number.

There were hundreds of people seated in a long narrow room waiting for their turn at entering the Marital Bliss Regatta. There were overhead screens showing what number marriage was being performed. We had 21 weddings ahead of us so we all strolled outside and hung around in the Bridal Gardens.

It was a nice shady spot with flowers and benches. The trippy thing was that there were always at least a dozen brides milling about. There were small clusters of family all around and each one had its own bride. It was kinda like an 80's music video.

New York is one of the states that have approved same sex marriages so throughout the day I saw girls marry girls, dudes marry dudes and some of the traditional guy/ girl weddings. I even got to see guys dressed as girls get married. It didn't matter who was marrying who, everyone was pretty darned happy. It would have made the day if someone had had an inter-species wedding but alas there were no barnyard animals anywhere to be seen. But it was still quite the show.

When our number was called the kids had to sit and sign the paperwork before moving into one of the several marriage chapels where the actual ceremony was performed.

After a quick bite to eat we all walked to the center of the Brooklyn Bridge to take a few pictures.

Then it was a 20 block forced march to the small restaurant that the kids had had their first date in oh so many years ago.

It ended up being a wonderful day and fun was had by all.  Allow me to present Allyson and her husband Sunil of the Veranda Clan.

September 8, 2013.

This week we had a call from a captain whose “bilge pump alarm went off every time he flushed the toilet”. Ut oh, crap.

I went down to the boat, a 44 foot catamaran, to check things out. I figured that if the bilge pump was going off every time the toilet flushed, then there had to be a fecal parade making its way into the bilge. Simple right? its not like it takes Columbo.

So I pulled up the portside floor boards and found the bilge full of poopy and a swarm of house flies. Great. Give me some latex gloves and I don't mind dealing with bilge crap. But the swarm of shit fed, free range house flies spinning around my head brought the crapiness up a level. Oh look, once your gloves are covered in shit you can't really swat the flies either. Great.

I figured that there must be a major plumbing leak so that when the captain flushed the head it flowed into the bilge rather than into the holding tank. Then the alarm would go off when the bilge pump was activated to pump the water overboard. So I flushed the toilet and watched as the water flowed into the bilge from someplace forward in the boat.

Then the alarm went off but the bilge pump didn't activate because the water wasn't high enough to lift the float switch. Huh? The plumbing all looked intact so I flushed it again and once again watched as water headed for the bilge. The alarm was already blaring when the float switch activated the pump and drained the bilge. With the bilge empty the float dropped and the pump stopped but the alarm continued to wail.....

It turned out that the “alarm” wasn't the bilge alarm but the holding tanks “high level alarm”. The holding tank was completely full, triggering the alarm and since the vent hose had popped off its fitting a quarter inch fecal water pistol was spraying against the inside of the hull every time the toilet flushed and shite was making its way to the bilge.

So it seemed that the good captain had neglected to pump out his holding tank for quite some time. So it wasn't a plumbing issue at all. I'm still astonished to find the answer to some issues is so simple. You fill the tank, you've got to empty it. At some point the captain has to be smarter than the boat.

August 31, 2013.

While I was working in a catamaran the other day I was pondering how “pink” has worked its way into every day life. I'm pretty sure the chick gang in Grease was The Pink Ladies.  I did have a crush on the Fonz's girl, Pinky Tuscadero.   Then Molly Ringwald made pink, pretty. There’s pink champagne, pinky rings and pinky swearing. We are fortunate to be “in the pink”.  We were not tickled pink to have recently received pink slips.

I've yet to see “pink elephants” but I do enjoy Alecia Beth Moore's (Pink) voice. I enjoyed the Pink Panther but thought Peter Sellers was a flop. I've had pink eye and didn't much care for it but I could listen to Pink Floyd all day.

So what I'm saying is that there’s a lot of pink around. But sometimes there’s just too much....

August 29, 2013.

Found this little beauty in a boat yesterday. It starts out on the left side as a single black ground wire. But through a series of piggybacked connections it became a cluster of grounds for 6 various lights and components. With a quick couple of snips it was on its way to the garbage bucket and replaced by a terminal strip.

Sometimes work is just a snap

August 26, 2013.

Ever show up to do something simple like replace an old radome and have it turn into a test of wills? Me neither before today.

I was on a beautiful little trawler and all I wanted to do was remove the old radome and install a new Garmin digital unit. Its not like I was hanging in a bosun chair. I was standing flatfooted on the foredeck and try as I might my properly sized wrench wouldn't think of loosening the 4 bolts securing the old unit in place. I took off the lid and was disappointed to find that someone had an irrational fear of the unit coming loose and had decided to bed the bolts with 5200. Or maybe their concern was gravity suddenly quitting and water running UP into the unit, better seal that bad boy up for eternity. Crap.

I grabbed my breaker bar and put on a socket and really leaned into it. After the first attempt I found myself reciting righty tighty, lefty loosey. During my second attempt the 7/16's bolt snapped which would have been terrific had I not been really “into” it. It was almost as if I were attempting to fling myself off the foredeck. There was no danger of me landing in the water as I was flung with enough force to make it clear onto the next boat. Luckily, the bow rail of the boat I started on was enough to keep me aboard.

Upon examining the broken bolt I found that in addition to the 5200, red loctite had been used rather than more forgiving blue loctite. Double crap. What a bunch of Northoles, thank God they couldn't find a welder.

When the second bolt broke I wasn't nearly as surprised and by the time the third one let go it was run of the mill. Unfortunately the fourth bolt decided to play games and wouldn't break cleanly. It was a delicate balance as I pulled and the bolt slowly turned and backed out. It was tight as hell until the minute it was free and with every turn I was expecting the “snap” and lurch of another broken bolt.

After removing the unit I slipped the new one into place and oh look, the bolt pattern is different, time to get out the drill. Crap.....

On a totally different note.....I helped with dinner in the galley this evening and we were successful in putting out the resulting small fire.

August 16, 2013.

Another week finished. It's a little bizarre how much faster the week flies by when you enjoy your work. It's been glorious waking up to temps in the mid sixties the last few days and it makes everything a bit easier as well.

As far as work goes it was a run of the mill kinda week. Installed some new davits on a sailboat, replaced a few bilge pump float switches, rewired a mast and installed some new stuff here and there. All in all a very pleasant week.

I did formulate an opinion on a subject that I’ve been aware of but had never given serious consideration. I've read multiple opinions that instead of dropping a bundle of money on marine battery cable that its okay to use welding cable as a substitute.

Last week I had to replace some 2/0 cable that ran through the bilge of the ships engine room. The wire was welding cable and the sheathing on the cable was definitely not up to the rigors of a marine environment. After a few years of exposure to diesel and oil the wires covering had turned into Jello. The covering had expanded so that it was 40% larger than the wire it covered and without the support of the covering the wire itself just went limp. I could pinch the wire between my fingers and rip the covering. So my opinion is that you can save money by drinking cheaper rum but you really shouldn't cut corners when it comes to your wiring.

And no matter what wire you choose, either way it really ought to be wired correctly.  This was actually a positive cable.  I guess the wee piece of red shrink tube at the end was supposed to be the clue.   I found this 2/0 cable today that had been stripped WAY back, the terminal was crimped on and the perpetrator tried to cover the 3/4's of an inch of exposed cable with some shrink tubing. Nice.

One good thing about powerboats is that every once in a while you come across a really nice stateroom.

This stateroom looks warm and inviting to me. It would be a shame if it burned to a crisp because of shoddy wiring. Speaking of shoddy wiring, take a gander at this.....

Today I was fortunate enough to encounter the smallest Praying Mantis I had ever seen.

I find that the little ones are much tastier....

August 6, 2013.

We got a call from a gentleman who just invested a major chunk o' cash in a very large sailing catamaran. Its a couple of years old and on the surface looks to be a pretty sweet ride. Unfortunately for him, spending close to a million dollars on a used boat really doesn't guarantee that the boats actually in very good shape. There’s been more than a few issues but his tender was to be today's area of concern.

He launched the dinghy that came with his new boat and found that it wouldn't start. After arriving I launched the dink and it was true, it didn't start. I figured that I'd check the battery first and see if it was just dead. The battery did in fact hold a surprisingly satisfying charge but as you can see from the photos the wiring left a lil' bit to be desired.

Of the 2 wires hooked to the positive post, the red one is cut off down the line and doesn't actually connect to anything.

The black wire is from the engines starter and had been connected by twisting the wire onto the exposed neck of the red wire. I'm guessing the surveyor didn't really give the dink much of a go over. I thought Helen Keller was dead but evidently she’s still alive and surveying boats.

If that wasn't enough, when I pulled on the wire to pull them apart the cable end popped right off the battery post. Between the loose terminal and the twisted wire this dink really never had a chance. But after a little TLC the dinghy is once again among the living.

July 29, 2013.

This will be the Cliff Notes version of the last month because there's been some shit happening. The unedited Directors Cut will be out at a future date. Its taking me a while to write so block off some time because its gonna take a weekend to read.

The last month has been a blur of changes . The mast is back in the boat. There was treachery and deceit. Ebb and flood. Illness, whether feigned or real, either way, not ours. Karma. Susurration. An oblivious captain steering his little ship towards the rocks of failure, pushed by an onerous tide. Plotting, double agents, subterfuge and weeks of rain. Brunch!

We were both fired. Complete poppycock. Unemployed for 5 hours. Karma once again reigns. Negativity lifted. Loads of sex. Joy in the village. Honesty is not a dirty word. Appreciation flows. Respect is earned.......not awarded because you expect it.

Right is still right. Bug eyed Chia Pets be damned. Sweltering heat. My dog ate my homework. Friendships both real and imagined. Happy Hours. Brightwork. Voodoo. Ants.

June 24, 2013.

So I got this really bitchin' cut the other day. I'm pretty sure its going to leave a fabulous scar.

Since everybody knows that chicks dig scars there's that as an upside. So how did you get this grand cut you ask.

I could tell a splendid tale of the Bengal Tiger run amok in Eastport but I’m pretty sure that would have made the papers.

Or there might be the story about one of the Great Whites of the Chesapeake mistaking me for a local Manatee as I enjoyed my evening swim.

While I’m sure I could spin a convincing yarn either way those stories might be expected in the blog nearer the beginning of April rather than now.

A more realistic and believable culprit that is the bane of many a nautical repair person, the hose clamp. Hose clamps can be vicious little bastards that take great joy in ripping chunks of flesh from the unsuspecting. You can almost hear them laugh as they grab the back of your shirt and slowly tear the material while you attempt to twist away and free yourself without getting sliced. As much as I’d like to see a hose clamp tried and convicted for this assault, I cannot press those charges. For they were not involved in this violation of my flesh.

The perpetrator was one of the hose clamps monstrous stainless steel cousins. Thats right, the cotter pin. I know, I couldn't believe it either.

They're so simple, so unassuming but evidently f'ing evil. I always thought you shoved them through a hole, twisted them like a pretzel and they just sat there. Now I realize they're actually just lurking, waiting for an unsuspecting dunderhead to come along and get careless.

Hello, my name is Bill and I'm a dunderhead. I had my arm wrapped around a mast and I thought to myself “this really hurts more than it ought to”. So I withdrew my arm but the cotter pin I was impaled on decided not to let go. I pulled, it sliced, I tugged, it tore. It was a battle of wills but luckily I ran out of arm to shred. So it stands Cotter Pin 1 – Bill 0. But I did get this chick magnet....

June 7, 2013.

    Sorry that I've been remiss in writing but between work at work and working on the boat there hasn't been too much time for anything else.  Oh, and speaking of work, I'm back to being a mechanic again.  Its a little sooner than I figured but the shorter hours are a blessing with so much to do on our boat.
   
    We've been following the trials and tribulations of a couple of internet friends as they grind their way through preparing to cruise.  Between the mechanical failures and their battles with various rain water leaks its been very much like recounting our own past.

    Their cruising boat is the largest sailing vessel on a small mid western lake.  The boat will soon be loaded onto a truck and driven overland to a point on the eastern seaboard where she will get her first taste of saltwater.  This week they had a mechanical failure that we've suffered through at least 3 times.  It was weird how blase we've become when it comes to this particular failure.  They're still in the “OMG, it broke” part of the cruising boat relationship while we've graduated to the “ oh that, not again” phase.

    When the coupling shaft bolts break it can be pretty traumatic.  In a standard drive train its not that big a deal unless you're in a sticky spot.  In a boat with a V-drive its a giant pain in the ass no matter where you are.

    The first time ours let go we were in the Hawk Channel a few miles from Marathon, Fl.  We had just started the engine as the wind went light and we were in the midst of a massive field of crab pot floats.  All 4 of our coupling bolts sheared off and I only had 2 more onboard.  I put the 2 new acceptable bolts into place and we very slowly sailed right up to the bridge before motoring gingerly through at 1000 RPM's.  We had our friends on s/v Freedom close at hand to give us an emergency tow in case it was needed but we ghosted into the harbor, picked up a mooring and set about a more serious repair.

    The second time we were better prepared but found ourselves in a very remote area.  It was our first trip to the Ragged Island chain in the Bahamas.  We entered the anchorage at Flamingo Cay once again in the company of the Freedom's.  As we slowly motored in towards the anchorage the coupling bolts sheared and we coasted to a stop a couple of hundred yards short of the cays protection.  I had a complete set of new bolts and after installing them we pulled the hook and motored into the anchorage proper.  

    After this second failure I did some research and bought the best bolts I could find.  I figured that shoddy bolts were failing and better bolts would be the solution.  So once we were back in the states I bought some new bolts and installed them. 

    The third time the bolts sheared we were motoring south on the Chesapeake Bay.  We were a few miles north of Norfolk with no appreciable wind.  The water was 70 feet deep so anchoring was not an option.  We pulled out the genoa and “sailed” at about a half a knot southward.  I was sure that since we had the extraordinary bolts in place we must have snagged a crab pot and the props sudden stop had sheared the bolts.  So following this line of thinking somebody was going to have to go over the side and clear the propeller.  I soon had a line tied around my chest to keep me with the boat as I slipped into the water. 

    The first thing I remember noticing is how clear the water was down near the mouth of the Chesapeake.  My second thought was how the hell I was going to get back onboard if the wind suddenly piped up.  The waters clarity revealed to me that there was in fact nothing binding the prop shaft.  The bolts had just inexplicably failed again.  An underway repair was once again made and we continued on.

    The alignment had always checked out as good so I had always considered the broken bolts to be the issue but in a safe anchorage after a thorough examination I found what I think was the real culprit.  The female threads for the bolts were located in the flange on the transmission.  I found them to be “bell mouthed”.  The threads were plenty solid enough to get a proper torque on but there was enough play to allow lateral movement under strain.  I changed out the flange and (knocking wood now) the problem has been solved.

    The past is the past and we survived it and I'm sure they will as well.  I still remember the first time it failed on us and how traumatic it was and looking back it just seems like soooo long ago.  Enough for tonight, its raining and I have to go check for new leaks...

    Until next time you can read about 2 couples that I've been following as they get ready to cut their respective docklines at s/v Honey Rider and s/v Kintala .

May 18, 2013.

Since the Veranda has been back in the water its been a parade of niggling little things that had to be addressed. Some are unusual like my wifes desire to use a pressure washer to clean our oriental carpets.

  The biggest chore turned out to be the simple bleeding of the air out of the fresh water half of the cooling system.

Our engine sits very low in the boat with the water heater sitting a level above it. As a result I have to fill the fresh water side of the engine through the even higher, expansion tank. This way the water runs down to the engine and the air is vented from the system at the water heaters highest fitting. It was tedious but we got it done. The v-drive has fresh oil and the transmission has new fluid. The engine oil has been topped so it was time to give her a run-up.

She fired right up and there was great joy in the village. That is until I put it in gear....vibration, crap. I thought I had the alignment pretty close but evidently I was wrong. Space at the marina is pretty tight with so many boats being launched so I’ve got to get Veranda out of there. After a 13 hour day at work on Thursday we wolfed down some dinner and got to work.

The biggest drawback to our boat has always been access to the V-drive, transmission and shaft coupling. Things in this area have improved greatly since we pulled the piece o'shit Fisher Panda out of the boat and shit canned it. It used to be that I could either see the coupling OR get one hand on it. This made adjusting the stuffing box a challenge. Now I can either see it or get BOTH hands on it, huge improvement.

Right after dinner I did some major deconstruction of the galley cabinetry to gain access to the coupling. Our coupling is a beefy little bastard held together by 8 bolts. Because of clearances you can only use open end wrenches on them as you spin the fine pitch bolts out a quarter turn at a time. It took me almost an hour to remove the eight bolts.

When I pulled the shaft back from the transmission coupling the alignment was in fact out of tolerance. Thank you Jesus, because if I did all this for nothing I might have lost it. Anyway, I straightened out the alignment had the cabinet back together, tools put away and was all washed up by 2200 hours. Three hours, new record, two handed access is a good thing.

Early the next morning I started her up and let her warm up for a bit while got ready to get her out of the marina. We had a busy day planned at the marina so I couldn't afford the time to take Veranda the mile and a half to her slip in Back Creek so I decided to take it 50 yards into the harbor and leave her on a mooring for the day.

I loosened lines and hopped up onto the side deck and leaned into the cockpit to get a quick glance at the ignition panel to make sure we were warmed up and ready to go. This is when extreme tightness of my anus kept me from shitting myself. THE OIL PRESSURE WAS LOW AND WE WERE ABOUT TO OVERHEAT. The panel was under my chin and I was leaning into the cockpit looking at the panel upside down. The vein in my head was bulging and I was starting to taste bile when I realized that the low oil pressure I was seeing was actually the temperature gauge indicating a warm engine with the needle off to the left. Conversely the high temperature I saw was actually excellent oil pressure. Damn, upside down, no glasses, confused the gauges, nothing to see here people, ignore the screaming, just go about your business.

The trip to the mooring only took a minute but the drive train was smooth as silk. I left her out on the mooring and grinned my way through a challenging day at work. After work Christy and I went out to the boat, fired her up and the Veranda made her maiden voyage of a mile and a half to her slip.

She was fast as hell and smooth like she never has been. If anything was gonna be a bummer on our trip home it was the fact that the water was really low. We warped our way into our slip and made it look easy. A neighbor was there to grab a line and a friend was standing there with a “welcome back” bottle of wine. We're safely tied up, sitting with 4 inches under the keel and never touched bottom....a really nice ending to a long cold winter.