15 February, 2000
Another week gone by. We haven't been particularly productive, though. The rain has been coming down in buckets for the past week and we're starting to suffer from Sunlight Affective Disorder (or whatever they call it). The stanchion that we rebedded last week is still leaking down one of the bolt holes. We're going to carefully remove the bolts (hopefully without removing the base from the deck), ream out the holes a bit more so we don't have to twist them to tighten the part down and try again. If that fails, then it is back to the drawing board, maybe grind away the rest of the epoxy crud until we're back to deck level. We can't do anything until the rain stops, though. That's pretty annoying and it is probably not doing the electrical panel any good.
We decided not to open any more holes in the boat with respect to the chainplates, so we acquired some ProSeal, which is a silicon sealant, but will work in wet environments, and smeared it underneath the starboard chainplate cover. Now we wait until spring time.
Saturday I worked on paying bills and preparing taxes. Sunday I took the engine raw water pump apart for overdue servicing. The impeller is only missing one vane, but we've yet to find it. Here's a hint from the mechanic: before prying the heat exchanger cover off to find the missing vane, try squeezing the hose from the water pump. You might feel it there. If that fails, remove the hose and poke around with your fingers. If you still can't find it, then then vane is probably trapped behind the cover, which you will now have to pry off. The trouble is that once you've opened the beast up, it might be more difficult to get it back together again without major service of the exchanger, cooling pipe, etc. You don't want to go there.
We've made up an inventory of engine spares and gave it to our mechanic. They will prepare a spares kit list for us (what we should purchase). We're also arranging for them to keep a parts list and credit card number on hand, so if we're out and about and need parts, all we need to do is fax or e-mail them the particulars. Over the next six months or so, we're going to try to do the same with the other systems onboard.
Good news for all you HAM radio folks (especially me). The FCC changed the requirements for a General class license, eliminating the 13 WPM code test. Since I passed the written exam when I got my Technician Plus ticket, all I have to do is go back to the examiner with the certificate saying I passed 3(B), and I'll get my General. Yay!
We've discovered that the Simpson-Lawrence windlass we want as a replacement for the junky PowerWinch we have now does not come with a gypsy for proof coil. So add a few more bucks to the total cost of the windlass project to include 250 feet of high test. It is stronger and lighter, though, so we save 30 pounds of weight in the bow.
We've also been doing a lot of research into watermakers. Our short list is the PUR PowerSurvivor 80E and the Spectra 200C. Suzy has used the PowerSurvivor before with great results, but I really like the power savings offered by the Spectra. Everything has its costs in this world and the Spectra is about $2K more. We plan to visit Spectra in a few weeks (the are based in Sausalito).
We had our first halogen bulb blow this week. It was the 20W bulb over the galley. It is also the one that gets the most use and abuse. I did some swapping around and replaced the light in the head with a 5W bulb. Not only does it provide perfectly fine illumination, it also draws less than 0.4 amps (compare with 1.5 amps for the 20W bulb). We're going to stock up on 5W halogens and replace the original, high wattage stuff as they burn out. I'm strongly considering replacing the one in the V-berth immediately: With the 20W bulb, it gets extremely hot and is a burn hazard.
Copyright © 2000 Ken Mayer