My three-day work trip to London went well. I spent four hours in the British Museum, had a few pints and dinner with the captain and other FO, read Chris Parker's Marine Weather Manual and Stephen Pavlidis' Exumas Guide, and still got a little online shopping in. I have a pretty good order going at Jamestown Distributors, though I'll hold off on closing out until I'm sure I have all the spares and supplies we need to order. My commuter flight back to Charleston was delayed on Monday night, so I didn't get back to Isle of Palms until after midnight. It was a slow start yesterday and we didn't get a ton done - we mainly just installed our new Wirie Pro wifi/xG booster/antenna/router. There's a good spot for it on the port side of the solar arch that will accommodate larger solar panels later on, we just had to move a solar-powered secondary anchor light to the starboard side. I spent some time routing the power cable up the arch, making it as inconspicuous as possible, and made a good waterproof splice with the existing power cable.
This morning we arrived much earlier and were fairly productive today. We finished the annual and semi-annual servicing of our Yamaha Enduro 15 outboard; it and the dinghy should be good to go for our Bahamas cruise, I just need to make up a dinghy tool kit (to bring along on extended dinghy explorations) and get some extra 2-stroke oil. We dried out the settee cushions that got soaked this weekend when rain leaked through the holes where the chainplates used to be (the yard put plastic over the holes, but it wasn't a great seal). We fine-sanded the cockpit caprail & companionway hatch, and brushed on the 3rd coat of Epifanes varnish. I messed around with our Wirie Pro's settings for a while - for some reason it's not detecting the boatyard's wifi (neither is Dan & Isabelle's Wirie, so it's not just us). I started the installation of our VHF splitter and Vesper AIS transponder, then changed my mind about where it should go, started over, and got sidetracked (again!) into the rats nest in our electrical panel. I really want to clean it up but can't really do much until our autopilot is replaced. Oh, speaking of which, I finally got ahold of Tidal Marine Electronics; they couldn't give me a start date but said we're in line and they should definitely be done by January 1st. That would be great but with all the other delays we've had, color me a bit skeptical.
Our other task for today was one I've been procrastinating on because it was pretty messy and nasty. A while ago, presumably while we were sailing to Charleston, a bunch of West System resin spilled in the compartment above the engine room. It was in a bag, in a can with a metering pump on it, and was back where I couldn't really see it, so I had no idea the can tipped over and was slowly oozing resin onto the floor of the compartment...which is also the ceiling of the engine room. There are several holes for cables to pass through, and eventually the resin oozed down through them and then saturated the foam/foil engine room insulation attached to the ceiling. Some then drizzed onto and around the engine. I didn't discover this until a week or two ago, when I cleaned out the compartment above the engine. What a sticky mess. Today Dawn and I removed all the insulation fasteners and then tore down the sticky resin-saturated insulation and threw it away. I then vacuumed around the engine room and scrubbed off the resin. Disgusting. We measured the areas we need to get new insulation for, and will look for it at West Marine tomorrow along with a few other things. I also need to stop at Radio Shack to get a terminal block that will make for a cleaner install of the VHF splitter and AIS box, and an OS-238 terminal for the VHF antenna coax from the mast...the riggers cut off the old one when they were removing the mast. I have a few other small electrical projects on the back burner as well, so tomorrow will be quite electric. The nice weather is supposed to continue for another few days so we should be able to get on the fourth coat of varnish as well.
This morning we arrived much earlier and were fairly productive today. We finished the annual and semi-annual servicing of our Yamaha Enduro 15 outboard; it and the dinghy should be good to go for our Bahamas cruise, I just need to make up a dinghy tool kit (to bring along on extended dinghy explorations) and get some extra 2-stroke oil. We dried out the settee cushions that got soaked this weekend when rain leaked through the holes where the chainplates used to be (the yard put plastic over the holes, but it wasn't a great seal). We fine-sanded the cockpit caprail & companionway hatch, and brushed on the 3rd coat of Epifanes varnish. I messed around with our Wirie Pro's settings for a while - for some reason it's not detecting the boatyard's wifi (neither is Dan & Isabelle's Wirie, so it's not just us). I started the installation of our VHF splitter and Vesper AIS transponder, then changed my mind about where it should go, started over, and got sidetracked (again!) into the rats nest in our electrical panel. I really want to clean it up but can't really do much until our autopilot is replaced. Oh, speaking of which, I finally got ahold of Tidal Marine Electronics; they couldn't give me a start date but said we're in line and they should definitely be done by January 1st. That would be great but with all the other delays we've had, color me a bit skeptical.
Our other task for today was one I've been procrastinating on because it was pretty messy and nasty. A while ago, presumably while we were sailing to Charleston, a bunch of West System resin spilled in the compartment above the engine room. It was in a bag, in a can with a metering pump on it, and was back where I couldn't really see it, so I had no idea the can tipped over and was slowly oozing resin onto the floor of the compartment...which is also the ceiling of the engine room. There are several holes for cables to pass through, and eventually the resin oozed down through them and then saturated the foam/foil engine room insulation attached to the ceiling. Some then drizzed onto and around the engine. I didn't discover this until a week or two ago, when I cleaned out the compartment above the engine. What a sticky mess. Today Dawn and I removed all the insulation fasteners and then tore down the sticky resin-saturated insulation and threw it away. I then vacuumed around the engine room and scrubbed off the resin. Disgusting. We measured the areas we need to get new insulation for, and will look for it at West Marine tomorrow along with a few other things. I also need to stop at Radio Shack to get a terminal block that will make for a cleaner install of the VHF splitter and AIS box, and an OS-238 terminal for the VHF antenna coax from the mast...the riggers cut off the old one when they were removing the mast. I have a few other small electrical projects on the back burner as well, so tomorrow will be quite electric. The nice weather is supposed to continue for another few days so we should be able to get on the fourth coat of varnish as well.
Productive and ambitious. It sure sounds like you are making Windbird your boat and dressing her up like a lady with doodads and gizmos. I'm sure you are anxious to work your way south in January ... I'll be monitoring your track just in case we might cross paths. BTW, I enjoy your blog.
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