13-MAY-2024, Northern Enterprises Boat Yard, Homer, AK – This is day nine here. Wednesday or perhaps Thursday will be two weeks.
Things are going well. Projects are being completed, or abandoned as not feasible, others defiantly refusing to behave as they have. The many packages continue to show up… some early.
The temperature hit 48º F (9ºC) today, which is beginning to feel warm to me. I rode my bicycle to the supermarket and was sleeted upon on the way home. This is Homer, AK.
I have a zillion projects yet to complete, but most are small and optional, which is relaxing. The materials to do the projects are starting to show up, but my muddled head from last year is making itself known. Working from my to-do list I ordered duplicates of things I ordered last year: I ordered spare fan belts last year and never checked them off the list and I have no memory of having ordered them. Some I’ll return some, some I’ll keep. Orders from Fisheries were made and never checked off, only to be reordered this year.
I ordered everything before I left Port Townsend because of the lag time of delivery, so I couldn’t check the inventory. Keeping with consistency, last year I ordered the wrong 20A circuit breaker and ordered the same wrong one this year. They both need to go back. And so it goes.
The leak from the freshwater tank doesn’t seem to be leaking. Perhaps it is not a hose but a tank leak at a certain level. I have ten gallons in the tank. I’ll fill to fifteen and see if that causes the leak, and then twenty and twenty-five.
I think, I also need to add a check valve upside of the strainer for the diaphragm bilge pump. It looks like the hose is so long that the water that runs back sets off the pump. It takes an hour or so to do so, so it has been difficult to diagnose. It has also interfered with diagnosing the fresh water tank leak.
Tim Gervais, my friend, who I was afraid I had taken advantage of last year, is back and has offered the use of his car to me. I haven’t needed it when he offered it, but it would have been useful this morning. I could have done a complete shopping instead of limiting myself to what fits in my backpack. Although, because I’m trying to lose weight the exercise is quite helpful.
The steering wheel on the boat will be left alone. It looks like it is a conical bushing that has worn, rather than a bearing. To deal with it would require dismantling the entire unit, with the uncertainty that entails. Getting parts up here could delay everything if the unit can not be reassembled once disassembled.
The toilet, which leaked miserably, will not leak now, even with the addition of $7 red food dye. But, I think I will replace the bottom footing/chamber for $60 and do that proactively. A new unit is $360 or something, so it is worth the risk, and the Kachemak Gear Shed had the part Saturday. I’ll buy before I disassemble.
I mounted a new main halyard winch this morning. Saturday I discovered the anti-seize compound, which I mentioned did not work well, is not for dissimilar metals, so I will remount other pieces over time, using the proper compound, which is terrifyingly expensive. Things to keep me busy.
I’ll fix the misbehaving cable in the wind vane this week and make plans for a new vane when we get home. It will be the first winter since 2018 that we’ve had Caro Babbo in the PNW across the winter.
There is a French boat in the yard that will return to France via the NW Passage, a retracing of how they arrived. I thought it was totally female boat because of the three women who were working on it each day. Megan sat and spoke with me one afternoon. I was totally confused because her accent wasn’t French, it wasn’t anything really. She was a totally fun woman, the ship’s engineer. She started fifteen years ago working on motorcycles and just kept looking for adventures.
I asked what she did across the winter and she answered something unintelligible, perhaps the name of a boat. I asked what she said. She demurred a bit and I asked again, ‘‘weird shit.’’ I repeated and said, ‘‘you’re not French.’’ ‘‘No, I’m from London.’’
Megan seemed short, she was seated on the bathing platform of their boat, with straw-like blonde hair. We talked about her getting her arms cut up while working on her engine and the layout of mine. She said she’d like to come over to see it.
Her boat, Que Será, is between me and the head, so I pass it. One day she was working on a new windlass, the next she said she had a task to complete. Then, one day a man and a woman showed up. He and I spoke for a while and he invited me over to have a coffee. The next day I went over.
I knocked on the hull and one of the original three women came up looking for who was banging. I said hi. She looked at me quizzically. I said I came by to say hello. She smiled broadly, waved her hand, said ‘‘Hello’’ and went below. We have a cultural miss. The next day I did ask if Megan was still here, no she had flown back and will meet the boat in Nome.
After a brilliant sunny day, it is raining and raining hard. The sky has darkened and most of the clouds have closed in, though here and there on the horizon there are patches of blue.
After dinner, I’ll start making dock lines. The current ones aren’t showing wear, but it is something I do every five years or so. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the current ones. I also think I’ll switch the anchor rodes. Again, the current one is fine, but I have another that I don’t think has been used much, so I’ll switch them.
Rain water comes down the inside of the mast compression post and a bit of it makes its way to the cabin floor. I need to debug that as well.
I speak to Jennifer two to three times a day and we’re both doing well. This Thursday I’ll take Tim and his two kids out for pizza. Saturday, I’ll sail across the bay with Don and Brenda to a yacht club picnic. I should have the time to do so.
I can’t reach Josh, the man who made the cockpit enclosure. I need to work on that. He has the enclosure and was to have made a waterproof cover for it. (The original design was not to have needed a cover…)
I’m starting to relax, get work done, and prep. Jennifer is doing the same. It will be good when we’re together. I don’t think either of us realized the tension we were under these last three years.
24-MAY-2024 – Follow up
StarLink arrived and the setup was so easy. Amazing. I’ve installed the receiver flat on the deck and all the electronics in the head, which is becoming a second electronics closet. I’m not sure how much power StarLink uses since the maximum power includes the heater to defrost off the snow – which I have disabled with an app setting. I connect to the yard power to use it. $650 for the unit, probably $250 for the subscription. $150 for this first month while we sit ashore. The Iridium Go, which we used for six years, is $750 for the unit and $140 for the service at 2,400 Bits per second (baud). The StarLink is 363,000,000 Bits per second (baud). StarLink always seems to get a connection, Iridium is hit-and-miss. However, Iridium we kept on 24/7, Starlink a couple of hours a day.
The freshwater leak has demonstrated itself: the fitting under the sink has cracked and was leaking into the bilge – repaired with a very nice metal replacement part. The foot pump for the head’s manual fresh water is in the closet next to the head. The pump has cracked and leaks when the tank is full. I disconnected it and plugged the line. The toilet leaked after sitting for a week. The bottom casing was cracked and the ring seal between the porcelain and the plastic leaked – not available for replacement in time, so I used gasket-making material. The diaphragm bilge pump had a cracked fitting for the hose. I replaced both fittings: part of the water it pumped was pumped back into the boat. However, it looks like the diaphragm is cracked, or one of the valves is leaking. I have ordered all three which will arrive here tomorrow. The replacement parts should stop the water from backflowing, I hope.
I finished rebuilding the outboard yesterday, which started on the third pull. It doesn’t seem to be leaking oil, but I am worried. I have an O-ring left from the parts I ordered. I can’t find an O-ring in any diagram and I’m not sure I remember one in the disassembly – I was very certain I kept all of the parts. I have nightmares about this. Is it the stroke?
Last year, I repaired the windvane cable but didn’t check before I cut off the fitting this year. Idiot!
Que Será went in the water yesterday. The last I’ll see of her.
I took all of that Saturday off and went to the Homer Yacht Club picnic across the harbor. It was very nice but cold to this person: 40s (5-8C). They had a roaring fire and we all had a good time.
I had trouble doing an eye splice in a braided line. I’ve done dozens. I figured it out eventually.
Josh will be here next week. So should a surveyor. I had the alternator looked at, all is fine.
I’ve finished everything major* and now will work on the hundreds of minor things. Hurray.
This should be fun. Jennifer arrives in a week, we go in the water two days later.
* Except for rebuilding the diaphragm bilge pump.
Thanks for the update! Cold and rainy down here, too, so you’re not missing much on the weather front.
As a “measure once, cut twice” guy, I sympathize with so many of the frustrations you describe here – wishing you strength and courage!