Repairs and Upgrading – Page 2

Kodiak and the home stretch

Kitoi Bay, Alaska, 23-aug-2020 — We spent almost a week at the dock in Kodiak. Like all time at a dock, it is maintenance and repairs interspersed with tourism and socializing. I never complete all the repairs and never do as much tourism as I would like.

The day before we came to Kodiak the gear shift lever refused to engage the gears. After forty-five years, it owed no one anything. After calls here and there we found that the Volvo Penta dealer in Seward, Alaska Industrial Power, could have the part drop shipped to the harbor master’s office in Kodiak. Complete with shipping, the cost was under two hundred dollars. Continue reading “Kodiak and the home stretch”

Something had to break

Three hours south of Hidden Harbor, Mainland, Alaska, 145-AUG-2020 — It had to happen, something of some consequence had to give. The workaround was thirty seconds and I realized that the moment I saw the problem, but I wasted 90 minutes second guessing myself.

Hidden Harbor is beautiful place and quite hidden. Fishing boats do not come in. It is probably the province of passing pleasure boats.The entrance is invisible after a turn. Anchorage and holding are good, though the bottom icomes up alarmingly fast. The mountains are again covered in ash. Continue reading “Something had to break”

Pumps

Ko Olina Marina, HI, 4-APR-2020 – In the 1980s, the circle I lived in, mostly PhD psychologists of one stripe or another, mixed with some computer scientists, a bunch of neural network people, a physicist or two and who knows who else, looked at the current computer architecture as a model of how the brain works. A homologue for the CPU was easy, RAM was short term memory, disk storage was long term memory, we were certain we all knew how this fit together.

We were sure we were that first to find our current technology explained the least understood mysteries of the human body. A historian in the group pointed out that when pumps were the technology rage, technocrats of the day explained how the human body, including the brain, was just like a series of pumps.

Staying put for the duration

Ko Olina Marina, Kapolei, HI, 31-MAR-2019 — The marina is where all the tourists come for whale watching trips and swimming with dolphins, for deep sea fishing charters and to spot turtles swimming among the docks. All of that is closed. The marina has settled down to a quiet neighborhood.

What Broke This Year — in depth

19-DEC-2019 – This was written last month. It is more depth on what broke than the most recent post.

Manele Bay, Lana’i Island 11-Nov-2019 – We’ve been in Hawaii a month now. It is a stretch to remember what broke on the passage. Things continue to break as others are repaired.

The major items that broke, and as a consequence changed Jennifer’s view of offshore sailing, were the two self-steering devices.

Fifty miles off Cape Flattery, about eight hours after leaving the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the wind vane self-steering broke, literally broke. When the boat went off course, I looked over the transom: the steering oar had broken off and was trailing by its leash.

The transmission weighs about 17 lbs (8kg) and hangs off the transom. The second problem was caused by a dinghy smashing the small shaft upwards forcing a set screw out its detent. The set screw left a small gouge in the shaft.

Continue reading “What Broke This Year — in depth”

What broke when, 2019

Stony Brook Medical Center, Stony Brook, Long Island, NY, 15-DEC-2019 – I’m sitting in my Dad’s hospital room.

We’re in the belly of his recovery. The immediate recoveries have slowed. He is able to move is his right thumb and right index finger. If his right arm is supported, he can flex and extend that arm. He can inconsistently move both his legs a bit. Nothing in left arm. He is beginning to swallow a bit, but can still not move his tongue, nor move his eyes right to left.

More devastatingly, he has dropped into depression becoming difficult to engage. When asked if he thinks he will improve, he says No. He can show his emotions in his face and he cries. This morning during rounds when he started to cry his nurse started to cry, as did his doctor. When his doctor recovered she said to me quietly, he can show emotion, that is a good sign.

Cascading failures, Repair Story #2

Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor, Honolulu, HI, 25-Nov-2019 — Ever since Jennifer learned that the failures on Caro Babbo are not unusual, she has been reading more about equipment failures while cruising.

The idea of cascading failures has grabbed hold of her and sometimes awakens her from sleep.

Repair stories, #1

Iridium GO, won’t. Yoda saves us.

Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor, Honolulu, Hi, 22-Nov-2019 — For every story of breaking something, there is a story of fixing it. Most repairs on Caro Babbo are solitary endeavors, hopefully carried out on a dock with a reasonably priced chandlery near by. Many are carried out underway, and under pressure. All successful repairs are points of pride.

Natalie, Unintended consequences, Law? and someplace everyone has heard of.

Catalina, CA, 26-SEP-2019 — ”I met these two Swedish men on the island who said to me, ‘We’re looking for a woman named Natalie who runs these adventure races,’ ” said the woman that Jennifer and I first saw walking up the winding dirt road from Two Harbors to the cliff overlook where we all stood.

We said to her, ”And that would be you?”

Where is Jennifer’s Car and When are we leaving?

Lee’s Landing, Lake Union, Seattle, WA, 14-Aug-2019 – A fast status as we’re finishing up getting ready to leave.

There is a heavy and unrelenting feeling of pressure to get everything done, but as I sit to write this fast and hurried post, I realize that there are five days to go and there is no need to feel this pressure. Everything on critical path is easily accomplished. Yes, the list is unending, but that it is because it is a boat, just like a house, there is always more to do.