Hello, all you who hang on our every word and have wondered if we sank, or
disappeared from the face of the earth, or some other calamity...

Neither is the case, though there were times we thought about it...

Spoiler: this doesn't talk about sailing or cruising or wrecks or diving or
any of the stuff I usually talk about. If you're not technically interested
in boat stuff, you might want to skip this one :{))

We landed in Saint Simons Island, GA from the Bahamas and uneventfully
cleared customs, who were kind enough to come directly to our boat. From
there, things got interesting...

Fit to be tied, or refit, to be retired, either way, it describes our latest
4+ months' adventures. As you'll see, one step forward, two steps back is
also a pretty good description :{/)

It started with a trip north to let Lydia help with our grandson, Harrison,
who'd just had open heart surgery at 10 months old. As quickly as we hit
the dock, we were pressured to be there immediately, so we hurried off as
quickly as possible. I'll let her tell that story in her log, but he's VERY
fine.

I'd expected to be there for a month or so, seeing family together and other
recreational pursuits. However, just as in cruising, our lives don't
usually involve a schedule, or has a constantly variable and changing one.
This trip and the following time was no exception...

When I found that Lydia would be totally unavailable during her time there,
but expected her time to grow less hectic in about a month, I revised the
cruising plan, abandoning the times scheduled for my kids and grandkids, and
headed back to the boat to start in on the chores list I'd been developing
in anticipation of our arrival at the dock so graciously provided for us by
our Angel, Saint Michael. He also loaned us his portable marine air
conditioner after a couple of months, which has saved our lives during the
last couple of months that we've had it.

Our transportation has been provided by our other Angel, Saint Steven, who's
allowed us to monopolize his lovely classic Mercedes for the entire time, as
well as accepted the dozens of packages which arrived at his home as we
received ordered parts. We couldn't have possibly done all we have without
either of them.

Once back on the boat, I started in on a 4-page list of projects. Lydia had
her own, two-week project of painting the aft cabin's ceiling, which would
wait until her return. Very shortly into it, less than 2 weeks, however, I
got a call, "GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!" (You'd have to know Lydia well to
understand the emphasis :{)) - but it prompted a drop-tools dash north,
again.)

Once there, however, suddenly, the urgency to leave went away. However,
Lydia was still fully committed to her furry and maternal grandchildren and
unavailable on any of my excursions for my kids and grandkids. Had I known
that was how it would be, I'd have just gone about my business on the first
trip, visiting the kids alone, without the second mad dash up and down the
state (one step, etc.). However, now that I was there, I again went about
setting up time with my kids and grandkids while Lydia was unavailable. I
got to spend time with all of them and Lydia accompanied me to the last as
we headed south. It was wonderful. Likely, other than trips to visit us
under way, that's one of the very few times I'll have, other than emergency
flights home, in the next many years, as, when we leave this time, we expect
to be gone from this side of the world for the rest of our lives.

On the other hand, visits from kids and grandkids are already under way,
Lydia's daughter and I cooking up a surprise visit with her grandson over
Labor Day weekend, and my eldest is delivering his two daughters for a
sailing vacation which, if it suits them (never having had open water
experience), they'll stay with us after we meet their parents in St.
Augustine and make our crossing to the Abacos.

So, we get back to the boat and dig in. A 4-page list is daunting enough,
but as we worked our way down it, crossing stuff off as we go, we kept
adding more, eventually, about halfway through, resulting in a new-ish,
newly printed 3-page list. That's because, as I've mentioned before, a
boat - particularly one which recently had its 31st birthday, it having
launched in August 1978 - is like an onion. Peel a layer and Cry. Peel
another layer and cry again. Rinse, repeat, until you get to the good
stuff. So, what was supposed to be a couple week project instead turned
into more than 3 months, being extended innumerable times (well, I suppose I
could go back and count, but the mere thought gives me a headache!) as we
peeled and cried, Lydia discovered new stuff she wanted to paint or varnish,
or had the one-step/two-steps bite us again and again, as happened at the
last minute, such as electrical problems and mis-specified parts which will
delay our departure as we deal with them.

I'll try to make this brief, but it's difficult to compress all that
happened (and my regular readers know that "brief" is relative with my
writing!). I'll start with some lists, and then expand on some of the more
exciting, or egregious, or otherwise notable, moments. You can also see
pictures of our refit in my gallery, seen in the signature liine, of what
happened along the way... Well, as I write this on proofreading, the
pictures aren't up. If we have enough downtime with good access, I'll put
them up. In the meantime, feel free to browse the stuff which has been
added in the last few weeks...

First list - new stuff which we either did or installed (not in any
particular order, either by significance or date):

Standing rigging
Sta-Locks on all deck-ends of the standing rigging
Harken Unit 3 furler
Windlass and start batteries
Mack Pack sail cover and lazy jack system
Backstay turnbuckle (we discovered a bent one on one of the shrouds, and
swapped it as it matched, the new one being different, but on the backstay
less noticeable, during the new standing rigging installation)
Shade Tree Awnings supports and modifications
Radar 4-conductor cable to meet factory spec, to cure inop radar since new,
and installation
Grind mast openings to allow above, much larger, cable to pass
Aft head faucets
Complete interior repaint and varnish - which expanded, every time it got
looked at, from the aforementioned ceiling repaint original plan
Forward bilge switch float
Auto small bilge pump
Kiss Wind generator blades and seals plus new bolt receivers fabricated
Blipper radar reflector and mounts
Anchor roller
Spreader boots
Wifi bridge/router at the top of the mast
12V computer and new wiring thereto
Wiring compartment for all computer related stuff
1 Terabyte hard drive (supplementing the 220, 300, 400 and 500G ones already
in place)
Satellite weather direct receiver (takes pictures in real time of weather
satellite images)
Satellite orbital program (to predict satellite location and footprint)
Satellite orbital program (to activate receiver without having to leave it
running)
Wind propagation program (wind forecasts)
Internet faxing
Winlink High Frequency Radio email for Hams
Several navigation programs
Fishing rod holders in Vee
S/VHotwire "Port fans" throughout
Strong point mounting of the life raft
Spinnaker halyard (3rd since we bought the boat - this one occasioned by the
genoa problems on the way from the Bahamas)
Sinks in both heads, new faucets forward
Fresh water pump (3x,failed - see one-step, etc.)
Shower pump forward
Mack pack lettering (one-step, etc.)
Aft head S/V Hotwire fluorescent light
Aft head toilet plumbing assembly all but the bowl
Salon hatches (one step, etc.)
Aft hatch glass (well, Acrylic) replacing solid fiberglass
4 diesel, one gasoline, jerry jugs, plus sew covers, snaps/straps and
fabricate mounts
Chartplotter charts
Cruising guides
Engine Hoist (one-step, etc.)

Repairs/refits/upgrades:
All oak trim off and sanded and varnished and replaced - hundreds of screws!
Epoxy and caulk forward head - remove all teak in the process
Dig out and repair and revarnish floor dings (one-step, etc.)
Dig out and epoxy rot, in some cases applying new wood material
salon seating
under nav panel
aft head
Repair forward head door frame, previously attempted unsuccessfully many
times including early in our original refit
Dig out and regrout all tile and seal in aft head and galley
Standoff arm at the top of the mast for wifi and VHF antennas
Rebuild wind speed and direction instrument at mast top
Resolder all wind instrument connections at junction
Solder all sound system switches, replacing troublesome press-on connections
Tension inner stay (between deck and hull in Vee) for staysail
Dinghy repairs and goop (one-step, etc.)
Computer upgrade and memory
Remount printer cabinet - broken cleat
Reefer circulating fan (broken wire) and gaskets (upgrade) (one-step, etc.)
Main engine muffler rebuild
"Tuneup" on 15HP outboard (one-step, etc.)
Adjustments to allow full power on 6HP outboard
Raw water pump rebuild
Vinegar treatment on Perkins (removes scale)
Repair vee fan (blade kept falling off - NOT a PortFan)
Dissasemble and ship Harken furler removed in new rigging
Exhaust muffler rebuild (failed fiberglass, fabricated new intake tube)
Exhaust extension rebuild - broken in 58 knot gale when hitting the dock
Anchor roller cage welding
Bilge pump and engine sounders
Engine temperature gauge
Shade Tree Awnings fastenings
Pressure wash engine compartment and bilge
Reinforce and Sew bimini tears at corners
Sew bosun's chair repair and improvements
WHAM (remote, wireless) microphone for helm to nav VHF (one-step, etc.)
Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure umpteen places
Inland Marine's Inflatable Sealant on the dinghy
Recover (inlet/outlet plugged) and use spare 50 gallon water tank under
settee, unused even by prior owner
Vacuum both water tanks of accumulated sand and debris from 30 years of
unfilteredmunicipal water
Repair genoa shredded in Bahamas passage
Repair tiny nicks in spinnaker and modify sleeve
Repair cockpit table holding bracket
Repair and relocate engine temperature gauge and sender
New zippers and fasteners throughout the bimini, restitch and waterproof
entirely

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back...

Mack pack - back twice
Varnish and color matching - putty, teak dust, plastic wood
Paint matching and removal
Drill drowning
Orbital sander dying
Paint adhering failures
Liberty stix (long story for another time)
Wifi/vhf connector/standoff misadventures - three times
Fein tool failure
Shade tree stix
Fresh water pump - twice
Dinghy damage and repair
Rudder packing
Disappearing supplies
Broken tools (jerry jugs, outboard, orbital sander, fein, mack pack bracket)
Outboard "tuneup"
Sourcing paints, charts, dinghy goop
Chartplotter with new chart
Wham mike
Engine alarm sounder circuitry at the very last minute

As I write this, Lydia's still at the varnishing, revisiting or adding to
all she's already done. The major reason(s) for our 3+ months, rather than
the 2 expected weeks, in our refit and projects were that nearly all she
took on required me to help either the entire time or most of the time,
taking me away from "my" list, or, more significantly, the Onion (peel a
layer...) and, much more significantly, all the stuff she added to the list
as we went.

I must say that the outcome of all her continually-changing targets is
stunning. Every time she looked around, the new work made stuff which
hadn't been redone look unattractive by comparison (despite the usual
response by anyone visiting of "Your boat looks so great - it's in marvelous
condition!!), and another project got added. Many times, there were items
which were entirely redone after she'd already done it, chiefly places which
now have gloss rather than the new satin finish varnish she put on first,
but some paint areas as well.

There's virtually no place inside the boat which had paint or varnish which
hasn't been refinished. Where it got even more time-consuming than that
extensive chore would usually be is that in addition to removing every bit
of paint - 20 years' worth - from the headliners, most of the trim was
removed andsanded before varnishing and reinstallation - and some of that
removalexposed chores which would have to be done in repair. Most were
minor rotor leak areas, but one, under the Nav power panel, required major
surgery and reconstruction, and the area near the forward head had the same
but to a much lesser degree. Every nail in the teak trim was set with a
nail set, most of the hundreds of screws in all the lovely oak strips
installed by a prior owner were replaced, and on and on as the project list
grew.

Of course, despite my characterization of the onion, every such instance was
symbolic of my tag line at the bottom - we got blessed every time. Just as
in our rehab after our wreck, we uncovered areas which we'd not have known
about, and our home is better for it.

On the other hand...

Some things are better left alone, it seems :{/)

My attempts to make our primary outboard run better (it didn't develop full
power, and at full throttle frequently sounded and felt like it was running
on one cylinder) sounded very straightforward as described by the technician
I spoke with: Remove all the coil contact points and burnish them and
reinstall.

Except that the center bolt between the two coils broke off in the engine.
No problem, if a nuisance - I have an EZ-Out kit, which removes broken
bolts. Except that when I went to take the outboard off the mount on the
stern of Flying Pig, one of the handles attached to the screw-down washers
which holds it tight to either the dinghy or the on-board mount broke due to
the bolt attached having become corroded, making turning the bolt very
difficult. The plastic handle wasn't up to the strain. Dang. No easy way
to make that work without a new handle, more on which anon. OK, I'll deal
with that later. Back to the broken bolt in the head, I broke three
successive drill bits in trying to drill it out to accept the EZ-Out. And,
when I DID finally get it drilled out, mangling the area around the hole in
the process, the EZ-Out broke off inside the head. UH-OH...

Inquiries about replacement bolt/handles for the mounts were not
encouraging, so I tried to kill two birds with one stone, visiting two other
machine shops I'd gotten to know when my favorite (on which, more, soon)
hadn't been able to do a project I'd taken earlier. Both looked at me like
I was crazy - they wouldn't dare try that fiddly bit. However, Dominey's
Prop and Shaft machine shop had their backlog down to manageable levels, and
said they'd not only be able to do both chores (drill out and address the
bolt, and fabricate a new handle), but would be finished the next day.

Famous last words - it did, eventually, get done, and very well, I might
add, but it took 5 visits, the last of which involved a 3 hour wait,
including that they didn't have a replacement bolt available, and had to
source it. During that wait, I saw them turn a solid block of aluminum into
the second of the handles (I wanted one as a spare, as one on the 6-HP looks
like it might also go sometime soon) on a milling machine. The first one
they made (ready when I came to pick it up on my 4th visit) was Stainless
Steel! Somewhat, to put it lightly, more substantial than the factory
plastic, that should not be a problem in the future, and I spent several
hours lubricating and running those hold-down bolts in and out, in hopes
that I'd not have to revisit that problem again any time soon.

Once all that was settled, I set about to reassemble the ignition segments.
A bit fiddly, as the new bolt hole was a bit off-center, and the top of the
bolt receiver was a bit unlevel after all the abuse, but with some washers
and some care, all the brilliantly burnished stuff I'd done went back on.
Oops... Try to start the engine, and there's not so much as a flutter.
Choke, no choke, squeeze the bulb (yes, it was going the right way), rinse,
repeat - nothing. Call the outboard places, most of which have closed
already, but finally get one who opines that I've put it back together again
correctly. Back to the dinghy, and try again. Puttt. Puttt. Putt-putt.
Putt-putt-putt. Well. This is at least encouraging. Several more pulls,
and it runs, but not very well. Full throttle (restricted in neutral) has
it barely running. So, I put it in gear and ran it against the lines. Gets
better - hooray! So, I turned it bow-to-dock and let-er-rip. Eventually,
it ran smoothly and powerfully. As there was entirely too much to do, I
didn't take it out for a spin, but I concluded that it just didn't like
sitting on its side for the very long time it had been off its mount.
Running for a while cleaned things in the carburetor (I presume) to a
satisfactory level. Proving the prior problem's cure will have to wait
until another day.

The 6HP, when I put it on the dinghy to help Saint Michael work on _his_
boat, barely ran at all - just an idle. That, too, apparently suffered from
the extended period on the dock, as disassembly revealed just a stuck
throttle. Hours of lubrication and manual manipulation through its full
range finally, and, curiously, all at once, freed it up, and it, too, now
develops full power. However, apparently I'd reset the idle too low when I
backed it out trying to get the full range of motion of the throttle plate,
as it wants to die at idle, so that's something I'll have to revisit (one
step, etc.), too.

I'd bought a new fresh water pump during the local Boater's World
liquidation, as the one we'd been using has a very small drip - only when
pumping, curiously - and I'd wanted to replace it. So, since it was the
same type, it should have been a plug-and-play, right? Not so fast! The
mounting holes (of course in a very inaccessible location under the sink)
weren't the same, so I had to make new ones. The connections for the water
went on pretty easily, but the electrical pigtails were much shorter, so I
had to relocate the block they connected to, as well.

Hallelujah, it's VERY quiet, due to the change in the way they mount the
motor to the frame in this 15-year newer pump. What's this? It's running
all the time, on-off, on-off. Fiddle with the pressure setting, no change,
other than it runs more, now. #@$%^&*()! Off it comes and the prior, still
leaking slightly, gets reinstalled in the same inaccessible spot.
Disassembly reveals a faulty pressure valve seal on one of the lobes of the
pump. A few days later, off to West Marine, who accommodates me with a
replacement, even swap, as the new one was well within warranty. As long as
they were giving me full credit, I upgraded on the swap in the original, to
a higher volume pump more closely matching the ones we'd been using before.

Hopeful, I remove the old one, reinstall the new, larger and presumably
better, replacement in the same holes as the one which won't shut off,
connect up the plumbing in the same inaccessible location, having to try
several times for the totally invisible connection to go on the aft nipple,
and fire it up. What's up??? It's pumping air along with the water. Can
we be out of water? Switch tanks, no joy. Remove and replace the invisible
plumbing connection. Same story.

Take the pump down so I can be sure the fitting's on right, reinstall (one
step...). More of the same. Remove it and put in my old one. Works like a
champ, if I don't mind the small drip when it's running (not when the
pressure valve shuts it off, though), so it's not anything in the plumbing
or empty tank.

Back to West, who doesn't have another in stock. The only one they have
similar is $50 higher, and the only notable difference is 5PSI higher water
pressure, which I don't need, never mind that I don't want to spend the
extra bux. Sigh... However, I'm in there the next day, and they have
another on the truck for tomorrow (that being yesterday) and they'll set it
aside for me to pick up later. We'll see how that turns out... Addendum,
later, as I proofread - no, it wasn't on the truck, and the next truck won't
be in for another week, before which time we'll have left... We'll live
with our leaky one until we rebuild the other two which have been waiting
for their in-the-bin repair kits since shortly after we bought the boat (one
step, etc.)

Lydia's had her share of frustrations, too. Her attempts to match the color
of teak to repair various holes and/or dings went through many experiments,
starting with painters' putty, moving to teak dust (interrupted by her
grabbing the wrong jar and using dry grout the first time!!), and settling
on a color of Plastic Wood. Each of those also involved varnishing, and
later removing, the experimental compounds, until she settled on the Plastic
wood.

Likewise, despite absolutely manic compulsive attempts to make sure the
paint was properly prepped (disregarding our inability to use the
specifically recommended spray-on remover for all the places in the aft
cabin headliner [remember the 2-week project?? - that - the aft cabin
ceiling was all that she was going to do] which had been peeling and
chipping due to inadequate preparation by our chief refitter way back when),
some of the areas of the new, color-matched paint were either peeling or
bubbling or flaking off. In the end, we concluded that the special roller
we used didn't put enough product on, the close-edges (despite the many
hours of taping, and then, retaping those teak pieces which weren't removed)
sanding hadn't been aggressive enough, or something else undetermined by the
paint pros who specified our paint for us after our detailed description of
what we were doing, was at work. More redo... (one step...) - but it turned
out beautiful in the end. As I type this, Lydia's resanding some fiddles -
I presume she didn't like how they looked after the second time she did
them - and will apply yet another coat of varnish...

I'm sure this is more than enough to digest for now, so I'll leave you here,
and pick up again in the next posting.

Until then, Stay Tuned :{))

L8R

Skip, still working as this is typed

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to
make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in
its hand
(Richard Bach)

"Flying Pig" wrote in
:

1 Terabyte hard drive (supplementing the 220, 300, 400 and 500G ones
already in place)


Not big enough. I could fill it in a day...(c;]

--
Larry

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:44:33 +0000, Larry wrote:

"Flying Pig" wrote in
:

1 Terabyte hard drive (supplementing the 220, 300, 400 and 500G ones
already in place)


Not big enough. I could fill it in a day...(c;]

Your posts are a lot shorter than Skip's.