Hello again - the second post in a very brief time, unusual for this log,
but it's because the entirety was entirely too long.

We left you with some of Lydia's frustrations during our unexpectedly long
refit. Of course, in addition to those you've already seen, I had my share,
too...

In addition to the broken tools in my 15HP outboard cleanup, I broke several
other tools along the way; three RotoZip blades during the fabrication of
the mounting board for the jerry jugs, I totally exhausted our Ryobi orbital
sander during the sanding of the hundreds of oak strips (Home Depot credited
it against an upgrade to a Ridgid with lifetime warranty), the installation
of the bracket for the new Mack Pack (broke a tap in one of the drilled
holes, prompting epoxying over it and the other hole I'd already drilled and
tapped - thank goodness it was before doing all 4! - and starting over on
the bracket), and the new, factory part, on, count-em, 4 Fein finger sander
pads separating the moment they were used. That's in addition to my trusty
cordless drill which went overboard when bumped as we moved the dinghy
preparatory to sanding the bottom...

Ah, yes, the dinghy. Stupid pet tricks, those we learn from, the hard way.
It had been left in the fecund river for 3 months, where it grew a small
reef under it. Lesson #1, don't do that! No problem, Saint Michael has a
pressure washer, it will come right off, as soon as I'm through with the
engine room and bilge. Nope - barnacles everywhere, and some other grassy
stuff, refuse to be pressure-washed away.

No problem, Lydia knows that OnAndOff promises you spray the stuff on, let
it sit, and scrape away all the barnacles with no problem. Out comes the
trusty Hyde scraper with the 2" carbide blade, one of the half-dozen
different variety of scrapers we used to remove the paint on the headliners,
and Lydia sets to work. Oops. They must have meant something else, and
especially not on an inflatable. Umpteen holes/scrapes in the outer fabric,
most of which leak. Lesson #2, don't do that!

No problem, though, we've got patch material and clamps, proven to do a
great job on sealing up scrapes. Well, not. Still leaks, somewhere, as the
tube on which the most of them are located slowly goes down despite not
revealing themselves in the spray-soapy-water routine. Not only that,
during the moving-around of the dinghy during all this patching, there was a
"plop" as a strangely shaped thing in the repair kit met Davy Jones. Never
could figure out what it was, unless it was for rolling out the patches, and
in my prior life as a distributor for inflatable lifting systems for boats,
I knew many ways to do that, so, no big deal. Back to the deflating tube...

What to do? Turn to my trusty internet connections and ask, of course.
Nearly unanimous support for Inland Marine's products, for inside and out of
dinghies in aged condition (never mind that ours is nearly new!). West
private labels their interior stuff, which I'd heard from a personal
contact, as well as my respondents, which really works. Only one challenge.
The dinghy has to be tumbled, end for end, side to side, angles for angles,
in order for this goop to go on completely, several times over a 4-hour
period, and you have to remove the valves in order for it to go in.

No problem - lots of beef nearby who have offered to help us rotate the
boat. But when I go to take out the valve, there's no ready way to remove
it. No problem, off to the internet again, to the maker's website. Guess
what the "plop" was? Bingo. The valve removal tool. Back to the internet,
the resultant search determines that the best is to order a new kit, just to
get the tool. More delay, but it eventually arrives at Saint Steven's, we
fetch it and install the goop, a third to each section, even though only one
leaks. Works a treat, and they recommend saving some in case you want to
reapply to any stubborn areas .

During inflation (they start with only full, not "hard," tubes), we saw
small amounts leaking out and sealing edges of a few of the patches. Hmmm.
No wonder it deflated. Later we decide to put the remainder into the
leaking tube, and go to remove the valve, which results in the inside
portion dropping into the tube! OY!! So, all three of the tubes have to be
deflated in order for the outer one we're working on to get soft enough for
me to work it back up to the hole. In goes the goop, and since the suspect
remaining places are all on the bottom, near the stern, once we reinstall
the valve, we just rock it and lift the bow over the recommended 4-hour
period, being rewarded with additional exudate through the same patches.
However, finally, it's hard, all around, and that job (occasioned by several
stupid pet tricks) is finished.

On the subject of the reef which appeared on the bottom, however, there's
good news in that department, as our ablative bottom paint (designed to
gently slough off, as well as inhibit marine growth) seems to have done the
job admirably. Boats around us in the docks have small reefs growing at the
waterline (which we double-coated when we painted the bottom), whereas we
had nothing. Suspicious, however, I ran a long-handled brush over the
bottom in a couple of places. No resistance, and if I started at the bottom
and pulled up, nothing came with it. I presume the bottom is clean, perhaps
by virtue of the tides which have a powerful current associated with them,
the equivalent of traveling (which would clean a bottom with ablative paint)
at normal cruising speeds for perhaps 25% of the time, and slower for about
50% of the time. Nice to have some good news :{))

Remember the drill which went swimming? It had a level in the end and the
top, allowing great alignment for places which could use a level. It took
along with it the sanding disk which we were going to use on the bottom to
prep it for application of a liquid rubber (Inland Marine, again) outer
coat. Home Depot won't sell me just a cordless drill, any more, and the one
which came with the least extra, a flashlight (which, it turns out, we've
used a lot, so maybe that's ok), doesn't have that level feature,
raggasnagglegiggafratz! They also don't have the right sized sanding disk
for a drill, and, given the success in our interior gooping, we abandoned
the exterior rubber for now, particularly as it takes a full week to cure,
and the dinghy's already been on the dock for far too long.

Oh, that...

We've been hassled by the manager of the condo docks we're in on a variety
of levels, most of which went away when, after I emailed him about it, he
learned that we were indeed known and accepted by the dock owner who rents
to Saint Michael (whose boat is on the mooring I helped Saint Steven recover
on our last trip here). However, not unreasonably, the condo association
has a rule that dinghies are not to be on the dock. So, we hurried and got
it off and back in the water following our interior leak solution.

It's now hanging from the arch davits, where we've installed pool-noodle
sections to prevent rubbing against the stainless, which left marks on the
sides of the tubes where it contacted the stainless when we tightened our
restraining straps. Before that, however, I'd attempted to stiffen the
arch, which, due to my shortsightedness in my original design (only one
stiffening inner bar, leaving off the one at the front so it wouldn't get in
the way), is way wobbly for my taste. No joy there, either, so we'll just
have to live with it as it is. The good news is that the solar atop the
arch is putting out lovely amps, as is the KISS wind generator.

Ah, yes, the KISS. During our trip over from the Bahamas, which those of
you with long enough memories to remember the last log post here will recall
was pretty lumpy, it backwinded, resulting in bearings which dislodged, and,
apparently, damaged the blades. Our enormously supportive (much more than I
think is warranted) distributor, SVHotwire.com, who'd installed it
originally, sent me another set of blades, and I bought the seals and
bearings needed for reinstallation.

However, on disassembly and reassembly of the housing, it turned out that
the bolt holes had been stripped in three out of the four holding the front
cover to the housing. Helicoils were the answer, but it would take a
machine shop to do that. Dominey's was totally booked, but the local NAPA
shop said they could do it. Not so fast - they looked at it and blanched at
the thought of having to epoxy reinforcements to allow the already
helicoiled mounts, three out of the 4 having rotated in the fiberglass, to
accept new ones. In the end, I drilled out the holes, epoxied them full,
redrilled and then tapped them, using the one remaining helicoil to center
the others. After failing with my first caulking of the nose to the
housing, I dug out all that caulk and started over (one step, etc.). That
part worked well.

However...

Balancing the blades is a very good idea, as, while the factory
weight-matches them, in the actual installation, due to the hand-made
individual blades, inevitably the weight distribution makes for uneven
"live" weight - that is, static, on the scale, they weigh the same, but
under free rotation, the nature of the fiberglass assembly means that each
blade is slightly different from the others and the weight distribution
makes for an unbalanced hub.

Having been a model airplaner for many years, balancing props on 20,000+ RPM
engines, and having received the special spindle with the tapered shaft
needed in my original purchase of the KISS, I knew how to do that and set
about to balance it. WHERE'S THE SPINDLE??? We've turned this boat upside
down in the course of this refit, and while I know exactly what it looks
like, as John, our distributor, pointed out, it's no more than 25 feet from
my nav station where I typed my frustration to him, we don't know where it
is, notwithstanding that I thought I knew exactly. Oh, well, another order
(cheap enough, and if we ever find the original, we'll have another to give
to some other unfortunate along the way!), another delay (it could have come
with the bearings and seals), and I set to.

I didn't take pictures, of course, because I was fully involved with both
hands, but over the course of two days, using a fiddle as one rail, and a
hand-held monster screwdriver as the other, I got it to the point where the
heaviest blade took over a minute to rotate 90* from either direction, and
angling the screwdriver slightly off level easily made the 5' diameter
blades rotate on a 1/4" center (no leverage to make it roll with a large
diameter) of the spindle.

I think it's balanced :{)) (Who me, obsessive compulsive??) The proof is
in the pudding as it's silent as it spins, and the blade ends match
perfectly, or at least as perfectly as the eye can see, something which John
says is virtually unheard of. It was wonderful to see and ("not") hear the
end result as the amps flowed into our battery bank.

Along the way, we'd planned to have my eldest two grandchildren join us for
boat camp. That date started in June, was moved to the 4th of July weekend,
then got moved later, several times, and, finally, in frustration, Lydia
said that all bets were off until she said otherwise. When they, a month
ago, had an opportunity at a house on Saint Simons Island (where my
daughter-in-law had spent much of her childhood), for the 8th of September,
we laughingly said we'd certainly be finished by that time. Heh. Maybe...

Boat camp is our word for what we hope will be a regular occurrence of
grandchildren visits. I'm sure Lydia will detail more of that in her next
log, so I'll not go into detail, but in this case, we'll do a sea trial down
to St. Augustine with them while my son and his wife enjoy a working
vacation (he's a sysop for a major cell company and can mostly work from
wherever there's a broadband connection, this house included). If they
enjoy the open water and one or more overnights, after some time together
with their parents in St. Augustine, they'll go with us on our crossing to
the Abacos, stay a couple of weeks, and fly home from Marsh Harbor.

Our many other misadventures are hinted at above, but you get the idea. My
last-minute-Louie stuff has mostly been related to making all the various
programs I had to transfer on my computer upgrade, defrosting the
inches-thick ice from the freezer, and installing the last-minute parts
which are yet to arrive as I type.

Among them is the Mack Pack, back from its second trip back to the maker
(one step...). The first was "Wow - why didn't we think of that??" when we
saw the lettering on one of their brochure installations. When it came back
(more delays, of course, not counting the broken tap inside the boom end as
I installed the bracket), we were horrified to see that I must have
mismeasured, as it was substantially too short. Conferences with the
marvelous folks at Mack Sails, and their local rep, James, revealed that
their website instructions on measurement were contradictory, and I'd not
gone far enough forward for the bottom measure. In addition, which isn't
figured into their web instructions, I'd ordered a bracket to allow a much
higher mounting of the tail of the unit, altering the measurements
significantly in addition to the mistake from the confusion.

James and I remeasured with the bracket in place, rather than the usual, to
the topping lift, finding that it was at least 5" too short. No problem,
send it back, they'll make it right. Just more delays. And, postscript to
that set of misadventures, we're making some new mounting points on the
forward end of it to match the ones present on our original, as those avoid
the hardware-on-the-mast conflicts which would result if we used their
intermediate fastening point. Certainly not Mack's fault - but another
delay, but, again, one which will improve the end result.

However, back to James - when we were chatting with him, considering a new
Mack Pack, he'd noticed something which we'd not - broken strands on one of
our shrouds. It was on the outside, where we rarely were, on the side we
rarely board from. WOW! Talk about blessings. A failure could result in a
dismasting! Better to replace it. Better yet, better to replace it all,
as, no doubt, it was at least 15 or 20 years old, and we'll be on this boat
a long time, God willing. While we're at it, let's replace the furler on
the Genoa - that same furler those with long memories may recall we'd just
spent $900 to have repaired a year ago following our Maine passage. So, we
did, a very substantial upgrade indeed, with the accompanying shock to the
bank account, and the old one, following a very laborious disassembly, was
snapped up at $400 by a fellow Seven Seas Cruising Association member who'd
been looking for exactly that furler for a long time. Recycle, I say!

In the end, James worked on our boat three times: The first was to replace
the standing rigging, which he did at the expense of delaying his vacation.
That was the first time we expected to be gone, later than expected, over
the 4th of July weekend. The second was to come back and assist with the
proper (re)measurement of the Mack Pack installation. The last was after
his _two month_ vacation (we were still here!), when he welded up some
cracks in the bow roller cage, a common failure point on Morgan 46s. We'd
met him, very early on, learning that he was a Mack Sails representative, as
he sent our sails off for repair. The genoa, by the way, turned out
beautifully, and the spinnaker sleeve modification should make our lives
easier in the future.

Back to recycling, one of the improvements we made was another of those
onion jobs. We removed the aft head sink to address some delamination in
the sink surface, and in the process broke one of the spot welds on the tabs
which held it in place. In the "while we're at it" mode which seems to
lead, always, to something else, we replaced the faucets. However, when we
received the sink back from the welder (a referral from Dominey's, who was
totally booked at the time, they also repaired our cockpit table holding
bracket and fabricated the brackets for our Blipper radar reflector), it was
a mess, electro-spotwelding being not a common welding shop item.

Casting around for ideas which didn't involve trying to grind out the welds
and buff back to the brushed finish of the original, I thought to replace
it, but found that all the round sinks I uncovered on the internet were
unreasonably expensive, hundreds of dollars each. Thinking Home Depot might
have something better than I was finding on the web, I stumbled upon a
square sink with the right sized basket and faucet cutouts which I thought
could work for size. (Instead of the common practice on boats of mounting
the faucets on the countertop, which leads to potential - and usual - rot
from moisture, this had the usual household sink mounts on the sink itself).

Encouraged by the expected size-fit and the lack of countertop rot
potential, I brought it home. We measured carefully to make sure it would
fit and made the decision to swap. The results impressed us, and we liked
it so much we did the forward head, too! So, you might say, we've addressed
everything but the kitchen sink in our refit :{)) And, always the recycler,
we also took out the manual freshwater pumps which we've never used, and
took up valuable sink-top real estate, and offered them, and the undamaged
round sink from the forward head, up as free-to-good-home items for the
cruising community.

Another one-step was my ordering the pole needed to mount our engine lift,
one I'd salvaged long ago, before we even left our first refit. The web
site is very clear; I had a St. Croix 175 lifting arm, and, as so many of
our shipments have been, they rushed it to us as we weren't going to be here
very long. Unlike the dozens of others, this one is for real, as I got it
on Friday of the weekend we're leaving. Imagine my dismay when it didn't
fit! A panicked call to the seller revealed that we had an old-style lift,
but they hadn't changed their website picture (in 15 years!) - nor the one
which came in the instructions, for that matter, leading me to order the
post without expecting any difference issues.

Discussions of workarounds, returns and exchanges, and the like eventually
came to their offer to send me a new arm (fitting the post we'd bought),
gratis, to Saint Augustine. What to do? No car, no address there. But
wait! My son and daughter-in-law will be on Saint Simons for several days;
they'll ship it there, and they'll bring it when they come to either visit
or pick up their daughters. Another blessing in disguise of disaster :{))
So, now we have the original arm we (now) don't need. Guess what, of
course - one of our dock friends just bought a boat with a (the old style)
pole, but no arm. Recycle, I say!!

And, finally, just before we leave, we stumbled upon a most valuable
resource, Nautical Creations, who will fix the remaining bimini challenges,
including replacing all the zippers, restitching it entirely, and
waterproofing it before returning all of it to the boat and redoing our
fasteners. As the difficult fit and failing zippers has been a thorn in our
side for the last couple of years, this is a real blessing.

Well, you get the idea. The last of the parts (well, almost - there's one
last item I'll share at the very end) has arrived or will be overnighted to
arrive Tuesday morning. Over the Labor Day weekend we'll be installing the
Mack Pack, repairing and upgrading the engine and bilge pump alarms, the
last remaining chores, as we finish stowing our over $2000 of provisions
(lots of stuff is unavailable or costs the earth [paper products in
particular] in the Bahamas) and make ready to get under way. The other
dozens of refit and upgrade or redo items will have to be in your
imagination, unless they come up in conversation in later log posts.

As to the title...

I think I've officially entered geezerhood. I was 64 this year, and some of
you may recall my lamenting my finally having to go to corrective lenses a
while ago. About 6 weeks ago, however, I was also fitted with my first set
of hearing aids. It's batteries which are the last to arrive of the dozens
of shipments we've already received (well, technically, the new engine hoist
arm will be the last, but we won't be receiving it directly). As they're
closed at this writing, I can't confirm, but they are the promised overnight
due to their screwup on what should have been been a Friday delivery.

So, retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be. As my Dad said early in
his, "You know, when I get up in the morning, I haven't a single thing to
do. Yet, by the time I go to bed, I haven't finished half of them!" We've
been working 14 hour days, pretty much, from the beginning of June to the
present. Sometimes, like with the refrigerator, which had unexpected
problems which kept me up even later, it's 1 or 2 or 3 in the morning before
we get to crash.

So, as this portion was being written last week, I toddled back off to bed
at 4AM, the third early-morning rest in a row, this time, however,
occasioned by awakening from a very vivid nightmare about losing Flying Pig
to thieves and vandals, a disaster we can't deal with, being uninsured.
Fortunately, it was only a nightmare, something very rare for me, and we're
very safe, and thrilled with our newly brilliant home.

And, to the last part of the title, I continue laboring on while Lydia and
the kids/grandkid go to the beach on Labor Day. I knew that their surprise
arrival would throw a monkey wrench into the works of our last bits, not the
least of which was a totally unexpected (apparent - haven't gotten it
troubleshot yet) wiring problem preventing me from installing the new engine
alarm sounder (no noise with the key, but the engine starts). So, I stayed
behind to try to get further along before MY kids and grandkids arrive!

Our next, and presumed all in the future, logs will return you to your
regular programming as we relate our travels and excitements of life aboard
Flying Pig.

Until next time, stay tuned!

L8R

Skip

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)

On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:05:48 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

Hello again - the second post in a very brief time, unusual for this log,
but it's because the entirety was entirely too long.



Skip, where do you buy your Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure ?

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:05:48 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

Hello again - the second post in a very brief time, unusual for this log,
but it's because the entirety was entirely too long.



Skip, where do you buy your Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure ?


I believe they still sell it at WM, at least online.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:12:34 -0700, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:05:48 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

Hello again - the second post in a very brief time, unusual for this log,
but it's because the entirety was entirely too long.



Skip, where do you buy your Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure ?


I believe they still sell it at WM, at least online.

Yes, finally found it by searching on "Captain Tolley" instead of
"Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure". Just came back from our local
store with some. Very pricey, hopefully it works as well as everyone
says.

wrote in message
...
On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:21:04 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:12:34 -0700, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:05:48 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

Hello again - the second post in a very brief time, unusual for this
log,
but it's because the entirety was entirely too long.



Skip, where do you buy your Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure ?


I believe they still sell it at WM, at least online.

Yes, finally found it by searching on "Captain Tolley" instead of
"Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure". Just came back from our local
store with some. Very pricey, hopefully it works as well as everyone
says.

Just be vigilant about cleaning up any that doesn't get sucked in.
Once it dries, it is VERY hard to remove, and it isn't that pretty to
look at.



Right you are. I used it. The extra was fortunately in an inconspicuous spot
fortunately and it was tough to remove. I think it claimed to dry "clear,"
but it didn't... sort of milky.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com