Hi, Wayne, and group,

Wayne.B wrote:


Skip, where are you in your "get away" plan ?

The short answer is immediately below. More details follow that:

We're (well, I am - Lydia won't be here for another 25 days) still on
the hard, in St. Pete. If we're fortunate, we might get out by some
time in August, but I'm not holding my breath on that.

Lydia's pulled the plug in her impatience; her last day is the end of
the month, but functionally, as she's a mortgage originator and would
not be able to start anything later which finished this month, her last
day is today. She'll probably show up at the office from time to time
to shepherd her remaining loans through, but otherwise, she's
terminating everything where she is; she'll return to the boat with me
August 1.

I'm on the boat full time but will return for the last week, to do
another stress test and presumed clearance from the heart people WRT my
three stents, my last visit to the PT for my shoulder, last visit to my
barbershop quartet chapter, family goodbyes, and pack out.

So, that's the short story. The full story is a bit more html, which
is geek-joke for detail-rich:

Work continues apace on the boat. As always, getting contractors to
show up is one of the major challenges. Case in point is the
electrical guys, who have been here perhaps a day in a month; the
finish carpenter (and major tradesman) *usually* comes, but rarely is
here more than 5 or so hours. Before the last couple of days, we
converted the stern ladder, with our electrical guy (who's also the SS
welder in our stable of contractors)'s help, to a side boarding ladder,
and added teak steps to the previously just-tube rungs. As we wanted
to be able to move it to the other side in the event we had to dock to
port some time, and, in any case, needed feet for it, we have been
locating and bedding the bases for the ladder. We discovered many
original installations to be very odd, so bedding has turned into,
sometimes, rebedding (more below).

Both cases (electrical and the other guy) lately have largely been a
matter of cleaning up prior messes left by helpers who weren't much
help. Right now we're essentially rebedding the entire boat, as many
of the rebeddings (done last year) leaked at one or more points. When
they've been here recently, a fair portion of the electrical guy's new
help's time has been correcting errata of others over the last year's
time aboard (when they could make it). The good news is that it's
"warranty time" - not charged. They're great folks to work with, but
it's frustrating to have to replow ground already sown, perhaps, in the
end, delaying our departure. In the other contractor's case, it's all
time and materials; still frustrating, but the clock is still running,
too. However, in both cases, the end result is a far improved project
over what was there before, whether factory or later installation. The
perfectionist, engineer, and fussbudget in me is very glad of that, as
it will help avoid difficulty down the road. But it's frustrating, as
progress always seems to be far slower than could possibly be imagined.

For all that, either by myself or with their help, many projects are
either now finished or very close. I'm finally able to check off some
of the projects on the huge list with which we started or had to expand
as we uncovered problems, most of which have been there for more than a
year. The entirety of the bow, to the saloon bulkhead, is finished,
interior and exterior, for example, and I closed the forward door. New
shower and sink fixtures, rebuilt head pump in and out from supply to
discharge, functional sink and shower (where I shower each night)
discharge and new drain/pump installation, hard-pipe discharge from
behind the wall to the Y-valve, new windlass installation (including
all the electrical aft and the anchor locker and new anchor and rodes
installations), salt water washdown (including all the parts aft of the
bow), ambient (not reading quality) and red rope lighting on a
three-way switch, and closet rope lighting with plunger-switch
open-the-door activation. And that's just the bow. Similar
recitations (I'll spare you) are true throughout the boat, though
there's no other areas which are completely finished so that I can
"close the door" behind them.

In general, electronics installation is proceeding, but not finished.
The cockpit VHF is off under warranty, we have the new CD/USB/remote
AM-FM awaiting installation under warranty. I have located where I
want to put the cockpit speakers, and the salon Bose speakers, but have
yet to fish the wires; the cockpit ones will be challenging, and my
speaker switches (changing the 4 between 2 sets) turned out to be not
what I thought they were so I'll have to return them. However, in the
end, I'll be able to choose among several configurations for sound,
including a mono feed in 4 different places if I wanted. I'm going to
my first local ham club meeting, tonight, to try to get smarter about
the new ham installation I have. Autopilot and GPS integration remain
unfinished, and I still have to rerun the antenna line and one more set
of speakers for the AM/FM. Still to come, though fished and ready for
termination, is the proving of the HF received, helical antenna fed,
weather satellite picture-capture unit. I'm still wrestling with how
to panel mount that unit, as I'd really like to be able to have it
there rather than surface mounted somewhere. So far, we've been able
to put all the wires out of sight, and all the user-end stuff on the
panel; not having that unit mounted under or on some counter would
round out that installation. Also still to come will be the location
and securing of the 3 external hard drives, fed through a USB hub,
which provide our music, movies, and backup. Those will be in the same
location as the printer; we know where those will be, but we've not
settled on how to accomplish it so that they're secure.

In the engine room, we're nearly finished, with the transmission
already back out (it was reinstalled after the acquisition of the new
backing plate to replace the one I broke, pulling the tranny through
it, by backing over a mooring line left topsides during our delivery
more than 2 years ago), and the shaft yet to come. Those are to take
off to a machine shop to verify alignment before I reinstall them. I
consider it possible that the force of the drop of the tranny, still
attached to the shaft, might have bent either the flange on the tranny
or the shaft, or both, and/or the shaft. If so, we'll have it trued.

As I'm going to a dripless packing (Thanks, Roger!), that will be
installed on the replacement of the shaft. While it's out, I'll
replace the cutlass bearing of which there is a spare already aboard.
Before I can remove the shaft, I have to take off the MaxProp. That's
ok, because it was severely under-pitched, making the engine rev way
too high at WOT, and it needed repitching, which, in this model,
required removal, anyway. Furthermore, Morgan, for whatever reason,
had configured these tranny/prop combinations such that they used
reverse for forward - maybe they had a huge stock of left-hand props to
use up?. As Max (so long as you tell him which way it is) doesn't care
in which direction he turns, and, fortunately, the alignment of the
tranny shift cable bracket and lever is designed for forward or aft
placement, I'll just switch the bracket and the lever to the forward
orientation, and we'll be powering (with the presumed more robust
thrust plate availability) in 'forward'. As it happens, this tranny is
rated for 250HP in our best-case-62 (at the driveshaft) HP engine, so
likely that was of little issue. And, the ratios are 2.72/4, so it's
indecipherable at the business end, which way it goes. However, I
discovered this from one of my correspondents looking for, and
eventually buying, a M46, who who made this switch (with a fixed blade
prop) and asserts that this makes backing much easier; the discussion
had started with this boat's pronounced starboard aft prop walk...

Unfortunately, as it sits, now, the shaft and the engine are not
aligned properly. I'm hopeful that's a matter of water support
distortion and that it will fall back into place when we splash.
Properly orienting the propshaft is something I'll be taking some
"quality time" to do; having the stuffing box off will help me see it
in position to center - the bit about weighing, calculating mass and
bend is a bit beyond me, and there are those who suggest that bothering
to align something which has flexible engine mounts is an exercise in
futility, anyway, so I'll just do the best I can by centering the shaft
in the tube.

More in the ER, the provided MPPT controller blew up in the electrical
contractor's face (he managed to blow out the flames - seriously!) when
he was troubleshooting why the solar panels he'd installed didn't seem
to be putting out enough. Cheap isn't good, there, and he allowed as
how he'd seemed to have every one of these he'd installed fail.
Supposedly the vendor sez he's resolved those problems; the contractor
was going to replace it like-for-like with one of the new-and-improved
versions provided by the vendor. However, when I asked if he were
going to leave the country with his wife, never expecting to make
landfall with his boat stateside again, if he would use that unit. No?
Then why the #$@#$%^&* would you put it in *my* boat??? We're going
back with a proven quality MPPT, albeit at about double the price.
Before that, we've pulled many new circuits, replaced many others, and
troubleshot the control panel for all the anamolies and
stupid-prior-owner-installations present there. However, that will
(should!) wrap up, after cleanup, an entire redo of the engine
compartment electrical - new battery box and 800AH, new solar and wind
charging, umpteen new or replaced circuits (still happening in some
places outside the ER), and new terminals with their associated
separate box, after which point I'll start stocking the shelves with
things to store there - mostly spares with anticipated very minimal
need to retrieve.

Once all that is back in place, we still have to recommission the
engine, un-run for 28 months, and replace all the hoses (in hand,
waiting) to everywhere. I also want to do a fuel polishing setup (the
fuel surely needs it at this point, regardless!) and a dual-Racor
installation, reroute the oil filter for bulkhead mounting, and other
engine minutiae. After that, once the engine is recommissioned, I'll
install the intake silencer/mongo air filter/crankcase
evacuator-to-eliminate-rear-seal-seep unit.

Still in the ER, I pulled out the old (removed, sold to another
Morganite) genset exhaust hoses but in the course of getting an elbow
off it, turned the through-hull at the stern; we'll have to remove that
and rebed and cap it (in preference to the effort needed to redo the
fiberglass - besides, that may prove useful at some point in the
future); that will cause an upheaval in the aft cabin, as I have to
take off 3 of the 4 mattress parts to get to it. Being Tempur-Pedic
clones, those are a bit of a wrestling match! I also have to finish up
the bilge pumps, two of the three not yet reinstalled, rebuild one of
the two manual pumps and relocate the other one, pumped from the
cockpit, which, in its original factory installation, was misplaced,
causing a kink in the intake hose, rendering it useless. All those are
getting new spiralite hoses, guaranteed not to collapse under lots of
suction, though the electrical bilbe pumps just pump, of course.
However, they're smooth walled, rather than the corrugated stuff which
was there before, making for a great deal more efficient exhaust of
bilgewater. The two major electrical ones have float switches well off
the bottom; the day-to-day stuff will be handled by an electronic unit
which will check every two minutes; if there's no load (no water), it
will shut off after about two seconds; if there's a load (water over
the bottom to suck up), it will continue pumping until there isn't any
water left.

Once the bilge pumps are in place, and the shaft reinstalled, I can go
back to reassembling the aft head, which exhaust I'm hopeful I'll be
able to do in PVC, and which supply will receive a new pump body.

Little things remain in the galley, like connecting the propane to the
stove (just loosely attached, to make the wrestling match to reach it
unnecessary) after having already rewired the solenoid circuit,
gasketing the reefer and freezer doors and installation of the shelves
after first doing a final cleanup, red-white lighting over the sink
(the ambient amber and nightlight red rope lighting is already
finished under the spice racks; the switch is right at the companionway
entrance for the convenience of entry at night, whether just returning
to the boat or whomever's at the helm going to get a munchie).

I've done nearly all the fishing on this boat (electrical); that one
was a real challenge (all the things associated with that circuit) as I
was dealing with a 1/4" or so space between the hull and deck liner.
It's what has kept me, to this point, from drilling the holes in the
cockpit coaming for the cockpit speaker wires, as I want to be
absolutely sure I land over an open spot, after which it will be an
extremely long and convoluted fish back to the radio.

Eventually, after we've (our current project, my refinisher and I)
redone all the rebedding, I can start making the interior sides of the
boat ready for installation of gear. I have 4 storage bins (plastic,
not U-Store units!) of workshop related stuff which have to come
aboard; my parts bins (screws, bolts, miscellaneous small parts and
hardware) are nearly complete, and will be reinstalled in the
walkthrough under-mirror panel after my installation of the rope
lighting/plunger switch (which won't happen until we resolve the
problem with the port aft 12V main) and rebedding which currently has
that space empty.

Still to buy is the new life raft (the previous having been given to
yet another Morganite), EPIRB and/or PLB, new flares and fire
extinguishers and miscellaneous small stuff, after which all the
electronic gear will be registered with the FCC and our boat license
received.

Then, in the last bits of time before we splash, the refinish guy will
go around touching up all the stuff remaining, in and out, that he's
either started or finished, but two years later, needs attention
topsides.

During all this, Lydia, when she arrives, will be attending to PoliGlow
application on all the above-waterline white stuff, and, if she
finishes that, a thorough scrub, acetone wash, and 303Protectant redo
of the dink, which chalks one's seat if you sit on or otherwise rub
against the tube, and, particularly, leaves black marks from the rubber
parts. If she finishes all *that*, she'll go around and replace all the
port screens and gaskets. In between, she'll be stowing all the stuff
in what is currently mostly empty space. We continue to be amazed at
the storage space aboard; we hope to disprove the theorum that stuff
accumulates to fill the space available!

Also when Lydia's here, so she can tail, and not have to use expensive
contractor help on that side of the stuff, I'll use the windlass
capstan and go up the mast on a calm day and troubleshoot what's
happening there. One of her coworkers has given us his climbing gear,
those days behind us, so in addition to our bosun's chair aboard, we
have a climbing harness designed for extended periods of sitting, and a
hunting "tree stand" seat designed to be hung, not tree-mounted. I'm
hopeful to find that one of those is very well suited to the purpose,
as we may well have to spend some serious time aloft...

Spreader lights and anchor light are inop; we'll be adding a hailer
horn (may be able to use prior hailer horn, since removed, wiring) and
replacing the anchor light with an OrcaGreen LED anchor/tricolor with
the photo-sense so that we can turn it on in the day when we leave, not
running the battery until dark, but have it on and showing when we come
back after dark. The relatively blue light of the anchor light will
help us locate our boat, and the red rope LED lighting on the binnacle
(about .1A - we leave it on all the time) will confirm it. When we get
within range, we'll hit the remote button to turn on the 'porch light'
to light up the stern.

If I ever succeed with my wifi solution (I recently had some hope, but
even more recently, more despair), I'll also do that installation while
I'm up there. If I'm successful, all indications are that I'll have
multi-mile wifi capability for whenever we're at anchor and in
electronic view of an open access point on which to surf, mail, VoIP
telephone in whatever flavor (Vonage, Skype, GoogleTalk) and read and
respond to the hundreds of messages which come in on these lists,
usenet and the SSCA forum :{))

Once we're in the water, we'll do the final shaft alignment and no-leak
verifications and commence sea trials. As there's *so* much new stuff
and unproven stuff, that will take a while. Included will be a couple
of overnights up the coast, with the two electrical guys aboard (going
to their home marina), for troubleshooting, tweaking and alignment
(electrical) of all they've done. They fully expect to find lots of
stuff which will require attention; perhaps that can be achieved on the
way back down (the other overnight).

And, finally, when we are comfortable that we've exposed and killed the
majority of bugs which could bite us, not to mention get familiar with
a boat we've sailed all of two weeks to this point, we'll check out of
the Care, Custody and Control of the Registered Repair Facility
(otherwise known as the sales tax haven for exported boats) and boogie
for the Bahamas. In between, we'll have done something about blue
water insurance, as our current carrier, Allstate, doesn't do anything
other than coastal US and Canada +100 miles; whether they'd allow a
claim in foreign waters is up for grabs but I know that they
specifically do *not* cover the Bahamas as an entirety. That's very
unfortunate, as their coverage is at least 1/4 what we expect to have
to pay; with current prices doing what they are, it may be even smaller
(20-15-whoknows?? % of current blue water coverage). As we expect to
be in the Bahamas at least a year (many people never leave, finding
more than enough to keep them interested all their lives, so why should
we hurry out of it?), being able to continue the Allstate coverage
would be a great help to the budget!

So, despite the length, that's a relatively short view of what's up;
the minutiae of what has been done to the boat can be seen in our
galleries under the refit section (the second gallery in
www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery), organized by month, but without
commentary. Only those very interested in what we're doing will want
to wade through what is literally thousands of pictures in 25 separate
(sub)galleries, but every project we've done is pretty well documented
there; I can point any interested to the specific areas to view
progress on a given project if interested. At this point, it's all
timeline stuff; when we're under way and bored stiff, I'll start
putting stuff in project folders (all the shots will be of a given
project) and culling the volume to something more easily reviewed.
Eventually we'll have a "real" website, but for now it's just
galleries. When we have the website, I'll eventually have sections
where each project is described, problems encountered and solved, and
the end result.

And, finally, eventually (soon) we'll have a mailing list, which we're
calling our log list. To those on the list, we'll be mailing -
probably once a month or so - short (I promise - Lydia will write
them!!) reviews of our travels, and, as appropriate, photo and/or
other links. If you'd like to be on that list, please drop me a line
directly at skipgundlach at gmail dot com, with the subject line
"please add me to the log list" - and we'll do that, including a
confirmation note back. Most likely, that will be a yahoogroups
mailing list, as - particularly if we're in limited connectivity -
mailing lots of addresses will be difficult.

So, there you have it. Rounding third and heading down the home
stretch, it's at the same time exhilarating, exciting and terrifying.
Sold our homes and cars, given away all the stuff, quit our jobs (well,
Lydia did; I just quit looking when I started working on the boat,
ending my 15-out-of-25 of the last years' unemployment), and jumping in
with both feet, we're more than ready to go. Now to get the last bits
of the boat ready to go...

L8R

Skip and Lydia, shortly to be of no fixed address, no itinerary, no
schedule

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/p7rb4 - NOTE:new URL! The vessel as Tehamana, as we
bought her

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely
nothing-half so much worth doing as simply messing,
messing-about-in-boats; messing about in boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

Skip and Lydia, my excellent friends!

It is truly non-heinous that you have progressed to this point in your
journey through life.

Party on, Dudes!

Frank and the krewe

On 7 Jul 2006 11:43:06 -0700, "Skip Gundlach"
wrote:

Skip, where are you in your "get away" plan ?

The short answer is immediately below. More details follow that:

Whew, some details!

Good luck and thanks for the update.