Last day of August

Just a quick note to bring you all up-to-date.  Lulu's back at the boat cleaning up after our day of work and I need to get back down there soon.

Today was pretty productive as boat work goes.  We got both of the

 headsails all finished.  Here's a picture of our snazzy new Spin-Tec furlers:

We also got the life raft and the stern pulpit bolted down.  Now this may not sound like a big deal to you but you probably aren't aware of what goes into such a job.  Take the liferaft for instance:  First, since it's being bolted down to the deck, all of the overhead covering material (pine bead board) has to be removed where the bolts will come through.  This is not just to hide the bolts but it's also for a secure attachment.  Imagine if you tried to bolt something to the outside of your house by running a bolt through the outer wall and the sheetrock and then tried tightening the nut on the sheetrock.  Wouldn't work too well.  Same thing on our boat.  The overhead is backed up by 1/2" styrofoam insulation.  Tightening a bolt against the overhead would simply crush the beadboard and the insulation before it even began to be secure.  So all those boards had to come down.  And since Lulu was taking boards down anyway, might as well take the ones that have to be removed to install the staysail tracks port and starboard.  And, since at least the first quarter of the beadboard is tongue and grooved together (before I wized up and removed the tongues), almost all of the boards have to be removed before we can get to the ones we need.  So, a big job.

Lulu got the quarter berth cleaned out and straightened up.  This is the area we commonly refer to as "the garage" because it's where everything that doesn't have another home gets stashed.  Another big job since you have to crawl into and out of it.  Imagine cleaning your garage on your belly.

Our friend Steve, from here at the marina, gave us a ride into town to get some groceries, lumber and propane.  [sidebar:  What was with the post-war parents naming all their baby boys "Steve"?  I don't remember a lot of other Steves in school (Steve Schmidt and Steve Shaw are the only ones that come immediately to mind), but now it seems like whenever I'm with other men of around my age, at least a third of them are named Steve.  Weird.].

Okay, that's about it for today.  Best get back to the boat.  Things are shaping up nicely for a Saturday or Sunday departure.

OK, so we won't make our August 31 goal...

I swallowed my pride and paid for another week of moorage yesterday.
There is just NO WAY we can be out of here (responsibly, anyway) by
tomorrow. So our new goal is to leave by next weekend (Labor Day
weekend). We have a very good chance of making that goal.

Today we got both headsails bent on. It went pretty well all-in-all.
The yankee (our large headsail) ended up being a couple of inches
long, even though we thought it might actually be a little short. I'd
like to blame it on Spin-Tec's instructions but the fact is that we
measured the actual length we needed so we screwed up somewhere.
Since the furler's foil keeps the luff straight, there's just a tiny
little jog near the foot of the sail. Not enough of an issue to worry
about. Someday we'll be working on the sails again and we'll take
care of shortening the yankee then. We had to experiment a little
with block location to get the furling line to wind up on the drum
(or, as Lulu calls it: "the bobbin") without trying to climb the
headstay but we eventually got it. Sure is nice to just be able to
roll or unroll the sail.

I spent the remainder of the day working on several projects and
completing none. Lulu was bust down below rearranging stuff. Last
night she made sandwiches for dinner. I requested some clam chowder to
go with. Well, all of our canned goods are in this deep pit behind
the stove. The opening in the top of the pit is about 16" long but
only 6" wide. It's virtually impossible to reach the bottom without
climbing on something. So, back when we were first stowing our canned
goods I came up with the brilliant idea of loading the canned goods in
those old canvas Safeway shopping bags and then tying a tag to the
handle telling what was inside. Impossible to reach the bottom of the
pit and pull out one can of something but relatively easy to pull out
a bag at a time. Or so I thought. Turns out that it's pretty easy to
manipulate the cans inside the bag when you're lowering the bag into
the pit. But when you're hoisting the bag back out, the cans resist
all attempts to be rearranged enough so the bag can clear the
opening. At first I watched Lulu struggle for awhile while thinking,
"Geez, woman! What is so hard about pulling a bag out of a hole?"
Then, being the helpful kind of guy I am, I offered to take over.
WHAT A PAIN! We ultimately got our can of clam chowder out but we
resolved to do something to fix this situation.

Well, to make an already too-long story a little shorter, we
ultimately ended up moving the cans to the cupboards behind the settee
seatback where they are much easier to get to. We shoved our foul
weather gear in the pit behind the stove. As a bonus, this little
move managed to help relieve our list to port a little. We've got a
lot of canned goods.

We got rid of some stuff yesterday and got most of what was left
stowed. You know how in the old days the officers on a ship were the
only ones who knew how to navigate? This helped to minimize the
chance of mutiny. If the crew mutinied they wouldn't be able to find
their way back to land, not knowing the art of navigation. Well, Lulu
has that same kind of insurance. She's the only one who has any idea
where stuff is on this little boat. You'd be amazed how easy it is to
lose stuff on a 28' boat.

I think all our big jobs are at least started. Should be able to
finish them up in the next couple days. Not sure what the weather is
supposed to do this week. Guess I'd better start paying attention. It
was sort of nice in Newport for awhile today but this afternoon the
wind piped up and things got kind of cold again (as usual). I'm
thinking about submitting a new slogan to the Chamber of Commerce.
Something like "Newport Blows". Think they'd go for that?

Well, time to tie this up. It's just about time to tuck into Lulu's
tuna casserole. Life is good.

Geez! What happened to the waterline?

After being back at the old home place for almost a week longer than planned, we're finally back at the boat for good.  Came over with a carload of stuff. The good news is that it all fit on the boat.  The bad news is that it's crammed into places like the engine room where it can't stay.  Most of the stuff will have to be jettisoned.  The hard part is deciding on which individual items to toss.  Each item was packed for a good reason but the fact is, we don't actually need any of it.  It would be easier, in a way, to just toss out a box at a time.  But what if that box has the French knife in it?  Or that book on learning celestial navigation?  Or the sextant?  Or the Brion Toss rigging book?  Or the vitamins?  Or the wifi antenna?  Or....?  And yet, every one of those things has to have a place to live along with all the stuff that was already on the boat.  OY!  Well, we'll get through it and in the process we'll donate a lot of stuff to the Freecycle box up at the marina laundromat.  Hopefully we'll remove enough to be able to see the waterline on the boat again.

We're not going to make it out of here by the end of August as hoped.  Now we're shooting for next weekend.  Before that we have to bend the sails on, rig the roller furlers, bolt down the new stern pulpit (railing), install the new hatch, install the ventilation components for the composting toilet, rig the lines to the windvane, bolt down the liferaft holder, install some padeyes to tie everything on deck down, and, now, install a new engine control lever.  Seems I lost my footing and stepped right down on the old one and broke it yesterday.  Fine!

Gave our car away to Lucas yesterday so we are now on foot (or public transportation) if we want to go anywhere.  First on the agenda today is a 6 mile round trip walk to Englund Marine to purchase the aforementioned engine controller.  Fortunately, we like to walk and it's good for us.  Then we'll move the dinghy to the starboard side deck to see if we can eliminate that ugly list to port.  Then we'll start bending the sails on.  Throw in stowing or tossing the stuff in a couple of boxes and today will be about shot.

We're really enjoying knowing that this is really our home now and that we should be underway within a week.

On a more somber note, if you've a mind to please read this link from our friends Greg & Jill, and if you feel it's appropriate, send in an e-mail for them:   http://www.svguenevere.com/aaron/casesummary.html

 

Sail mods..how hard can it be?

Says right there in that old article I saved from a long ago issue of Cruising World: "Beginning with only basic sewing skills, this author converted his hank-on headsail to work with new roller furling gear.  Here's how you can do the same thing".  How hard can it be? 

Lulu started with our staysail because it's the smaller of the two sails she has to convert.  They neglect to tell you in the articles just how hard it is to wrestle a sail through a sewing machine.  And this is our small sail.  And it's a full-blown Sailrite sewing machine.  I can't even imagine how hard the wrestling match with the yankee sail is going to be.  

To be fair, many of the problems associated with this job are directly related to the sewing machine.  First, the needle pierced this leaf spring leaving a jagged thread-eating hole.  Why?   Who knows?  We ordered a new part (and a spare) from Sailrite but didn't want to waste a bunch of time waiting for it to arrive so I finally fixed the piece with some J.B.Weld (don't leave home without it).  Got the repaired piece in place and adjusted so the needle wouldn't hit it again and Lulu started merrily sewing away.  For about 2 minutes.  Then, some other problem was causing the thread to get frayed and break.  We dove into the sewing machine manual to try to figure out the problem.  Never really isolated one problem as the definite cause so we went through the whole needle height/stitch timing/rotation timing/gib hook placement procedures.  Got everything adjusted just so.  

Now, the above paragraph plays down how hard it was to actually do these things.  Sailrite includes these two cheesy little fifty cent screwdrivers with their $900 sewing machine and then tells you not to use them for some of the maintenance. Huh?  Well, I have a pretty nice complement of tools (although most of them are at the boat) but the tools required to reach some of the machine screws and socket head set screws put my collection to shame.  There is almost nothing on this machine that you can reach with a normal 6" screwdriver.  Even stubbies are too big for some of the most basic jobs, like removing the plate that covers the feed dogs.  You need an offset screwdriver, which I have but which is at the boat.  Next best candidate: my SOG multitool with the screwdriver sort of bent over.  Either that or the driver from one of those 4-in-1 screwdrivers and a 5/16" open end wrench to turn it.  And even that didn't work in a bunch of the spots!  And the set screws!  I swear they built this machine from the inside out, tightening things as they went along and then covering them up.  I would love to see what the techs at Sailrite have in their toolboxes.  And, as if this wasn't all bad enough, we had to take the machine apart and put it back together at least a half a dozen times yesterday and again today.  Finally, late this afternoon we found what may have caused all the problems in the first place:  a loose set screw that allowed a bushing to drop and let everything go all loosey-goosey.  After finally locating the set screw, findng the appropriate allen wrench and then holding my mouth just so, I managed to get the bushing back in place.  With my fingers firmly crossed, I can say that we've had no problems since (and that's been nearly 3 hours with an hour out for dinner.  Wow!

Lulu just finished sewing all the sacrificial Sunbrella on the foot and leach of the staysail. Tomorrow: the luff tape and then, if there's time, start on the yankee.

So, if you run across us in a faraway anchorage somewhere and you have a ripped sail  please don't ask us to fix it.  If, on the other hand, your Sailrite sewing machine is giving you fits, we just might be able to help.

About that "Open Boat"...

I know that we told a bunch of you that we were going to have an "Open
Boat" in Newport sometime before we left so that anyone who wanted to
could come over and get a close-up look at our new home. Well, it's
not going to happen. Just not enough time left to plan it. However,
anyone who would like to drop by is more than welcome. We'll be back
at the boat in about a week. I'll post the actual date when we get
there. Please fell free to stop by and take a look. I'll post more
detailed info about where the boat is when we actually get back to her.

Back on the hill for a week or so

Communications may be sparse for the next week. We're back at the old
home place (now referred to correctly as "Cody's house") to get some
big projects done. Before we left the boat on Sunday we managed to
get the second Spin-Tec roller furler installed. I've now lost count
how many times I've been up and down the mast. The steps really do
make climbing it no big deal. And, the climber's harness I bought
yesterday from Oregon Mountain Community should make the whole safety
issue much easier to deal with. I spent yesterday in sweltering
Portland spending way too much money. Amazing to come out of West
Marine with, essentially two shopping bags and be $700 poorer. But it
was all stuff we needed so I guess that's the way it goes.

Lulu spent yesterday recutting the staysail. Have to install luff
tape where the hanks used to be and sew a piece if sacrificial
Sunbrella along the leech and foot of the sail so that, when it's
rolled up, the sail material itself isn't exposed to the damaging UV
rays of the sun. Today she has to re-do some of what she did and
maybe get started on the jib.

I will spend the day in the shop building the engine access hatch into
the cockpit sole (which I brought home). Also will finish up the
sliding hatch and the dorade for ventilating the AirHead.

An aside to you dirt-dwellers out there who don't speak "Sailor": The
two sails on the front of the boat are usually attached to a long
cable ("stay") that runs from the point of the boat to the top of the
mast or thereabouts. The sails are usually attached to the cable with
clips known as "hanks". To change a sail, the sail must be dropped,
removed from the cable, stored in a bag somewhere and then the new
(larger or smaller) sail is "hanked on" to the stay. With roller
furling, the sails are attached to a piece of aluminum ("foil") that
has a track along it's edge. The foil is installed is such a way that
the stay runs inside it. That's what we were doing last weekend. The
sails are modified with a piece if fabric that has a small diameter
line sewn in ("Luff tape") which can then be fed into the track and
which will then hold the sail in place on the foil. Then, instead of
lowering and removing the sail, it is simply rolled up like a window
shade. Roll it up partway and you have a smaller sail. Roll it up
all the way and the sail has been nicely stored without taking up any
valuable below-deck stowage space.

Sole, as in cockpit sole: This is how sailors refer to the "floor".
So I'm putting an opening in the floor of the cockpit so I can gain
easy access to the engine room. A "floor" on a boat is actually
something else and is involved with the actual framing of the boat.

Dorade: This is a kind of vent that is baffled so that, should sea
water enter the vent, very little, if any of it will make it's way
below decks.

End of class.

Up the mast and can the fish

Got a call from Englund Marine yesterday morning. Our rigging was
ready! I headed to town to get it, hauled it back to the boat, spread
it out on the dock and measured it to see if it was right this time.
Well guess what... IT WAS!

So my job during the afternoon was to climb the mast a couple times to
install the upper ends of the stays and then, after installing the
lower ends, start endlessly tweaking the turnbuckles to get the mast
to stand nice and straight without tightening the standing rigging so
much that it poked a hole through the top of the cabin. It was a
beautiful day and, with the new mast steps in place, climbing aloft
wasn't scary at all. Lulu tended my safety line from the cockpit and
it all went pretty smoothly. I did find a couple wee problems:
During mast step installation, I apparently lost the ability to count
and measure. I somehow forgot to install the last climbing rung on
the port side. This makes the 2 top rungs (the "standing" rungs)
pretty much inaccessible. I plant to fix that today. The other wee
problem is with the safety harness set-up. Having nothing else to
use, I just used my offshore safety harness. Well, I tell ya, I'd
sure hate to be hanging vertically from that thing for any length of
time. I'd probably strangle myself. So, I need to buy a rock
climbing harness on my next Portland trip. Today we'll use the steps
in combination with the bosun's chair to add the missing rung and to
do some tweaking on the ends of the spreaders. The main thing is, I
was very reassured to find out how natural and unscary it was to climb
aloft using mast steps.

When Lulu wasn't tending my safety line, she was down below canning
tuna. Decided to buy a tuna and try canning on the boat to see how it
will work out. With only two of us aboard, much of the meat from the
tons of huge fish we're going to catch would mostly be wasted. Only
so much fridge space and no freezer. So, she broke out our trusty
Presto pressure cooker and loaded it with 8 half-pint jars and away
she went. You have to process tuna for a LONG time (like an hour and
forty minutes after it reaches pressure) but she ran two batches
anyway. Could've canned 16 jars but we only had a dozen. That left
enough fresh tuna for a tuna satay over rice last night and who knows
what tonight.

Today's big job is to install both furlers. Not as nice out today as
it was yesterday but hopefully it at least won't rain on us. I'll try
to get some photos of the bosun's chair in action. This is the last
big job before we go back to Silverton for a week to get the rest of
the stuff done that we need to do there.