Rig Check

With the help of my crew, I went up the mast to clean the spreaders, and perform a final rig check. We head out to sea next week!

Anchor Chain

I decided to inspect the anchor chain, so I ran out the complete length of the chain. This chain is over 20 years old, so I wasn't completely surprised to find the corroded chain ball pictured here, lurking at the bottom of the chain locker. It's definitely past time to replace this, so today, I bought 200 feet of new chain. It only weighs about 300 pounds, so it shouldn't be a problem to get it aboard. ;)

Mainsail Furler

Today, we successfully replaced the electric motor that drives the mainsail furler. The new motor works great, and it will be so much easier to reef the mainsail now. This is the last major job that needed to be completed before we leave, so now we can focus on provisioning the boat with food for the crew!

Short List

There are just a few items left on the "must do" list before we depart. Tomorrow we will drop the mainsail, remove the boom, and pull the gooseneck out to replace the mainsail furler drive. This electric motor failed at the beginning of this season, and it's an important system to have. With the electric drive working, we can take in the mainsail or reef it from the cockpit by pushing a button. Without it, we have to send someone to the mast to wind it in manually. It's not too hard, but imagine doing it on a rough day, or worse, at night in a building breeze. So, it's worthwhile to get this working.

The next, and really final safety task, is to inspect the rig from top to bottom. I'll go to the top of the mast and take a look at each and every fitting on the mast, looking for any anomalies, like missing cotter pins, or any cracked fittings. I don't expect any issues, but it's an important practice to check everything before going offshore. I've heard many stories of disasters averted by a simple inspection. And, I've heard the other stories, of disasters at sea caused by a single failed piece of hardware. I always say that I want to be at least two failures away from disaster!

Liferaft Aboard!

Today we installed the life raft. May we never need it! The list of things to do is growing shorter, as is the time before departure. We're almost ready to head north.

Mast Climbing

Today I went up the mast to repair the steaming light, which was out. It turned out that the bulb was fine, just a little corrosion on the contacts. It's all good now!

Starting Battery

The engine starting battery has been a little anemic lately, and I have suspected that it's failing. It's reached the point that it only holds a charge for a few days, so today we replaced it. These 4D size batteries weigh about 100 pounds, so I enlisted the help of my friend Scott to heave the old one out, and bring the new one in. Thanks Scott!

When I took the old battery back to the store for the core charge, they told me that my old battery was purchased in 2005. So, this old battery went 16 years! That's the most life I've ever seen from a battery.

Sun Shades

The new sun shades for the bimini arrived yesterday. These will make sunsets in the cockpit much more enjoyable! We had these designed so that they just zip onto the bimini, so it will be convenient to take them on and off as needed.

Liferaft Cradle

We completed the installation of the liferaft cradle yesterday. It's always "fun" to drill new holes in the boat! We'll put the liferaft into the cradle just before we depart.

Sunset at Anchor

 

We had a nice dinner at sunset last evening...

Bunks are Made

The bunks are made, and we're ready to start sleeping aboard. Now we just need to pick an evening to go anchor out somewhere...

New Galley Faucet

Yesterday's project was installing a new faucet in the galley. The old one had started leaking, and it will be nice to have one with a spray attachment.

Fuel Backflow

I'm still chasing a problem where the fuel drains out of the fuel filter when the engine is stopped. This is the fuel filter 24 hours after running the engine. You can see that the fuel has drained about half way down the bowl, to the pickup point for the fuel filter. I've engaged with a diesel mechanic to help me find the cure for this. This isn't a huge problem, more of an inconvenience really. But, it's the one thing that is preventing the engine from being reliable, so I really want to get to a solution.

First Sail of the Season!

We got out on Silence yesterday for our first sail of the season. We didn't go far, but it sure was a great day. The first order of business was getting the sails bent onto the furlers, and I had help from my nephew, Andrew, for that. We had about 15 knots of breeze from the south, and we saw boat speeds around 7.5 knots. Silence galloped across the bay, happy to be back in action.

Cockpit Table

Over the winter, I applied fresh varnish to the cockpit table. Today, we reinstalled it aboard, yet another sign of spring!

Free Electricity!

We just finished up the wiring for the solar panel. Look at those free amps flowing into the batteries!

Solar Panel

We mounted the new solar panel this morning! This 300 Watt panel will provide most of the power that we need to run systems on the boat, and will reduce the amount we need to run the generator during a 24 hour cycle. Less generator time means less fuel burned, and more quiet time. It's a win-win for the environment, and our quality of life aboard.

Stuffing Box Repacking

This morning is blustery and cold, so it's a good day for "inside" work. This morning's project is to repack the stuffing box. This needs to be done occasionally, when the adjustment nut seems to have more resistance than normal when tightening to control the water ingress. (If you're not familiar with what a stuffing box does, think of the drive shaft going through the hull of the boat to the propeller. The hole around the shaft needs to be filled with something soft to allow the shaft to turn without too much friction, and allow some water to come in for cooling and lubrication of the shaft. The stuffing box nut allows you to control the amount of water by compressing the stuffing around the shaft.) Above are the tools I needed to do the job: a knife to cut the new stuffing to size, a corkscrew pick to get the old stuffing out, a wrench to turn the nut on the stuffing box, and a hammer to just tap the locking nut to keep the nut from turning after it's adjusted. The piece of PVC pipe is used to help push the stuffing into the stuffing nut around the shaft.

Davit Crossbar

This week I installed a crossbar on the davits, which serves several purposes: it adds rigidity to the davits, it provides an installation point for the solar panel, and it allows me to move the stern light to a higher position to be visible even when carrying a dinghy on the davits. 

Flag

Up until now, we have flown the flag from a staff on the stern railing, however, with the installation of the solar panel, this will no longer work. So, today I added a flag halyard to the backstay.