Waiting for Hoses

Well, the new cabinet shelves were finished and look great!  The teak bar along the front of the shelf is not only attractive, it is functional.  (It keeps things from sliding into the doors while the boat is heeled.)

Finished shelf in forward head

Finished shelf under salon bunk

Mike has been continuing to work on the watermaker installation.  He ordered high-pressure hose and fittings so he could make the hoses he needed, rather than order custom (crimped) hoses.  Making our own is a little more expensive, but with Mike's hydraulic experience, if we have problems with the hoses, we (translate:  HE) will have the intimate knowledge and be able to effect any repairs.  He cut and assembled one hose (with fittings) to run between the pump and the membrane housing.  The other hose, which runs between the membrane housing and the control panel, needs to be assembled after work is completed on the control panel.  (A custom panel is being made.)  Both hoses are rated for 4000 psi, so there is no room for any mistakes!

While waiting for the hose to arrive (we're on a very friendly basis with our UPS man!), he felt that some of the deck needed refurbishing, as it was getting water underneath the teak.  This project was the starboard side of the deck between the scupper and the aft decking (that was refurbished last year).  We managed to finish the project over 5 days (3 actual days of work).  Since we have detailed the operation in a previous blog, we won't bore you here.  And, there are more sections of the deck that need refurbishing this year.  These pictures give you an idea of where and how much was done in this project:

Decking removed; waiting for cleaning & prepping

Refurbishment finished

We are also continuing to inventory and pack spare parts on the boat.  As our cruising friends know, this will take a while.  For those of you who don't know, this will take a while.  Deciding where things go, how often you will use them, and actually how often you use them are ever-changing.  So, you just start packing things where they fit and/or make sense and hope that you won't always be digging down to the bottom of the most remote locker.  And, if you do, you just end up re-packing.

We did get a hint from a cruising friend (thanks Wendy!) that having little bags helps not only to keep items together but to identify where they are.  So Jenny hit the fabric store and made a couple of bags as samples.  They were used quickly and so another trip to JoAnn Fabrics is on the list. 

Sample storage bags

Adding shelves

We've been hauling things from the basement to Abake.  It's difficult to decide what should be buried deep and what should be packed to make it more easily accessible.  We're told that Abake was first purchased by an airline pilot who lived aboard and wanted a place to store his uniforms.  So the hanging lockers are cedar-lined and a big open space.  The pilot lived on-board for a year and sold her to a family who used her for weekend cruising.  So the hanging lockers remained as closets.  Since we don't plan to take many hanging clothes, these needed to be converted for storage purposes.  So, we are building shelves to maximize the storage space in these closets.  This is the large space in the forward head where a shelf has been added and one has since been added at the bottom so the lower space is more usable:

Shelf Added

Under the queen bunk in the salon one of the cabinets already had a shelf, nicely finished with teak.  We are going to be emulating that in the closet next to that, which previously had been a hanging closet (notice the cedar lining):

Existing shelf under queen bunk

Cedar cabinet's new shelf, minus trim

And to show you we're really moving in, we've finally decided where to mount and have mounted our classic brass (wind-up) striking ship's bell clock and barometer, which we removed from our first sailboat, Namida (our 32' Westsail).  They need refinishing but for right now, they look classy to us!  And, they look very much at home now.

Before

After (clock and barometer hung)

Since it was Father's Day this past weekend, we spent some wonderful time with family (kids and grandkids!).  We watched our 2-year old grandson enjoy at the marina pool and enjoyed some wonderful meals and conversation (and Hawaiian shaved ice!).  It was well worth skipping a weekend of work on the boat.

We're Back And Rolling Again

Catching up ... let's see.

Well, we took our trip from Jacksonville to Annapolis (South River) as crew on a Swan 46.  We drove to FL with the Captain and waited out a storm that brought over 7" of rain to the Jacksonville area.  It gave us time to familiarize ourselves with the boat and to get the engine in good working condition (including tightening the mounting bolts and fixing a fuel leak).  We took off on a Monday morning and headed straight for the Gulf Stream.  We watched the water temperature steadily increase and when it hit 80 and the water was a beautiful cobalt blue, we knew we had found it.  Oh, and the 3 1/2-knot push of the current gave us a clue, too.  We spent about 3 days of beautiful weather riding the Gulf Stream north and even provided a haven for 3 birds who chose to spend their last few hours at sea with us.  We hit Norfolk and crossed over the Bay Bridge tunnel at 12:30 at night and headed up the Chesapeake.  The weather continued to hold out until we reached close to Thomas Pt. when we saw a storm approach.  We dropped the sails and motored the rest of the way up the South River to the slip.  We headed home to get sleep around 1:30 in the morning and returned the next day to pick up the rest of our stuff.  So 4 1/2 days and a little over 700 miles now puts us on the map for having sailed from Maine to Northern Florida.  And, it just made us a little more anxious to get out on Abake for our own adventures.

No better view than the ocean from a sailboat

Time to play!

Enjoying the trip

There's always a sunset picture

 

Mike continued to work on the watermaker.  (We're not going to use it here in the Chesapeake Bay and especially not in the slip -- we're next to the fuel dock and too many people spill fuel.  That would ruin our membrane.)  He installed solenoid control valves (plumbed them).  They will allow us to flush the system when we are done making water and to control the water flow to the high-pressure pump.

Solenoid (control) valves

Our ICOM radio came back before the delivery trip, so we were anxious to get home afterward and get it installed.  We took a couple of trips to RF Connection in Gaithersburg, which was recommended by Dave Skolnick from SSCA.  What a great place!  Even Jenny got excited about all the ham radio supplies. We picked up cables (coax, and ladder line for radials), coax connectors, and in-line lightning protection (and a spare!) for the SSB.  Even tho it was a hike to Gaithersburg, the store is in the same shopping center as El Pollo Rico, so we had a couple of great lunches of Peruvian chicken.

It took a few days of running cable, installing radials and counterpoise, and installing the tuner and control head, speaker, and Pactor modem.  But when Mike finally was able to test the radio, sending and receiving via the Pactor and voice, he made contact with a ham from Croatia.  The following week he was able to make contact with another ham from Italy.  So, we think the installation went well.  And, now the nav(igation) station is looking like a nav station!

 

A bonafide nav station!

Mike finally told Jenny that she can start loading the boat.  When she went to start stuffing things in the lockers below the bunk in the salon, we realized that they had not been painted (nor had the bunk under the cushions).  So, another couple of days of painting and NOW we think we have all of the lockers painted!  We then started hauling stuff from the basement (that we had on Namida) down to Abake and started cleaning up all the tools, old wood, screws/bolts/washers, and various hardware.  After the first day of cleaning up, it didn't look like much.  But we knew we had taken the first big chunk out of the work.

Locker before

Locker after

Yes, some cleaning has already occurred!

And, since it's getting warm out, we took some sodas down to the boat and turned on the refrigeration.  Now we have cold Sunny D on a hot sunny day!