St Marys Low Tide
07 March 2016 | St. Mary's, GA
Capn Andy/Sunny and Warm
Travel arrangements were made to go up to the Bodkin, take care of business there, stay about a week, and possibly drive the Miata down to the boatyard. I began putting things away so that they would not get ruined if there was a gullywasher while I was away.
.
One of the rudders had a cracked rudder head, and the crack was wide enough that epoxy could be flowed into it. The epoxy would leak out, however, so I used hot melt glue to close one edge of the crack, then filled it with epoxy, then clamped it together, mopping up any epoxy oozing out with a chip brush. The excess epoxy was mixed with silica to make a putty to fill in any available dings.
.
The repair camera came in and I disassembled it. It had a lens error according to the listing and it indeed had a lens problem, the lens was internally damaged. This usually happens when the camera is dropped when the lens is extended. I ordered another parts camera for about $12 including shipping. I had been hoping for the type of lens repair such as cleaning sand out of the lens bellows or reseating the lens mechanically. Replacing the lens is somewhat tricky with tiny ribbon cables and little screws.
.
When I took a look at the box the camera had come in I was shocked to see it was not the model number I had thought I had ordered. Maybe they had just used an available box and the camera was the correct model, but no, the camera was an AX550, not AX650 per its listing on eBay. I had ordered an AX655 with a good lens to swap and now it might not fit. I contacted the seller of the AX550 about the discrepancy and they refunded the purchase. How many broken cameras will I have on hand.
.
The experiments with tin can alcohol stoves might be coming to an end. The problem isn't that the stoves aren't efficient or hot enough, the problem is that there isn't enough room in the little cans for "real" cooking, such as boiling down a stock out of shrimp shells for a few hours. The original Origo stove cannisters had the capacity of about 1 liter, which is plenty for cooking stews or soup stock. One cannister weighed as much as it did when filled with alcohol, as though something had got in there and wouldn't drain out. That something was seawater when it flooded the galley. The other cannister was heavy, but I found it to get lighter and lighter over time.
.
I tested the lighter of the two cannisters and it burned with a clean flame and looked acceptable to put back in action. I cut the top off the other one using dremel cutting disks. It took a while and I broke the tool, which was not dremel, but harbor freight, got it working again and finished the cutting. The stuff inside the cannisters is like a coil of dense fiberglass wound around a circular stack of the same material. The circular stack is the same diameter as the hole in the top of the cannister where the flame burns. There is a cotton fabric-like material between the two fiberglass pieces.
.
The innards were dunked in a 5 gallon bucket of fresh water, squeezed like a sponge, over and over, bucket drained, process repeated several times. They were then squeezed dry between two blocks of wood with large clamps, then fluffed up, still wet, like wet laundry, and allowed to air dry.
.
24 hours later they were still a little damp. I put them into the cannister, now with no top, and poured about 4 oz of alcohol on them and lit it. It burned for quite a while. The fiberglass began to turn gray in some areas. My next idea was to put the open cannister full of fiberglass wicking material on top of the experimental alcohol stove, just as if it was a pot of water. I lit the experimental stove and let the cannister cook on top. I could see some sort of fumes coming off.
.
After things cooled down I put the top back on top the cannister, along with a stainless steel mesh that belonged there. Both cannisters had been cleaned and buffed using buffing wheels and chrome cleaner, they looked bright and shiny, not as good as new. The loose top was glued to the open cannister using JB Weld's steel epoxy putty. It said on the package it could be used on exhaust systems, so let's see.
.
The cannisters were reinstalled in the cooktop and leftover pasta with red clam sauce was heated, using a piece of slate as a pizza stone to distribute the heat and prevent burning. It worked well enough. The cooking fire was well controlled with even heat. No pasta was burned.
.
The Origo alcohol stove concept tries to make it easier to operate the stove intermittently without knowing exactly how much alcohol you are going to burn. You can fill it with the better part of a liter of alcohol, light it and cook, then there is a cover to douse the flame and keep the alcohol from evaporating. One problem is having to open the stove any time you want to access the cannisters. I like to leave cookware on top of the stove. I have to relocate everything to light the stove, then when I want to douse it, I have to relocate hot cook pots. Also, the cannisters get hot and melt the gaskets that are supposed to keep the alcohol sealed up from evaporating. You have to douse the fire and wait till things cool down, then cover the cannisters. A lot of trouble. The good news is that you can put just enough alcohol to do your cooking job, and it will burn out by itself. It looks like 3 oz of alcohol burns for 10-15 minutes and you could probably prorate that for longer cooking.
.
I need to time cooking times with various amounts of alcohol. I will report these as I cook along.
.
The shopping trip that got the high temperature JB Weld also got screws and conduit clamps to finish the swimming ladder steps. They had been installed using only two clamps per step just to put it together, now they could be finished and that job crossed off the list.
.
The AX655 parts camera came in and it looked like its battery door was missing one of the hinge pivots on the camera body. This was rebuilt with 5 minute epoxy and some colloidal silica/microfiber mix borrowed from the boatbuilding supplies. After it set up, the camera was assembled with new batteries and it worked OK. There was still another missing piece. The battery door has two latch plates molded in plastic on the edge of the camera body and one was missing. This was rebuilt with the 5 minute epoxy and a thin small piece of wood, about as large as a grain of rice.
.
The picture is of the swamp here at the boatyard. The camera cost 12 dollars and change, new they were still less than a hundred dollars and used can be had for 30 to 40 dollars.