Keith, hot and humid
06/26/2008, Deaton Yachts

Matt has been working his butt off trying to get the wind turbine, solar array, and wind vane self steering systems operational. The last two days have been particularly hard work. Wiring large guage electrical cable, installing connecting equipment, soldering, shrink wrapping, drilling holes for wires and equipment, applying epoxy to the inside of the holes, installing in line fuses, switches... I could go on and on. The magnitude of this refit was more than we anticipated, to put it mildly. A client commented that her refit was scheduled to take 6 weeks and lasted 18 months. Thank goodness mine won't be that long. Matt may just pull it off before we have to depart this afternoon back to New Bern for Matt's flight to Atlanta and then back to Tucson. There are no words adequate to offer thanks for the sort of hot, sticky, sometimes painful work that Matt has been doing on Tropical Dreamer.

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Keith, H and H
06/25/2008, Deaton Yachts

I bought a Walker Bay hard dingy from the previous owner along with the Catalina 36 because that is a necessary cruising tool which is used to get from the boat to shore and back. The dingy came with a tube that goes around the side (RID, Rigid, Inflatable Tube - a hybred between a hard dingy and an inflatable), but the previous owner didn't have it installed because it had holes and he hadn't fixed them. So I did. Matt and I filled the tube with air, took it to the water, and inspected it while pushing sections of it into the water. It was pretty easy to spot the bubbles, some coming from a previous repair. I broke out the repair kit, read the directions, and followed them. The tube has been holding air now for days. Once it is attached to the dingy, it will increase the hard dingy's boyancy tremendously and hopefully allow me to transport Jake and Anne safely and securely. The rated capacity with the tube installed is three adults. It has a 3.3 HP Mercery 2 stroke engine that powers the boat fairly robustly. Without the tube it was a very unstable boat, but nible and easily rowable - not appropriate for dogs. I have another dingy, the Zodiac, which was on Singmeaway (the Catalina 25 which is still for sale at Lake Pleasant, AZ). It is bigger and very stable, but I want to try and make the Walker Bay work if posible and the Zodiac (and the Honda 2hp 4 stroke that goes along with it) will be my back-up/liferaft.

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Keith, a misty foggy morning
06/25/2008

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Keith, hot and humid.
06/25/2008, Oriental, NC

There hasn't been enough wind at the storage yard to see if it works, but the power test (two lights of the red light) was a success. Weeks of work (Matt's work) went into the installation of this machine. May it provide lots of eco-friendly power to Tropical Dreamer. Note the solar panels on top of the bimini. We've been working on the wiring of those babies for several days now. You can also see the brackets for the Hyrovane have been installed and it is just about ready for the main drive unit. Tomorrow afternoon Matt is going home, so it is going to be a busy day (again).

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Keith
06/25/2008

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Keith, morning cool
06/24/2008, A residental street in Oriental

This is going to sound odd, but now that I think it's over, I'm going to share it.

When we first arrived at the self storage rv park, Jake and Anne were exploring and they took off after something. I went after them. That something turned out to be a baby bunny. I checked it out. It was too damaged to be saved, but far from dead. It was suffering. I knew I had to put it out of its misery. It was horrible. It looked at me when it was time and laid its head down as if it knew. I kind of felt like it put bad karma on us. The memory bothered me for a long time and still does at this moment. Today I came across a completely flattened turtle on the side of the road. Not far away, I found another turtle on the side of the road, this one live. I took a picture, picked him up, and put him snugly into the forest. I think it put the force back in balance, so to speak.

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Keith, Early Morning Cool
06/22/2008, Oriental Town Dock

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Keith
06/22/2008

I've graduated to level 7 on the Matt scale of mechanical proficiency. I don't know how many levels there are, but I don't think level 7 is that high in the celestial scheme of things. I have grave doubts about the water tightness of that repair. I'll let you know how it turns out. Nice picture though.

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Keith, summer NC weather
06/22/2008, The Aft Cabin Under The Engine Cover (Not Normally Visible)

Today is Sunday. Most everything is closed in Oriental, except for the grocery store (and the churches, of course). We did our shopping, among other things such as laundry, dishes, dog walk and feed, organzing documents, skye phone calls to family and a few friends, and cooking and eating. Earlier this morning we did some work on the boat, including installing the wire above, installing the 50 amp breaker for the wind turbine, and pumping up the Walker Bay Dingy Inflatable and putting into the water to check for leaks. I have been washing my boat lines in the free washing machine at the self storage rv park we live in (presently) to freshen them up. They are clean and new looking. Now I need to figure out how they go back on the boat. The dock lines were pretty straight forward, but the jib sheet may be installed wrong. I'll have to check that out more. Note the appearance of the Phil Collins shirt again. I've had it for over 20 years and it never got worn until now. The Israeli Phil Collins shirt I have is being saved as a treasure of the 1980s - I just cannot allow it to be worn, especially for boat work. On a completely unrelated note, Matt revealed to me two days ago that he didn't know who James Taylor is. James Taylor, the Robert Frost of American music. So I've been playing him the best of James Taylor off of U-Tube on the Internet.

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Keith, plenty of sun
06/22/2008, Deaton Yachts

I managed to pull this picture off of Matt's internet site. Those are the two kiocera 135 watt panels. Their weight is why we needed to reinforce the bimini with four stainless steel tubes and associated brackets and hardware (including having two stainless steel plates fabricated). Between the support bars and the panels themselves, the bimini is now extremely sturdy. Presently we are in the wiring phase. Unfortunately, the wire they sent with the package was completely inadequate and we are awaiting the shipment of new wire (I think I've written all of this already). We are three weeks into the refit and it is looking that a full month will be necessary to get Tropical Dreamer ready to splash. Then I can tackle the next set of challenges, whatever they may be. I've gotten used to Matt's keen ability to problem solve and will need to handle what comes on my own. His work on this refit is greatly appreciated.

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