Aug. 22 Deltaville, VA

After breakfast I started to sand the bow pulpit but didn't have any of the correct sandpaper...so it was off to the hardware. It is tough to work in the sun here with temps in the 90's. I take lots of breaks and drink about 10 pints of water a day.
Kathy worked most of the day rebedding the bases of the stays and finished 4 before getting rained out. After finishing the rough sand, I changed jobs and scurbbed the starboad topsides in preparation for waxing. There were storms around us most of the day but at about 4:30, just as we were completing our jobs, it started to rain...hard, and continued for about an hour and a half. We were planning on walking down to the fire barn for a shrimp boil but it never totally stopped raining so we made some beef and noodles for dinner.


August 21st, 2009 Deltaville, VA
I began the day with the idea that I would finish the watermaker installation and then begin worrying about the charger/inverter problem but it didn't turn out that way. Mike, (the waterman and our neighbor) showed up early with a dozen eggs, a fishing magazine, and 8 frozen clusters.
A cluster seems to be a soft shelled crab with the shell section removed. He also casually mentioned that he might need a little help painting his boat today. I had offered to help a few days ago but generally these folks do things themselves.
I worked under the sink long enough to know what nuts and bolts I was missing and then rode into town with Mike who also needed some things from the hardware.
Kathy worked on cleaning the area between the gunnels and the cockpit where our jerry cans are located. The stainless steel is hard to reach with the cans in place and the whole area rarely gets a good scrubbing.
Around mid-morning, when Mike had finished sanding and wiping his boat down, we mixed up the paint, thinner and penathol to the right consistency and started. I applied the paint with a roller and he followed along tipping with a brush. Once started there is no stopping because you always need to have a wet edge to avoid brush marks. When we were about half done a guy pulled up in a pick-up admiring the "Tammy C." and our paint job. He owned an old workboat and just wanted to talk. We couldn't stop painting but did chat him up for a while. In the course of the conversation Mike mentioned that she was for sale. The guy said that he knew someone who was in the market and left with a cell number. We finished up a little later, the "Tammy C." looking good except for two small sags in the paint on the port bow, which will hopefully be hidden when name painter comes.
I went back to the watermaker installation and worked until I was once again stopped for lack of parts. Then following instructions I found on line trouble shooting our inverter/charger problem, disconnected the ground wire from the inverter. In the process I checked the water level in the batteries and spent the next two hours removing them and topping them off.
After a late lunch, I took the car and made another trip to the hardware in an attempt to run for customer of the month. I picked up some shorter bolts and 11 inch if vinyl hose to lengthen the drain from the sink. Mike and Tammy left and then returned with some "For Sale" signs, and then hung around to talk. They are finished with their work would come back only to launch. They want us to come visit when we get in the water.
I worked for a while longer while Kathy scraped the butterfly hatch, but finally quit around 5 pm for a trip to the pool and then a shower. Clean and cooled off, we were sitting in the cockpit reading before supper when a shiny new VW Passat pulled into our meadow and a couple got out to inspect the "Tammy C." They looked very interested so I climbed down the ladder to talk. I knew that it would be all right with Mike so took them aboard to check out the cabin, engine and work area. They stayed for another 45 minutes taking photos from every conceivable direction. As soon as they left, I called Mike to apologize for boarding the "Tammy C." without permission, but he was happy that I had.
Kathy made a salad and heated up some green beans while I fried up our crabs for an excellert dinner.
I tossed the crabs in some flour, corn meal, and Old Bay and sauted them until they were just starting to brown. We will be buying some .....




August 20th Deltaville, VA
I was up early with the manual for the Link 1000 and found that nowhere did it mention the situation or the symptoms we were seeing. I tried to contact the company by email but nothing would go through. To make matters worse we now found that the Inverter/charger was also not doing anything. The Link 1000 serves as the on and off switch for the inverter/charger but it should run on its own when control wire back to the Link system is removed....It still didn't do anything.
It has been days since I've put any tools away and our boat is such a mess that we can hardly walk through. So before we did anything else it was time to clean up. Kathy washed of the dirty dishes in the bathroom sink and I started finding homes for the stuff left out everywhere. I uncovered the solar panels and washed them down....our only source of power at this point in time. (The Honda also passes through the charger.)
After getting squared away a little, I spent most of the morning on the internet researching and checking on prices. I couldn't get through to the west coast to talk to the Xantrex Tech guy but kept trying throughout the day.
In the afternoon I went to town and purchased a small battery charger which we now have connected directly to the battery bank. When we need 110 AC, we simply unplug the charger and plug in to the extension cord. Until we get things figured out and fixed or replaced, we can operate this way.
When we got some shade...around 4pm, we put the last coat of gloss on the toe rail; Kathy working from the top while I moved the ladder around the boat trying to keep up with her. I was also hitting the rub rails, so it took me more time than it did her.
We mixed up some left over pork with a package of Uncle Ben's long grain and wild rice and had it along with some squash that Kathy sautéed with some onions. Later, with the TV plugged in to the extension cord, we watched the next to the last episode of "The Deadliest Catch."


August 19th.... Deltaville, VA
One day here looks a lot like yesterday...we had coffee and I started on the water system. After a while I needed some parts so I checked out the car and headed for Hurds.
Mike, our neighbor, brought me his grease gun for our thru hull fittings so one of my first jobs today was to clean and rebuild the two thru-hulls which were under the old water heater. I used some muriatic acid and then rinsed everything. I replaced the zert fittings and then went outside to push the carriage bolts through the hull while Kathy threaded the lock nuts on from the cabin. Finally, with everything in place I shot some grease in them and worked them back and forth enough to move much more freely.
Kathy continued to scrape the butterfly hatch while I worked on cutting some 2x6's to build a little platform for the watermaker. It took forever with nothing but a jig saw with a bad blade, but eventually I finished just in time for Kathy to give them a coat of the white paint she was using to recoat the board that holds our jerry cans.
It is really hot here this week... mid 90's are the norm, so this afternoon we took a break and visited the pool. We were the only ones there and the water was quite nice. After 20 minuts of soaking we'd had enough and returned to the boat.
We have decided that the "blue Stripe" is done. It could be better, and there are a few problem spots but all in all it looks good for a couple of amateurs. I decided to take the tape off later in the evening.
Mike, Tammy and their son Trey were planning on painting their boat so we chatted with them about the weather building in the west. I went down and checked on the computer and it looked like the first storm was going to pass to our north....with maybe a sprinkle here. The main line of thundershowers were in Richmond at the time moving our way. I made my weather report to the painters and watched.
It sprinkled just after they started but stopped long enough for them to finish. However, as they were picking up their things the wind came up and blew pine needles in their paint. There was nothing to do but sand it our and repaint.
Shortly after they left we had a great storm. We put the sides on the cockpit so we could stay out to watch. It rained in torrents with constant lightening, some very close, for about 45 minutes. Finally things started to settle down I went below to start working on supper. We seared some pork chops and finished them in the oven along with our one sweet potato.
After dinner, with the storm gone, we sat down to watch a video but we went to our Link 1000 to switch to invert (to turn on the AC system for the TV) we found it flashing +1 and pushing buttons didn't do anything. I checked the fuses but found nothing wrong so we read for a while and went to bed.



August 18th... Deltaville, VA
After coffee, I sanded the cockpit teak and then set up the ladders to sand the blue stripe as well. The directions call for a sanding with 320 grit between coats. By the time I finished Kathy had some breakfast for us. The weather was hot and clear but there was a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon so we weren't sure if we were going to be able to varnish or paint today.
We needed groceries so took the car to the market and picked up a few things. While at the meat counter I picked up a pre-packaged slice of ham ($3.78) that would make a good meal. Right next to it was a half ham ($7.42) which seemed huge. I went with half ham and we were on our way.
Back at the boat after putting away purchases, I got out a cutting board and knive and began the process of carving the ham...after cutting trimming and bagging for what seemed like hours, with lard over everything, I ended up with what looks to be 7 or 8 meals. But when I went to clean up my mess....I remembered that our water system was still out of commission. I did the best that I could and got the first couple of layers of grease off .... but it wasn't really that clean.
Kathy decided that the weather was going to hold and began on the teak while I worked on the water system below. My first task was remounting our foot operated pump in a slightly better position than before and then I cut and routed the hot water lines. Finally, I decided to remove the two thru-hull fittings that are located directly below that sink. They both need new zert fittings and washers. I worked for a while removing the bolts and disassemblying things but when it came time to screw the bottom half from the top half of the fittings neither one would budge.
We have a reasonably good sized pipe wrench on board and the correct tool to put in the thru-hull but with all my weight on the wrench nothing mov ed. Plan two is to clean and regrease them in place.
I had Kathy come below to help with the testing of the new water system. She stood at the panel and turned the pump on and off. We found two fittings that I hadn't bothered to tighten, and we had to give the pump a little help to get it primed, but in a couple of minutes all was well...no leaks.
By now...about 4pm the port side of the boat had been in the shade for about an hour and it was cool enough to paint. Kathy had checked the relative humidity on the computer and had looked at the radar for storms so really had no excuses.
With our scaffold in place and more thinner in the paint today, we worked our way around the boat in about an hour. The outcome looks good and I'll look at it again in the morning but I think we're done with that job.
Before heading to the showers, I cut up some ham, onion, pepper and pineapple and put it in a foil pouch with a sauce consisting of honey, catsup and vinegar. Supper in a bag.
After getting cleaned up we chatted with our neighbors as they painted next to us while our dinner was warming up on the grill.



August 17th... Deltaville, VA
The teak was still tacky this morning so we took advantage of the morning shade on the starboard and taped off the blue stripe. I used a different type of tape and an exacto knife on the hard spots and it worked a little better. After finishing, I sanded the area and it was ready to go when we get the right window.
I worked on the water system while Kathy scraped the butterfly hatch which is the next varnishing project. Around noon I went to the hardware for some plumbing fittings and had them order two or three items that I would need a little later.
About 3:30 with good weather, we set up the scaffold and prepared to paint the blue stripe. Kathy rolled the paint on with a small roller and I followed up smoothing it out. The paint dried quickly in the heat and it was hard to keep a wet edge when we moved the ladder system, but all in all it was a good experience and the final product was acceptable.
By the time we finished it was time for a shower. Supper was chicken, the only thing we had in the freezer, and Kathy made a good salad.