05/18/2012, Vuda Point Marina
When we first bought Zephyr(almost 5 years ago) I had long conversations the the last owner, Bill. I'd asked him what the switch that said "LIGHT" was on the panel that has the key to start the engine. He had no idea.
Jump forward to today. When ever we run the engine at night, the lights on the instruments(oil pressure, water temperature, voltage, and tachometer) didn't work. You had to use a flashlight from time to time to see if everything was alright. Today was the day to see why they didn't work.
I unscrewed the cabinet and easily found the wires that went to the four lights in question. Attached to the fitting was a pink wire that disappeared into the boat. I unscrewed the ceiling panels and Tracy found the correct wire. I pulled on it a bit just to be sure. Across the ceiling it went and down into the starboard wall cabinet. Under the settee and into one of the cabinets in the galley. Down to the floor and under the floor boards and back to the engine room. Into the engine room and across it and up the far wall. Through a hole cut in the forward firewall and right into the cabinet that has the switch to start the engine. It was attached to the switch that says "LIGHT". Amazing. All these years and no one knew. Unfortunately, the other wire that conducts the current wasn't attached to anything. I found a positive current wire and screwed it on. Tracy grabbed a blanket and headed for the cockpit to check out the instruments. She needed some darkness to see if they worked. Once covered, I threw the switch and we had light. Three of four light worked. The one on the tachometer didn't light up. I pulled out the bulb and it looked like it was burned out. I quickly changed clothes and headed out for the 1300 bus to town in search of a new bulb.
Seven stores later, I had the replacement bulb and headed back. The new bulb didn't work either. For some reason, the socket for the bulb only reads 9 volts and not 12. Tomorrow, I'll try and figure out why and get it all fixed. It will be nice to have lights on the instruments when we are out at night. A bit of security when the engine is running.
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05/15/2012, Vuda Point Marina
Early this morning as Tracy and I sat below having breakfast, we heard this rustle and a thump or two on deck and then quiet. Not being a sound we have heard before, Tracy(closest to the companionway) headed up on deck. I suddenly hear her calling out to Blue and looking down. She was in the water!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently, while touring(outside the netting) along the cap rail, she toppled into the water beside the boat. Not sure if she was trying to jump to the next boat, but she was in the filthy water of the marina swimming along doing a pretty decent doggy paddle. Tracy looked for the large fishing net that we have on deck for just such an event and not seeing it, immediately climbed down the ladder and into the water and set off to rescue her. I, meanwhile on deck, called out to her and grabbed the missing net but by that time, she was well away from the boat. She was heading for the concrete wall of the marina.
At the same time, one of our friends(Doug from Yacht Help) was walking along the marina dock so I handed him the net as I climbed off Zephyr. Blue had now reached the wall and was hanging on by her claws. Slowly, she started her climb up the wall digging her claws into the cracks. She did not look impressed with her situation. Once at the marina dock, Doug slipped the net over her but she was not about to move even when Peanut(the local dog of the marina) came over to see what was going on. She huddled in a small ball and just lay there. Tracy, meanwhile had returned to the ladder and climbed back aboard(also looking a bit soggy and dirty).
I took the net off Blue and picked her up in my arms. One of the claws on her paws was badly torn and bloody. She was in shock from her dunking. She's never been in water all the years we have taken her out sailing with us. Even back in Colorado, she never hit the water. I guess now she knows what happens when you go where you aren't supposed to go.
I slowly handed her back to Tracy and came back aboard and rushed below to get a towel, and some baby shampoo. Up on deck, I connected and turned on the hose from shore and started water running into a big bucket we keep on board. In she went all the time with her paws out stretched trying to stop going in the bucket. We washed her well trying to get the filth from the marina off her as well as the saltwater out of her furr. A few minutes later, she was wrapped in a towel and sitting back in Tracy's lap still in shock.
Luckily, we have a vet on one of the cruising boats(Tomboy) at the marina so I rushed over to get her to take a look at poor Blues claw. They just happen to be coming to our boat at the same time to return a couple of charts and books we had loaned them. Janis(the vet) came on board and soothed poor Blue as best she could. She has a great "bedside" manner with cats. Blue, who normally hates just about everyone, had no problem with her scratching her head and chin.
The torn claw was inspected, coated in corn starch(to absorb blood and dry up the booboo) and then bandaged(see the picture of the very ticked off kitty above). We took her below and put her on the forward berth but not to be out done, she then tried to climb up to her "throne" on the top of the cat tree. Unfortunately, only having three of her four paws(with claws)to be used, she slipped off the cat tree and hit the floor. We picked her up and put her in her "throne" where we let her rest and start doing her own version of kitty cleaning. It's going to take a while to get her furr back to how it was.
For a while, she will have to "walk" around Zephyr with the bandage on her foot to make sure that kitty litter doesn't get in the wound(bad). She is certainly not impress with the bandage. Meanwhile, once she got off the cat tree, we piled pillows on top of her "throne" and the next level down to make sure she doesn't hurt herself trying to climb back up there.
Another life lesson learned! Down to 8 lives(probably less actually).
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05/14/2012, Vuda Point Marina
We finally got back in the water yesterday, six days after they brought us out. If they had taken us out on Monday(scheduled) we could have gone back in the water on Friday but since we got delayed till Tuesday, while we were done by Saturday, boats don't get pulled out or put in once you pass Friday(Heaven only knows why). Instead, we had to wait till Monday afternoon for our time. One got put back in the water ahead of us(smaller boat). We needed at least an hour in the slings so we could paint the bottom of the keel and give it some time(not much time though)to allow it to dry. The boat that went in ahead of us was lifted, painted and put in the water in less than 30 minutes.
Once in the water, we slowly backed into the "slip" we had come out of and got tied back in. We hooked up the electrical(still works just fine) and got poor Zephyr cleaned up a bit. We did more of the same today getting all the sand, mud and debris off the decks. With it raining just about every day since we got pulled out, we were tracking lots of sand back on Zephyr every time we came back aboard. Now she is nice and clean and looks far more ship shape.
The sailmaker came by this morning to pick up the Genoa sail to have new webbing put on two of the three corners of the sail. Since the sail was made in 1998, it's been exposed to sunlight and the elements ever since and that is hard on any thing. It was time to have them replaced.
I sat up the other night thinking of all the things we have worked on or fixed or had fixed since we got here. Here's the list so far:
Straightened the stem fitting on the bow and had two rounded stainless steel pieces welded to the top of it to hold the anchor.
Bought a new anchor(Rocna 40kg).
Took out and had the windlass serviced and rebuilt.
Took out all the anchor chain and remarked it and added new markings to the chain we added in Mexico.
Had the Data Marine wind instrument repaired and rebuilt.
Inspected all the rigging.
Installed new bushing on the roller furling cars.
Had the dingy serviced and leaks in the fiberglass bottom and inflated tubes fixed.
Installed new forestaysail halyard and put an eye splice in the end to hold the shackle on it.
Replaced the bale for the boom vang.
Flushed and serviced the outboard motor.
Installed a new 40 liter water heater with new fresh water hoses.
Installed new hose from the engine to the water heater.
Changed the engine coolant.
Replaced the old diesel filter with a new Racor filter housing and filter assembly.
Had new copper diesel lines made from the tank to the manifold.
Cleaned the bilge.
Cleaned up the stern bilge where oil had spilled.
Patched the holes in the walls in both stern and forward head.
Repainted the stern head.
Took everything out from under the stern berth and reorganized.
Tried to stop the water leak through the deck on the port side(failed).
Installed a new propane sensor unit in the galley.
Checked and refilled all batteries on board.
Epoxied a hole in the port side outside locker(leaked inside the boat).
Replace burned out light bulb in stern Alpen Glow lamp.
Scraped and painted the bottom of the boat.
Serviced the MaxProp and replaced the zinc.
Replaced two zincs on the rudder, starboard side.
Filed down a bolt on the port side Forestaysail track(stood up to much from the track).
Installed a step down transformer(240 to 120 volt).
Installed a new 12 volt outlet on the binnacle.
Rewired and installed a new light bulb on the binnacle compass.
Installed new lights in the cockpit(don't work well as they drain the batteries quickly).
Installed a new bus bar in the navigation station for all 12 volt outlets.
Restitched many broken and Sun degraded threads on the Genoa sail.
Replaced the spreader boots on the mast.
Replaced the swivel fitting on the anchor with a stainless steel fitting.
There area few more things still to get done but tomorrow is another day.
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05/11/2012, Vuda Point Marina
Well, the paining is done--almost. We will be adding a few more coats along the boot strip and all along the front edge of the keel where the passage of water will wear away the paint first during passages. We put on two coats(four gallons) of International Ultra hard paint. Sure hope it works as well as the Comex paint we got in Mexico.
Tuesday was haul out and get put in a rack. Once done, scraping off the old paint(or at least a good bit of it) so the new paint will adhere better. Wednesday, more of the same until Tracy was satisfied with the surface. I, meanwhile, cleaned our MaxProp back to it's nice shiny bronze and then screwed in grease nipples and lubed up the gears inside. I'd already put the fingernail polish around the screw holes on the zinc that screws onto the end of the prop so with a bit of Loctite on each screw, it was attached and ready to go by late Thursday afternoon.
Thursday, the first coat of paint was applied. Strangely, two can of paint were very thin and two were very thick so we alternated the application incase one pair of cans was bad. Thick coat on the port side followed by a thin coat and thin coat on the starboard side followed by a thick coat of paint. Guess we will see how it goes once we are back in the water.
Tracy and Elie finished up the last coat yesterday(Friday) by 1030 so I paid off Elie and Tracy took off for the showers. I meanwhile busied myself inside trying to get some sense of order out of the chaos that was inside our boat. If I touched it, it got put away or cleaned. In the after noon, I took off with the laundry while Tracy baked her birthday cake(German Chocolate). Still haven't had any as we got back from dinner so late that we didn't want to push our stomaches any more than we did with dinner.
Today,Saturday is a day off. We're off for town in a few minutes for a nice lunch and then off the see Mirror Mirror at the local movie theatre. It's a rarity that we actually take a day off to play around.
By the way, that's Tracy in her "bunny" suit in the picture while she scraped away at the paint.
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Happy birthday, Tracy.
R&A
05/08/2012, Vuda Point Marina
Well, we finally got hauled out only about 90 minutes late. The lift needed some care and maintenance so we got delayed a bit. We were half way between high and low tide so we were running out of time just like yesterday. The lift was finally available about 1100 so out we came.
Once out, we were hauled over to the high pressure wash area where George(Marina Forman) took a good 45 minutes to clean off the hull. In years past, when we got hauled out of the water there has always been a good bit of growth that needed to be cleaned off. It's been 19 months since we painted the boat back in San Carlos, Mexico and while we complained at the time about how much the paint cost us, we both wish we had 4 more gallons of it to put on more coats. We were darn close to clean when we got hauled out. Very few barnacles. The only place we had them was on the forward edge of the keel and a few places where we had scrubbed the hull to clean off earlier growth. We had the expected slime that alway grows on anyhing that is the water(you should see our dock lines) but it came right off.
We were in our rack by 1300, just in time for all the yard workers to go to lunch. Everyone was back by 1400 and we started in. We've hired one of the locals to work on our boat with us for $7.00Fijian(about $3.85US) per hour. Out here, that's a great wage believe it or not. Most only make about $3 to $4 per hour. We gave him one of our scrapers and turned him loose. Now we have what we refer to as a "Super Scraper". It's incredible at taking off old paint. Our new worker had never seen one like it and loves it because it is so fast and easy to use. While he started in, Tracy started in or other areas of the hull while I went to the office to see if we could get some power where we were. The outlets near our boat are both dead. One of the local yards loaned me a LONG extension cord but something was wrong with the wiring and lights on our main circuit panel showed a "Reverse Polarity" warning. Not a good sign. One of the main managers came down and looked at the problem and promised us an electrician in the morning. Sure hope so since we still need to keep our batteries full and the air conditioner running to keep us cool when we aren't working.
I stripped all the barnacles off the prop and will be working on it some more in the morning. I want it right down to nice shiny bronze the way it is supposed to be.
So tomorrow will be another day of getting things scraped and sanded and all ready for the new paint on Thursday so we can get two coats on by the time we are ready to launch. It's going to be a labor intensive few days but well worth it.
I'll post some pictures in the next day or so so stay tuned.
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05/07/2012, Vuda Point Marina
George(marina boat foreman came by about 45 minutes ago and we undid all the lines to shore and the lines to the center buoy. With the engine started, we slowly motored out to the buoy and tied off waiting for the lift to be put in place. The engine on the lift was started and suddenly quit. Now there is a very tall ladder propped up against the side of the lift. I'd say something has gone wrong. In the meanwhile, here we sit right in the middle of the marina waiting. Hey, it's Fiji after all. This is like cruising without leaving the marina I guess.
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