When is it ever easier than planned?
25 May 2016 | Pension Tiare Nui
Excited but tired Bill
The radome is mounted to the front of our mast just above the lower spreaders, so 25 feet off the deck. The mount has two brackets, one on each side of the mast, and each bracket is held in place with 4 1/4-20 hex heads machine screws. When Conni was removing the mast head instruments last year, she noticed that of the four port-side screws, the upper three were loose. She jammed the top one in as best she could and that was my notice that I needed to do the work.
I’ve been anxious about the radome work since last year. I pictured having to remove the radome and dealing with the weight issue while hanging by a halyard, drilling holes, and as many terrible things as possible. I did try to consider all of the most probable problems and bring tools and parts to deal with them. I did forget Helicoils, though, as my dear friend Don reminded me, and that would have been the best way to go, rather than redrilling for a larger diameter machine screw. I didn’t think of them, and there’s no way to acquire anything like that here. In fact, I can’t even find any U-bolts to replace some that the workers cut. As I’ve alway said, carry it with you or do without.
This morning dawned dry and clear and I was reconciled to my task. I grabbed my tools, used Corrosion Block to free the rusted parts, suited up in my climbing gear and ascended the mast. I can promise that it was easier many years ago that it is now. Grunt.
Sitting on the spreader, I started to work, and to shorted this narrative, the aluminum mast holes were not stripped, the machine screws had simply worked loose. Oddly, the three loose screws did not have lock washers, and that allowed the constant vibration up there to loosen the screws.
The fix was simple, then. I had a tap for the 1/4-20 screws, so I used it as a thread chaser to clean the threads, added some anti-seize gel and a lock washer, and tightened them in. Done. I did check the other five machine screws and tightened them as well.
Rather than a monumental problem, we caught a break and solved this one easily. I'll probably hit every red light the rest of my life, but right now that sounds fine.
We have several more tasks to complete, of course, but we hope to schedule a splash by Saturday afternoon. The boat’s been sitting on stands and where they contact the hull no new antifouling paint was applied. If they allow, we’ll get the boat in the TraveLift on Friday night, apply paint to those area, and then let it sit overnight. We’ll be ready to go anytime Saturday. How exciting is that?
I imagine that we’ll sit for a day or so on a mooring just to complete all of the necessary chores, then scoot across to Taha’a. Conni’s wanted to do that for three bloody years and this is the year!
PM Addition:
We had a great afternoon and evening. I checked the port fuel tank and it’s got about 40 gallons of 50 capacity and looks fairly clean. Jeez, I hope so. We also got the jib installed so we do have a sailboat again. All we need is water.
I spoke with the yard manager and he said that he’d get a crew to complete our varnishing by Friday and put the boat up in the TraveLift slings and apply the bottom paint as I mentioned before. We’re scheduled to launch on Monday morning. Hurray! That’s a full two weeks of work, but I think that we’ve gotten most of our tasks completed. It alway surprises me how long it takes.
We smelled hot flesh cooking and realized that the little “restaurant” where we had such a great meal last Wednesday was going at it again. Wonderful! We completed our jib-installation task, packed our stuff, and headed over.
It’s just a front porch redecorated into a small restaurant, but it has lots of character. They buy grocery store food and prepare it well, and sell at a great price. The young male cooks are making money for college, we were told. What’s not to like? We originally ordered the steak and fries as before, the great US$5 meal, but they were out of steak and we settled for tuna. Wow! We each got thick slabs of tuna and a pound of fries. As were waiting for the meal, we followed the drumming around the corner and found a 8-10 man percussion band playing the hypnotic and rhythmic music as accompaniment to a 6 woman dance group. Their hips were shaking in a blur and their hands and arms were rhythmically swaying to some story that they were telling. What a delightful performance. When they ended, the women would collapse and drink cold water doled out by friends, and in a few minutes, the entire performance started again. I almost, but didn’t quite, hated to have our meal appear.
When one travels, there’s the geography to admire, and the far away places to see, but it’s those vignettes with the locals that are the true gift of travel. I’m reading the log of Captain James Cook’s first trip to the South Pacific and can only imagine how wonderful those people were. One can see those same smiles now as they speak to an American and switch to French from their native Tahitian. I’ve grown very fond of Polynesians and understand why generations of Westerners have decided to accept the heat and other discomforts to live among them in this island world.
As we inch closer to having our boat/home in the water, I’m anxious to visit these other island and meet other people. I’ve mentioned before that one gets automatic cachet when one arrives on one’s own boat. They are a seafaring people and they recognize the effort it takes to sail to their home.
We’ll start moving clothing and such aboard tomorrow. We went shopping for supplies today and most of that is aboard and not here at the bungalow.