Go, No Go
29 December 2020 | West Palm Municipal Dock
Tuesday 29 December 2020
Work on steering began with hard part and went well. Then we got to the easy bit. Well? Threading spiral conduit into fitting and fitting into sheave box on starboard side aft which is underneath sheave frame where there is no room to maneuver proved completely impossible as extremely stiff conduit bends under water tank then makes a final upward curve just below box. Eventually got it after Matt left for the night by screwing in fitting, using vise grips to bend and position conduit, then, one flat at a time with monkey wrench, partially unscrewing fitting which after several attempts eventually caught conduit threads and screwed it halfway onto fitting. This morning expect to turn the whole shebang from both ends to tighten up. Then again comes the hard part. We can only hope.
Although this system was originally assembled when boat was built with everything accessible, it was engineered badly as fittings are designed to go through frames with a backing nut holding them in place (which would have made this project exponentially easier), but insufficient room was left to do this so frames were tapped and fittings screwed into them. Of course they screw clockwise at both ends so screwing in one end unscrews the other. Once this is done and all conduit assembled (which because of foregoing requires vise grips and hammers at one end), running wire, attaching chain and fastening aft end to quadrant should be a piece of cake. This is said, as one should expect, with stratospherically high expectation.
- Later
It's not even noon and last pieces are coming together. Still time for all to go pear-shaped, but confidence is now ionospheric. Surprisingly both shipments are at post office, we're topped with groceries & adult beverage and Jupiter & Saturn are aligned so ready to blow this popsicle stand. But (there's always a big butt, err but) strong southish wind will likely keep us here until Sunday or Monday. Sanguinary hades!
Jack & Jan