Remember the body-painted cyclist parade through Seattle's Fremont district just a few days ago? Apparently there's a yin /yang thing here as yesterday (3 July) Fremont turned into Zombie Central. Hundreds of raggedy, ghastly, bloody creatures staggering down the main street - sorry no photo as I was afraid to stop! There were signs this was coming, literally, but I thought it was some kind a joke which I didn't quite understand. The evening before, I noticed a sign posted at the entry to local Fremont pub - The Red Door - which said "Attention Zombies: No blood in business; violators will be dismembered!" I mean, who would take that seriously?!

I made the promise a while ago, to run through the various jobs and projects we're doing to get DE ready for the next couple months underway. Dorothy, Mac and I have been working like dogs - sorry Rusty - to get things ship-shape. Those of you who are techno-phobic may now leave the room...

We unshipped the cooking stove and left to be serviced - the igniters haven't been working properly for quite a while and it turns out the electrical bits were corroded and the jets were wrong to begin with. Sure Marine in Ballard took care of the stove, and we sprayed all the electrical connection with a CRC product before re-installing the stove.

Mac took on the task of coating the scuba air compressor, salvage pump and outboard motor head with Corrosion X ,which I love. We tested the salvage pump and outboard. Somehow the (new in Hong Kong) salvage pump got previously put away with saltwater, not rinsed with freshwater, resulting in the impeller being quite corroded. Not too late to save, but close.

I've put in a lot of time on working out a new shore-power scheme for the boat with the help of my electrical instructor at SMA and also Fred Fritz from the marine electronics shop in Petaluma CA. We've come up with what will be a significant improvement, but have just run out of time regards getting the parts and doing the installation before leaving Monday - it will have to wait until the fall.

We added 200 feet of chain to the primary anchor rode, and had a bit of concern when we discovered that the new 3/8" high tensile chain links are 2mm longer than the old 3/8" high tensile chain links. Doesn't seem like much but the chain is moved on and off the boat by a windlass "chain gypsy" which is sized to a particular link size, and much deviation results in the chain skipping on the gypsy (and not being able to pull up the anchor). Anchorages on the North American west coast are quite a big deeper than those we used in SE Asia, requiring significantly more "rode" (meaning the rope or chain that connects the anchor to the boat; which word -- road - is, I assume, derived from the term "riding at anchor").

Dorothy has been sewing away on various canvas projects - new covers for various pieces of deck equipment; an extension to the starboard pilot house awning; rope bags. She's spliced new lines for all the fenders.

As we've had the dinghy mounted vertically on the stern of DE for the past 2 years, obscuring the name and home port (which has not been appreciated by various marine authorities), "DavidEllis" now graces the bows of the boat as well.

New tool chests for the engine room (from Barb at Hatton Marine) - we've been storing the growing pile of tools in a variety of bags and boxes for the past 4 years, and finally have proper storage which will not require moving everything to find the item wanted.

We've finally had the magnetic compass swung, but it required first having a platform built to suspend the compass over the opening from the pilot house down to the salon, away from the steel bulkhead and the electro-magnetism of all the electronics at the helm. Ben F. from the Deck program at SMA, a classmate of Dorothy's, is quite a good finish carpenter, and did a great job on the sliding platform. The compass adjusting was done by Bill Haimes http://www.islandmarineinst.com/ . Bill came aboard DE while we were up at TrawlerFest in Anacortes, and after a short conversation, we realized that he and I had corresponded about the compass three years ago while DE was in Subic Bay. Nice to be able to bring this full circle, and he did a great job. Mac has posted some great photos of the 1920 pelorus that Bill used to adjust the compass on Facebook (Kenneth McKensie Ross).

Lots of parts, bits, coast pilots, sailing directions, charts, 2010 tides and currents books. Our friend Wade B, a long-time ham (likes radios too) came to the boat yesterday and finally! got us going on the SSB (or as some of you prefer HF) radio. We've had it all this time, but have never quite got it worked out. Thank you Wade! We're hoping to keep in touch with Wade, via HF, while underway, as well as taking advantage of the cruising nets, and maybe even reach my old partner TK in Texas (who is also a ham...).

We've picked up a new outboard motor for the dinghy. This is a much smaller than our 25hp 2 stroke - a 9.9hp 4 stroke which will be much easier for Dorothy to operate. The larger engine has its uses, but is a bugger to start and has enough torque to throw one out of the dinghy if you're not careful. Ryan, at the boatyard, welded up a new rail bracket for the new outboard - great job!

We've switched out the LPG bottles that fuel the cook stove from the Hong Kong steel "bombolas" to new fiberglass pressure containers. The new ones are way lighter, don't rust and the liquid can even be viewed through the wall of the bottle, and the amount remaining determined. A new regulator and some changes to the plumbing were also required.

We've also had a lot of help from Ryan at Seattle Marine Supply with technical details regarding paint for repairing the various dings DE has acquired, as well as areas where fiberglass lockers and steel structure have expanded / contracted (in heat and cold) at different rates, cracking the paint. We don't quite have a system yet, but with helpful folks like Ryan, I'm sure we'll get there.

The topic of new paint leads to the issue of old paints and materials. Marine supplies and materials were difficult to come by in SE Asia, and we carried aboard all kinds of hazmats which we now have the opportunity to get rid of (and no longer need). Seattle has a free and easy-to-access consumer disposal system.

So many great marine stores and services here; technicians who know the equipment we have and are gracious with their knowledge and assistance. We learn something new and useful every day. For instance, last year the little boost pump (priming pump) on the reverse osmosis water maker broke off a hose barb molded into the body of the pump, making it unusable. I did some re-plumbing and routed the output from the deck-wash pump to the water maker. This worked fine, but took away the on-deck salt & fresh water taps. Dot and I went into Village Marine today and instead of charging us about $300 for the new pump, Drew (the tech) replaced the broken portion of the pump body for $30 - try that in Subic!