Day 70 Maybe we found it.

Maybe we found the leak that is putting water in the bilge.  Tracy was putting things away under one of the forward floor boards and saw some water just under the boards.  Well, the only way water can get to that area of the boat is if it comes in from the bow and since it hasn't rained in a couple of days, that means the forward head tank is leaking again!!!  Boy, I thought I had fixed it.  Guess not.  Tomorrow, out comes everything from the forward storage bin and down I go to explore.  Last I checked, the tank was dry which leaves the plumbing to investigate.  A loose hose clamp?  A leaking hose?  My guess is a leaking joint where a piece of pipe connects to the macerator--either into it or out of it.  The hunt begins.

I got a call at 8am from the refrigerator specialist that he wanted to come to Zephyr--now--he was in the parking lot of the marina.  Since I had JUST gotten out of bed and run to the phone, I had a few things to do before he got there--like put on clothes!  The refrigerator had begun to "short cycle" again.  Run for a minute or so--shut off and restart--over and over.  The unit would run just fine for hours.  I'd put in baffles so the airflow over the coils was perfect.  Lots of air was cooling them off just fine.  The technician showed up and used his meter to see what was happening.  Since the condenser was nice and cool, and there were no leaks, that only leaves the thermostat.  He'll be back tomorrow to replace it.  Oh joy, we get to unload the refrigerator all over again and have it re-chill down to the 20 degrees it has been running at.  That only take a couple of days--it's not the most efficient refrigerator.  At least once this is swapped out, the unit should work just fine--at least we hope so.  

We ran more errands this afternoon.  Tried to find a cable that will hook the GPS to the serial port on the laptop computer.  No good.  Everything  had a male usb plug to male RS-232 plug.  I need a female usb plug so my GPS will plug into it instead of it plugging into the GPS unit.  Oh well, its time for an internet search.

Off to Englund Marine for a second steel hook that is used to hold the anchor to the boat when at anchor.  With the anchor down, you attach this hook which has line attached to the chain that goes to the anchor and then tie it off to a cleat on the boat.  This takes all the stress off the chain as it attaches to the windlass(big motor that pulls up the chain).  This way if there is a sudden jerk on the chain from the wind, the stress it placed on the metal hook and line and not on the chain and windlass.  There is already one of these on the boat, but as always--two is better.  If I only had one, I'd sure as heck loose it over board.  With two, I'll never loose it.  Murphys Law.

The ICOM IC-M802 shortwave radio showed up this afternoon.  Just 27 hours after I had ordered it.  The antenna tuner--don't really know what it does but you have to have one, is some where with UPS.  The radio came by DHL.  The only thing I can guess is that they are coming from two different warehouses.  The UPS tracking number that the merchant sent to me shows no information as of yet on the UPS website.  I'll follow up on the shipping tomorrow.

Met some more sailers today.  A gentleman that owns a boat a few slips over came to visit his boat.  He bought it several years ago and his wife hate to sail--gets seasick-bad.  So since she won't go, he can't go.  Now he is selling his boat.  Needs a good bit of cosmetic work on her.  He hasn't touched her in at least two years.  Lots of things growing on and under her.

The weather looks to be turning by this weekend so we hope to be off by Sunday.  We are running out of time to get down what needs to be done before we can head South.  We have to be out of here by early September at the latest for safety sake.  Oregons coast can get really testy after that.  As of now, we may have to head to Port Townsend and go to Astoria on the way back South.  We'll see what the weekend brings.  Wish us luck.