Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Day 91 Just hand over your wallet and no one will get hurt!!

The inspection of Zephyr was yesterday afternoon.  The latest estimate is 18 days of work to get her systems upgraded, inspected and installed.  At about $80.00 per hours--oh my G-d!!!  

The installation of the SSB(like a short wave radio) will be taking 3-5 days.  Plus where some of the equipment goes, it will put out radiation as we broadcast so we can't be near it.  This piece of equipment will be in the master stateroom aft.  It has to be near the antenna to work properly apparently.  I'm not quite sure what the radiation is from or what is bad about it, but he said you don't want to be in the same room when it broadcasts. 

Apparently, the wiring is a bit under sized and may need replacing and many of the connections need updating.  It is not a good feature that when you push the macerator button(ejects sewage in the forward head) it turns off the radar and chartplotter/gps.

We will be pulling both alternators off the engine and getting them serviced--maybe replaced so the engine doesn't have to work so hard to charge the batteries.

The "fuel polisher"(he pumps out all the diesel and cleans the tanks)came by today.  Inspected the tanks--at least the outside--and will be back to do the job after Zephyr is pulled from the water.  A simple job that may not need to be done but after 26 years of fuel being pumped in, heaven only knows what may be in the bottom of the tanks.  I figured that since the engines just kept on working during the beating we took coming up the coast, any garbage in the bottom of the tanks would have come loose and clogged the filters and shut down the engines.  Probably nothing there, but it's another system that needs inspecting. 

Another workman came by and measured the "thru hulls".  These are  holes in the bottom of the boat that water either comes in or gets pumped out.  Two leak a bit and one has a broken handle.  They will get replaced during the haul out also.

This morning was laundry day again.  Amazingly it is cheaper to do it at the marina than in town.  We figured they would do a scalping job on the boater but not so.  Guess it's easier to nail the townies.

At Safeway now running errands.  A nice easy bus ride.  Some rain this am but hardly enough to speak of.  The Straits and Admiralty Bay are quite choppy with not a lot of boats out there.

There are only two free WiFi spots here in Port Townsend.  Safeway and the local ice cream store.  Safeway is easier on the waste line.  Broadband Express at the marina runs $11.00 per day!!!   And according to the marina, it's not a good connection--spotty at best.

We are planning on hooking up to Direct Tv setup this afternoon.  Got a board to attach the antenna to when we get back to the marina.  Out comes the compass to find the satellite in the sky.  Not sure how we will anchor the board, but we may use one of our spare anchors to weigh it down.

The electrician is due to start tomorrow.  Not sure what he will do first.  Guess we will see tomorrow.
  


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