Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Day 154 She's back!!!

Tracy got in late yesterday afternoon from her trip to Denver.  All is well!!  It's really great to have here home.  Yes--I shaved--even took a shower in honor of her return.  From what I have heard-read-she was not impressed with me growing a beard.  Gee, what a surprise!!  She prefers her man clean shaven.  Just not into the bristle feel and look.  So it's a nice clean shaven look for me.

Snowshoe--big white kitty--went in for his shots yesterday.  I had my bus schedule all worked out.  Be at the top of the hill above the marina at 10am to take the 10:05 shuttle to the "park n ride".  Catch the 10:30 "Castle Hill bus" and get off close to the vets office and walk the rest.  Well, that was the plan.  As I reached the hill above the marina for the first bus, I got a call from a company that I had ordered some special drill bits from(combo bit that not only drills the holes but has a tap set on the bit to make the screw cuts in the hole).  As I was talking to them--not watching for the bus, they drove right past me since I was a bit back from the curve.  Upset would be an understatement.  I then checked my bus schedule and hightailed it to another bus stop about a 1/4 mile away where the bus would show up in about 10 minutes.  Let me tell you, Snowshoe is no lightweight cat!!!  Add in that he wanted out of the box in the worst way--kept pushing his head against the top, and I had a walk in front of me.  Caught the bus fine and made it to the vet by my appointment time.  He got his shots and today, Blue gets the same treatment.  She will not be impressed.  Snowshoe slept the rest of the day.  I'm sure he doesn't feel well.

Baby Zephyr got launched today.  She's a 1981 Miller that came out just before us.  She had blown her engine just as she was coming into the marina.  Once in the yard for repairs, they tore her apart.  First the new engine--plus a new transmission.  The old one didn't work with the new engine.  Then new fuel tanks.   On diesel engine, after you shut down the engine, the diesel fuel that is in your lines gets returned to the fuel tanks.  On Baby Zephyr, hers didn't.  It went back to her filter system instead.  That won't work with the new engines so she required new tanks.  Then the new engines throttle system was just the opposite of what the old one was so when you pushed the throttle forward, she went into reverse.  That required a new binnacle cable replacement.  Then, with the new engine, the steering gear needed a new way to get to the rudder.  She had her steering gears replaced.  Add on that they found residential wire--solid core wires instead of multi-strand--and they had to rewire a great deal of her.  While our bill is big, I can't imagine how much theirs is going to be.  After getting her into the water, the engine wouldn't fire up.  The mechanics were scrambling  to figure out what they had done wrong.  Turned out they had forgotten to turn on the taps for the diesel fuel!!   No fuel--no engine!!  

Gordon and Nathan -the riggers--returned yesterday to fill some of the holes on the mast that had been left from earlier riggings.  They tapped and filled them with rods so that they can be painted to make the mast look like new.  I got some touchup paint a few weeks ago that will take care of that just fine.  They also rigged up the flag/radar reflector line to the port spreaders.  Now I can hoist what is required of us as we come into other countries.

Brion Toss--main rigger-- is due back today and should be on Zephyr directing the final stages of the new rigging.  Every day, we inch closer to being done.

Jack, the electrician, was busy on other projects yesterday but stopped by to see some of the wires and plot out where and what two mysterious wires do.  They appear to be for the electronics--wind and depth gauges that we have as a duplicate down in the main cabin.  We have the same instruments above deck.  With luck, he will be back on board today getting things done.

If you haven't checked out the links to Sandpiper and Wind Dancer, I highly encourage you to do so.  They make for great reading.

Back to Zephyr for another day.

1 comment:

Tom said...

How can I check out other links when I am so addicted to your blog. I have over 6 years of blogs to catch up on after all. Its been a big drama tv show so far where each day is a teaser wondering will this be the day they make it into the water?.