Day 168 Odd jobs

Today was more of the odd jobs for us as well as for Troy, the new electrician.

I started the day by taking off for the local UPS store to send off the tower for our wind/water electric generator.  This new "toy" for Zephyr will make electricity from wind with a propeller and from water when we all a small propeller, invert the unit and put it into the water to drag behind the boat.  It's called a DuoGen.  Made in the UK.  We bought it back in May from a company called Southeast Marine in Scappoose, Oregon.  It gives sailors the best of both worlds.  When at anchor, you put up the big propeller and let the wind make your power.  As you sail, you put it behind the boat and let the speed of the boat going through the water make the propeller spin and make electricity.  When we are out sailing or at anchor in a deserted harbor, we will be able to make all the power we will ever need.

I then took off for Henerys hardware looking for metal tubing for shims for the new furling gear we will be using for our roller furling unit at the bow.  They attach to the stanchions down the starboard side of the boat.  The stanchions are are 1 1/8" in diameter.  These new rollers are 1 1/2" so I needed shims to re enforce the fittings.  No such luck as what I found would cause corrosion between the two metals involved--stainless steel and copper can't be put together.  I'll have to look elsewhere for something that will fill the bill.

Back at Zephyr, Tracy was cleaning up our old space in the boatyard.  It has to be cleaned and swept and  all of the rest of our gear removed.  We hauled our inflatable dingy down to the dock, re-inflated it and hoisted it onto the deck using a crane that is attached to the new shrouds.  With a block and tackle setup, it came out of the water with a bit of effort and up onto the deck.  We then turned it upside down for storage and took off on the next job.  

I used some stainless steel wire to seize the attachment fittings on the anchor.  We don't want the bolt that holds the anchor on to the chain to come loose.  With that done, I joined Tracy back at the yard space where Zephyr had been for the past ten weeks.

We hauled the old shrouds and stays--all stainless steel over to a storage space on the far side of the yard.  We have a friend in Newport that wants to use them as lifelines on his boat.  The stainless steel is plenty strong enough for lifelines as it's 3/8" thick.  We have plenty to do his boat .

With the area clean, we headed back to Zephyr just as it was about to rain so we could do things inside the boat.  I installed a new wire for the diesel heater that is inside Zephyr.  It had apparently been wired to the starter motor to get the power to run itself.  Unfortunately, it would drain the starter bank of batteries if used for that purpose.  It was supposed to be wired to the "house" set of batteries.  Over Christmas, we discovered that it had been wired to the wrong set of batteries.  We discovered it by the fact that after a while, the unit wouldn't work and when we tried to start Zephyrs engine, it didn't have enough power to turn the engine over.  At least now it will be wired correctly.   

No word from Brion Toss as to when he will finish the rigging.  I tightened it this afternoon as it just felt to loose.

Now that Zephyr is back in the water, the cracks that had developed in the cabin sole in the main cabin have come gone away and now the floor looks just fine.  It's amazing the pressure that water had put on the hull after getting launched.  The "floating" floor is back together.

Happy Columbus Day!!