With the transmission out, I can easily get at two through hulls at the rear of the engine compartment. I'd meant to work on them when it was out the first time but had forgotten. The one in the bottom picture still needs its clamps changed but I've gotten the right one done. I first had to get the valve handles to move to make sure I can close them should an emergency arrive. I borrowed a long pipe from the folks at Sea Marine that would slip over the handle all the way to the base of the flange. I'd used a wrench once to loosen another valve and had broken the handle off. I had to replace that through hull. I won't make that mistake again. It gets expensive.
I applied some PB Blaster to the valves and let it soak in. This stuff is supposed to loosen and dissolve most rust and allow you to get old stuck valves to move. After about a hour, the port one moved just fine. I can now open and close it with just the use of my hands. The starboard side needed the use of the pipe to get it to move the first time. It was still hard to close so I applied more PB and let it sit. I'll be opening and closing it numerous times today to make sure it works easily while I still have easy access to it.
I went in search of stainless steel hose clamps to replace the ones that are on the hoses. They were pretty well shot. When Norm from Pat's Marine was in the engine compartment, he pointed our the hose clamps and recommended that they be replaced. They had already been on my list. Instead of unscrewing as I loosened them, they just fell apart. The screw section just came right out of the clamp. I found some at Admiralty Hardware for $3.49. The same at West Marine were $6.49! Same stainless steel clamps. I'm just glad I checked and bought at Admiralty Hardware before I went to West Marine. I guess I'll be checking there in the future before I go to West Marine.
I washed deck all over again yesterday. With brush in hand, I went at it. I still didn't get all the salt residue off the windows of the dodger. That stuff is tough to get off. The wind was blowing at about 10 knots and it was maybe 40 so the wind chill got a bit much. I'll be doing the dodger again today with soapy water to get the salt off.
Once it was rinsed, I went about lubing all the hardware on deck. Two big block that the lines for the genoa got dismantled and lubed. They need to run free so the lines don't freeze up. I slowly worked my way around the deck.
Tracy had the biggest and toughest job of the day. She emptied all the food lockers and re inventoried all the food we have on board. Then she organized it into categories and put it back in a logical order. She made lists as she went so we can find things later. It gets really frustrating knowing you have a particular can on board and can' t find it. With all the re stowing, lots of areas have been opened up for more provisions. She's a great packer. One of the best I've seen.
And that's about the way the day went.
I checked this morning and the transmission has left for the manufacturer to be inspected and fixed. We'll see how long it takes. Meanwhile, more tasks today.
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