Days 541 thru 544 Here there and everywhere!

The engine room.  I've already removed the top elbow of the exhaust system.  Now down to the messy stuff.
With most of the exhaust system out.  Almost down to the transmission.

Down to the transmission.  It's ready for removal.

The wheels in the up position.  They simply swing down and lock in the down position for when we are ready to go ashore.

The last four days have been on the run.  Unlike most towns we have stopped in, there is no real mass transit system in Los Angeles, or certainly the Wilmington area.  It is for the most part industrial except the industrial is shipping and trains.  All coming and going at all hours of the day and night.  Oh, by the way, we are located at 33 46.373N  118 14.869W to answer a question in the comments section.  We had stripped all the electronics off the deck so fast after arriving here that I didn't get a chance to record it.  Sorry.  Anyway, if we hadn't rented a car, we would have been stuck in the middle of no where with no way to get out of here.  It's almost a mile just to the marina office.  It's over at their primary marina.

As I said in my last post, George and Celeste from Nereid arrived and boy was Celeste sick.  She caught some bug while they were in Redondo Beach and she is still in bad shape even today, 5 days later.  She finally went to a doctor yesterday afternoon.  We're staying well away from her, yet I now have a sore throat and a stopped up nose so maybe she passed it along.  Time will tell.

The last four days have been spent primarily in the car.  Over to Minney's to try and sell the anchors.  The "boss" was out(on vacation) and the worker bees offered me $120 for all three.  I don't think so.  That isn't even close.  The "boss" was due back yesterday so we took another trip(45 minutes each way) and we ended up at $165 for the three.  We took some in trade for a new chart book of Mexico down to Panama.  They are copies of the "official" charts but keep in mind that much of the charting for them was done over a hundred years ago when you go to some of the remotest parts of the Sea of Cortez.  The eyes are your best chart--plus all the electronics and cruisers guides you can find.  We have three cruisers guides to help us along.

George came along with us on Saturday as he had to pick up a part at West Marine in San Pedro and wanted to look at all the used sails at Minney's.  Unfortunately, he had no success with the sails but did get the part he needed from West Marine.

Early on Saturday, the wheels I ordered from DanardMarine.com showed up.  The man that owns the company was coming down to look at a boat and brought them.  Saved us freight.  These bolt on to the stern of the dingy so as you approach the shore to beach it, you swing these wheels down into the water and once the boat gets close to shore(keep in mind that there will be waves trying to swamp the dingy as you come in)you hop out and grab the bow of the dingy and roll her through the last parts of the surf and onto dry sand.  We know several couples that have swamped their boats while attempting to get their dingys ashore.  These came highly recommended from other boaters.  Check out the website.   I started the installation on Sunday but needed to make teak pads for the brackets that hold it to the stern and that set me back a ways.  Luckily, Chuck, a "neighbor" is working on his boat and cut the teak pads I needed.  I had to epoxy two together to make them thick enough so I pulled out some clamps and got the pieces joined.  Any how, to make a long story short, I found the bolt that came with it were too short so I had to get some new ones.  Of course, the ones I pick up were too short and the hardware store closed just after I was there so I had to wait till the next morning(Monday) to get the right bolts and get the job done.  Now all we have to do is wait till Mexico when we will have a beach where we can beach her.

We're still trying to find out the measurements of the shank of a 70 pound Delta anchor from Lewmar.   I want to make sure it will fit over the bow rollers as the front of the boat.  I called Lewmar and even they couldn't tell me.  Go figure.  I can't be the only person that would need that information.  The nice folks at West Marine are having one brought to their store on Wednesday so I can measure it.  They carry them in their warehouse but not out in their stores(yeah, I don't understand how you can expect to sell one if you don't show it to clients either).

We tried to start the installation of our ICOM 802 single side band radio on Monday but ran into more glitches and had to run more errands.  We were short a few pieces of cable to get the job done.  While we were out running the errands, we stopped at a few places to get replacement alternators.  We have two on board(they don't match)that make the amps to charge the batteries as we motor.  If one should blow(as happened North of Ketchican) you need to have a replacement if at all possible.  I also wanted to lay in a replacement starter in case it should go also.  I know the ages of the alternators(one rebuilt last year and the second rebuilt in Ketchican) but have no clue as the age of the starter.  Not something you want to be with out once you leave the good old USA.  Even though I took pictures, both places we went to said to rip them out and bring them in and they could get us replacements.  I don't think so!!  Ripping out these things(let alone getting them back in) would take hours and I just need them for replacements.  I contacted American Diesel(the guys that designed and built Ford Lehman engines) and ordered the starter from them.  As for the alternators, I took some better pictures and will try again when we are near the dealer.

We ordered in a new book to get information on what to do with fish(plus what the heck they are)once we catch them.  These aren't like lake fishing, these guys(and gals) can get up there in size and we have no idea what to do once we caught them or even how to catch them.  We found a book, "The Cruisers Handbook of Fishing" by Scott and Wendy Bannerot and had it shipped in from Amazon.  It arrived yesterday.  It has pictures of what the fish look like and how to filet them with out making a mess and making fish mongers around the world cry when we are doing it.  If you are planning on setting out and have no clue as to what to do(like us), get a copy.

Yesterday, we took off for Maritime Communications in Marina del Rey to get the cables we need to install the ICOM 802.  I'd called around and they were the only place that had the cables and were willing to fabricate the connections for us.  A good professional soldering job will save a lot of headaches down the road.  We also needed a "control" cable that goes between the antenna tuner and the transceiver(the guts of the radio).  I though we had ordered one in when we ordered the radio but I guess not.  I'd ordered two 40 foot long cables(yeah, I know, the boat is only 45 feet long), one the lead cable and second the controller cable and wanted to make sure I didn't end up short during the installation.  I've done that too many times when we were rewiring Zephyr.  When we got there, they had one all ready to go but wanted to know if we had brought the end fittings that came with the radio.  They were out of them.  Nope, they were still at the boat.  Back in the car and back to Zephyr to get them.  At 45 to 50 minutes each way, it made for a long trip, plus we were getting into "rush" hour traffic.  We dropped them off(of course the tech that was to do the job had gone home already) and will have to go back and get them today.  It's like I said at the beginning, it's a good thing we rented a car.  We'll be extending the rental for probably another week at the rate we are getting things done.  George rented a car yesterday at they had errands of their own to get done as well as take Celeste to the doctors office.

One story I neglected to tell you about was about a boat(Sunny Side Up) at Catalina Island.  On our last full day there last week, the winds were to change direction and come from the North instead of the South so all the boats in Isthmus Cove were to disconnect from their moorings and reverse themselves.  Since everyone is moored(lines to both the bow and stern)you have to drop both lines and start all over again.  Now the process is sort of straight forward.  The mooring is set up with  a BIG floating ball that is hooked to a smaller floating ball with a tall stick sticking out out the top so you can grab it as you come in.  Attached to that stick is a thin line that leads to a thicker line with an "eye" spliced in to it.  That "eye" attaches to your bow cleat.  There is a second thin line(attached to the original "eye" splice) that leads to a second "eye" spliced line that you hook to your stern cleat.  Simple huh?  It's not that bad as long as the wind keeps you pointed at the main mooring buoy.  Now, you have to reverse the process.  You grab the stick and pull up on the line and hook it to your stern and then take the second line to the bow.  Not only are you working backward, but the wind is trying to blow you off course as it hadn't changed yet.  Poor Sunny Side Up, made the mistake of going between the big mooring ball and the float on a stick and sucked the line(chain and all)right up onto their prop shaft.  Jay and Terri(off Cadenza) and the two of us had gone over in our dingys to see if we could help but got their just a bit too late.  We both saw it coming but couldn't get them to stop in time.  The Tom, the skipper, got into his swimming trunks and jumped in the water(burr) to try and get it untangled.  It was wrapped tight and wasn't going anywhere.  They had to call for a diver to come out.  At $175 per hour(it was after 1700 and on overtime) it became an expensive accident.  The diver had to disconnect the main buoy and cut the line off the prop as it had fused itself(friction from the revolving prop shaft).  The diver was still working on it as the sun went down.  They ended up having to go back the next day to replace the line and reposition the buoy.  It's amazing what can go wrong and how fast it can happen.  We'd called for help from the Harbor Master when we attempted to reposition ourselves as had Jay and Terri.

Well, thats about it for now.  We're off to pick up the single sideband radio cables.