Day 312 Putting in order

We took several loads to our new storage locker and Zephyr is looking a lot less cluttered.  We will be putting a good bit of it back on board before we set off North but for now, we look a lot better.  I don't figure we really need the chairs that we used to sit outside on the stern while we're up North.  It's going to be a bit chilly to sit out there.  Especially this time of year.

I don't think we will be going to Seattle today as we had hoped.  It's blowing in the mid 30 knot range outside as I type this and has been for several hours.  Tomorrow will have to be the day--like it or not.

The new hatch for the refrigerator is in its final stages.  I'd take a picture as I'm sure all of you are sitting on the edges of your chairs eagerly awaiting it unveiling, but I'm still applying varnish to the beautiful teak trim that Bob installed and I don't want you to see it till it is done.  Sorry, you'll just have to wait.  All I cans say is he did a great job.  Truly a skilled craftsman.

Tracy did some wash yesterday while I was out running errands to the storage shed and West Marine(only three times).  Odds and ends to get jobs done.

I think today will be spent hunkered down in this blow--snow is expected in the neighborhood, and get ready for our trip to Seattle tomorrow morning.  The winds are to be about 10 knots from the North(if you believe them) so it might be a nice sail.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile, have a nice weekend.

Day 311 Compromise

As I said in yesterdays post, discussion was needed as to how to handle the transmission situation.  We come to an agreement that we will take Zephyr to Seattle and have Pat's Marine come down and inspect and adjust the gears if it is possible.  They will also do a service on it--change the transmission fluid--while on board.  Since we have been lead to believe that they can stop the prop shaft from turning while in neutral, it will give us the best shot as to stopping it with out having to go to the lengths of taking it out and shipping it back to the manufacturer.  Since they have installed hundreds of these transmissions, I think we can trust them to take care of the problem if it is possible.  Now we just have to make plans as to when to go over.  Saturday looks to be very windy from the South--20+ winds.  Sunday may be better with less winds coming straight at us.  It's all a crap shoot as they say.  I guess we will just see what develops and go when we see what Mother Nature brings us.  We plan on staying at the Shilshole Marina on the North side of Seattle for a day or two depending on what they find.

The installation of the hatch is proceeding.  Bob made more cuts and has the teak rim for the hatch all built and expects to finish up today.  We will be applying gel coat to the lower section of the opening as it is made of simple fiberglass panels glued together.   With luck, we will be about 90% by the end of today.

Meanwhile, I checked the electrical bonding wires on our through hulls.  Each through hull fitting is wired together so that they don't corrode and fall out of the boat due to stray electrical current eating them apart.  I don't quite understand it all, but they are supposed to be joined together by wires.  Since we have at least 8 of them, it pays to check.  The last thing--well almost--is to see one of them pop out of the hull due to it being corroded apart.

We refilled the water tanks yesterday.  When I got up yesterday and turned on the faucet, lots of air came out with a bit of water.  That normally means the tanks are just about empty and instead of the pump sucking up water, it's sucking air.  I hooked up the hose while Tracy opened the inspection holes on the tanks.  Strangely, they were about a third full.  I turned on the water again and it went back to all water.  I guess there was some residual air in one of the tanks--heater maybe--that had gotten trapped when I put in the new pump.   All was actually well but since we had the hose all ready to go, we filled the tanks anyway.  Now we are back to our 260 gallons where we belong.  The six weeks in Brownsville(we filled just before we left Port Townsend) hadn't used but about half our supply.  Not bad.

I made an attachment for the outboard motor to flush the salt water out of it.  It's recommended that this be done after each time you use it.  The dealer had sold me a fitting that screws onto the motor to put water right into the block.  It then pushes the water out the drain.  Since I only saw water coming out the water intake to the motor, I called Mercury this morning to see if it was really flushing out all the salt water.  Nope--it only will flush the lower section, not up through the block.  For that I need to buy a different fitting that screws onto the inlet pipe for the motor, start the motor and flush it that way.  Basically, I was sold a fitting that does only half the job, not all of it.  It allows salt water to stay in the engine that could cause it to fail due to corrosion later.  Off to West Marine again.

Rained and hailed yesterday--add a bit of Sun and there you have it.  Today--sunny and bright.  We will see what today brings.

We rented a small storage space for the excess we don't want to take to Alaska but will need later in out trip.  I expect we will be making several trips over there today to get the boat some what emptied.

It's another day.  Have a great one everyone!

 

Day 310 Decisions!

Before.
After the cutting.  The final cuts and fiber glassing should be done today and the project completed.  There was lots of foam under the counter top.  It all fits together like a cork in a bottle.  Big hole at the top to a smaller hole into the box.  It's going to make getting food out a lot easier.    

Yesterday was a big day.  Lots going on.

First, we had to empty the refrigerator so the Bob (wood worker) could have free access to it.  He showed up at 9:15 and went to town.  Measured and took off for the shop to make a template for cutting the top of the counter.  He came back in the early afternoon and went at it.  We stayed out of the cabin so as not to disturb him.

I ordered 4 gasoline "jerry" cans to stow on deck for our trip North.  They'll be attached to a board that is attached to the stanchions.  We figure we will be needing the fuel for the generator as well as the out board motor.  While there,I picked up the replacement thermostat for the Webasto heater that I had had so much fun with last week.  It had come in.   Over to Zephyr.  Out with the tools and in went the new thermostat.  Set the temperature and on came the heater.  Worked just fine.  I've set it for a 3 degree setting so we will see how she does.  It's got to be better than the 8 degree difference of the old thermostat.  I've boxed up the "broken" one to go back today.  Check that off the list.

We started up the engine to check the transmission.  In prior posts, I'd written about how the prop shaft rotates even while it is in neutral.   This time, we wanted to see if it got faster as we increased the RPMs.  Yes, it sped up.  Not a good thing.  This means that if we are at anchor and fire up the engine to charge the batteries, we will be moving around the anchorage.  Not a good thing.  We talked to the yard manager(Mark) about what we had found and he was going to talk to the tech that installed it to see what could be done.

After lunch, we unloaded the dingy and put her in the water.  Using the whisker pole, it couldn't have been easier.  Hook the pole to the mast,  attach lines to it to make it into a crane.  Attach a set of block and tackle and clip that to the dingy and over she went.  Slick as a whistle.   Over to the stern and down came the motor.  Tightened up the screws that hold it on and we were ready to go.  I was smart enough to not disengage from Zephyr while doing all this.  Yes, I do have a set of oars but I'd rather stay attached till I got the motor going.  A few pulls of the lanyard and nothing.  Oh, yeah, turn the switch to "on" helps.  Switch turned on and another pull and she started right up!!!  With Bob(the woodworker) working down below, we took off for West Marine in the dingy.  Time to get some experience in "Puff", our dingy.   It's about a mile and a half over so out we went.  A nice trip.   Sunny on the way down and cloudy on the way back.  We made sure to avoid the ferry that comes out of Port Townsend.  They're bigger than us.  I had to pick up a handle for the new hatch board for the refrigerator.

We got back, detached the motor and craned it on board.  Pulled Puff over.  Attached the block and tackle and up it came to the deck.  Turned her over and she was stowed.  

Just as we were finishing this job(Bob was leaving for the day) over comes Larry.  He's the mechanic that installed our transmission.  He's been in contact with the folks at Great Lakes Marine that sold them the transmission.  After much conversation, they don't think it can be adjusted while on Zephyr to stop the prop shaft from turning while in neutral.  To do it properly, the transmission will need to be taken out, crated and returned to them in Michigan.  This would entail us being hauled out and put back on the hard for God knows how long!!!  We could be here for at least another month--conservatively.  Will we ever get out of here?  We really don't know what to do now.  Have it done now?  Go to Alaska or at least the North end of Vancouver Island first?  This really complicates matters.  We are so tired of not being able to go out and have some fun.  This isn't "living the dream"!!!!  It's living the nightmare!!  

Now the discussion starts as to who is going to pay for all this.  We already paid to have it installed and don't think it's our responsibility to pay to have a defective piece of equipment taken out and put back in when it returns.  There will be several conversations today between different companies and us.  You can't get blood out of a turnip.  They have already taken a pound of our flesh and we don't want to give them any more. 

It's now raining outside so we will see how today progresses.

Have a great day everyone.  

   

Day 309 Safe and sound.

One of the mid-channel buoys that dot the transit channel from Seattle all the way out the Juan de Fuca channel.  It's just like any street you drive on.  Incoming on the right coming in and out going on the right going out.  No muss, no fuss.  Each "big" ship is in radio contact with a central dispatcher that monitors every "big" ship that is in the straits all the way from the West end at Neah Bay all the way to Seattle/ Tacoma area.
First freighter and only freighter I encountered on the way up to Port Townsend.
A tug heading South with cargo.  There are lots of these in the water heading back and forth through all the channels from Canada to the US every day.
Second tug with a three barge train.  I encountered this group just as I was getting to the North tip of Maristone Island right across from Port Townsend.  I had to wait for them to pass before I could turn to port to head across to Point Hudson.  Don't forget--you can click on the photos to see them larger.

Made it safe and sound to Port Townsend with no problems.  I left at 0725 and got in at 1225--5 hours later.  It took 6 to get down to the Port Of Brownsville but only 5 to get back.  I played the currents of the tides better.   I was hitting over 10 knots the last third of the trip.  That's quite a quick ride for a boat whose "max" hull speed should be about 8 knots.   The effects of current play a big part on how far you can get in a day.   I left Brownsville and got to Agate (better known as "cluck cluck bridge") Bridge just at "slack tide"--0800 hours.  I encountered a problem with our Garmin chart plotter.  The screen kept flashing on and off.  Finally died about the time I was heading under the bridge.  Those of you that have been following our progress remember the "fun" time I had going under the bridge back on January 20.  I chickened  out just as I was about to head under the bridge.  The chart said 75 foot clearance and all I needed was 64 feet but the eyes can play tricks on you as far as depth perception.  One of the faults of having Lasik surgery done on the eyes I guess.  Yeah, I made it safely but it sure looked close.  This time, I didn't hesitate.  I was at 7 knots as I headed into the pass and just kept on going.  Look at the bridge--look at the rigging.  Look at the bridge--look at the rigging--over and over again.  Sweat started flowing but I was bound and determined to get past the thought of destroying my mast head and it's very expensive rigging by hitting a bridge that I knew I could get under--boy it sure looked low!!  Under I went--my sigh of relief could be heard on shore I'll bet.

Once through the pass and bridge, I slowed to a stop in the next bay and stopped the engine to take a look at the wiring for the Garmin.  It's located in the engine room--hot with lots of moving parts and belts(careful where you stick your fingers).  The wires looked great where I had installed them in September of 07.  I unscrewed and retightened them and started the engine and fired up the Garmin again.  Still blinked on and off.  I unscrewed the cord at the unit--same thing---on-off--on--off.  I finally left it off.  I had a chart plotter from Raytheon that came with Zephyr that I'd bought new electronic charts for plus my Nobeltec electronic chart program was running on a screen right beside me.  Throw in the paper charts we had for Admiralty Inlet and I was fine.  I tried the Garmin one more time and she worked fine till I was just getting into Point Hudson.  I think one of the wires has gotten frayed where it runs near the steering gear.  I'll be pulling and inspecting the unit in the next few days.

Going down, I'd been encased in fog.  This trip was fog free.  I'd taken insurance for having no fog by making sure I installed a fog horn while in Brownsville.  It was cloudy and a bit overcast with a few sun breaks but it didn't get really nice till I got to Point Hudson at Port Townsend.  Then the Sun came out,, the birds chirped and all was well.  The same thing happened when we left Louisiana back in 1995 for Colorado--but that is a whole nother story.

Tracy had driven up and met me at the pump out dock just inside the marina.  We then putt putted over the Sea Marines docks.  Took a few tries to get in alright.  Just enough wind to blow us away from the dock at the last minute where Tracy couldn't make the leap from Zephyr to the dock without killing either herself or her ankles.  Neither a good thing.  So off we went and did it a second time.  No problems this time.  All tied up safe and sound.

We went up to Sea Marine to discuss the installation of the new hatch in the counter--the workman will be down today at 0900 to see what needs to be done.  At $75.00 per hours, I sure hope he is a fast worker.

Off for lunch and a stop at West Marine to pick up the charts we had them order for our trip North through the inside passage.  Again--I've got electronic charts but I like to be a safe sailor and while the paper charts aren't cheap, they are a necessity if you're smart.

Over to see Port Townsend Rigging to see our new carbon fiber spinnaker pole.  At 22 feet, it's a long one.  Being made of carbon fiber, it will weigh in at about 22 pounds.  The same thing in Aluminum would be a lot closer to 50 pounds.  Not a fun thing to muscle on a moving dock--all the while trying to stay on board.  They expect to have it done by then end of the week.  Then all we have to do is figure out how to attach it to Zephyrs stanchions for safe keeping.  It's too long to be kept attached to the mast.  The Spreader Light keeps us from putting it there.  The folks at PT Rigging have some ideas.  We'll just wait and see.

Our son Matt is coming over to spend a few days with us next week before we set off.  It will be great to have him on board again before we go.  

That's about it for now.  We'll see what the wood worker does today.

Have a great day everyone. 

Day 308 Packing and stowing.

Today was spent packing and stowing gear on Zephyr.  We're getting ready for the trip tomorrow back to Port Townsend/Point Hudson.  I expect to be leaving here about 7am and get there by about 1:00 if I can maintain the speed I did on the trip down.  I've calculated the currents and they will be pushing me out the Admiralty Inlet all the way to PT.  I just need to make sure I get to the Agate Bridge--also known as the "Cluck Cluck Bridge" by 8am as that is the time that there 

 no current going under the bridge.  It's known as "slack tide".  I don't want to face an incoming tide when I get there.  It's not fun to hit that head on.  Timing is everything on a trip like this.

We had a diver out to Zephyr this afternoon to change out the zinc on the propeller.  It was shot and needed to be replaced before it fell off or caused a wobbling of the propeller.  Neither would be good.  Since we had never seen a diver at Point Hudson, we wanted to get it changed before we set off.  It's cheaper than a haul out. With that done, we're set to go.

I spent a portion of the day checking our navigation computer programs.  With these running, I'll be able to "see" ships anywhere around me as I head out the inlet.  It's called AIS and it basically picks up a radio signal from the large boats around us.  It's required by law that boats of a certain size have one of these on board.  It make it much easier to see who is out there.  It even gives me their call sign for talking over VHF radio if I want to.

Tracy will be following me up there in the car and meet me there.  It no where near as much fun traveling by myself.  Hopefully there will be no fog as I had on the way down.  Plus it will be a good bit lighter earlier in the day.

I'll let you know tomorrow how the trip went.  It's off to bed.

Day 307 Soggy

One of many jelly fish we see floating through the water in the slips.  This marina area has a tremendous amount of aquatic life.  Far more than Point Hudson has.  We're not sure why but every day we see more and more.
One of our resident star fish.
A star fish sitting on the bottom on our walk out the pier.  The water is quite clear.

It rained yesterday morning till about 10:30 and then quit.  Tracy took off with the laundry while I worked around Zephyr trying to diagnose our situation with the generator.  

When we are hooked to shore power, all is well.  When we hook up to the generator, the "reverse polarity" light on the circuit panel lights up.  Not a good thing.  If true, it can do some damage to some systems.  I checked the outlets.  When on shore power, they show up on a tester as just fine.  Wires hooked up to the right poles on each plug.  When on a generator, they all show not wired correctly.  Either the "hot and ground" is reversed or the "hot and neutral" are reversed.  When I plug in the tester, the reverse polarity light comes on solid.  When nothing is plugged in, the little light blinks on and off.  If I plug in the tester to the generators plug at the generator, the tester shows an "open ground".  I'll try hooking the generator up to the ships ground later and see what that does to the problem.   When I posted the problem on several of the cruiser forums, I get the response that this is a problem with all Honda generators and to call Honda for advise.  It always has an "open ground".  The forums say not to worry about it.  I'll call Honda once I have more minutes on my phone.  I've just about used up my minutes for the month and Verizon gets really pricy if I go over my limit.  At least I reset on the 4th.

It started raining(and still is this morning) about 1:30 yesterday afternoon.  Tracy wasn't back with the laundry and had no phone so I took off for the laundry room about 2:30 with her foul weather gear so she wouldn't get soaked on the way back.  She still had clothes in the dryer when I got there.  Other people had been doing their laundry and the driers take a lot longer than the washers and the loads kept backing up.  Wash was done before the driers were available.  Luckily, the driers finished shortly after I got there so we loaded up the nice clean laundry--wrapped it in plastic bags and carted it back to Zephyr.  All safe and sound by 3:30.  As I said, it has rained ever since.

The weather delay that caused us to wait here proved to be correct.  While relatively calm here, they were having gusts to 23 at Port Townsend.  It would have been a bumpy ride.  It's now blowing here so we'll see what today brings.

I made arrangements with a local diver to come out this afternoon and inspect the zinc on our propeller shaft.  It looks far more degraded than I think it should and we would feel better having it inspected.  If it is shot, we will replace it and try and find out why it went so fast.  It should last about 9 months or more.

 I took apart the rudder assembly to install the polymer disk that I had ordered a few weeks ago.  Now the steering assembly rides free and clear of the heads of the bolts that had restricted it movement.  It will no longer be stopped by the bolts and we will have a rudder range of from 40 degrees to port and 40 degrees to starboard as we sail.  It will make turning a lot easier.  I will have to check the nuts that hold the assembly together on a periodic basis as the nuts, even with a lock washer, were not as tight as I had expected them to be when I got down there.  As they call it, "routine maintenance".  

The Sun has come out but it's blowing well.  We'll see what today brings.

Have a great day every one.

Day 306 Slight delay

We've decided to wait a day or two here in Brownsville before setting out for Port Townsend.  It's raining as I type this and winds are expected to be in the 25-30mph range today up near the East end of the Juan de Fuca straits which is where I would be heading.  It's one thing if both of us are on board, but with it being just me during this transit, I don't really want to face those kinds of winds on my own on a boat of this size even if I am under power.  The marina at Point Hudson can get quite squirrely with winds of that force.  They don't want us there till Tuesday anyway so why rush.  Tomorrow is supposed to be the same so Tuesday is the "get out of town day".  Meanwhile, the tasks continue.

We went to Costco for more supplies.  This is the first Costco we've been in that has several self service checkout lanes.  It works just like many of the grocery stores.  Swipe your card and slide what you are buying over the scanner.  Couldn't be easier--and it is faster as most of the people that have few items check out this way.  

We stocked up on chicken--this time in individually shrink wrapped packets.  Plus some "chubs"of hamburger.  The freezer section on Zephyr was getting empty and since we will be leaving, now was the perfect time to stock up.

Tracy defrosted the freezer in the morning while I worked at the computer.  It's not an easy task as you try and get slabs of ice out without them falling into the bottom of the box where it's tough to reach down and pickup.  There's no front door on this baby.  The hairdryer really helps.  The bad thing is that it takes quite a while for it to cool down and freeze again.  It's almost 24 hours later and the water in the cube tray is still not frozen.  The temperature in the box is 35 so the box is cold enough but the freezer area just isn't down there far enough to do the job yet.  I should have cubes by this afternoon.  

Over to Safeway for some more things and back to Zephyr for a quiet evening.  

We're thinking of hiring a diver to go check on the zinc that is attached to the propeller shaft.  It's looking a good bit decayed.  Since the prop shaft is now the main ground for Zephyr, I'm wondering if that is causing it to decay faster than it did in the past.  Previous zincs had lasted a lot longer and since this one was brand new when we launched back in October, that's only a span of 4 1/2 months and that's not long.  A diver is a lot cheaper to hire than a haul out at Point Hudson so we will see if we can find someone in the next day or so before we leave.  

We stocked up on more anti-flea meds for our fur people.  If those little critters come back while we're out in the islands we want to be prepared.  The first stuff we bought did nothing other than to cause Shadow to loose all his hair where we applied the medication.  The stuff from Advantage got rid of the critters quickly and apparently totally.  

Today will be laundry day.  We want to get it all done before we leave as it is cheaper here by far.  We will be trying to get rid of some of the mildew that has attached itself to some of my clothes while they were packed away in one of the cabinets in the stern stateroom.

We turned over and stowed the dingy yesterday getting it ready for transit.  We never got the outboard motor back on and started.  It will have to wait till we get to Port Townsend.  The new tv antenna we bought got hauled down for storage during the trip North.  No reason to have it up in the rigging during the trip.  

I started up the generator and hooked it up to Zephyrs inlet for testing.  It started right up.  When I hooked it up to Zephyr, the "reverse polarity" light came on again.  I had hoped we had solved that problem when we replaced the inlet a few weeks ago.  Apparently not.  The strange thing is that the warning light goes off if I turn off the "starboard outlet" circuit breaker.  When the circuit is on, so is the warning light.  When it's off, so is the light.  When hooked to shore power, the warning light is off.  It makes no sense to me or anyone else I've talked to.  I've posted the problem on several websites that cater to sailors.  Hopefully we will find an answer to the situation.  Since we expect the generator to be one of our principal means of keeping the batteries charged we need to get it resolved if we can.

By the way, it's "Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit day" to all of you out there.  Have a great day.