Position: N
29 59.325
W 081 39.657
Rachel's
been back in the water for, let's see, two weeks. Wow – just two
weeks? It sure seems a lot longer than that.
After
getting launched we moved ½ mile to Reynolds Park Yacht Center.
It's a little more expensive but much cleaner and nicer. We still had
many jobs to do that we needed to be on a dock to accomplish, so we
figured this would be a great place to do them. A good decision, as
it turned out, since it seems like we've been taking two steps back
for every step forward.
For
example, Mark needed to align the new prop shaft, which turned out to
be a much bigger job than anticipated. One of the rear engine mounts
was rusted and, try as he could, he could not adjust it, so he
decided to replace it. This meant raising the back of the engine a
couple of inches so he could slip the old one out and the new one in.
Good thing he did, as the mount was broken, too. One thing led to
another, blocks and tackle tied around the boom and led to a winch,
crank crank, only 1/8” left to go, and CRACK. Huh?? The boom
gallows shattered (this is a curved piece of wood that the boom sits
on when not in use). It was dry rotted. The good part is that he
did finally manage to get the engine mount installed and the engine
and shaft aligned.
While
this was going on Julie established herself in the lovely big lounge
with her sewing machine for a few days to work on a new bimini, the
shade cover for the cockpit. With two big tables, lots of floor
space, and ample lighting the space was much better suited to her
needs than down below in Rachel's salon. A lot of cutting and
sewing, a couple of test fittings followed by a final fitting, and we
now have a nice new bimini. With the bimini on, Mark was then able
to reinstall our second solar panel.
The
next step was to cut and sew the piece of canvas that goes between
the bimini and the dodger called the connector. The dodger serves as
the boat's windshield and the front of the connector attaches above
it to – you guessed it – the boom gallows. Which was in many
small pieces.
Now,
what to do about the boom gallows? We went to a local sawmill and,
as luck would have it, there was a big chunk of cypress sitting
there. The owner cut a 1.5” thick board off the chunk, squared it
up, and cut the board into several 1/2” thick strips with his band
saw. All for only $10, wood, labor, and all – one of the best
deals we've ever lucked into!!
After
a stop at a lumber yard, where we bought some clamps and a piece of
plywood that we then had cut into three pieces, we headed back to
Rachel. We screwed the three pieces of plywood together to make them
thick enough, then cut out an arc with the same radius as the old
boom gallows. The plan was to use the two plywood pieces as a press
to curve and clamp the wood. After a bunch of epoxy and 3 days
clamped in the form followed by a couple hours of sanding – voila –
we now have a nice new curved boom gallows made of laminated cypress.
Sorry we forgot to take a picture of this process.
Then
yesterday, right after we released the boom gallows from the form, we
ran out of water. Okay, time to fill the water tanks. Starboard
first, then move on to the port tank. Julie opened the deck plate,
put in the hose, and waited. Okay, it's full...OH NO!! That wasn't
the WATER deck plate, that was the FUEL deck plate!! We now had a
fuel tank that was half full of water and half full of diesel fuel!!
What a mess!! Just when we finally felt we were starting to make
progress.
After
everything else we've had to deal with, all we needed was another
major task. Needless to say we were both pretty upset. After
learning that it would cost over $300 to have a fuel polishing
service handle the problem for us, the folks at the marina said
they'd deal with the contaminated fuel for free if we could get it
out and put it into containers. So Julie went to Home Depot and
bought ten five gallon buckets with lids. Mark hooked up an old oil
change pump and we proceeded to fill the buckets. Luckily diesel
fuel floats on water, so by pumping the water out of the bottom
first, we were able to salvage about 20 gallons of fuel. We'll still
have to run it through our homemade water separating filtration
system a few times before we can put it back in the tank, but at
almost $4 / gallon that will save us a few bucks.
And
then, to top it all off, a cold front comes through and we find
ourselves sitting down below this morning while it blows in the high
20s gusting into the 30s and the mercury falls so far we're wearing
fleeces and slippers!! At least we're able to plug in our little
heater to take off the worst of the chill. Can't do many boat jobs
in this weather, but at least we're getting some time off and you are
receiving this update.
We
need to get off the dock and get moving further south so we can
return to fair weather, fun, and friends!! Hopefully we'll be on our
way in the next few days.
