Progress Report

Yesterday was very productive for me. Dan at Port Townsend Rigging sent one of his people to Pachuca to set me up for filling in the 24 holes of the winch platforms in front of the cabin. He brought everything required including a mask for me. He showed me the technique of reaming out the top of the holes with a countersink bit to give better support to the filler material. He then mixed the epoxy and showed me something else that I had not seen before: using a plastic injector for inserting the epoxy from the bottom of the hole up. He then left me to it. I filled in the 24 holes then filled in several other areas, in particular the four screw holes over the head that had been filled with silicone sealant until then. I then mixed another batch of epoxy and made the repairs inside the cabin ceiling which I believe will stop the leaks on the starboard side.

In the afternoon I had a go at tightening the headstay. Jeff Compton had showed me how to do it in Honolulu but I must have not been paying enough attention because I could not get the drum to go up. Dan told me how to do it. He says that one of the good things about Profurl is that you can get to the turnbuckle to adjust the headstay while the sail is still on the roller. Anyway, I eased the backstay and tightened the headstay turnbuckle three revolutions. I then tightened the backstay and after that tightened the inner forestay to give the mast a slight bend. I can say that I now have a "feel" of how to go about tuning my standing rigging, which is about time given that I've sailed 1/3 of the way around the world.

This morning I found that I had to mix up a small batch of epoxy to tidy up some flaws in yesterdy's filling work. I then check the patch up work in the ceiling and it looked very good. On that basis I put the two ceiling panels back up, pleased to note that this marked the start of putting the boat back together again.

I saw Joe at BUMS and asked him about the antifouling he is using on Pachuca. He's using the premium stuff which he says is 70% copper. I didn't think that it was possible to have than much copper in antifouling but he insisted that it was seven zero percent copper. If it is that strong then the third coat should surely see me through to Australia if the boat doesn't sink from the sheer weight of the copper.

Arnold and Sandra came by with their visitors Willie and Jacky, who are about to embark on one of those coastal cruises to Alaska. Willie came on board and I gave him a tour of my shambolic boat. After they left I used the Dremel tool that Arnold had brought to clean up the end of a toggle pin that had been giving me trouble.

Tomorrow is Saturday. I'll put two coats of paint on the repairs that I made on the deck then visit Arnold and Sandra for the weekend. At this point I am at the mercy of Dan and his reception of equipment that he has ordered for Pachuca.

So the things left to be done are:

- Third coat of antifouling (to be done early next week by BUMS)
- Rigging work (by the end of the week hopefully)
- Return of my head and main sails from the sailmaker (promised by Friday)
- Engine maintenance (after boat is in the water)

Once the boat is in the water and I have access to running water again I'll have to spend at least half a day cleaning the boat from stem to stern.

The top photo shows the leak repair work in the ceiling.

The second photo shows a treat that I got for Pachuca, even though she has cost me a lot of sweat, worry, and money: a digital temperature and humidity guage.