Then I spent an unpleasant hour drying (Talk about a Freudian slip - my fingers typed out "crying" before I corrected the word to "drying".) and cleaning the head. The head is one of the damp areas of the boat. In heavy weather some water passes through the brand-new-recently replaced solar fan vent cover and a lot of condensation accumulates on the ceiling then dribbles down into the cupboards. So cleaning includes wiping off every surface with a weak solution of bleach to remove mold. After that job was done I ran the fan heater in the head for the rest of the day to finish the drying process.
During this time I received a call from West Marine informing me that the ST60 display had arrived. We arranged that John would meet us there at 12.30 and Arnold and I arrived at noon to select some other items that had caught my eye. The netting along foredeck rails is looking a bit torn and shabby so we got 40 meters of 2' wide nylon netting and 30 meters of cord to make the replacement, probably in Mexico. I also selected a proper ship's log book which I will start using to ensure that I have a written record of my last position in the unlikely event that I lose all boat electronics. Arnold came up with an excellent fish net which should solve the problem of fish spitting the hook out as I try to haul them aboard. ("Them? - all 2 fish since I departed Australia 21 months ago.) We also put selected a dive bag large enough to hold all of those fish that we will spear in Mexico. (We hope.)
John arrived just before 12.30 and after finding that cord that I needed for the rail netting job we went to the checkout using Jak's Port Supply account for some discounts. The ST60 display cost $336 and the transducer was another $100. The entire bill, including 8.75% state sales tax came out to $620.39. (Ouch! Welcome to modern boating.)
From there we drove to Von's for an internet session and got back with enough time for me to visit Evan's catamaran for some advice which he badly needed. Even had purchased the 30-odd year old cat a day or two earlier knowing next to nothing of sailing or boat maintenance. Arnold had given him some basic advice (including making Evan aware of what hull antifouling is) and I went over to check out his rigging. For lack of time I won't go into details, but some of the things we found were: broken wire on the baby stay which meant a replacement. Lower port rail is corroded and is a trap for anyone who grabs it. Rigging looks generally OK but unbelievably loose. No jack lines. No inflatable life vest. No EPIRB beacon. No life raft. Only one anchor (a good 60-lb Bruce) with maybe 10 feet of chain. I asked him if the autopilot works and he said that it turns on OK. (Yea, but does it work?) This would normally be OK because that is how young men learn about boating. However, Evan planned to leave today for a solo sail across the Panama Canal into the Gulf coast. I spoke with him this morning and he has been given one extra day at this jetty then will spend some time at anchor preparing the boat. The baby stay has been removed for replacement and he has purchased a Danforth kedging anchor. This morning the vendor will arrive to help fit two propellers.
Then Arnold and I drove to John and Priscilla's house with dinner with them and their friends Pam and Fred who live on their 30-ft boat that they are preparing for cruising. Wow, what a charming traditional house with mind-blowing panoramic views of the entire San Diego bay area, including the Coronado islands. I did some secure internet banking using John's machine then joined the others in the lounge for an hour of conversation over drinks and a smorgasbord of nibblies until we were joined by Pam and Fred. Then we moved the dining room for more conversation over a wonderful meal. (The home made chocolate care with two scoops of coffee ice cream finished me off as far as eating. I remarked that I felt "pampered and spoiled.")
It was a wonderful evening of indulgence, warmth, and easy conversation where we exchanged our boating, travel, and life experiences.
This morning Arnold and I inspected the new depth sounder equipment and read carefully the instructions. I have lifted the sole boards in the "transducer area" in front of the keel and we can see no problem with fitting the unit. There is a minor issue with the wiring connection between the transducer and the display, and I plan to visit West Marine today to sort that out. However, I have a big preliminary job of drying and cleaning the entire bilge. This will make our job of threading the cabling much easier and will dovetail nicely for our plans of filling up the water tanks with water tinted with food coloring to see if they are leaking. Using our entire 280 liters of water in 12 days suggests that Arnold and I were using over 20 liters of water per day - a whopping 6 gallons per day. This does not seem likely given that we had disabled the pressure pump and were using salt water for much of our dish washing. When we tie this high water usage with the large amount of bilge water that we pumped out during our sail to San Diego we think that the possibility of leaky water tanks is worth investigating.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
1 comment:
Leaky water tanks...or....drinking heaps????????
Post a Comment