New Stove, Visit to Boat

Keel Bolts

On Friday I picked up the new marine stove from Yacht Grot.  It is a "Force 10" "European Sandard" size 2-burner stove, model no. 63256 (http://www.force10.com/gas_gimballed_2burner.html).  A 4-burner stove would not fit into the space in Pachuca's galley and a 3-burner model that we initially selected is not available in Australia. 

The two-burner model is actually OK because we were never able to use more than 2 burners at a time on the 4-burner stove currently on Pachuca because there was simply not the space for more than two pots or pans.

Trevor charged me an even $2,000 and I suspect that he shaved the price for the returning circumnavigator.  I notice that another boat shop is charging $2,249 plus $12 delivery.  This may seem expensive by USA standards but this is Australia in 2014.  I've just seen one USA price of $1650 with heaven knows how much tax will be piled on.

The stove is near the boat at Brenda and Stephen's house and I hope to install it during the 2 weeks that I will devote to Pachuca at the end of August.

I visited the boat yesterday exposed the bilge so that I could photograph the keel bolts which I would like to tighten up.  I'll engage a professional rather than going to the expense of purchasing the required tools.  To my surprise the bilge had about 100 mm of water in it.  This was interesting because the water was accumulated while the boat was on the hard stand.  I tasted the bilge water (sailors do this sort of thing) and confirmed that it was fresh water.  This means that the water that I have been shipping when driving the boat hard has probably been entering from the deck and not via thru-hull fittings and hoses.  If this is the case I am baffled because I am able to see most of the inside of the hull and have not noticed water passing through to the bilge.  I will do some experimentation with a water hose before I put the boat back into the water.

Rescued Sextant

I discovered my Astra II sextant at the bottom of a small compartment in the V berth area where it had ridden in a damp environment just above the forward end of the bilge since at least Argentina and possibly La Paz.  The Freiberger  and Ebco stextants had ridden in the electrical closet immediately behind the navigation station, but there was simply not enough room in that compartment for all three sextants.

Anyway, I brought the Astra II home and didn't mess around.  I put both the sextant and its box under a tap of tepid water and washed them thoroughly with a paint brush.  I then let them dry in the sun.  It appears that the sextant - and particularly the lenses and filters - is OK, and the box survived OK too.  Today I will treat the sextant with WD-40 and clean the lenses and filters with Windex.