Boat Works

The last two weeks have been relatively quiet for me. I try to do one or two useful boat tasks every day and spend the rest of the time in relaxed marina living. I have lunch here at The Fuel Dock every day and usually spend an hour or three doing internet work. Shopping can take time. A visit to Home Depot is a 3-hour activity because it involves two bus rides. Shopping at a real grocery store involves a 30-minute bike ride to The Times grocery store at S. Beretania Street. Wall mart is a bit closer: just past the Ala Moana mall about 15 minutes away. Clothes washing is no big hassle, given that we have excellent laundry facilities here at The Fuel Dock. And then there are the people. Sometimes I get startled at the realization of how many people I've gotten to know here, and how familiar they are to me now. I guess that I've been, well, living in Honolulu for the last two months; but instead of living in a condo or house I live on a boat.

The winch drama is resolving itself well. John Coupland of Marine Agencies Australia can supply me with almost all of the winch parts that I requested. The replacement pedestal extension and one set of roller bearings were sine quibus non for the salvation of the 6th winch and John was able to supply them. I am in the process of ordering a healthy set of spares (at a price!) which coupled with the other spares that I already have on board should see me through the circumnavigation.

One useful task that I have completed concerns the water tanks. Arnold and I seemed to consume water at such a rate that I suspected either a leak or less tank capacity than I had calculated. I eliminated the possibility of a leak simply by filling the tank and checking to see if it was still full a week later. I then got some doweling and starting with an empty tank I would pour in a carefully measured 10 liters of water, dip in the dowel, then bring it back up and mark the water line with a hack saw. The end result was a dip stick calibrated for every 10 liters, and the tank had almost exactly 140 liters of water as I had calculated. Now we will be able to plumb our tanks while the sea is calm to get a good indication of our water supply.

Last week I noticed that the starboard battery was not strapped down. It is a large and heavy battery and if we have a knockdown, rollover, or pitchpole we'll have enough material flying around to have to worry about the batteries too. So I spent some time putting two straps on the starboard battery and a second strap on the port battery.

I took the boarding ladder off about two weeks ago and had Lenny do some remedial work on it. The ladder is now back with new rubbers on the supports.

I dropped the cockpit spray dodger off at a sail maker to re-stitch a zipper that had torn off and put a blue vinyl patch over the corner where the boom had frayed the material. He did a great job. Today I repaired two press studs and the spray dodger is ready for duty.

The three big repair tasks on the agenda are:

1. Reinstallation the 6th winch once I have received the parts
2. Completion of the rigging work by Ron, who is waiting on parts for the Profurl roller furler
3. Attempt to get a good alignment of the wind indicator
4. Re-bedding of the starboard stanchions and one of the port ones.

Arnold will be back in Honolulu in three short days and we sail for Seattle in four short weeks.