Exhaust Effort

Removal of the exhaust thru-hull fitting has been more difficult that I had expected.

This morning we went to the workshop and borrowed some tools from Joel for unscrewing and removing the fitting.  Jak put a lot of force on the big nut with big adjustable pliers while preventing the fitting from spinning with a pipe wrench, with no luck.  I tried tapping the nut hard all around then borrowed some serious penetrating oil from another boat.  We let the penetrating oil do its work for an hour then had another go at unscrewing the nut and got nowhere.  Rather than risk damage to our hands or to the hull from frantic efforts we walked over to the workshop and I engaged Joel to do the job, suggesting that he may have to apply some heat to break the seal on the thread.  He is very busy because a lot of people are having last minute work done before departing the area ahead of the beginning of the hurricane season in June, but he will try to do the work on Friday.

While waiting for the penetrating oil to do its thing we put up the storm trysail and Jak saw what a hassle it is go get the slides past the join of the two sections of the track.  We'll be doing more work on this problem.  Even though the trysail has its own track and we may be able to set up a dedicated halyard, swapping to the trysail will not be as simple as dropping the mainsail and raising the trysail because the mainsail must be either zipped up in its cover or lashed with shock cord, then the lazy jacks must be dropped, which all means working on the cabin at at the mast.

When the wind is from a more favorable direction we'll hoist the mainsail and try to figure out why it is so difficult to raise.  In preparation for that work I purchased a can of Boeshield T-9 waterproof lubrication that Jan recommended highly.  According to the label, T9 was developed by the Boeing aircraft company for the lubrication and protection of aircraft components.

Jak then stayed at the boat to wash it down and I headed of to find a zinc anode for the propeller shaft as well as a hole cutter for use on the starboard backing material as well as for slightly enlarging the hole through the hull.  Dave kindly loaned me his electric drill and hole cutter bit, but did not have a cutter of the required 2 3/8" diameter.  I peddled the bicycle to the center of town and visited three hardware stores, then peddled back past the marina to Arcos where I found what I needed.

The GPS that Jak had ordered on my behalf cannot be delivered in Mexico because his billing address is in the USA, so it will be delivered to his home in Port Townsend and Corine will ship it to La Paz (Thanks Corine!)  One would think that Visa and other plastic cards would be considered world cards useable anywhere on the planet.  This seems to be the case with ATMs where I have had no problem in getting cash.  But with on line purchasing there seem to be problems with having a billing address in one country and delivery in another.  Two sites accepted my Visa card but would allow delivery in a wide variety of countries except the USA.  Go figure.

I've just noticed that this is Wednesday 11 May.  Tonight will mark the end of Jak's first week in La Paz.  It is amazing how much we have gotten done in these 7 days.