(Mission) Creeping Along

Pachuca's launch date has been locked in at "two weeks from now" since early January, and given the long history of receding finish dates I am considering renaming her Tantalus.  Just kidding.  The pace of work has slowed down for various valid reasons but I expect it to resume to full pace in the coming week, hopefully until launch time.

Repainted compartments

The mast is ready and we have have completed the connection of the new thru-hull fittings with this week's fitting of the new engine intake hose and three head hoses (basin drain and two for the marine toilet).  However, with typical mission creep, we decided to replace the 11-year-old marine toilet with a new one which will give me the opportunity to repaint the areas around the site of the toilet (more mission creep).

All of Pachuca's thru-hull fittings have been replaced except the two at the galley (basin drain and salt water intake) which were deemed to be in good condition.

I've used whatever spare time became available to repaint parts of the cabin interior, a job much easier to do before the boat is equipped and furnished for sea.

Bruce bedding the pre-glued rubber on Sikaflex

Bruce put rubber seals on the lazarette cover but we ran into trouble with one of the latches and Rob the fabricator will visit the boat to sort out the problem.

Photo of materials for future reference

I am also including a photo of some of the materials that we have been using in our work for my future reference.  A major omission in the photo was International Everdure primer and sealer.

Deck Painted

9 Feb 2019

The painting of the deck was completed on Monday, which I consider to be a milestone. 

Bruce and his wife "Dolphie" arrived early in order to do as much painting as possible before the arrival of the hot midday sun.  Bruce began rolling the paint at about 8 AM while Dolphie worked furiously to complete the masking with tape. A small amount milled plastic powder had been mixed with the paint to ensure that the non-skid property would not be degraded by this second unexpected top coat.  By about 4 PM the entire deck had been  painted and the port side which had been painted first was already touch dry.  Bruce and Dolphie had hung in there throughout the extremely hot conditions and I was grateful for that.  While they worked above their son "Oakie" worked below sanding the hull below the waterline  to smooth finish.  Oakie exhibited the same strong work ethic as his parents.

New deck color

We had changed the color from "Biscuit" (X42) to "Magnolia" (X32) which was two shades lighter and I was pleased to see that the result was as I had envisioned.  The enclosed photo does not do justice to the colors when viewed from a computer screen but at least give an idea of the result.  Note how the toe rail complements the color.

While Bruce did his thing I concentrated on the task of setting up the  hoses for the three bilge pumps.  The electric bilge pump and the manual "Whale Gusher" manual pump at the stern of the cockpit drain the forward section of the cabin bilge and the manual Whale Gusher pump at the starboard side of the cockpit drains a pit in the bilge below the cockpit.

White electric pump atleft, black manual pump inlet at right

Electric bilge pump hose above white manual pump hose

White hoses to manual bilge pumps in cockpit, clear hose at left from electric pump

The first task was to route the two hoses passing from the cabin to the lazarette.  Unfortunately the mechanic had been naughty and passed without notification to us one of the Morse control cables through the opening for one of the hoses and a fuel line through the other.  It took me over an hour of careful work to move these lines to their proper paths.

Passing the hoses through their respective routes turned out to be easier that I had expected.  The key was to feed the hoses down through the lazarette floor into the steerage compartment and from there use a combination of pushing and pulling to reach the cabin drain area.  The starboard cockpit pump hose was already in position and I connected it to the pump.  On Wednesday and Thursday Bruce and I worked together to fit the hoses, coating the through hull inlets with Sikaflex then using a heat gun and lots of muscle power to fit the hoses into the clamping position.  We used sturdy wide clamps rather than the standard universal clamps.

One of the subtle improvements to the boat is the USB power outlet plug suggested by Greg Hansen.  The upper slot delivers 1 amp and the lower one delivers 2 amps.  The shelf below it completes a very convenient setup for charging mobile phones, cameras, etc.

Charging my Android phone at the new facility

Greg made another improvement.  Up to now the boat's AM/FM radio has been  practically useless because it has relied on a tiny antenna in the cabin strapped next to the mast.  I had used it mostly as a sound system for CD's and watching movies.  I had sacrificed my old, decrepit, and redundant Lowrance GPS to make room for the upgrade of the boat's 240 volt system and it was Greg's idea to use its antenna position at the stern of the boat to mount a long marine AM/FM whip antenna.  Greg visited the boat on Friday and did precisely that with the help of Bruce and myself.  He came up with a stainless steel plate to which he could screw the antenna with holes for screws then drilled holes in the freed up Lowrance mounting plate and fitted his plate with thru bolts.  He then screwed the mast onto the plate and  passed the antenna cable through down through the stainless steel tubing into the interior of the boat using the redundant Lowrance cable as a pull through. 

New AM/FM antenna at left, AIS antenna at right, on angle because it is strapped to a vertical slanting bar

He connected the antenna cable to the Pioneer car radio that had served me faithfully throughout the circumnavigation, turned on the radio and we were immediately listening to an ABC AM station in Narrogin, a country town 200 km to the SE.  The clarity was amazing given that the sun was high.  He then dialed in another country station before we locked in on the Perth AM stations that came in crystal clear.  The FM reception was also crystal clear as expected.

Greg connecting the radome

Earlier in the week Greg had made the final connection of the radar dome on the mast.

Painting of Deck

2 Feb 2019

Bruce worked hard to prepare the deck for painting and by late Thursday the deck surface had been prepared, masked off, and rolled with a coat of Norglass "No Rust" primer that acts as a barrier between what little remained of the original enamel paint and the planned 2-part epoxy paint.

Deck masked off and painted with primer

Bruce and Mike (who had painted Pachuca's mast) laid the first topcoat on Friday morning before the blazing summer sun made the work unbearable.  Bruce rolled the paint onto the deck while Mike followed with a sifter to shake the Inernational "Intergrip" anti skid material onto the wet paint then rub it in gently with his hand.

After the paint was laid we had a discussion about the color and I agreed with Mike and Bruce's advice that the color was too dark for summer conditions resulting in extra heat inside of the cabin.  We consulted the paint chart and I agreed that the same color but two shades lighter would be more appropriate.  Fortunately (and very wisely) the second can of paint had not been tinted and by the end of the day the paint had been tinted and ready for the second coat on Saturday morning, which Bruce would lay down on his own.

I noted on Saturday morning from my home in Darlington that that painting conditions were almost ideal with some cloud overhead, a moderate southerly wind, and a much cooler day.

While the deck was being painted I worked below setting up the route for installing the hoses from the electric and manual bilge pumps in the cabin to the drains in the lazarette.  Unfortunately liberties had been taken with no consultation in the routing the Morse cable to the transmission, one fuel line, and one heavy battery cable and it took me about 2 hours of slow and timid work (First, do no harm) to reroute these lines and free up the two large holes through the bilge bulkhead  for the pump hoses.  After investing in some trial and error it became clear that feeding the hoses from the cabin into the lazarette was not feasible because it was impossible to get past the muffler to get a good two-handed grip on the hoses to pass them up into the lazarette. Feeding the hoses from the lazarette down into the steerage compartment is definitely the way to go.