Field Trip to Emerald Galvanizing and Lake Union

Whenever Mike and I get to go someplace new to do a boat task, we feel like we are going on a field trip. We always learn so much about things we’ve never been exposed to before. Our major project of the month is the anchoring system, including refurbishing/rebuilding the windlass locker and getting the 300 feet of chain we carry regalvanized. Time for a field trip to Emerald Galvanizing in Seattle, the only game in town.DSC03205

The previous week, we had removed the chain from the chain locker and had it stowed securely in the back of our little red beater truck. My thought was that I would take it up to Seattle on Friday, but Mike didn’t want me to have all the fun by myself. He took a half day off from work, I picked him up, and we tootled up to Seattle.

Emerald Galvanizing is in a small building that you’ll miss if you blink. It literally looks like nothing until you get behind it, where the action it. Then all the mystery is solved and we realized how dead simple it actually was to have this done. When things are unknown, they don’t seem simple. They seem daunting and complex. This was none of the above.

When we drove into the yard, a very nice man (in the photo above)  put a pallet on his truck lift, drove it over to our truck, and removed our chain by hand, piling it on the lift. He’s been at Emerald for 39 years and is getting ready to retire. Makes our time in the saddle pale by comparison.  He was able to tell us right then that our chain was in really good condition. One small area, that we had been concerned about, was just now ready for regalvanizing. This was excellent news as replacing the quality of chain we have would have been a ton of money, as usual. He said the chain would be ready in a week, took our name and phone number, then offered us a tour of the workshop. Fieldtrip! Yay! If only my good camera were not in the shop being cleaned.

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Is that the glow from the Crack of Doom?

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Don’t even think of putting your hand in there.

This galvanizing business is hot and dirty work. We watched the guys for awhile as they handled the large metal buckets of parts and dunked things into the molten zinc bath. Standing in the work area, we could have been in the depths of Mordor with the molten zinc bath glowing orange, surrounded by dim and grey.  No Orcs in sight, but should I ever come upon a magic ring that keeps evil in power,  I’ll know where to dispose of it.  The mind reels with possibilities.

But no, the workmen were all smiles and waves. And I had to wonder: Do these guys who work here ever get their skin actually clean?

Our chain will be put into the pool of molten zinc, then it will go in a centrifuge that will spin the excess zinc off. We should have it back long before we are finished with the windlass locker, which is turning into quite the project. More on that later. Meanwhile…epoxy epoxy epoxy.

When we finished dropping off the chain, it was mid afternoon on a Friday in summer.  Which means that rush hour starts before 3:00. In Seattle, in rush hour, you aren’t going anywhere. You’re going to be sitting in traffic. No, thank you very much. We were pretty much stuck.  Yes, that’s right, stuck in Seattle on a really nice day. The horror.

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The steampunk-looking boiler on the Virginia V.

We decided to seize the day, park the car by Lake Union near the Center for Wooden Boats and go walk around the lake, look at boats,and generally take in the atmosphere. Our favorite Starbucks with its delicious coffee and excellent bathroom for middle aged tourists is close by,  and we could say hello to one of our favorite boats: M/V Lotus, which is docked right there behind the museum. Boats, coffee, bathrooms open to the public. It was a dream date.

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in the bowels of the steam engine.

South Lake Union is really a fun place to just walk around and people/boat watch, but you shouldn’t miss seeing the Virginia V, docked right there behind the museum. Launched in 1922, the steamship Virginia V delivered people and goods from Seattle down the water to Tacoma via the west coast of Vashon Island.  She is built entirely of clear Douglass Fir and her steam engine is something to behold, like something out of a steampunk novel, except real.

Our tour guide was an extremely competent young man named Ed. Ed knows probably everything there is to know about this ship, as well as the other boats on the dock. He’s pretty impressive and answers any and all questions with factual information including numbers, dates, names and all. Ed is a history teacher’s dream. Just don’t suggest they might use WD-40 on that engine as a lubricant. One of the guys in our tour group mentioned something on that order. I’m thinking Ed has heard that one before, and his amusement is running thin. I hope I hid my smile well.

With still some time to kill, it seems appropriate to sit on the end of the dock and dangle our feet in the cool water of Lake Union. You don’t have to worry about sharks taking a foot off because… it’s a LAKE! All the little sailboats are racing each other, seaplanes are coming and going, it’s a cool place to hang out for an hour. greensailboat

I’d say that if you are looking for an interesting afternoon, go have a tour of the Virginia V after you drop off your anchor chain at Emerald Galvanizing. Ask for Ed. You’re going to learn some history, and there will be no test later!

Oh, and by the way. Here’s a piece of good news for you: When we left the truck, I accidentally left my window rolled all the way down. As in completely down. Mike’s bike was in the back of the truck, locked, but drawing attention. Mike’s backpack was in the cab, my bag from Nordstrom Rack with new walking sandals was in the cab. When we returned, all was exactly as we left it. No one took anything! Yeah, I know there’s no drama to this. No one stole anything, no one was shot, pretty much nothing at all happened.  That’s the point. Just a piece of good news about humanity in a week of pretty shitty news otherwise. People are mostly good. If they weren’t, then the bad things reported on the ‘news’ would not be ‘news’.

 

 

 

Holidays at the Dock

Ah, the day we celebrate our freedom from our British Overlords. July 4th; the day when families get together and have big barbecues, go out on the water, swim and play and watch the fireworks together. Boat owners go places. Some people do cruises. We hope you are doing all of that stuff because we aren’t. And actually, that’s just fine with us, even though this is the first time in many years that we have actually been home on the 4th of July. We are usually out cruising, usually in Canada. We are at the dock this holiday weekend, happy to have some time to knock off a few projects. There is a lot going on down at Galapagos and it feels pretty good.

Having a double anchor roller allowed us to secure one anchor and use the other roller to deploy chain into the trashcan.

Having a double anchor roller allowed us to secure one anchor and use the other roller to deploy chain into the trashcan.

Yesterday we spent the day at the marina working on our projects at the bow. First we removed the anchor chain. We want to inspect it and have it regalvanized. There is one small area on the chain that gives us pause, as in we are not sure if it’s okay or not. Since our boat depends on having good chain, we’ll be looking closely at that small area. Fortunately, it’s near one end of the chain, so if we have to cut it off, we haven’t lost too much. Most of the chain is in really great condition.

To remove the chain, we rented a big furniture dolly, strapped a plastic garbage can to it, and then dropped the chain into it. Now we’re driving it around in our almost dying truck until we can get it up to Ballard to Emerald Galvanizing. (Hey local peeps, if you know someplace else, give us a holler.) We waited until high tide,  rolled her up the ramp, then transferred the chain to another container in the back of the truck. (Seriously, it would not surprise me if that truck just up and died the day before we leave. I only hope it holds out that long.)

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Our other agenda was to remove our Lofrans Falkon windlass so Mike could open it up and inspect everything, looking at brushes, and generally maintaining and putting his hands on each piece of it because that’s how he rolls. The windlass has worked perfectly, but he has already repaired one of the switches once, and we would rather make sure that everything is in good shape before we leave.

For those readers unfamiliar with boating terms, the windlass is what we use to drop the anchor and retrieve it. We have an electric windlass on board Galapagos, and we carry 300 feet of chain. To deploy the anchor, we step on a foot switch and the windlass begins rolling the chain out, the weight of the anchor keeping it moving. To bring the anchor in, we step on the other switch, bringing up a little at a time. This is a critical piece of equipment on board the boat. Our lives could depend on a reliable windlass and anchor so we don’t cut corners on this stuff.

Getting the windlass off was difficult, mostly because it was so well installed in the first place. After Mike removed all the bolts and pried away at the seal as much as he could, we used the main halyard to exert constant pressure on the caulk so it would gently pull away. A little more pressure, then waiting. Then a little more, then waiting. Then a little more, until it finally gave way.

Keeping tension to gently pull away from the caulk.

Keeping tension to gently pull away from the caulk.

When we pulled it up, there was some interesting looking white stuff that appeared to be used to fill a void underneath the windlass. We just don’t know what this stuff is. (Hey Derek, if you are reading this, do you know what this stuff is?) Any ideas out there in blog reader land? It has the consistency of that white paste kids use in school, the kind everyone secretly eats while the teacher makes gagging noises. There is almost no odor and (yeah, we went there) almost no taste. It is not greasy. Poking it with a finger and rubbing fingers together, it begins to dry out and then flake off the skin. Someone suggested it might be White Lead paste. Mike thinks it is corrosion, but I hope he is wrong and I wonder why, if it’s corrosion,  it would be pasty and not dry and powdery?

This white pasty stuff was under a rectangular void area on the windlass.

This white pasty stuff was under a rectangular void area on the windlass.

This is the rectangular void with some of the paste clinging to it.

This is the rectangular void with some of the paste clinging to it. Sorry for the photo quality. My camera is in being cleaned so all I have is my phone.

So you probably notice in the photos that the windlass locker has also seen better days. It’s been on my list to clean this space up, repair a rotted area of wood by the foot switches, and give it a fresh coat of paint. That is going to be happening. I have a nifty wood rot epoxy that I’ll be using to repair the small area that needs it. We also have some fiberglass supplies if we decide to lay a few sheets of that in addition to the epoxy. I’ll report back when we see how it works. The rot is close to one of the foot switches which we’ll be inspecting and replacing as necessary.

You can see the foot switches to the left of my foot. The area in question is between them.

You can see the foot switches to the left of my foot. The area in question is between them. That brown area is wood that is not covered with fiberglass for some reason.

We brought the windlass home, still taking advantage of a larger work space when we can get it. Mike couldn’t wait to take it apart and have his version of a good time. Andrew was home, so there was a little father/son machine and tool bonding time. He’s pretty impressed with the condition, and has plans to make it even better, which I will let him write about.

I do cherish scenes like this.

I do cherish scenes like this.

There are other fun things going on, but that’s all for now. Adios, amigos!

Aft Cabin Remake Update

During the month of April I was so busy writing other kinds of posts, I didn’t have time to update people on the happenings on Galapagos. But that doesn’t mean nothing was getting done. Au contraire, my friendly readers. We’ve accomplished quite a bit.

In the saga of the aft cabin, we made a final decision on what to buy to replace our mismatched, worn out mattresses. As you may recall, we remodeled that cabin just a bit; enough to give us quite a lot of extra sleeping room, with the ability to sleep together, apart, or even athwartship. So many possibiities! That was the easy part. Deciding on a mattress was the difficulty. That decision-making process took me off on a number of tangents in data gathering, but the result is that we’ll have a great mattress, and that all of the cabins have new beds. Nice!

I didn’t want to be ‘cheap’ in buying a mattress, but I also didn’t want to pay about 5000$ for a mattress from the marine mattress place. Sure, it would have been comfortable, but something in me just cannot spend that kind of money when I know good and well I can get it done for less and have a quality product. We have other things to buy. This just goes against my basic values.  Also I really wanted latex because it breathes, is mildew resistant, and cooler to sleep on than memory foam. Also.. luxury. Natural latex is not cheap. So I went to work researching.

One thing led to another and before you know it we were also replacing the V-berth cushions because we both just wanted to see how a regular dense foam mattress would feel and those cushions were worn out, too. We went with a high quality 4″ dense foam with a softer layer on top because most of the time this cabin will be used for us to sit and watch TV or for extra privacy. We needed something that would be nice to sleep on, but better to sit on. And we needed to do this first so we could experiment a bit with other foam combinations for the aft cabin.

The ‘before’ photo.

This is going to be an excellent space. We decided that we would not split this mattress into pieces as there is only one storage space underneath, it’s a small one, and we rarely have to get to it. We’ve determined we can lift up the entire thing and prop it up to get to that storage. I will be making pillows to line the hull on the starboard side and Mike is shopping for a small TV screen to hook up to our computers. This is the ‘guest’ berth, and our rumpus room. We are already loving it.

After photo. Color is kind of a spring green with brown flecks.

After photo. Color is kind of a spring green with brown flecks. That’s Patrick, from Sponge Bob Square Pants. He makes a good pillow. Also he is a starfish. He lives here now.

Still experimenting, I pulled out the middle berth foam. I decided not to replace that as it was not really worn out. But it did smell a bit like diesel, since it’s right next to the engine room. I brought it home, gave it a good going over with vinegar water and the Little Green Machine, and laid it out in the sunshine for three days. The smell almost was gone.

If you have upholstery, you need one of these.

For the next test, I ordered a soft 3″ natural latex topper from SleepOnLatex  and put that on top of the washed foam. This is really nice stuff.  It was almost just right, but not quite. I glued those pieces together and covered the whole thing with a special PUL fabric, which is breathable yet waterproof. This is what they make those waterproof mattress pads out of. You’ll find it in the home made diaper department of the fabric store. Yes, apparently people make their own diapers now. Who knew?

I’m wrapping all of our new foam in that stuff before having it upholstered. If the things ever get wet, the foam will not get ruined. And it will not take on the diesel smell we all love, either. Foam is expensive. I’d rather protect it than replace it.

Mid berth cushion already covered with PUL fabric. Yes, I stitched it by hand. Because it’s just easier for me.

Now we were ready to make the decision about the foam for the aft cabin. We work with Best Foam and Fabric in Tacoma. They don’t have a website because they’re old school and don’t need one. These people are really great. They’ve been in business for a long time, are boaters, and know their foam. They are also reasonably priced, easy to work with, and do quality work. They did our v-berth on Moonrise, and I was able to convince them to take on the aft cabin project on Galapagos by bringing in a life-sized pattern of exactly the shape and size I needed. If you want them to do yours, bring a pattern.

Starting with what we knew about how the v-berth felt, we began with 3″ of the same firm base foam and put a piece of our  3″ latex topper on top. We crawled on top of their cutting table to lay on the foam. (It’s not every place that will let you do that.) It was still too firm. Mike is less persnickity about beds, but I want to be cradled yet supported. I want the mother of all mattresses. I want that mattress to offer me the unconditional love and support of a good parent.

We replaced the firm base foam with a medium base foam. Too soft. Not enough support. Back to the firm base foam, we added a 2″ Q21 foam that is softer than the base, but firmer than the latex we bought. Voila! Perfect! With these three layers of foam, we will have a custom mattress that should last for decades. It felt so nice I hardly wanted to get off the cutting table.

Measuring the curve for the pattern at intervals, 8″ up the hull.

The cost has not been finalized, but it will be in the area of $2,200-$2,500, including the 3″ natural latex that will be the top layer of the foam sandwich, the fabric and upholstering. That’s at least $1000 less than the cheapest bid I got from a mattress shop, and that  was a very basic mattress made in Virginia and shipped to me. Who knows how long it would have lasted or how well it would have fit?

To give you an idea of size, I had to order two full size and one twin size mattress topper in order to have enough for the whole thing. I got the fabric on a super special deal at Hancock Fabric (may they rest in peace because I will truly miss that store). Because I was flexible about what I would be happy with, I was able to get all of the fabric for all three cabins for less than $200. I am not including the PUL fabric in that final cost. But it adds less than 100$ to the final price. I am buying that at Hobby Lobby, which appears to have the best, softest product of our local stores, and I’m using their 40% off coupon to buy it.

Next up: the exterior teak. But wait!! Here’s your link to the next episode in the aft cabin remodel.