Category Archives: Andromeda

One of These Things Is Not Like the Other

Posted on by

Mike got the good news this week that our prop shaft and new propeller will be in tomorrow. This was news we were pretty excited to hear, especially when Shawn the Mechanic said he could go down to Andromeda sometime this week to start the installation process and, equally important, the repair to that nasty hole in the fiberglass. This news means things are progressing, and that lit a fire under our hind ends to hightail it down to Astoria this weekend and finish up some projects. And start others.

These weekends are now so seamless that it’s actually hard to remember all the things we get done. One job just seems to flow into another and pretty soon the day is shot and we’re crawling into bed too pooped to keep our eyes open for long. The drive home on Sunday seems much longer than the drive down on Saturday morning. We drink coffee late into the day.

This weekend I had a new ‘toy’ I got at the boat show: a cleaner for all kinds of materials called Flitz.  The display showed how it rejuvenated the plastic headlight cover on an old headlight. I was intrigued because we have a couple of hatch lenses and ports that are cloudy looking and this might help. When the sales lady cleaned up my ring and it looked like new, I was sold. We bought a tube and I tried it on the cloudy port lens in the aft head. Take a look:

The ‘Before’ shot, taken after using plain water to take off surface dirt.

After cleaning both sides with Flitz. Nice!

This stuff is not cheap at $24.00 a tube, but it will save me from having to replace the lexan skylight in the cockpit, so it’s basically already paid for itself twice over.

We changed out some drains that were leaking. There are very few things about this boat that I would put in the ‘dislike’ category. The deck drainage is one of them. I noticed this when we looked at the boat, but we loved the boat too much to care about these drains. The drains go through the deck and out through a thru-hull, which means more opportunity for water to get into the boat. This makes little sense to me, except from a purely aesthetic point of view. Also, the drains are not particularly beefy. Unlike most other things on this boat, these give us pause. They are held in place with what amounts to a piece of plastic and whatever bedding material is used to keep the thing in place.

Plastic? Really?

See that white piece of plastic? That’s all the stands between a drain that leaks and a drain that doesn’t. If you look closely you can see a small crack in the center of that white piece. This little crack appears to have compromised the integrity of this drain. We removed another drain, known to leak, and found the same thing. These are not big leaks, but they are irritating leaks and they cause damage over time. I will be replacing the shelving in the cabinet in the aft head due to the leak from this drain.

So I repaired two drains using epoxy, but this is a temporary fix at best. Eventually, when we’re in some place where boat work is less expensive,  we’ll probably want to take these out altogether and find a way to get the water to drain directly over the side. Not in the boat. Meanwhile we’re searching for a decent fix. Mike found a cheap drain that almost fits, and an expensive drain that didn’t fit at all. We need something that is about the same size as the countersunk area where the drain is installed so that the drain will sit flush to the hull. Two of our drains were replaced in the past, probably due to this bad original design, and they replaced them with drains that sit too high against the hull, so basically they are just a waste of space because the water just goes around them. File this in the “what were they thinking?” category.

Mike finished installing the Sound Down insulation and it looks great! He mounted the raw water strainer and the fuel pump.  Things are starting to come together in that engine room. With the white walls, there is plenty of light, and we’re discussing ways we can modify the floor of the cockpit (ceiling of the engine room) so that it will clamp down securely without the use of billions of bolts (all with little holes that can let water into that boat!) .

A little more progress in here. Mike is in his usual position, crouched low over some kind of tubing.

Mike had tasked me with pulling out one of the thru-hulls in the forward part of the boat. We figure doing one or two of these at a time will eventually find them all done. Unfortunately, locating this one was a bit of a challenge as it required major contortions, not to mention arms like a monkey, and working with the sense of touch alone as there was no way to get both an eyeball and an arm into that space. Situated up under the sole of the forward head, a location that man has not seen in 35 years, this thru-hull was long overdue for new grease. When I finally got one of the nuts loosened the cone shaped part literally fell out into my hand. It was then I realized that the nuts were actually on the bolts in the wrong place and not even holding the pieces together.  So you KNOW that thing was leaking. Mike had to come install it because his arms are longer and his eyeballs are smaller.

In the on-going saga of Andromeda’s storage compartments, let’s just say the the archaeological expedition continues. I can’t say for sure what led me to lift up the cushions to the dinette and look inside the cubbies there, but lift them up I did and I discovered that all of them were filled with, get this: More Canvas! Dear Lord! How much canvas can one boat carry? And why? Recall that we already brought home what appears to be an entire cockpit enclosure in really good shape, along with what we believe to be an entire canvas boat cover (which we’ll probably never use). All of that was stored in the forward berth and under the starboard settee. I thought I had looked in all of the cabinets. Apparently I had not. We are still discovering things.

A screen enclosure. This would be very nice in the tropics.

I experienced a rather extensive mixture of emotions as I pulled out yards and yards of canvas with little sandbags attached. Then rolled canvas with snaps and steel supports in special pockets. Then miles of plastic screen that turned out to be another cockpit enclosure, complete with a huge piece that apparently goes around the front of the hard dodger. Amazement, confusion, concern, excitement, alarm… they all sort of swam in and out of my conscious awareness as I pulled on item after another out of the bottomless cabinet. Mary Poppins, come on out! I know you’re hiding in there somewhere!  Sorting these things and matching them up was actually fun, like doing a puzzle without a picture to go by. Because, of course, almost none of it was labeled in any way.

But what will we do with all this stuff? Do we need it? It’s not that I’m not glad to have these things, I think. It’s that if we have to carry all this canvas on board until we get to an anchorage somewhere, we’ll have no place to stow other things. Like food and supplies. We are talking a LOT of canvas here. Our garage is now full of it as it takes its place alongside all the other things we have out there that are not being used but are ‘too good to get rid of’. Oy.

Andromeda wearing her party dress. I have to admit these look really cool. But they take up a LOT of room. Still, shades of Flying Gull! (Yes, I do still dream about that boat, but don’t tell Andromeda. She’s a much better boat for us.)

One absolute prize I found was a set of these hatch covers that double as wind scoops. The mystery of the metal supports was solved:

We are very glad to have these wind scoop/hatch covers.

So more canvas came home to be cleaned, sorted, and stored. So many of the storage spaces on Andromeda are filled with supplies that were on the boat when we bought it. After we added all of our supplies for the current projects, the boat was looking very messy inside and not at all like the peaceful place we intended. Sure, we’re working on a lot of projects but this is a big boat. There should be room for projects and also for relaxing and unwinding. We decided we better get this stuff organized: sorted, labeled, and stored so that we’ll know what we have. There are engine parts, nuts, bolts, screws of all kinds and sizes, every kind of fastener you could imagine, along with spare parts for every system on the boat. Some are spare parts for systems that were replaced long ago. We brought it all home as a task for those long winter evenings.

The photo doesn’t actually capture the sheer volume of ‘stuff’ we brought home to deal with.

I’m excited because I love organizing things. Please do not believe for one minute that I am an organized person. I just like getting a lot of little things to fit together like a puzzle. And also shopping. I will get to shop for an organizing system after we determine what we need. Yay! Something I’m good at! No monkey arms required!  Mike is excited because he gets to use his label maker. Guess which one is his, and which one we found on the boat:

Hint: our labels will be black and white.

If I do a really good job on this task, maybe Mike will let me help organize his workbench. We haven’t even touched all that stuff yet.

 

 

 

 

 

We’re Saving Money, Of Course

Posted on by

“I don’t want this to be a forced march.” These are the words Mike uses to describe having to hurry up to get someplace on a schedule. A forced march. Must be his fond memories of basic training in the Air Force or something, but anyway, it’s his way of saying that he likes to have a leisurely and relaxed Saturday morning rather than getting out the door early. Thus it was already after lunch when we pulled into the boatyard down in Astoria. That gave us only 24 hours or so to spend working on the boat so it was crucial that we spend our time well; that we maximize our efforts; that we work as a finely oiled machine. So naturally, ever focused on the goals at hand,  I was scanning the area around Andromeda for treasure.

“Oh, too bad.”, I said. “Someone took those cool pieces of industrial art I found last time I was here.”  Since I hadn’t been to Astoria since before Christmas, it didn’t surprise me that the items in question were missing. I mean had we been in Tacoma they would have lasted maybe 24 hours before someone saw them for the funky decorative items they are. “Oh, well.”

Remember these?

As I uttered those words, Mike got a very strange look on his face. “Oh, darn it!”, he said. Now, Mike doesn’t usually care much about my garden art tenancies, and he really doesn’t care much about making stuff out of found objects. I’m the one who is prone to dumpster diving.  So I was confused by his downcast face. Could it be that he, too, had been harboring regret that I hadn’t picked those up when I first saw them? Would the future see us diving dumpsters together? Be still, my heart!

“I took them for you. They are at home. I was going to put them under the Christmas tree for you. Darn it all, I forgot. The thru hull looks cool like it is, but the other thing; I was going to do some work on it first”.  This is where being married for 31 years comes in mighty handy. I mean, how many women would have been thrilled to have garbage underneath the Christmas tree? And how many men would have thought to put it there? And STILL REMAIN MARRIED, I mean. Love is a wonderful thing.

I can see where Mike was going with the whole idea of ‘found objets d’art’ as gifts. It would certainly save money during the holidays. Money that we need to buy things like this:

Engine room insulation by Sound Down. $$$$$ You get what you pay for.

Oh yes, this weekend we began the Great Insulating of the Engine Room. So clean. So white. So pristine against that red engine! Talk about industrial art! We drove down to Astoria with three boxes of this stuff in the back of the truck, hoping we would have enough to finish the job. As usual, time became the limiting factor.

We had two jobs to accomplish this weekend: clean the tape and adhesive off of the cockpit floor so that when it is sealed we can make it water tight again, and get as much done as possible with the sheets of insulation.

The cockpit floor was a mess. There was duct tape covering the holes on the top, and the mastic used to create a seal underneath it all had to be removed. What’s the best way to remove old tape and old adhesive? Elbow grease and scrapers, and an assortment of cancer causing chemicals like spray adhesive remover, goof off, acetone and WD-40. I used them all on the duct tape, which absolutely did not want to come off, even though I spoke sternly to it, admonishing it in the most vociferous way. You can see that the entire floor needs to be refinished, so that is on our list for warm weather; that long, long list.

Very ugly. I got the stuff off, but there is no way this cockpit floor will ever look good. It needs redoing just to help keep it clean.

While Mike puttered around in his little engine room exchanging old bolts for new, admiring his rails, and generally basking in the new-engine gleam, I scraped and cursed, and scraped some more, then cleaned it all with acetone and called it good. By that time, the sun was going down, so out came the halogen work light. No time to waste just because daylight is over.

The floor to the cockpit is about the size of a baby Orca and weighs about as much. We hope we will never have to lift it off again. (I said we ‘hope’!)  Let’s just say that there was a collective sigh of relief between us when we had it lifted, turned, and turned over and in place without either of us falling into the engine room, and without dropping it. Mike stood in the engine room and scraped and sanded the rim and I sat in the cockpit and scraped and cleaned the channel in the top. The stuff that had been used was a little soft and we thought it might actually be plumber’s wax.  Several hours of this activity and 8 ibuprofen between us saw the thing as clean as it will get.

Mike works below, while I work above. Our engine is covered with a blue tarp to protect it from dust and little pieces of old adhesive. 

So now we are at a decision point on this floor. In the photo below you can see that there is a hole drilled about every 4 inches. That’s a lot of holes, and some of the matching holes below look like they’ve seen better days. My gut feeling is that all these holes need filling with epoxy and new holes drilled. And we’ve discussed that neither of us sees the reason why there need to be so many of these holes in the first place. First of all, this ‘lid’ isn’t going anywhere unless the boat turns over. And even so, it could be held in place with a lot fewer holes than are currently present. Mike says there are that many in case the engine flies off the rails while we are upside down. Right. So unlikely it hardly bears considering, especially as it is so securely bolted down and Mike will be coddling it personally for years to come. No way are any of those bolts ever going to come loose on his watch. So we’re looking at how we can secure this thing with the least number of holes. Chime in with your opinions.

This cockpit floor wins the award for the sheer number of holes drilled into it. Why? Is this necessary?

Today we determined we would work hard at the insulation job. Mike set out his cutting area and I set up an area in the salon where I could tape the edges. This Sound Down system is really nice. While the cutting requires some muscle, the tape really makes a nice finished edge.

What it looks like on the back.

The first completed panel fits snugly in the space on the door.

We were so excited to get started because it meant we could rehang those engine room doors that have been in the way since November. Rather than use the hangers made to be used with this stuff, we decided that we would try this very strong double sided carpet tape that we ordered through Home Depot. While it probably wouldn’t be the best thing to use for large pieces, the doors are small enough that we thought it was worth trying.

Double sided carpet tape. Cheap and effective.

We bought this stuff to lay carpet tiles in our office at home and were very impressed with how strong it was and how easy to use. It went down easy on this door and so far it seems to be holding the insulation panel just fine. Time will tell.

We’ll finish this door with small pieces around the window next time.

In the future we may need to be able to remove the panels from the walls in the engine room so we are using the interesting attachment system, called Insul-Hangers (get it?) provided by Sound Down. This system will allow us to remove the panels without damaging them. The system consists of outward facing nails attached to a metal mesh. These are glued onto the walls. Once the glue has set, which takes at least 24 hours, you push the panels onto the nails and cap them off with some nifty little caps. This weekend we got all the panels cut and taped, and glued the nails to the wall. Next weekend, we will finish it up.

In this fabulous photo, Mike is scooping Tuff Bond glue onto the Insul-Hangers and sticking them on the wall. Notice hole right above his hand.

It might look like peanut butter, but it’s definitely NOT.

As is always the case, one thing leads to the other. While the lid was off the engine room, I asked Mike to take out one of the cockpit drains. It was different than all the others and it was not flush with the cockpit floor; it is too tall. This causes debris and water to collect in that corner of the cockpit. It seems like now is the best time to replace it with something that is more like all the other ones. Hope springs eternal!

Mike is taking this pathetic excuse for a drain out of the hole. You can see that if this were sitting down in the hole, it would still be too tall for water to drain properly.

A quick run up to Englund’s marine store produced a patterned response that I’m sure exists in some mathematics or logic textbook somewhere. It goes like this: If A and B are true, then C must also be true. In our case, A) we don’t know what we have because it’s old and not marked B) new ones will cost about $60 each if we can find one that will fit. Therefore C: Let’s try to recycle the old one by repairing it. See how that works? We’re saving money already!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Previews of Coming Attractions

Posted on by

I was minding my own business having a perfectly pleasant day doing a little retail therapy (Hey! I had a store credit, okay?)  when I received a text from Mike: “Call me when you get a chance.”. What to do, what to do, what to do? On the one hand, I hate talking on my phone in the store because I think it’s rude. Also, privacy.  On the other hand, I had a full cart of really cute clothes that deserved a good trying-on. Abandoning a cart filled with one-of-a-kind cuteness was not an option. Sacrifices always need to be made when boats are involved. So I called him from the middle of aisle 3.

new engine

Altogether now: OOOOOOOHHHHH!

I could tell by the tone of his voice that he ‘needed to talk’ to me, which meant that our mutual dream, the one whereby this was the day when that new engine would just slide like butter into the gaping pit of the engine room, easy as pie, was now dead. As a door nail. Because if there is ever any bet you can take to the bank, it’s going to be that boat repairs never go exactly as planned. So that’s why you need to plan on there being trouble.

 I could tell by Mike’s voice that he was going to tell me something I didn’t particularly want to hear. And it turns out I was right. If I remember correctly, the propeller came off fine, the cutless bearing came out fine, but getting the prop shaft off the boat turned out to be a bigger deal than Las Vegas. Andromeda does not give up her metal parts easily.

Because she’s worth it, that’s why.

About this time in the conversation, dollar signs began swimming around in front of my eyes and my concentration began to dim.  As I recall, the issue involved disintegrating metal and cutting into the perfectly good fiberglass and all sorts of other tool-involved activities that Mike will describe in glorious detail with all the correct technical language. He assures me that when we’re finished Andromeda will have not only a new heart, but new arteries and major blood vessels as well, good for another 40 years or until death do us part.

To be continued.