Category Archives: Organizing

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Must… Keep… Working…

Posted on by

It was another whirlwind weekend in Astoria for Melissa and me as we continue our monomaniacal efforts to prepare Andromeda for her new engine. The Betamarine 60 horse engine has been delivered to the shop that will build the mounting hardware and cut the prop shaft. Now there is really some pressure on us to finish our cleaning and painting. And find someone to help us move the boat. And schedule a haulout. And, And, And.

But let us celebrate the small victories of this weekend. All of the cleaning and painting of the past few weeks are really starting to show. Just take a look

Almost hate to put a red engine in this clean, white room.

You will note that we have taken the head and holding tank hoses off the wall temporarily so that we could paint behind them. Early on, I envisioned removing and re-installing this arrangement but have lost courage. It still seems likely that we can simplify or at least shorten some of these hose runs, but we  will save that effort for another day.

Next weekend I will move the fuel filter and valves up higher on the wall and then paint that area. I wanted to make the fuel system a little easier to access so that maintenance and switching can be done closer to eye level. The raw water strainer will be removed for painting and re-installed where it is.

In addition to the all the painting, we installed a pair of 12 volt LED flood lights in the engine room. At fifteen bucks a piece, I can hardly believe how much warm white light these tiny little lights put out.

Each light draws less than an amp and is roughly equivalent to a 55 watt halogen floodlight. I think I will add two more which will surely light up all but the furthest recesses of the engine room. The lights are really designed as outdoor landscape lighting so they are waterproof and powder coated aluminum, making them great for the marine environment as well.

Lenbo LED Floodlights

But if you want to buy LED lighting and pay five times more, Melissa found what appear to be the exact same lights at Englund marine for $80 each. The only difference between the two is that the ones at the marine store have a longer cord. Put the word “Marine” on a product and you can charge whatever you want. Go here to check out the expensive ones.

I also installed a new bilge pump switch for the aft bilge. Better now than later.

Let’s step out of the engine room for a moment. The paint fumes are making me woozy. Another project that bears sharing is our effort to steal WiFi from hardworking Americans (or Canadians, we aren’t choosy). I had read an article in Practical Sailor describing a number of systems designed for the marine environment that act as powered antennas for WiFi signals. Most of these systems use a PoE (Power over Ethernet) amplifier attached to a marinized antenna and cost $200-$300. After spending countless seconds on the Google, I found a device that not only brings in WiFi from all over town, but delivers it to a small wireless router which gives every computer on our boat its own connection. With this setup, we now have a fast wireless connection that works just like connecting to your router at home. Price? $85.

The two products are the Alfa 2 watt long range WiFi antenna and the Alfa R36 Repeater/Router. The setup is a bit more complicated than I would have liked but the results so far have been very good. The Port of Astoria has free WiFi but the signal was poor at our location. With the antenna mounted about ten feet up the mizzen mast, that signal and about twenty others come in strong. Many of those are password protected, of course, but enough of them aren’t to make finding an open network pretty easy.

Next weekend I will be going it alone to finish up a few tasks in the engine room and try, once more, to find someone willing to tow us to the haulout. Melissa volunteered to have a spa day in Seattle with Claire so that I could have a day of rest. Ha! Must…keep…working!

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Posted on by

Ah, young love. That special time in a relationship when anything and everything seems possible. Pull the old transmission from your engine room? No problem! Repair your propane system? How hard can it be? Open a seacock? Don’t mind if I do!

Down there is a shaft coupling that will not bend to my will.

Most of my weekend was spent staring at the ass end of a Hurth 360 transmission wondering how four simple bolts could cause such woe. So far I have used PB Blaster, Transmission fluid and acetone and every socket and wrench combination in my arsenal to no avail.  Even with chemical help, I can’t seem to muster enough mechanical advantage in the small area available to break these bolts free. I even started, and then aborted an attempt to cut the shaft just forward of the PSS Shaft seal. So, with tail firmly tucked between my legs, I turned to removing much of the old wiring and some of the old plumbing in the engine room. This gave me some sense of accomplishment and a feeling of mastery over some small part of our very long project list.

Trust me. This is progress

Meanwhile, Melissa was going mano-a-mano with the propane system. The regulators and fittings were pretty grungy looking and didn’t inspire great confidence that we would not blow ourselves up. She disassembled all of the fittings, cleaned them up and reassembled with new Teflon tape. Unfortunately, a leak test revealed a failed swaged hose fitting but that is an easy fix. We also need to place a drain at the bottom of the locker and make some other modifications to bring the system up to standards.

The propane system before Melissa’s rehabilitation

And after.

Finally, we have a seacock issue that we are unsure of. I turned the discharge seacock to the forward head so that we could test the toilet there. That toilet pumps directly overboard so we can’t use it until we are offshore but I still want to check things out. When I turned the valve, a dribble of water came from the valve flange. I have deduced that these are Blakes Seacocks and are very well made and easily serviceable. Two bolts are used to tighten the flange down on top of the valve cone and provide a seal but I haven’t quite gotten it to stop the leak. The newer Blake seacocks have a grease nipple but these do not and so I am unsure of whether I need to wait to haul out before I start working on this or if I can somehow attempt to grease and seal these up while still in the water.

Have you seen this seacock?

 

One small victory was in reclaiming the workbench. Andromeda has a proper little shop just off from the entrance to the engine room. Like all proper little shops, it becomes a bit of a dumping ground for the various boat bits that don’t have a home or we are too lazy to put away. With so many wires, hoses and engine parts flying off the boat, the work bench was really filling up. But a few hours each day gained more and more usable space and allowed me to de-clutter and organize the shop. The previous owners left plenty of tools and parts which are quite welcome. Of course, I bring many more tools onto the boat and it is easy to fill every empty space with more stuff than we actually need. We are really going to enjoy having a proper work space for all of the projects.

Happiness is a clean workbench 

Lest you think all we do is work, on Sunday morning Melissa and I found just about the the greatest coffee house ever at the Three Cups Cafe. Maybe we just needed time to lick our wounds, but both of us fell into a plush couch and felt the stress melt away with some of the best coffee we have ever tasted. We are still talking about their Thundermuck coffee two days after our first visit and the only thing we are confused about is why we didn’t buy a few pounds for the house. The Columbia River Coffee Roaster is in the same building so the whole joint smells like some kind of awesome. Andromeda’s former owner was a regular here as well and now we know why.

Man that is good coffee!

Three Cups Cafe. Melissa and I are still talking about the greatness of their coffee.

Likewise we always need dinner, since the propane system is not up and running, nor do we have a refrigeration system yet. Our forays into the wilds of Astoria have turned up gem after gem in terms of eateries. This time we went the way of our friend Steve Yoder who always seems to find the perfect small cafe down in Mexico. We stopped in at Blue Ocean, a small and discreet Thai restaurant off the main drag. What a gem! Tall ceilings, quiet atmosphere, service with a smile, moderate prices, and the best Thai food we’ve had since Silk Thai in Tacoma.  It’s going on our list of regular haunts.

While we would both love to claim unconditional victory over every project we tackle on Andromeda, we know that just isn’t going to happen. So, we re-calibrate our expectations, enjoy our small wins and keep working towards the day when we slip her from the dock and onto the sea. And we drown our sorrows in excellent Thai food and coffee.