Saturday: rain to clearing but cooler

The temperatures are trending lower throughout the day with promises of 38°F tonight.  The day was a lazy one for us but we managed to go grocery shopping at a couple of local stores where we find good prices and sales.  That took way longer than I wanted but the First Mate is in charge of that detail so I find it better to keep my mouth shut.  Total bill today about $140.

When we returned to the RV we FM SAM put stuff away and we had rotisserie chicken with other pieced thru items like Artichokes, and bread with Almond Butter and Blueberry Preserves.  Afterwards I took a nap and FM went down to the clubhouse for quite awhile to work on the picture puzzle..  I was just coming around when she returned.

I went to the boat to do some work and made an aluminium cake dish into an air filter assembly that will filter the incoming air for the engine compartment squirrel cage blower.  Looks like it will work pretty good but we will be testing the design over time.

While at the boat I tried the new Attwood Louver vent plate but it did not fit.  It was too big by 1/32" to 1/16" in the height direction.  I just got thru putting  a new 1495 ventilator and 1491 collector box into my Walmart basket as well as 4 Stearns Type II vests.

FM is now making spaghetti for the crew and it smells good.  Abby is whining around wanting dinner too.  So the bottom line is that I did do some work today but not as much as I dreamed about last night.  With that I must go because the dinner bell is ringing.  BFN.

I connected with this scene

A Tall Ship

Jobs completed & started today

I installed some of the remaining sta-set line on the boarding ladder to use as a retracter to stow the ladder.  I'll probably change this setup so I can deploy the ladder from the water should the need arise.

SAM applied the second coat of Cetol to the decorative trim under the caprail and it looks real nice.  We were thinking about a third coat today but we were tired so we went to Home Depot to get some Hangar Bolts.  I want to use these to hold the cabin light assembly in place.  It is very difficult to install the wood screws while holding a couple of fixture parts in place.  The hangar bolts will serve as a guide for the fixture base and I bought wing nuts to allow quick access.  They are pretty expensive items.

I mounted the curved base cheek block on the whisker pole today using 3/16" Stainless Steel pop rivets and installed the 1/4" red fleck sta-set line  from the wire pendent.  Let me tell you those rivets are very, very tough to set and took all the strength I possess. The job is complete and I extended the pole all the way and retracted it then stowed it away on the mast track. I am glad to have this little job done.  I must admit that I would like the cheek block sheave to be a larger diameter because 1 1/16 is pretty small.


The "Snap" Instant Zippers arrived today and with great excitement I brought them aboard.  Miracle of miracles they actually worked and this is the best $10 I ever spent.  I also ordered the fixnzip but it has not arrived yet so I may try to cancel the order.  Anyway, these things absolutely work and work well.

Update 3M 4000UV

The first round of caulking with 3M 4000UV is complete and SAM applied the Cetol Natural Teak today.  I must say we have learned how to apply the materials.  The second and third days were a breeze.  The battery powered Ryobi did a fine job once you dial back the flow rate and cut a better hole in the tip. The key to success was laying down a 1/8" bead not the 1/4" we started with.  We also used soapy water to finger smooth applied caulk.  The material goes on perfectly.  I ordered 4 more 10 oz tubes from Zoro to apply on other areas of the boat ($14.84 per tube no shipping if you order >$50 and no tax in Florida).

Today was the end game in our saga that started a month ago to put Cetol on various trim pieces before we put Inspiration II into the waters of Alantic side of North Florida.  Cold, rainy, overcast weather dominated the period so we felt stymied much more than once.  Everything goes in series so it just takes time and more time.  She will look good in her new dress.

We had one failure this week.  We were going to have the fuel polished but when the truck arrived to start they could not find a suitable entry point for their input and output hoses so they left with a statement that we need to cut a hole in the fiberglass tank.  This is not a bad idea so maybe at the end of this season we will epoxy a cutout ring onto the tank and then at a later date cut the inside of the ring out and install a hefty SS plate on the ring.

While we were working we noticed two hatches that were leaking and since we are having friends and relatives in a continuous stream we cannot tolerate leaks in the sleeping areas.  I guess you can say we are becoming domesticated.  We hope to splash the boat early next week.

Alpha Test: Fluorescent to LED retrofit

I accomplished my first retrofit of the boat's fluorescent lighting.  I performed the alpha test to night.  The red light looks OK but the Warm White lights look like they are not diffused sufficiently.  I guess it is back to the workbench tomorrow to add a few more modules to try and make the light look a little more uniform.  All in all I am happy with the test but want a better look. Currently I have 6 white and 5 red modules mounted on a piece of Aluminium flashing.  The red string is not intended to be bright by design.  The white I want as bright as the circular 9W fluorescent tube.  At present iot is not quite as bright and it is a little warmer than the fluorescent: I am guessing at about 3000°K.

The LED were purchased on eBay in strings of 20 modules and each module has 4 LED's.  The module input is 12VDC nominal and there are 4 LED's per module arranged in each corner of a 1.5" square.  I have not made any current draw tests yet but the fluorescent draws 0.7Aand the LEDs about the same. More on this project later as I go into Beta testing.

Active Captain, Polar Navy and NOAA

Yesterday  I installed Polar View for Windows.  It uses the free NOAA ENC vector charts.  I spent the whole evening downloading various charts. This software integrates Active Captain data so it is a very handy application to know how to use properly.

Disastrous 3M product application

Hopefully, we can chalk it up to inexperience with 3M 4000UV but todays work was not so good.  SAM had previously taped the teak that we wanted to apply the sealant.  The stuff is pretty fast to start firming up and we were not ready.  Also the taped area is to seal the cap rail to the decorative teak that butts to the underside of the cap rail. The bottom side of the decorative strip is to be sealed too.  Starting tomorrow we will make the bead area smaller from 1/4" to 1/8".  We will also change our work efforts to a more coordinated effort: I will use the caulk gun and SAM will do the finger smoothing and remove the take immediately.  This should help spread out the usage of the expensive stuff.  Our tape was too old as well and it stuck tightly to the teak.  OK so I ordered 4 more tubes because we will use a lot of the stuff to bed various other areas.

While all this was happening I happened to look up the mast.  Guess what?  The wind direction indicator is missing ca-ching $350 more please. I ended the day depressed and tired.

After a few hours my sense of humor is returning and I do not feel so bad except I am missing the coffee I left in the clubhouse.  I put a free sign on my leftover coffee in the pot but someone extended the free to mean a whole bag of expensive gourmet coffee.  Boo.