Misplaced Camera

Yeah, that's right, I left my camera on the back of the toilet in the yacht club. Thank god we have a nice safe place to park our boats, where thieves do not tread. Mind you they did take some pictures with it, nothing knotty, but I bet Jim was thinking about it. Being Commodore probably keeps him in check. Mind you I don't know how he kept a leash on Mike, the club manager, I thought for sure he would take some pictures that would make a Nun blush. Oh well, it is back in my hands, and now I am back to the blog. Hate to blog about the same things twice, once when it happens, and then again when I can prove it with a picture.

Here is the front part of the anchor locker hatch with a 1/4" ply epoxied in place to bring the whole thing level. Hind sight being what it is, I wish that I had used regular polyester resin now that I have decided to gel-kote the deck and cockpit modifications. Gel-kote doesn't stick to epoxy all that well, or at all in some cases. The epoxy manufacture says that it will, but Rick the Guru said that I should use polyester. A third of the price too. So I will probably use epoxy on the bottom, and then bond the hatch at deck level with polyester. Paint underneath, and gel-kote on top.

 Finally rigged the mast with the new standing rigging. About $800.00 to get all new standing rigging. I only had to replace one turnbuckle though, (some dummy bent it, no names), okay, it was me, but the rest of the turnbuckles came out of the operation just fine. I took off the mast head fitting so that I could mount some stuff to it. I will mount the antennas and the tri-light/anchor light, run the wiring through newly installed conduit, sometime before lift in, a week from now.

 The mast head provided such easy access. Two screws and out it came. There are 3 halyards here, and a topping lift, and there is another halyard further down the mast for the staysail. However, I have decided to change the topping lift to cable, and replace the rope topping lift with another spare halyard. Not a bad idea to have a spare for the head sails and a spare for the main. Especially considering my concern over being too far off the ground, like up the mast, or a tall ladder.

 So Saturday was the work party/lift-in for most boats, all day burnout. Sunday and Monday I busted my buttcuss rigging the mast, painting the boottop, tearing out the old head and hoses. Setting up the new head and hoses to try and figure out how to install it. The new head is very different from the old, pics coming soon, I promise. Put up a couple of other peoples masts. The beauty of self-help yacht clubs, everybody helps. Some of the older guys are getting to the point that even with help, its just too much for them. I guess eventually everyone needs to slow down. I have some other pictures to take before rambling on, but I changed a bunch more stuff. Tuesday Serena and I went to Kingston, but I could barely stand, let alone walk around. It was a rough day. Monday Patrick had sucked me into helping him to move a couple of cradles from the grass to the pavement. Pick up one end and swing it around, easy right. At 400 lbs, maybe not. Anyway, I blew out both my knees, and now I am enjoying the ever constant pain of screwed up knees. I should have known better. I am border line useless for a while now. Serena and I did manage to get the boot stripe finished on Wednesday, and get the new davits installed.

How much fun was that. I had planned on mounting the davits with the base on the stern, but there was no way to accomplish that, so we found a spot to squeeze them in on the aft deck. We loosely set up the davits before drilling, and noticed that they didn't look right, and nothing we could adjust would make a difference. Finally realized after a few measurements that the top tubes on one of the davits were 1" longer than the top tubes on the other davit. No idea what the measurement is supposed to be, but they are the same length now. I had to tear apart my new davits, cut an inch off of the tubes, re-drill the bolt holes and put it back together. I had made up some heavy aluminum backing plates at home before coming and used a generous amount of 3M 4200 to seal up the holes I drilled in the deck. The deck was solid fibreglass back there, so I didn't have to epoxy fill the hole and re-drill it. It took a lot longer than I had thought it would, but they look sharp, and work really well.

And today, Vita got her new name and port of call. The guy who did this does good work, I was impressed. The name and port of call on the stern, and the name on each bow, $100.00. Looks way better than if I had of painted it with my shaky hands.

That was all I got done, and I didn't even do it. I gave a bottle of scotch to John, as he had given me an invaluable piece of gear. A manual pump that attaches to the deck pump out for my black water tank. This way I am perfectly legal in Canada and the US, but when I am offshore, I can still empty my holding tank. It is the perfect solution, and I don't have to re-plumb the boat. Well worth a bottle of Glenfiddich. I also helped him put up his mast with some other gentlemen. After that I was in so much pain I decided that I would be happier at home, drunk, or drugged up, and in bed. I had put my knee braces on a little tight this morning, so I loosened them after helping with the mast. Apparently I should have left them alone, because I could barely stand after that. Tomorrow I am taking most of the day off, I will probably go do some shopping, but I already told Serena, when she goes into the grocery store, I am staying in the truck.

I will try and catch up with all the other projects going on simultaneously. More blog entries in the next few days, maybe even a little more detail. Saturday is a work party and boat yard sale, Sunday I have to get caught up with my new list, because I think Monday I am off to Pride Marine in Kingston again, to get the hose for my head that they had to order. I wanted the odor free hose. Most people don't realize that boat smell comes mainly from the hoses running from the head. They soak up the odors and then release them into the cabin. Problem is that the cheap head hose, good for a few seasons of occasional use, is only $3 per foot, and the good stuff is $13 per foot. Makes a difference when you need 10 feet, and even bigger difference when its 20 feet. Explains why so many cheap sailors boats stink of boat smell. Their head hoses are probably original to their 30 year old boat. Vita does not smell like boat.

Talk soon.

Rob