6th May 2006
Still hauled out
It is definitely island time in the islands. The 3-day haul-out that was estimated by the boat yard manager will stretch to about one week. Not that we are really surprised by that. He now says that earliest possible splash will be late Tuesday. Bottom is now primed and they will paint Monday. The prop has been pulled so we could change the wearing bearing (routine maintenance at 800 hours and we currently have 761 engine hours); and prop is supposed to be reinstalled as soon as the paint is dry enough. We will see how that goes.
We have been working our butts off doing various interior projects. We have become Budget Marine's most frequent customers. Everytime Bill starts a new project, it entails several trips for tools or fasteners or something. We are very fortunate that there is a limited chandlery located within 300 feet of where Security sits on chocks. But climbing up and down that 12-foot ladder (only method of egress to the boat) is a little tiresome. Neither Bill nor Judy have climbed stairs or ladders much in the past few years. If we haven't lost at least 5-lbs each this week, then we don't know why not.
Today's project was to replace the seals on the bow thruster. That was interesting. Took most of the day because we did not have the two little set screws that were supposed to be with the bow thruster removal tool provided by Amel. But we imporvised and the job is now complete. We are also the proud new owners of a metric tap and die set. A good thing to have on a boat.
Today we also put up the bow section and the beam section of our new Shade Tree Awnings. We could not put up the back section that goes behind the mizzen mast because the the back stays have been removed and the mizzen boom lowered in order for the boat to be put on the travel lift to haul out. Since the back section of the shade awnings require connections to the back stays, we can't use that section until we are back in the water and everything gets reconnected. We think we will enjoy these awnings. Temperature was noticeably cooler with the shade -- still hot as hell, but definitely cooler that having direct sun on the deck all day long.
Bill says that this retirement thing is a lot of hard work! We are very much looking forward to calm anchorages instead of all this boat yard work.
We visited the supermarket across the street and bought a selection of steaks, ground beef, pork chops and chicken pieces. Judy then separated all the meat pieces and put them into the freezer in our little hotel room kitchenette for a few hours; then used the vacuum sealer to seal everything into one-meal size portions. So we will be able to fill one of our freezers on the boat with proper portioned frozen meats. Very, very convenient. Hope to make a few small provisioning trips tomorrow if the store is open on Sunday.
Main two projects left to do during this haul out are to replace a cracked button on the anchor windlass (we had ordered this part from Amel), and to install an additional drinking water filter. We already have a filter between the watermaker and the storage tank, but we want to install another filter between the storage tank and the galley sink. We hope that this will remove the tank taste from the water so we can stop wasting money buying drinking water at these ridiculously high prices -- not to mention not having to haul gallon jugs of water from the stores to the dinghy to the boat.
The remaining 6 boxes of our books are now at the mailing service inSt. John
Note to John: We will eventually get some photos of the interior. Not much to see right now since there are boat parts and tools strewn everywhere. We have been working and havn't thought about using the camera except to take photos to document everything about the removal of the propeller for the next time we need to do that job.
Still hauled out
It is definitely island time in the islands. The 3-day haul-out that was estimated by the boat yard manager will stretch to about one week. Not that we are really surprised by that. He now says that earliest possible splash will be late Tuesday. Bottom is now primed and they will paint Monday. The prop has been pulled so we could change the wearing bearing (routine maintenance at 800 hours and we currently have 761 engine hours); and prop is supposed to be reinstalled as soon as the paint is dry enough. We will see how that goes.
We have been working our butts off doing various interior projects. We have become Budget Marine's most frequent customers. Everytime Bill starts a new project, it entails several trips for tools or fasteners or something. We are very fortunate that there is a limited chandlery located within 300 feet of where Security sits on chocks. But climbing up and down that 12-foot ladder (only method of egress to the boat) is a little tiresome. Neither Bill nor Judy have climbed stairs or ladders much in the past few years. If we haven't lost at least 5-lbs each this week, then we don't know why not.
Today's project was to replace the seals on the bow thruster. That was interesting. Took most of the day because we did not have the two little set screws that were supposed to be with the bow thruster removal tool provided by Amel. But we imporvised and the job is now complete. We are also the proud new owners of a metric tap and die set. A good thing to have on a boat.
Today we also put up the bow section and the beam section of our new Shade Tree Awnings. We could not put up the back section that goes behind the mizzen mast because the the back stays have been removed and the mizzen boom lowered in order for the boat to be put on the travel lift to haul out. Since the back section of the shade awnings require connections to the back stays, we can't use that section until we are back in the water and everything gets reconnected. We think we will enjoy these awnings. Temperature was noticeably cooler with the shade -- still hot as hell, but definitely cooler that having direct sun on the deck all day long.
Bill says that this retirement thing is a lot of hard work! We are very much looking forward to calm anchorages instead of all this boat yard work.
We visited the supermarket across the street and bought a selection of steaks, ground beef, pork chops and chicken pieces. Judy then separated all the meat pieces and put them into the freezer in our little hotel room kitchenette for a few hours; then used the vacuum sealer to seal everything into one-meal size portions. So we will be able to fill one of our freezers on the boat with proper portioned frozen meats. Very, very convenient. Hope to make a few small provisioning trips tomorrow if the store is open on Sunday.
Main two projects left to do during this haul out are to replace a cracked button on the anchor windlass (we had ordered this part from Amel), and to install an additional drinking water filter. We already have a filter between the watermaker and the storage tank, but we want to install another filter between the storage tank and the galley sink. We hope that this will remove the tank taste from the water so we can stop wasting money buying drinking water at these ridiculously high prices -- not to mention not having to haul gallon jugs of water from the stores to the dinghy to the boat.
The remaining 6 boxes of our books are now at the mailing service in
Note to John: We will eventually get some photos of the interior. Not much to see right now since there are boat parts and tools strewn everywhere. We have been working and havn't thought about using the camera except to take photos to document everything about the removal of the propeller for the next time we need to do that job.
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