New Bern, NC

 More boring boatyard stuff.....Duane rigged a mold to start rebuilding the rudder.  He used a piece of thin whiteboard (like a erasable marker board, slick on one side) to serve as a backing to lay up layers of fiberglass/epoxy.

Here it is at the end of the day, clamped/screwed in place.  When we get the repaired rudder shaft back from the welder, this will be assembled with expandable foam to re-create the rudder shape.

A surprise for us - another Manta was hauled out today and will be in the yard for a few weeks.  We met the new owners Eric and Anita along with their son Tate (keeping our distance, of course).  Nice folks.

 

Duane treated and filled the areas on the rudder quadrant that we had sandblasted yesterday with epoxy resin.

And I painted the first coat of epoxy barrier coat on the port side hull over the little repair areas.  Another coat of epoxy and this hull is ready for bottom paint.

Lots was accomplished - tired when we got back to the camper!

New Bern, NC

These are the rudder quadrants that the steering cable is routed thru.  They are aluminum and you can see they have some corrosion in the center.

 Not critical, but Duane wanted to clean the area and treat it to prevent further corrosion.

 

And a steel part that is also in need of attention.

 

 

I found the friendlist sand blast guy just a few miles away - Sammy's Sandblasting.   Took the parts to him and he made very quick work of the cleanup.

 

Isn't it satisfying to have something changed from yucky to pristine?

And the quadrants ready for treatment and reassembly.

 

New Bern, NC

 Duane finally got the rudder post out of the boat.  He had to disassemble the steering system and then not-so-gently coax the rod out of it's sheath.   Off to the machine shop about 15 minutes away - they'll clean up the 2" solid stainless rod and fabricate a new piece of stainless flat stock for the assembly.  Should be ready by Friday.

 

And the rudder body is cut down further awaiting re-assembly with the new rod and new foam/fiberglass.  That all has to wait until Friday when we get the rod back of course.

I did some errands including 3 loads of clothes at the laundramat.  I dislike that facet of life off the boat....I can't use my onboard washer/dryer because I don't have a way to drain the water (the wash water is normally just pumped into the sea).   

Tomorrow I must tackle the interior of the boat - as it always does during projects - it's gotten in a huge disarray. At this point, it's hard to find stuff.....ah the joys of boatyard life. 

New Bern, NC

 A good part of the day was spent investigating the rudder.

Duane eventually just pulled the rudder off the boat with his hands! Theoretically the rudder would float so not sure it would actually have fallen off in the water.   Regardless, at some point very soon we were going to have a rudder that no longer provided steering.

Here you can see the shaft that holds the rudder - and you can see the remains of the weld that has failed.

 

 

And here Duane has cut into the rudder to see exactly what we're dealing with.  We have to order the foam and some other items to be able to re-work the rudder - plus we have to take the shaft to a machine shop to have the steel plate either re-welded or replaced.   (we could do this ourselves at home but we're 200 miles away from Duane's welder)   Then he'll get busy with the foam and fiberglass to rebuild the rudder. 

 

New Bern, NC

 Busy day at the boatyard!

 

The boat has gotten absolutely covered in dust....mainly blue'ish dust from our sanding of the bottom paint.  Since most of the sanding is complete, time to get things a bit tidier.  Unfortunately, the dust has been thru a couple of days of heavy dew and it's well-stuck to the gelcoat.

 

 

I used a combination of Barkeeper's Friend and bleach.  That does a nice job without much scrubbing.  (I'm sure that combo is toxic, but there is a nice breeze and I don't think I'm breathing it).

 

A few more coats of Trilux 33 for the saildrives.

And after I got the boat super-clean on one hull, I did the "lazy man's wax" -  Zep floor polish.  6 thin coats and the boat is about as shiny as she'll get - note the reflection of the power boat on Sojourn's hull.  The before view would show you a completely chalky/matte finish.  We've tried standard compound/wax with poor results on the 20 year old gelcoat.  This finish will stay nice for about 12 months.  If I'm in the mood, I'll reapply in the water when the time comes.....

 A bit of a setback - Duane noticed that our port side rudder has "movement" on it's shaft, indicating internal damage/defect.  Now we'll have to get the boatyard to lift us up higher so we can remove the rudder and investigate.  I'm sure that will be a week-long saga that I'll report!

New Bern, NC

 The rain moved out overnight and we had a glorious cool fall day.  Got a good bit accomplished.  

Prepped the saildrives for paint.  I forgot to snap a photo after paint was applied, but you get the idea.  I'll do several coats of special copper-free paint (Trilux 33).

 

The fiberglass repair to the keel is almost done.  I'm not sure how many layers of fiberglass were laid up, but it was alot!  The area is much bigger than expected because Duane found that the area had been repaired before and the material was not sound.  He ground it all out and replaced with new West System fiberglass.

 

 

 

And the spots along the hull where we had to sand down to fiberglass (due to a blister or imperfection) had to be filled with epoxy.  We'll sand these smooth tomorrow.

 

New Bern, NC

 Just more sanding and prepping the bottom.....a very pretty sunrise though!!!

New Bern, NC

Lots and lots of sanding was accomplished.

Before:

 

 

After:

 

Really pleased with the ease  of sanding.  (Not easy, but soooo much better than two years ago -  here's a couple photos from July 2018)

 

Wow, I had almost forgotten how much we sanded last time.

 Here is the same side this year.  

 

On a non-boat-work note, walking back and forth to the office at the boatyard, I pass this nice young lady who sits in the sun and crochets while her husband works on their boat "Whiskers".   Nice to chat (from large distance, of course).

New Bern, NC

The steps had gotten terribly stained during the summer with - Hurricane Isias pushed nasty water constantly up on the steps and caused the discoloration.  It's part tannic water stain and part algae.  Lots of elbow grease and Barkeeper's Friend.  The oxalic acid takes the rusty looking stains away.

 

 

Much better now.....and sanded almost ready for paint.

 Duane hard at work with the sander in his Tyvek "Zoot Suit".

 

And me looking like the Pilsbury Dough Boy in the puffy suit.

We have a areas that required a lot of sanding, but the hulls are in much better shape than 2 years ago.

 

And Duane is fixing my "boo boo" where I hit coral in Great Inagua last winter.  It looks much worse than it really is.  He ground off the repair epoxy and then ground a wide area off in order to lay up the new fiberglass.  He'll have it looking like new soon, I'm sure.

 When we got back to the camper, time for a shower.  Looked in the mirror for the first time - and I'm a "blue hair lady"!!  I guess the zoot suit with it's hood and the goggles didn't protect me completely.  Now worries, washes right out.  Hope the respirator caught most of it since it's reportedly quite toxic!

 

 

 

More sanding in store tomorrow!  At least we've got nice cool weather.....

New Bern, NC

 Getting started  on the work at hand.....lots of this over the next few days.

 

 

 

It was "Two-fer Tuesday" buy one, get one free at the Silo's.....so we called in our orders on the way back from the boat yard towards Oriental.   Both couples, tired and sweaty, ate our pizzas at the picnic table overlooking the lonely dock! 

Off to our respective "homes" for a early night.

New Bern, NC

The first order of business of the day was to start the "insurance survey".  Our original boat insurance company has decided to stop insuring boats of our size and cruising area, so a lot of folks we know are now searching for a new company.  We've found one, but they require that the boat be inspected by a certified surveyor before they'll accept the risk.  

So, we hired Rob Eberle for the inspection.  He spent the day plowing through the boat, almost literally looking at things thru a microscope!  All was well, we'll get his report in a few days to send in for approval.

 

 The boat yard was a bit slow getting us lifted out of the water.  Around noon What If finally going into the slings.

 

 

And a couple of hours later, they're lifting Sojourn.

 

Yucky bottom!!  This will all have to be sanded off before repainting.

 

 

After a brief pressure washing by the yard, they drive Sojourn to a spot beside What If where we'll be for a week or so while we do some minor repairs and prep/paint the bottom.

 

 

The two amgios,  

 

New Bern, NC

 What can I say other than it was a dreary day.....approaching New Bern.

All tucked in on the dock for the night with What If at Bridgeton Boatyard.  Haul-out in the morning.

Neuse River

 We're off the dock finally heading up the new river towards New Bern. Will be at the Bridgeton Marina for haul out tomorrow morning.

Unfortunately, it's a rainy day.  At least it's warm.  Not looking forward to all the sanding starting tomorrow!