Boom back on the boat!

Got the boom back on the boat uneventfully....it's still heavy!!  Painted with several coats of Petit EasyPoxy.  Nice paint but hard to work with in the 90+ degree heat.  Pretty and white again.  And no broken welds or corrosion now!

 In case you noticed, we turned the boom upside down because it was easier to rea-assemble most of the attached hardware with it in that position.  It was easy to turn it the correct way for the final installation.

About 5 hours later the sail is back in place, the lines are run thru the boom and the new zipper is once again functional in the sailcover.   Was more difficult than I expected!

Chores in Oriental

Lot's happening in Oriental!

We've been enjoying these cool mornings!!  Almost chilly!  In June!!

If I knew how, I'd embed the song "Smoke on the Water" here....

Busy, busy!

I took a lot of the enclosure down and re-stitched any seams that were fraying.  The sun beating down on this stuff constantly plays havoc even on the special strong UV resistant thread we use.

So, the dinghy motor was supposed to arrive Friday by the end of the day UPS Freight.  Mid-day, I started calling them because I wanted to warn them that it wouldn't be a good idea to drive a tractor-trailer back to our property.  I finally ended up talking to the warehouse in Kinston and they told me that the package is being "consolidated" into a trailer to be taken to a vendor in Greenville who will then deliver it to us in 1 to 5 working days.  UPS Freight does not deliver to Oriental, apparently.   I needed to go to New Bern anyway, so I'd be half way to Kinston at that point - so we hooked up the trailer and I went to the warehouse and picked it up.

On the way home thru the country, I saw a farmer in a pickup selling sweet corn - stopped and got a bag with a dozen in it.  Turns out they gave me a baker's dozen!  Yum, nothing like sweet corn fresh picked!

Here's the lovely new 20 HP engine - complete with a 6 gallon fuel tank, electric trim and electric start.  Now just have to get a battery and some extra long cables and fuel hose since the battery and fuel tank will be stored in the compartments in the bow - 10 or so feet from the engine.

While I was gone to Kinston, Duane continued to prep and paint primer on the boom.   Whew....I'm tired.

Lots of boat work

Continuing repairs to the main sail cover.  Started ripping out the 17' zipper.

Zipper out and some other patches/repairs done.  Do you know how long 17' of seam ripping is?  I'll tell you....it's long!!

This is what 17' of zipper looks like!

We picked up the boom from the shop.  They did a nice job on the welding.

Now we've got to sand all the little corroded areas and get it ready for prime/paint.

And our new dinghy was delivered! 

All pumped up and ready for me to start making chaps....I will soon but we just have too much going on right now for me to even start that project!

Some sewing

I forgot to take a photo before I got started....but this is the main sail cover that got ripped several months ago.  In this photo, I've already started putting it back together - it was ripped completely away. I'll add additional material to patch it all up and hopefully make it stronger.

And the dinghy cover needed some TLC before it gets sold.  The stitching had come apart on lots of the patches, so I simply re-stitched any that were failing.  (The thread is UV resistant, but several years out in the sun can damage most anything!

Easy peasy!

The boom is off!

As you may remember, we broke a weld on the boom (the tang for the rigid boom vang if you're interested) about 1/2 way through our Bahamas winter.  Duane had lashed it handily and we continued to sail for another 1000 or so miles without incident. 

But now we're in the summer-fix-it mode.....Duane does an amazing amount of repairs to everything from watermakers to generators to dinghy motors to my washer/dryer and much much more.....but aluminum welding is not on his list of talents.   So that is going to be left to the experts!

Sailcraft, our local boat yard called today and said they could work on our boom - so we had to take it off the boat!  First time we've done that and it's HUGE!   We had to disconnect and tie up the mailsail.  Then we rigged a halyard to the boom itself to lift it off the boat.

The boom ready for transport!  It's heavy!  about 17' long.

Tied it down to the dinghy trailer and took it over to Sailcraft.

And the welder hooked it up and took it away!  Hope to have it back tomorrow.  Dreading putting it back on!  Plus I have some sewing repairs to do to the sailcover - you'll hear about that, maybe tomorrow if I get around to sitting down and doing the sewing!  (Hint, it includes a 17' long x-large zipper installation!)

New dinghy

So, one of the big items on our "list" from this winter was to replace our dinghy. 

While our dinghy had some good points - 30 HP motor zips around like crazy and the steering wheel/seating station were very comfortable.....

But the dinghy is very heavy (can't muscle it around on the beach) and it rides pretty low in the water (in heavy seas, water gets in the dinghy!)   Plus, all the nice seating in the dinghy takes up valuable space - I have nowhere to put all my groceries!! 


Other cruisers have an open dinghy that we like - so that's what we bought today - a brand new  Highfield 340 aluminum bottom dinghy.  

We'll take delivery on Wednesday.   I'm sure there will be many posts about adding a new engine and dinghy chaps......so stay tuned!

Back at the boat!

Finally back at the boat!

We got the Avion all settled in it's normal spot and started some much needed mowing.   I was startled to see Duane laying on the ground with his hand up under the mower!  One of the blades was bent and he was investigating.  There's always something to fix!

And at the boat, the air conditioner was showing a error code....and the cooling water was not circulating....turns out that a big lump of jellyfish was stuck over the water intake grill.  I know this because I put my swimsuit on and felt around on the slimy bottom until I found the jellyfish and pulled it off in clumps.  Yuck!!  But the a/c is working fine now (until another jellyfish gets sucked in I suppose!)

Getting ready

Finally getting ready to head back to the boat.  We're going to take the Avion to have an extra base for operations....first time out of the hangar since Hurricane Florence last year.

Before we leave, we needed to get the grass cut....Duane cuts the grass out near the runway with the tractor and finishing mower.  I use the riding mower to get close to the house.  I apparently got too close to the basement door....a rock hit the door glass. See the spiderweb cracks?  I didn't notice it until I had parked the mower.   You could still hear the little "tink, tink, tink" of more glass cracking when I got close.  It's double paned coated glass, so it's not going to fall out in pieces. 

An hour later it was even more cracked!  Amazing.   I ordered a replacement glass assembly from Lowe's for about $100.  Will arrive in about 3 weeks so we'll be good as new without having to remove the entire door. 

More tree trimming, etc.

I know this is a broken record....

So, the boom truck broke down a couple of days ago - the starter solenoid went out.  Since it's an old truck, the local parts stores only carried an "improved starter assembly" that included the solenoid for about $250.....but Amazon sold the solenoid by itself for $21 delivered.....so we took a break from the tree trimming for a while and worked on the footings for the deck improvement.

So, we worked on the deck extension for the "door to nowhere".  I know it doesn't look like much, but it was a bear to get the footings and the bolts lined up with the existing deck.  (We're also going to run another joist under the existing deck because it seems too "bouncy").


Arrows point to the three footings.  We'll but 4 new 6x6 support posts in (one will be attached to the existing concrete pad.

The footings are all 1 foot deep.

It took 13 large bags of concrete....always seems like alot!  

And late in the day, the solenoid for the boom truck was delivered.  Next "victim" tree was the large oak that limits my view from the deck.

The oak's new haircut brightens things up a good bit!  Back to sailing soon....

More home chores

I know this doesn't have anything to do with sailing....but the quicker we get done with some more chores at the house, the quicker we'll get back to the boat!

We'll pull the Avion back to Oriental when we go back....it's been cooped up in the hangar all winter and it's looking pretty neglected.  We pulled it home from Oriental before Hurricane Florence last year and basically haven't touched it since.  The anodized aluminum was showing the normal oxidation that it gets when ignored.

 So a bit of wax and it looks much better!

Side panel before -

 And after

 Rear panel before

And after

And we have loads of trees that needed attention.  Just too many low hanging branches.  We used our borrowed bucket truck to  remedy that.

And lots of low hanging tree limbs on our driveway made it feel like a jungle.  It's not obvious, but we drug mountains of brush away.  Hours and hours in the muggy afternoon.  I was pooped!

These photos don't really do it justice....the road is much more open now.

And the branches don't hit the top of your car anymore!

More house chores

We're just slowly getting a bunch of house chores done....

While we were gone this winter, a squirrel or other varmint ate holes in our decorative house vents.....we couldn't find a nest in the attic so don't really know what the point was....

You can see one of the holes here:

So Duane used the bucket truck again to remove 3 of these vents.

Then he used aluminum sheeting to bend covers for each of the slats.  His reasoning is that the varmint can't chew thru the aluminum!

All finished, ready for paint.

After 3 coats of paint, reinstalled.  

Sometime soon we're going to finally put a deck under the "door to nowhere".....stay tuned.   Now we need to get back to the boat for more chores!!  What a life....