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Final Preps
Our Clock is BackThis evening I'm sitting in the main salon surrounded by laundry and bags of food as we get ready to leave south again. We had a long day today after a weekend with friends in Havelock.
We got the clock back from Greg's Vintage ClockWorks in Newport. He's an amazing guy with a really cool shop where he restores vintage clocks. He does wonderful work and is very honest and fair. If you need a clock repaired and are around North Carolina look him up! The clock is beautiful and runs great with two new springs! The clock is a Chelsea ships shift clock with ships bells. It's vintage from 1970 and the spring was simply worn out. I'm so glad to have it back! It Just chimed now!
Date: Thur, 26 Oct 2023 02:06:00 GMT
Work Done?
Back at BlackbeardsWell we got up this morning at 6am to be ready to cast off by 8am but NO! The engine decided not to start so for the next 5 hours Sam and I were tracing wires trying to find out why it would not start. We did find a few problems, but nothing serious, and then it just decided to work. I hate intermittent problems! Never say the work is done and nothing is broke! Something is always broken, you just don't know it yet.
So about 15:00 or so we cast off and headed up the Neuse for Blackbeards. It was a really nice day and the wind was at our backs at about 10knots. The engine was purring along very nicely. We pushed the engine up to 3000 rpm and we were making 8 knots through the water. We motored along at about 2200 rpm and 6.5 knots. As we were leaving Zimmerman's everyone waved and we headed for the channel. By the green bouy there was another sailboat with a black hull coming in. We tried to give eachother a wide berth but we ended up running into the mud. But we powered through it. We were in 5.5 feet of water according to our depth gauge. The sun was clear in the sky and temp was about 72 deg. The birds were flying low on the water and the sky reflecting off the brown neuse was blue. We made it up to Blackbeards by about 17:30 and we docked with no problems in a light wind. There were little sunfish sailing around the marina and it was quite the sight. As we tied up the moon was about 25% up in the sky right at sunset. It was a great ending to a long day.
But it wasn't over yet. Hannah and I drove back to Oriental to pick up the truck and now Hannah is making spagetti for dinner. We have to run the generator here as there is no 50 amp service on the guest dock. Now the next few days will be filled with administrative stuff and provisioning for our journey south. We're feeling very hopeful and excited about this new season of adventure. The boat is in much better shape than when we bought her and I'm more confident of her capabilities.
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 03:29:00 GMT
Leaving Zimmerman's
Work Complete for the moment.Hi All! We leave tomorrow for Blackbeards in the AM so this is our last night with shore power for a while. It's easy to get lazy. We have enjoyed our stay here and got a lot of things accomplished. Now it's time to get ready for our Journey South before it cools off to an uncomfortable level.
So in the last week we installed the Raw water pump, hoisted the repaired Genoa, Put in the boom vang, cleaned up the lazy jacks, organized our new Eley garden hoses, continued our inventory of the boat, went looking for material to make new cushions inside, found two water pump spares at a yard sale, cleaned our netting, put in the new cat 5 outdoor cable to the groove, and put on water before we leave the dock tomorrow morning.
The raw water pump on the engine we moved to a different location. The input and output hoses run in front of the engine very near the main pully. There is only about 1/4 inch clearance and when the engine vibrates sometimes it chafes the hose. So I drilled 4 new holes in the pump mount so that I could rotate the pump about 10 degrees. This lifted the lower (input) hose about an inch off the pully. This turned out to work really well. Also we found one of the 4 allen screws was stripped on the engine block side. So I went with a slightly longer allen screw to capture the good threads. I'm very pleased with how it's working.
For the boom vang I drilled and tapped the boom to fasten a new bail underneath and then we will run line to each toe rail to a block and then back to the secondary winches to tighten it when we're running or on a broad reach.
Today we spent with our Friends B and V at Bishops Marina at Mathews Point where we started our journey. We miss the marina and many of our friends there. The owners have done some very nice things to the facility. We just couldn't justify keeping a slip there when we didn't spend any time there. (Places to go and People to meet!!!) But if you want a really nice quiet marina with great people check them out.
Lilah has found a new Hidy hole. We got a box in the mail and we put the box on it's side on the Settee and she immediately claimed it and has been sitting in it all week. Today Hannah put Jars in the box while we were inventorying and Lilah is not pleased with us using her box.
We're still discussing where to go this year but with the instability in the world it is difficult to decide whether to stay in the US or head for the Islands. We will probably decide next week as we head out the Beaufort Inlet... nite nite.
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2023 06:17:00 GMT
You're never done...
There's always something more to do.Today we had a survey done for our insurance company. We are trying to get insurance for the Caribbean and off shore. But it's been two years and it's time for another one and we've done so much work over the last two years that we really needed to document that we have completed everything on the previous survey. So we did a short haul and then spent most of the day with the surveyor. He looked everywhere! I had to unscrew and take apart panels so he could see tankage. We got hauled out again and he tapped all over the boat again and didn't find anything of note. He was very thorough. Then We had a complete rig inspection done as well. It will go along with the survey.
We also received several things in the mail. One of them especially we were pleased to have! A few days ago when we thought we were going to leave (last weekend) I checked the engine one last time before we were going to leave and well... the raw water pump was leaking a lot. It was leaking not from where we put new hoses in but from the pump its self. So I had to order a new pump. But they are not made any more and though they exist on the Jabsco website and various pump sites they were out of stock. After talking to Nanni USA I found out that was because this specific pump is only for OEM Nanni and they don't make them any more. They have to be ordered from France. But, the US warehouse had 1. So I might have gotten the last one in the USA. If there's any other Nanni owners with a 4.220HE I'm sorry you're going to have to order yours from France. I think I'm going to also buy a major rebuilt kit for this one. We rebuilt it before but it only lasted for a year and a half so I think the shaft is bad. I'll be putting it on tomorrow morning.
We are still waiting for the Genoa to be repaired and the Chelsea clock. The clock repairman in the area (Greg) has it going but as it turns out someone previous to me put the wrong spring in it. It was way too weak and it was filled with graphite. So he has ordered a couple springs from Chelsea and will be putting it back together as soon as they arrive.
I have also put new Genoa sheets on the boat all white with no flecks. They look wonderful and no chaffing yet. I also replaced the big shackle on the clew with a soft shackle that I made from Dynema. I'm going to use the old ones to make a combination boom brake and boom vang for when we're sailing downwind or on a broad reach. I'm also going to put a new bail for the boom vang at about 50% down the boom. Finally, I rigged up the storm sail. The removable head stay rubs/chafes against the roller furling so I have to pull it back away from the head stay just a tad. So I have devised a way to re-position the stay with a horse/bridel on the fore deck because we don't have a place to put a a true removable inner forestay, we don't have a good place on the deck to put one. I could strap it to the windlass but I'm a little loath to do that.
Well it's late and we finally have the boat cleaned up again so it's time for bed.
Date:Thu, 12 Oct 2023 03:06:00 GMT
Small Stuff
Small things seem to take foreverGetting ready to leave and do final re-stocking and fixing seems to take forever. I'm not sure why small stuff takes longer than big stuff but it seems to. So we took our sail to be repaired, (little tear in anti-chafing) We took our Chelsea clock to be repaired (It looks like it was just a dirty spring, all will be well), I'm trying to get the backup head stay for hank on storm sail working correctly. I need to put back together the lockers where we pulled wires for the chart plotters. We need to clean the canvas and net that got wet. I need to repair the cat5 wire to the Mikrotek Groove, so we had to buy a crimper etc. We need to re-organize and catalog the lazzerettes. And we have spent a little time with friends as well. Everything seems to be a long way away and takes forever to get done. We've been to the storage unit 2 times to sort through and exhange items. Hey, by the way, we found a really nice diving knife that is original to the boat from 1969-1973 from Italy. I must assume it belonged to S.J. I am pretty excited. They are quite sought after knives. We also got the bill from Zimmermans and it is as expected. They have always done good work and treated me fair here. We will be back.
Date:Mon, 9 Oct 2023 18:10:00 GMT
Music Festival
Not everything is work!We went to the Oriental old front porch musical festival this last weekend and had a wonderful time. We met new friends, and spent the evening with old friends from Bishops Marina and Mathew's point. Here's a video of one of the groups that we really liked:
We have been doing a little to the boat as well. We tested out our storm sail and we have been working on the chart plotters linking them together and making sure our new depth sounder/echo sounder is working correctly. We're also getting organized. So we pulled out all our food and inventoried it yesterday as well.
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2023 00:54:00 GMT
FLOATING!
We're back in the water!Today was our launch. In the morning The final buffing was being done and Sam and I cleaned up the boat and got it ready for launch. We also put on a layer of bottom paint on the parts of the hull that were blocked up on wood. Then we lifted the boat up and drove to the launch bay. As we approached the water there was a loud pop and the boat shook dramatically. It really scared us. Nothing seemed broken but then we saw that the saddle/strap had slipped about 2 feet. It's good that they were tied together. Then we lowered the boat in the water and started checking the through hulls and the stuffing box/stern tube. We found a couple small leaks that were just seacock adjustments. Sam tightened the stuffing box just a little bit so that it was dripping instead of running and in doing so found out that the stuffing box hose was a little loose. So he tightened that up a little bit. Then Hank dropped by to say hello! It was wonderful to see him. It's so wonderful that he still takes interest and are of the boats he built. Anyway we moved the boat to the dock and started putting things back together. After 3 weeks in a hotel/airbnb it was like coming home from a vacation. Hannah is still putting things away and getting some kind of dinner ready. I'm so glad we are back in the water and so is Lilah! We got a lot accomplished this time and I'm very pleased with the condition of Grace right now. The final work on the paint/algrip was done wonderfully.
Tomorrow we hope to finishing up the new echo locator /fish finder and an ethernet connection between the chart plotters. We also need to clean up a little wiring around the stern tube. Additionally we are going to rig up a more permanant boom vang / jibe preventer combination. I'm going to set it up a little like a horse. From the middle of the boom I'm going to run two lines down to the deck cleats midship to a couple snatch blocks and back to the secondary winches.
Before bed I'm going to update the work list spreadsheet. Good night!
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2023 21:47:00 GMT
Still on the Hard
launching tomorrowToday they are finishing up the paint on the bow and we are ready to launch tomorrow. We have done a lot of work in the last 3 weeks: We added a command mic to the icom vhf. We freed, lapped, and excersized all the seacocks and capped off a couple not used. We painted the bottom with CuCote. We replaced the through hull for the Airmar Tri-sensor with a flapper valve through hull. We added a fish finder to the forward through hull. We sealed and rebedded the mast boots and resealed Sam's port hole/window. We replaced the cutlass bearning and repacked the stuffing box. We replaced the plumbing on the galley sink drains and re-adjusted the chain drive for the centerboard. We added an ethernet network to the chart plotter and repaired the paint on the hull where someone hit us last year.
The yard had to re-do the paint which took an extra week in the Air-BandB. The first iteration was a wrong color and was blocked and taped, the second iteration was the correct color and feathered and blended. It looks good. We're getting ready to launch and trying to figure out where to go.