Rain Drops Keep Falling On Our Head

After a beautiful weekend at anchor, we woke up to heavy rain at the dock and of course, leaks in the boat.  We have become so good at rebedding (screwing objects into fiberglass, such as the hull or deck, with marine sealant) that it makes us less intimidated to find the leaks, so we were on the hunt.

Turns out the biggest leak was in our cabin and coming through the headliner (aka ceiling).  Even before coffee, we had the leaks identified and determined the stanchions that were bolted into the toe rail needed to be rebedded.  Since the forecast calls for rain until Thursday, we went ahead and resealed the bolts with 3M 4000 sealant, which should hold even though it was still wet outside.  Time will tell....

The culprit

Looking to port from inside the aft cabin with the headliner removed

Supervising

The purple is the underside of the toe rail.  Those white spots are where screws need to be rebedded.

Looking forward from the back of the aft cabin (our bedroom)

A Little R&R on the Corrotoman

This Tuesday will be five weeks that we have been living in THIS boat yard, but of course that is in addition to the five weeks we spent living in the yard in Port Charlotte getting Stella Blue ready for Logan and Gillian and the two weeks we spent in the yard in Waukegan getting Terrapin ready for transport. 

Needless to say, we were more than ready to go sailing on our boat. We were ready to reap the rewards of our hard work...use the chart plotter, auto pilot, 88 lb Rocna, windlass, dinghy, etc...indulge in the daily cruiser life. 

Honestly, it felt so good to get back there...the little whine the outboard makes made us feel right at home and Kala had no problem remembering what beaches were about - she just wanted to know where I hid all the coconuts.

Happy, happy puppy!!! I think the cruising life suits her!

Kala IS a service dog, she's a great "service" guarding Terrapin.

We couldn't have asked for a calmer anchorage to rebuild the Monitor Windvane.

Mellow sail on the Chesapeake. 10kts of wind with Terrapin doing almost 6kts.

Sunny and 70 degrees with the autopilot steering.

Some tacking on Sunday to keep sharp.  4kts upwind

The Main Event

There have not been too many days here in Deltaville that the wind has been less than 15 kts.  When we poked our head out of the cabin last night and saw that not only was the wind from the south, but it was probably only gusting to about 8 or 9....we decided it was time to figure out the Mainsail.  Terrapin has "in-mast" furling on the main, which means that the mainsail rolls into the mast vs. "slab reefing" where the sail is lowered and stacked on the boom and then covered with canvas.  There are pros and cons to both methods, but on Terrapin, we have in-mast furling, so we gave it a go.  We have researched and reviewed and set out plans in our mind for how to get this sail attached but you never know what will happen.  We tried to be very careful so we didn't have the whole main raised, catch a gust of wind and have an issue.  Thankfully, our careful preparation paid off and it all went so smoothly!  We are heading out on the Chesapeake this weekend...in the words of Captain Ron, "If it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen out there!"

Mainsail laid out on deck to ensure it raises correctly.

Good grip on the outhaul to make sure the sail doesn't get away.

Finishing the tack attachment (Kala supervising.)

Ready to go!

This message is Kala-approved.

Having fun!

We've been working hard getting Terrapin ready for an extended cruise but have also been having a little fun... as if working on a boat is not fun enough! We got the dinghy in the water today and the outboard fired up and went exploring. First thing we had to do was to get some photos of Terrapin!

Terrapin looking good in the water. This is our current residence... not sure of the address...

Molly oversees the dock.

Yeah, baby!

Molly concentrates hard on driving the dinghy but Kala seems pretty relaxed!

Hanks-A-Million!

Baxter and I try not to get what we call "Shinied-out"...where you buy something because it's pretty but it's either overpriced, impractical, or frivolous.  Well...we went to Ullman Sails in Deltaville to have our storm trysail (very small triangular main used in bad weather) and our staysail (sail forward of the mast but not as far forward as the jib) evaluated.  Everything looked good with the sails, they just needed to be cleaned (smelled like diesel) and they needed to have their hanks replaced.  Hanks are the fasteners that attach a sail to a stay - like a headstay or a forestay, unless the sail is on a furling line (which is then used to unroll the sail, which is how our main and jib work.)

These new hanks are S-H-I-N-Y but they are definitely not impractical or frivolous, and they make us very very happy.  

In addition, we also bent the jib on today.  There is a lot to be said for a sailboat with sails hoisted.  It is going to be hard to keep us at the dock for the remaining projects.

Soooo pretty....

Trying to get the shackle (stripped) off the furler so we can attach the jib while the wind is less than 15 kts, which  has only occurred about 2 days in the last 3 1/2 weeks.

Over the closet and to the cockpit...

....to the back of the instrument panel we go.  Anyone who thinks living on a boat is about pina coladas and margaritas, should have come to visit today - we could have used six hands trying to get these wires in place. The issue is the wires run from the nav station (or near that) which is starboard side, midship, back to the cockpit on the port side, without being seen.  Since we didn't build the boat, we don't know where the "sneaky" little holes are and where the holes end up (over/behind/under another coaming or bulkhead.)  A little imagination in combination with ingenuity and the wires are now in place - until something stops working.  

Now - off to rewire the Frigaboat refrigerator (originally wired with 14 gauge and it should be 10 gauge) correctly...

The back of the electrical panel at the nav station

First stop - now...which one was it?

Back of one of the gauges in the aft cabin

Or is it in here?

In the cockpit...network engineer on duty

Hope it all works.

Of course it works...

Did you have any doubt?

Head Issues...

Now that we are on the boat and out of the van we can use the heads on the boat. As you may know, bathrooms on boats are called “heads” because, according to the source of all knowledge, Wikipedia, back in the days of the tall sailing ships, all vessels placed their bathrooms at the front (the bow, or Head) of the ship. (The "Head" also is a reference to the ornate decorations of Mermaids found on the bow of many vessels). As the wind would come from behind the boat, fill the sails and move the ship, the smell would move away from the vessel.

Well, our manually operated heads have issues. I’ll spare you the engineering marvel that is the modern marine toilet (really interesting, actually) but the pump systems on both heads need to be rebuilt and we had significant leaks in the hoses that brought water in to flush and take waste out. Since leaks are a big deal on the boat, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to replace both hoses yesterday. Neither hose was hard to work with but one of them, guess which one, was a little more “interesting” than the other.

Here are some photos…

Both leaky offenders. The first leak is the hose on the left under the pump handle. This is basically water from outside the boat. The other leak is the connection to the top of the through hull barely visible on the left inside the cabinet. This leak comes directly from the toilet when the toilet is pumping overboard and not into the holding tank.

Here is a close up of the leaky through hull hose that runs from the toilet directly overboard. You can tell from the, let's call it "crud", on the top that it had existed for some time.

I started off with a very sanitary approach wearing gloves and using germ killer.

The sanitary approach gave way to excitement when I was able to get the poo hose off after heating it with a heat gun.  Smells great, lemme tell ya.

Close up look right down the poo hose! I had to sterilize myself after this photo but it was worth it.  :> I'm going to  make this photo Molly's screen saver. She's sooo lucky!

Finally Floating!

We had a big day yesterday. We put Terrapin in the water, visited with sailing friends from our time in New Bern, went up the mast, fixed some stuff, broke some stuff and paid tribute to Neptune and the Four Winds when we "officially" changed the boats name to "Terrapin".

Here are some photos from the day...

32,000lbs going down...

Sitting pretty in the slip.

Masthead with Zimmerman's behind Baxter.

Paying tribute to Neptune and the Four Winds during the naming ceremony. This is a detailed, specific process that you have to follow to inform Neptune of the new name of the boat. Click for naming ceremony

A view from the top. Thanks top Chris and Gretchen for the haul-up. Replaced the topping lift and did maintenance while up enjoying the view.

Our part of Neptune's libations after the naming ceremony.  I'd forgotten how bad champagne makes me feel the next day.  

Look who took the first nap on the boat.  I think she likes her new home!

...Or maybe not

We launched Terrapin today. This is the first time she has been in the water since we have owned her.

This is after we found a leaky transducer. Not a major deal breaker, but an unavoidable delay and eventually the boat would sink...so back in the slings to repair.

First thing to check when launching

The leaker

After removing the transducer to reseal - that is a big hole (top center) for lots of water to come through if not sealed appropriately.

The transducer (in this case, depth)

Kind of like caulking your windows in a house - except think of it like if your windows aren't sealed the house implodes into the ground (or the boat sinks.)

Ooey gooey - I hold it while Baxter goos it up.

Finished product - we will sit in the slings overnight and let the 4200 (sealant) dry and repeat again tomorrow.