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Preparation for the Boat and Crew: last updated April 2005

May, 2002

  • Lectra/San - Waste treatment facility that uses electricity and salt water to make all waste inert and "clean." It was supposed to be a 2 weekend job to remove the holding tank and install this. 3 months later… Abe swears if he has to dump my body overboard, he'll use this Lectra/San as an anchor!
  • New VHF - Icom with remote mike in the cockpit. Back to the top.

June, 2002

  • Diesel engine class - general information on how to take care of our engine. Not only is it needed for motoring in an out of anchorages, but it also serves to recharge batteries.
  • New Courtesy lights - these are small lights along the floor. We installed lights that were flush with the floor boards so that we couldn't kick out the light bulb. They also draw much less electricity.
  • Ham licenses - we both took Gordon West's class to become certified as General Class Amateur radio operators. We can use ham/single side band (SSB) to check weather, check in with folks, e-mail and many other uses!
  • Hatches - resealed all three hatches. This included removing them completely, cleaning the bedding site, and reinstalling with new caulking. When we took them out, there was virtually no silicone any longer between the wood and the frame of the hatch. All of them leaked. Not any more! Back to the top.

October, 2002- Abe was certainly very busy with the boat while Amy lounged in Tennessee with her sisters celebrating her parents' 40th wedding anniversary.

  • Barrier coat and Bottom paint - Abe completely stripped off the bottom paint, all the way down to the gel coat. The paint was coming off in chunks indicating that it wasn't adhering to the gel coat any longer. Ignoring this is a quick way to get blisters or bubbles in the fiberglass. Blisters are not good. Very time consuming to fix! So Abe stripped off all the paint and put on a new barrier coat and new paint. He worked for 32 days straight. I had a couple of weekends after the Tennessee vacation to help Abe out in the boat yard. I couldn't wait for Mondays so I could go to my job - it was easier! What a wuss I am!
  • New standing rigging - we had the yard put in all new rigging. We think the original rigging (wires holding up mast) was still on the boat. As it was going on going on 20 years old it was time to change.
  • Eye surgery for Amy - not being able to see the "E" without my glasses at the doctor's seemed like it could be a liability in a pinch - if we were in a storm, if my glasses fell off, whatever. I came up with so many reasons to have it done. What I didn't tell Abe was that I just wanted to be rid of contacts and glasses. My sister had it done and loved it. It didn't take long for me to dream about a life without correction! I've absolutely loved it. Dr. Ella Faktorovich in SFO is the best! Back to the top.

September - December 2002

  • We didn't do too many projects during this time. We were just enjoying having our boat, taking it out on weekends, dreaming while we were hanging on the hook (anchored instead of tied to a dock) about our upcoming adventures. We did some minor projects, ongoing maintenance items, but no huge projects. It was a nice break from working every weekend on the boat. Back to the top.

Miscellaneous other jobs done over the years:

  • Port holes removed, re-bedded and resealed - we have taken out 6 of our 14 portholes so far. We started with the leakiest of them. Not sure who was cutting the holes for the port holes when the boat was originally built, but they must have been inhaling too much glue. The holes were way "off" if you want the technical term. We had to build up the holes with MarineTex so that the screws had something to which to grab. Then we used a drill with a brass wheel attachment to polish all the metal. We then sprayed them with polyurethane (hoping to keep the brass looking like brass), but it hasn't held up too well. The ports aren't leaking any more, but there are tarnish spots on the outside of the port holes. If anyone knows how to keep them bright and shiny for longer than 6 months in a hostile marine environment, let me know!
  • Blaupunkt radio and CD changer plus new speakers. Abe and Dad made some speaker boxes that look great.
  • Serviced all winches - what amazing tools - very neat to take apart to see how they work while also cleaning.
  • Took Celestial Navigation class at OCSC, our sailing school. Back to the top.

March/April, 2004

  • Ham radio and SSB - We wanted to have e-mail capability while underway which means that we needed to upgrade our Icom 700 to Icom 710. Of course we then also needed to upgrade to a different antenna tuner. It's never easy! We also bought and installed a Pactor modem which will be what talks between the laptop and the various Ham stations for e-mail.
  • Completely rewired the boat. It seemed that a lot of our lights were dimming when we turned something else on, or flickering in a way they shouldn't. We put off this project as long as we could, but finally bit the bullet and tore the place apart. All the walls came off, and we dug into the recesses of the boat. We replaced all the outlets, all the electrical wire with 12 gauge, double insulated DC wire and 10 gauge, double insulated AC wire. What a project. We'll be organizing the patch panel at some point in the near future to complete the mess. Back to the top.

May, 2004

  • Autopilot Autohelm removed , Raymarine installed. This will be the autopilot that will steer using electricity to keep on a compass heading. It utilizes a hydraulic arm attached to the rudder to keep the boat on course. This will be one of our two self-steering systems. Mostly this will be used while motoring.
  • Radar - old Furuno taken out (hasn't worked since we bought the boat). We bought a Raymarine 4Kw dome with a color 7" display in November 2001. It was finally installed with a gimbaled mount in May 2004. I'm not sure if that's the record for the most elapsed time between purchase and installation but it must be close!!
  • Emergency Medicine at Sea - what a fabulous class! This is a week long class with Dr. Dickie Hill in Benicia, Ca. So informative, so useful and so much toward peace of mind. Highly recommend to anyone thinking of going anywhere where you'll be out of range of medical attention. He helped us to build a medicine chest that will cover a wide range of ailments that we possibly could encounter. And for that clutz on board (Mom and Dad didn't name me Grace for a reason!) knowing how to suture will be useful. This is one item we wouldn't go without. We now know how to give injections in case of life-threatening infections or injuries, start IVs on each other, suture any big gashes, etc. Since our longest planned passage is approximately 28 days, we needed something that would potentially be a lifesaver in the way of knowledge. We also have a basic range of medicines if and when needed. Back to the top.

June/July, 2004

  • Re-bed one fuel fill - the deck plate where the diesel tanks are filled was leaking on the starboard side (probably the port side, too - we just haven't made it to that side yet). When we took took out the fill we found that the deck hole and the top of the diesel tank were not lined up. This was part of why it was leaking. So we filled in the deck hole with Marine Tex and re-drilled so that it lined up to the tank correctly. Re-caulked and re-bed it.
  • Installed Monitor Windvane - This is the second of our self-steering systems. This is an autopilot that steers by the wind only and doesn't use any electricity. This uses the a fairly simple servo-pendulum system to steer the boat by the wind. Very cool toy! See Monitor's site for details about how it works - they explain it much better than I. This will be used mainly while under sail.
  • Reupholstered entire salon - all our cushions were falling apart and the fabric ripping. Plus we needed some color down here! It wasn't too hard as the old cushions were just fabric stapled to plywood. I changed all the plywood, cutting new bases, replaced all the foam, and replaced the fabric with bright colored basketweave. We won't see only blue inside and outside the boat on our passages now!
  • Replaced all running rigging (all ropes used for sailing)
  • Installed EPIRB - emergency beacon in case we ever need to be rescued
  • Set up Ham radio e-mail
  • Set up Weather fax so we can get Wx reports while we're on passages. Back to the top.

August, 2004

  • The biggest part of August was the haul out. This entails coming out of the water and sitting "on the hard" for a period of time that is always longer than one expects or plans. We did the following:
    • Sanded and painted the bottom of the boat. With a fresh coat of paint, she'll slide through the water much easier, making faster time.
    • Cleaned and painted the bilge (area downstairs, under the floor boards). Since we'll be storing much of our goods and spares under the floor, we needed to have a clean start.
    • Patch panel clean up - this is our "circuit breaker" part of the boat. This is where all the wires for all things electrical merge to make spaghetti-like formations. Abe spent over 4 days making the spaghetti look like nice, neat rows of wire. I'm so very impressed with his electrical knowledge and skill.
    • Depth - DataMarine removed because it's no longer reliable. Display reads from 50' to 0' to 300', all within 10 feet of movement. Raymarine to be installed. The yard work just entailed drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat and installing a through-hull. Both Depth and Speed have a transducer or paddle wheel that needs to be on the outside on the underbelly of the boat. So we make a hole in the bottom of the boat, put a bunch of caulking/sealant around the transducer and hope that it doesn't leak when we go back in the water. It will be hooked up later.
    • Speed - DataMarine removed - hey why not? Everything else is coming out. Raymarine transducer installed. Having all these units from Raymarine will allow us to have them all "talk" to one another. The radar can talk to the autopilot can talk to wind/speed/depth. Any data can be shown on any of the other units. Very cool stuff. Abe working at West Marine as Inventory Manager this last year has been such a blessing in disguise. He gets great discounts that have allowed us to get some equipment we might otherwise not have. I thank him on a daily basis!
    • Replace all water hose connecting the water tanks to each other and to faucets. The old hose was gross.
    • Prepped and polished the side of the boat above waterline. I love the product I use because it's easier than waxing, and seems to give better protection. PoliGlow out of Florida is a great product. Very highly rated by Practical Sailor, too.
    • Did some minor work on the rudder. Mostly sealing some spots under the waterline.
    • Fixed refrigeration - ours hasn't cooled for awhile. And it would be nice to have ice cubes. Luxury! We received some great news from one of our neighbors who did refrigeration for a living - we have a good, reliable system that just needed some minor maintenance. Some wires needed some attention, defrosting of the evaporator plates, and some modifications to the engine drive compressor (that has never been installed). We'll be drinking frozen margaritas in paradise in no time! Back to the top.
  • After the haulout, during the rest of August:
    • Mounted the life raft to the deck
    • Anemometer (wind indicator) - DataMarine removed - stopped giving wind speed long ago. Displays direction only. Raymarine still not installed, but should get around to it by San Diego. And at least we've looked at the top of the mast and know how we want to mount the new one.
    • Replaced the sound proofing in the engine room.
    • Replaced all lifelines (the wires that go around the outside of the boat to keep those of us who may stumble and fall on the boat). Abe used the equipment at the WM rigging shop to make all connections.
    • Bought all sorts of spares that we could possibly imagine that we'll need. Any system that we have on board may (more likely will) fail at any given time. We need the ability and knowledge to fix it on our own. We had 4 pages of items, two columns each of items to buy.
    • I spent much time in the last week of August going through all the equipment and medicine that we got as part of our medical class with Dickie Hill. I had to organize, categorize, inventory and pack it all in a place and fashion that would make sense when we needed it most. Back to the top.

September, 2004

  • Abe installed 4 of our 8 new batteries. We'll eventually have 600 amp hours (6 batteries) for our house bank, one battery for the windlass (winch to pull up the anchor), and one battery for starting the engine. We decided to go with gels because they won't leak in the event of a roll-over, and the cost was similar to flooded with Abe's WM discount.
  • Abe also installed one of two new alternators. We have 2 100-amp hour alternators. In case one goes out, we already have a spare. We'll be running both of them most of the time to charge the batteries from the engine, but only one is presently attached.
  • And the last finishing touch to the electrical included Abe installing a new regulator for the alternators and new charger.
  • The last part of the new instrument installation included hooking up the displays to the depth and speed thru-hulls and wiring for power.
  • While Abe was taking care of all that, Amy and parents were taking care of packing stuff from storage into the boat for the trip to LA. I don't know how we got it all on the boat, but we did. The v-berth (front) is absolutely packed meaning we took my folks' bed away from them. Being the kind souls that we are, we gave them our room, and Abe and I slept on the couch and the galley-table-turned-bed. This list looks quite lopsided with Abe doing all the work. I know that I was working 12 - 14 hours a day right alongside Abe. I just can't remember what else I was working on! Back to the top.

We did not have time before we left so these items were simply stored on the boat for later installation

  • Air compressor to fill our scuba tanks - we found a great deal on e-Bay. We can fill our own tanks by running an A/C compressor off our diesel generator.
  • Solar Panels - mount and wire 300 amp hours of solar (3 panels)
  • Watermaker - Katadyn 80E modular. The boat used to have a watermaker, but we'd never seen it installed. Based on the documentation that we had, it appeared to be at least 13 years old. Water makers have come a long way (and become a lot smaller since). Thanks again to Abe for a great discount. Back to the top.

October, 2004

  • Solar Panels are kind of installed. While in San Diego, Abe made a rough mount for them on top of our hard dodger. There are just some 2x4s strapped down to the dodger via two ratchet tie-down straps and then the panels mounted to the wood via screws. The 3 x 100 watt panels are giving us about 10 amps per hour during the middle of the day. We're very pleased with them! We had originally thought we'd mount them permanently using stainless steel tubes in a configuration that would allow us to tilt them to get better sun, but seeing how much we're getting from them flat on top, we'll make an easier installation when we get around to permanent. It works for now with the power cord running from the dodger through the window. Can't sail that way, but at anchorage it's fine.
  • Link 10 battery monitor. This shows us how much battery power we have left, what we're currently drawing (good to see what each individual gadget uses), what we're adding in, and generally the health of the batteries. Very useful. Back to the top.

November/December, 2004

  • Anemometer installed. We haven't had a working wind indicator since sometime in 2001. We've had this instrument for quite some time, it just hasn't been installed until now. This is the last of the Raymarine electronics installed that will all "talk" with one another. It makes for a nice integrated systems including the autopilot, wind instrument, speed and depth.
  • Photovoltaic, tri-light installed. This tri-light is used while we're under way, showing red, green and white lights. It's also used at anchorage as an anchor light. What's neat about this light is that with the photovoltaic cell the anchor light will come on by itself at dark. This means that we'll have a light now even if we leave the boat in the morning thinking, "surely we'll be back before dark," only to find ourselves trying to find our boat in pitch black. This was installed at the top of the mast.
  • New watermaker installed. This will change salt water into fresh water via reverse osmosis. I like to say that I installed this all by my lonesome, but I had quite a bit of help from Abe. I can do the plumbing and electrical wiring, but needed his help with the layout and the carpentry of the wooden platform. We installed three pre-filters: one to catch seaweed coming in with the salt water, one 30 micron filter to catch silt and such, and a 5 micron filter to catch even more. As of December, we had not yet tested it. The big killers to a watermaker are oil, gas or detergents. Most marinas have some of that in various degrees. We were planning on testing the watermaker while at Isla Isabela anchorage, but ended up not stopping there. So as of PV (since we're in a marina) it's not been tested. Let's hope it doesn't leak!
  • Abe made a new instrument panel to properly hold all the new instruments above the companionway. We had just been using a jury-rigged wood panel until the time he could cut and varnish the new piece. All the new instruments were roughly in place in the holes for the old instruments. The new panel looks great.
  • New anchor platform. When you raise anchor chain via an electric windlass, it tends to pile in a big mound inside the anchor locker in the bow of the boat. The platform was an attempt to correct that a bit. Abe cut heavy-duty plywood, and placed it in the anchor locker at a slope. This should help the chain slide back in the locker when we're pulling it up. Back to the top.

February/March, 2005

  • Our companionway doors going from the cockpit downstairs are slated doors. Before we head out on an ocean crossing, we needed to make replacement doors from Lexan. These will be put into place only if and when there's a big storm coming. Abe bought the plastic before we left the States, but needed to make a wood frame and handle for both the front and back. This was finally finished in Ixtapa.
  • I tend to get the plumbing jobs. Partly because I volunteer. It's something that I can do on my own, leaving Abe for woodworking, electrical major projects, and engine stuff. We have the Lectra/San on the forward head, and a holding tank on the aft head. We wanted a y-valve set up so that when at sea, we can pump directly overboard, and not have to pump waste through the holding take. So I installed two y-valves to by-pass the holding tank. Easy job, I've just been putting it off.
  • We have three spots on the boat that don't have cabinet doors. We have the teak wood kits from West Marine to make your own special sized doors. With Dad coming, we thought we were going to use his biscuit joiner to attach the frame together. So Abe finally cut all the wood and slates. Dad came up with a way to use dowels as the biscuit cutter wouldn't work on the wood we have. Abe finished those after Mom and Dad left.
  • Abe made plastic cupboard covers for the space behind our sink. Most Kelly Petersons have enclosed cabinets which looks a lot neater. Nothing comes flying out of the shelves underway (the movement is mostly side to side, not enough front to back movement to dislodge items), but the new covers make it look a lot less disorganized.
  • Awnings are a must during the summer months so far south. And it will only get hotter. I made 3 panels that "button" together (through grommets and ropes with loops and knots to button one to the other) that cover from the dodger all the way forward. I needed a break, but will make one panel for the aft deck at some point. The awning will also allow us to leave most windows open during rain. 25 meters of 150 cm wide fabric and 70 grommets later, it's quite cool down below! Let's see how long it will hold up. Someone recommended painting the canvas with Thompson's Water Seal to protect the material. Not sure if that will be enough, but the material needs something to protect against rot in the UV rays. I'll need an additional 15 meters of fabric for the aft deck.
  • Mosquito netting is also something that we planned for before we left but didn't get finished. Since my awning project took so long, Abe was able to finish his list and get started on the rest of my list - the mosquito netting. It's still not finished but the hatch covers are cut and sewn, and a big part of the cockpit cover is finished. On Abe's list was also cutting the frames for all 14 portholes. Each porthole will need two pieces of plastic to sandwich the netting between. Those will be placed against the outside of each porthole, pulled from the inside with a wooden dowel that will provide inward pressure.
  • Refrigeration takes the majority of our battery juice while at anchorage. At some point, we will probably need to completely dismantle our refrigerator, and re-insulate. A major, major project. In the meantime, I bought some 3/4" thick panels of styrofoam and built a block of Styrofoam to put in the bottom of the reefer. This will cut out about 1/2 the useable space which we don't use anyway. Hopefully, it will greatly reduce our power consumption.
  • Abe varnished (using Cetol) our dinghy motor mount and a support for the radar dome. Not a big job, it had just been put off for some time.
  • Most of the lines (ropes) for all our sails had already been slowly changed out by Abe between La Paz and Zihuat. Halyards (the ropes that hold the sails up) were the last to be done because they needed eye splices and such. Abe completed all but one of those. The last remaining is the halyard for the genoa (front sail), but we haven't pulled the sail off the roller furler to get it done. The old lines were all in decent shape. Again, with Abe's discount, we though it prudent to get them replaced at a very cheap price rather than spending more down the road.
  • Abe mounted small speakers in the cockpit. We couldn't hear the stereo in the cockpit very well.
  • Our American flag got a small tear in one of the white stripes. Abe patched it up.
  • Our solar panels are currently "temporarily" (for the past 5 months) installed on a quick frame Abe built from 2 x 4's. We're fearful that we won't be able to get stainless steel tubes outside of Mexico, and therefore want to get those finished here. We're finding it difficult to get the tubes here, but are promised by the marine store that they'll finally have them "manana." They've been saying that for a week.
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