Sun!

With the nice weather on Sunday, Cass and I got some work done on the boat... but I did not document it.

It was mostly cleaning up some exterior stuff, and I put some roof patch sealer on the cracks in the topside wood (which is on the list to fix this summer 'for real', but I want to keep rain off it for now).

But we also had a friend over to the boat. We went on an imaginary voyage.

When the weather is nice, out home gets 2x bigger.

Electron plumbing

Yesterday I got just a little work done before heading out for an evening bike ride/dinner/beer run. But I managed to figure out the bundle of wiring for the potentiometer that controls the fan blowing over the burn pot for the stove. I had to hook it up to the multimeter to be sure that 1) everything was connected and not broken, and 2) how the heck it behaved.



But I got it all figured out and installed.

Cool shot

In case anyone was wondering about the magnitude of Danne's rig... here is a cool pic I got of it last weekend.

Tall! (for an old man)

Spring (alomst) cleaning

This is a little out of order... sorry.

But, before we did any bilge cleaning, we did exterior cleaning! I have a small pile of lumber stored on the boat right now (mostly the bulwarks/toe rails and bending oak for laminated frames). It all wrapped in a tarp, and after a full winter, it needed to be cleaned! So we did that and also did a major exterior clean for the whole boat.

Exposing the pile-o-lumber:


Cass handing it pieces off the boat:


All piled up on the dock:


Eww. I feel like a bad boat daddy.


Cleaning time! Here's Cass doing her 'car wash' pose:


Clean cockpit (airing out)!


Clean boat!


Even ducky got a scrubbin'!

Bilge cleaning!

Due to the face that I like to flip up the first bilge plank when I'm off the boat (for ventilation below), lots of dirt gets in there. I've been trying to vacuum it out periodically, but it really just needs a good scrubbin' from time to time.

This Sunday was one of those times.

I pulled out the two containers of chems (stored in old battery boxes) for full access to the planking and the top of the keel.


You can't see it too well, but its fairly grimy in there... lots of dust bunnys.


I scrubbed it down with a mild soap solution (enviro-friendly, in case you are wondering). Then poured many gallons of fresh water through it to rinse.



I mixed up a linseed oil/terps/jap dry solution with a but of borate salt (wood preservative). After the wood was reasonably dry, I slathered that all over the wood. It was already nice, oily, happy wood, but more is better, right? I put the fan on that set to full blast (to try to get the terps smell 'kicked off' ASAP) and went for a walk to CWB.

I got back and chilled out with a glass of Jameson Whisky while the oil was curing... I also gave a little to Danne as well, hes been a good boat and I feel bad for not sailing him yet. So, he got some drink too!

That was fun...

The weather comeith!

New tools

Ebay has been very good to me lately.

$15 batch of chisels (two of them are Witherbys). I also have a Stanley #4 SW coming... also for $15.



Cass brought them to school to hollow grind them for me. Yeah!

More fuel line plumbing

I have more of the fuel lines run for the stove... connecting the day tank to the stove line, and from the main tank to the day tank.

I took measurements of the day tank fittings and made a list of the adapters I needed. Then went off to the hardware store to get them... only after I got back did I realize that I was low on tubing. So, this will end on a to-be-continued (as usual).

Here is the 'list' so I made sure to get the right stuff:


Then I hooked it up... no I just have to get the main tank plumbed to the top fitting on the day tank.