I have had my iPhone for almost a month now. It took me 3 weeks to download my first app but I am finally blogging from it. 21st century here I come. Graham should go away more often.
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Monday 26 April 2010
Sunday 25 April 2010
From months to weeks
This time in 4 weeks we'll be on our way. After months of planning and years of dreaming it is gradually starting to feel like a reality. Sometimes I can't stop thinking what it will be like to be away from home and work and to be in a remote anchorage somewhere. Other times I can't imagine it at all.
This weekend Graham finished off the wiring and installed the Sea-Me. That's a radar reflector that amplifies radar signals from other boats and thereby makes us more visible. It's an important safety feature. The sails were due to arrive but they have been delayed by a couple of weeks. We also detached the bow roller (where the anchor sits) and took it to be welded as it had a crack in it. As always as small job didn't end up being as straightforward as we'd thought. But we managed in the end.
Graham left this evening for a work trip to Holland. He's not back until Friday. I don't really like the thought of him being away. It brings back bad memories of his accident in France. I'll be glad when he walks back through that door on Friday.
This weekend Graham finished off the wiring and installed the Sea-Me. That's a radar reflector that amplifies radar signals from other boats and thereby makes us more visible. It's an important safety feature. The sails were due to arrive but they have been delayed by a couple of weeks. We also detached the bow roller (where the anchor sits) and took it to be welded as it had a crack in it. As always as small job didn't end up being as straightforward as we'd thought. But we managed in the end.
Graham left this evening for a work trip to Holland. He's not back until Friday. I don't really like the thought of him being away. It brings back bad memories of his accident in France. I'll be glad when he walks back through that door on Friday.
Saturday 17 April 2010
Wire, oh wire?
There we have an afternoons work, it might not look that tidy, but it's tidier and a lot more secure than it was.
The wiring on Pixie makes some strange twists and turns, house batteries connected to the engine, so when the engine is started the voltage drops and the chartplotter goes off, different wires doing the same job, isolated cables have voltage when the shouldn't. Every day I look at the wiring is another day of stepping into the unknown.
Rather than try to work out what someone else was thinking at the time, the best solution seems to be to replace, rewire, and reroute any cables.
Yesterday I discovered that all of our domestic power was coming from a lead from the starter motor, this explains the black out of the chart plotter when we need it after coming into a strange harbour under engine. So that's been sorted and the lead from house battery switch, no longer goes to the starter motor!
Because we've added more electrics, I've increase the wire gauge supplying the switch panel, just to be on the safe side and to take into account any future modifications.
Sunday 11 April 2010
A long weekend
No, not Easter, for me this was a long weekend, I took a day off to get ahead on all the jobs that need doing, and I'm so glad I did. It's been a really productive weekend.
First off the Guys from Endeavour Yachts services have done a great job fitting our Lewmar V2 windlass, two and a half days work for them, a whole lot longer for me, so thank you Gary, Simon, Carl and Paul for the work you have done on Pixie.
After Paul had finished glassing in the pipe, and flow coating it, I spent the rest of Friday wiring it in, I'd already fitted the cable, but they needed crimping and the circuit breaker and switch wiring in. It was with much relief that when I pressed the button it worked first time!
Saturday Kirsty helped put the finishing touches to the windlass, fitting the chain, connecting the anchor (after a trip to Arthur's Chandlery to get a connector that fitted the anchor) and adding patches around the foredeck to protect Pixie from the wear and tear of anchoring, that was all tested and it worked and the anchor still fits in the locker.
The rest of Saturday was spent cleaning under the cockpit and the engine bay. Last time I was on the boat I'd managed to fix some nuts under the cockpit so the storage tub under the cockpit was held in position by bolts rather than screws. Over time the screws had been undone and done up a number of times and most were loosing their grip, so rather than using bigger screws I took steps to correct this problem once and for all. A search of Marine Tech's shelves came up with nuts that were welded to a small stainless steel square, these were fibre glassed in place under the cockpit to line up with the existing screw holes and then bolts were added to secure them in position. It would have worked well, but two of the nuts had moved slightly while curing, so it took a few attempts to get it right, but it's sorted and I'm much happier about it.
While cleaning under the engine I took action about the primary fuel filter. it was tucked behind the engine so if it got water or dirt in it I'd have to remove the storage tub under the cockpit....while we were sailing, I didn't like this idea, so to solve this problem I've moved it. Sounds simple, but it wasn't. First off it was all quite corroded and took much cursing and swearing to get the bolt that should move, moving. Being someone to replace rather than spend hours trying to sort it out I headed off to Marine Tech for a new primary fuel filter, only £40 odd pounds, and it seemed like money well spent, until I discovered the fittings on the old pipes are different from the fittings on the new filter. Of course I discovered this just after 5:30 when everywhere was closed, so I set about trying to free the seized nuts. So covered in diesel and oil I finally got them all free and was able to swap the pipes to the other side of the filter and refit the old one, but the bolts I had were too short. Fitting the new one will be a job for next year!
This morning it was off with the old topping lift, and on with the new. The topping lift was spliced by Kiwi Rigging and was a boat show buy, and like most boatshow bargains it ended up costing a little more in the long one, though Kiwi's splices do look good. This topping lift usually just holds the boom up when the sails aren't set, however I was after some strong rope for this one because it was have a number of rolls. First off it will be our spare main halyard, so if that should go we can still sail on. Second it will hold the boom up, but that not special, thirdly it will also be the rope that retrieves the Man Over Board. By re threading this rope, it's possible to use the rope on the windlass to recover someone from the water. Using the windlass makes it possible for light weight Kirsty to pull heavyweight me out of the water or up the mast with ease.
Finally when the guys from Endeavour were fitting the windlass, I noticed that some of the pulley blocks that the headsail furling rope runs through were worn. I thought I'd bought the block to fix this the other day, but once I'd fitted it, it wasn't a good lead from the furling drum to this pulley, more money was spent at You Boat Chandlery to sort out this problem, and buy some more spares and bolts for the fuel filter.
So that's a number of jobs to tick of the list, and looking at the list there really isn't that much left..Woo hooo!
First off the Guys from Endeavour Yachts services have done a great job fitting our Lewmar V2 windlass, two and a half days work for them, a whole lot longer for me, so thank you Gary, Simon, Carl and Paul for the work you have done on Pixie.
After Paul had finished glassing in the pipe, and flow coating it, I spent the rest of Friday wiring it in, I'd already fitted the cable, but they needed crimping and the circuit breaker and switch wiring in. It was with much relief that when I pressed the button it worked first time!
Saturday Kirsty helped put the finishing touches to the windlass, fitting the chain, connecting the anchor (after a trip to Arthur's Chandlery to get a connector that fitted the anchor) and adding patches around the foredeck to protect Pixie from the wear and tear of anchoring, that was all tested and it worked and the anchor still fits in the locker.
The rest of Saturday was spent cleaning under the cockpit and the engine bay. Last time I was on the boat I'd managed to fix some nuts under the cockpit so the storage tub under the cockpit was held in position by bolts rather than screws. Over time the screws had been undone and done up a number of times and most were loosing their grip, so rather than using bigger screws I took steps to correct this problem once and for all. A search of Marine Tech's shelves came up with nuts that were welded to a small stainless steel square, these were fibre glassed in place under the cockpit to line up with the existing screw holes and then bolts were added to secure them in position. It would have worked well, but two of the nuts had moved slightly while curing, so it took a few attempts to get it right, but it's sorted and I'm much happier about it.
While cleaning under the engine I took action about the primary fuel filter. it was tucked behind the engine so if it got water or dirt in it I'd have to remove the storage tub under the cockpit....while we were sailing, I didn't like this idea, so to solve this problem I've moved it. Sounds simple, but it wasn't. First off it was all quite corroded and took much cursing and swearing to get the bolt that should move, moving. Being someone to replace rather than spend hours trying to sort it out I headed off to Marine Tech for a new primary fuel filter, only £40 odd pounds, and it seemed like money well spent, until I discovered the fittings on the old pipes are different from the fittings on the new filter. Of course I discovered this just after 5:30 when everywhere was closed, so I set about trying to free the seized nuts. So covered in diesel and oil I finally got them all free and was able to swap the pipes to the other side of the filter and refit the old one, but the bolts I had were too short. Fitting the new one will be a job for next year!
This morning it was off with the old topping lift, and on with the new. The topping lift was spliced by Kiwi Rigging and was a boat show buy, and like most boatshow bargains it ended up costing a little more in the long one, though Kiwi's splices do look good. This topping lift usually just holds the boom up when the sails aren't set, however I was after some strong rope for this one because it was have a number of rolls. First off it will be our spare main halyard, so if that should go we can still sail on. Second it will hold the boom up, but that not special, thirdly it will also be the rope that retrieves the Man Over Board. By re threading this rope, it's possible to use the rope on the windlass to recover someone from the water. Using the windlass makes it possible for light weight Kirsty to pull heavyweight me out of the water or up the mast with ease.
Finally when the guys from Endeavour were fitting the windlass, I noticed that some of the pulley blocks that the headsail furling rope runs through were worn. I thought I'd bought the block to fix this the other day, but once I'd fitted it, it wasn't a good lead from the furling drum to this pulley, more money was spent at You Boat Chandlery to sort out this problem, and buy some more spares and bolts for the fuel filter.
So that's a number of jobs to tick of the list, and looking at the list there really isn't that much left..Woo hooo!
Monday 5 April 2010
March winds, April showers
Listening to the Shipping Forecast on Radio 4 yesterday both Graham and I were very glad we hadn't ventured out sailing this Easter weekend. Gale Force 8s were in abundance and although it wasn't quite that bad where we were it wouldn't have been pleasant. In any case we are still awaiting the new sails - just a couple more weeks to go hopefully. And maybe by that time the weather will have improved.
So instead, once again we spent the weekend working on Pixie (is this getting boring yet?). Graham fitted the new Garmin instrument and discovered some more dodgy wiring along the way. I washed Pixie from top to toe (twice because she was very dirty) and then polished her deck and cockpit. We cut our new "Dry-Mesh" to size (that is stuff that is supposed to stop condensation from building up under the mattress) and Graham spray-painted orange and yellow marks on the anchor chain so we can see how much we are letting out. Unfortunately most of it had rubbed off by the time it got in the locker.
We also started putting together more of a detailed passage plan so we can try to work out roughly when we might be able to rendezvous with friends and family. Watch this space...
So instead, once again we spent the weekend working on Pixie (is this getting boring yet?). Graham fitted the new Garmin instrument and discovered some more dodgy wiring along the way. I washed Pixie from top to toe (twice because she was very dirty) and then polished her deck and cockpit. We cut our new "Dry-Mesh" to size (that is stuff that is supposed to stop condensation from building up under the mattress) and Graham spray-painted orange and yellow marks on the anchor chain so we can see how much we are letting out. Unfortunately most of it had rubbed off by the time it got in the locker.
We also started putting together more of a detailed passage plan so we can try to work out roughly when we might be able to rendezvous with friends and family. Watch this space...
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