Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Busy! Busy! Busy! Busy! Bust!

SHIP'S LOG:

The weather that I have been following or that has been following me finally showed up today. It got into the 80's down at TYC and the humidity was up there as well. As a result, I naturally decided to get started on a hundred projects. Didn't finish a hundred, don't even think I actually started a hundred, but it was a busy day none the less.

I was able to trim the patch made for the leak on the dinghy and blow it up and all seems to be holding. Of course, if things go as they have in the past, I have merely slowed the leak down. We'll see. I rigged a bumper on the front of the dinghy so that the tow rope and davit connection won't rub on the patch. Perhaps that will keep this effort intact.

I dismantled the rear most hatch which never really locked securely. IT has 6 latches but they were never properly adjusted to close tight. The intervening years have corroded the set screws so I had to remove the hatch so that I could properly soak the screws with PB Blaster. I eventually got 4 out of the 6 to work and was able to adjust them so that the hatch closes tight. To get the hatch off, I had to dismantle the arms that hold it open. Unfortunately these were held in place with ss screws set into the aluminium frame. Stainless steel and aluminium don't do well together in a salt environment. All the PB Blaster in the world was no help. In fact, the screws snapped off so I had to drill new holes for new screws in the frame. It was a rather involved process but it got done.

The last project was to call my orthopedist, my internist and my dentist to make appointments

OK, OK, 4 isn't 100 but so what. Tomorrow is another day. . . one with a dentist appointment on it!