Work! Work! Work!

SHIP'S LOG:

73! You've got to be kidding! But I'll take it! Makes it a "little warm" working inside the ABISHAG but then I wasn't prepared for doing anything on the outside.

Truth be told, I spend a good part of the day just cleaning. I still can't answer that question of where the "dust rhinoceros" come from. Then and the just plain dirt gets aboard somehow and I just wish I could figure out how and "fill the breech" as it were.

I filled the shop-vac just sucking up stuff from the now empty stern lockers. I don't think this part of the boat has seen daylight since she slipped down the ways. This cleaning did reveal why the SSB reception signal has been so bad. The counterpoise is shot. The counterpoise is a 3'' x 50' strip of copper that the radio and antenna tuner some how use to bounce the radio signal of the SSB. Short-waveRadio waves and their control are right up there with the voodoo of electricity and are high up on my list of things that I have little or know understanding of and which I fear will bite my on the but some day. The counterpoise evidently has to be "draped around the ship" for it to do its thing. The one on ABISHAG snakes its way from the antenna tuner in the stern up the starboard side of the engine compartment, across to the port side and up under the port settee. I have not quite followed it to the end yet. I can say that it is not neatly done but then trying to lay out 50 feet of 3 inch wide copper ribbon in such a way that it lays flat and stays completely out of the way is a task that whoever installed he SSB radio didn't bother with. Or perhaps, they just got frustrated with the process and in the end just stuffed it wherever it fit . . . sort of. Well in any event, the counterpoise has " corroded through in a couple of places so it is basically worthless for its intended use and will have to be replaced. So I will get the job of carefully laying and snaking the new counterpoise ribbon in the "proper" way . . . that is after I get the old one out. Did I mention that it has edges like razor blades? No, well it has edges like razor blades and I've got the cuts already to prove it.

After the stern cabin was cleaned, all of the stuff that had been taken out had to be replaced. It is not as easy as it sounds for all the components that were removed had to be taken out first and some place for that found where they could sit out of the way. The hatches to the lockers had to be set back in place slightly askewed so that they would admit the air flow. Then the "Hypo-vent Condensation Preventers" laid down. They lay between the deck and the mattress cushions to allow air to flow underneath and so prevent condensation. It is sort of a cross between a pot scrubber on steroids and a heavy - duty brush for the floor. It can be nasty stuff and seems to find any unguarded pore in which to insert a stray end. Once they are in place, then the two "mattresses"which are anything but a standard shape and which, while only 2 inches thick, have all the bend of plate steel, had to be "coaxed" from the salon , down the galley corridor, through the aft head, make two 90 degree turns and then get turned flat and set in place in a cabin with less vertical clearance that the width of either mattress. This should have been one of those labors Hercules got stuck with!

Basically, the stern half of the stern half of the boat is set and cleaned. At least it has had its initial cleaning, removing whatever need to be removed and 99% of the dust and dirt and detritus. Once the rest of the boat has undergone a similar cleaning, and the boat yard turns on the water, the insides will be washed down.

So I have begun to make a start. I'll just have to keep at it though the 73 degrees make it tough. It is hard to sit in the cockpit and do much more than think about sailing. Then again, if I don't do the work, I won't be doing much of that.