The Never-Ending Search

SHIP'S LOG:

Tuesday's search for wires ended up with me dismantling the cabin ceiling in search of wires and, since it was raining, leaks. I have had two leaks that have driven me crazy since I have had ABISHAG for though I have often been able to staunch them  they would always begin again. These two are far end of the main cabin hatch and the one that shows through the seams of the rear ceiling panels in the salon. Find the first shouldn't be that hard as it has to beat the main hatch somewhere, though just where is what is the mystery. Fred was around ( he is getting no work done on his boat working one mine) and joined in the hunt ( after he knocked out 3 of the four thru-hulls). It required taking down two very large and unwieldy ceiling panels  where we eventually discovered that the leaks were come through the joints of pipe drains.  ABISHAG has two drains behind the cockpit dashboard and two at the front end of the cockpit seating. Over the years, the piping has rusted a bit and this loosened the painted fiberglass holding the two ends, allowing rain, waves and other forms of wetness to seep between the fiberglass and the pipe and drip on the ceiling and eventually through the ceiling into the cabin.  It would be a simple fix in that re-sealing the pipes/ fiberglass joint with epoxy is a five minute task ( especially if you are using Five Minute epoxy), but nothing is as simple as it seems. Taking down the ceiling revealed black mold , not a lot but enough, which had to be dealt with before the repairs could be made.

O by the way, taking down the ceiling also means taking down whatever is attached to the ceiling, such things a lighting fixtures, which would eventually have to be re-attached . . . in working order. I also discovered that there was a leak around the wood trim of the cockpit cabin hatch. On further inspection the wood backing it was found to have the consistency of wet cardboard. It wasn't a case of it having to go but rather a case of it already being gone. It had been glued in place and the wood trim glue to it when set in place but with the terrible condition of the wood, the trim separated easily was was salvageable. Rather than gluing, I screwed it in place and re-caulked it. It looks just fine.

With the ceiling down, it was a chance to see where the wires I was tracing went ( off into another space of course) and to fix any bad connections that existed( of which there were several). Someone had a love affair with connecting two wires by the expedient of stripping a little insulation, wrapping the wire to be connected around the bare spot and then sealing it with friction tape, the per-cursor to electrical tape. It is not a good or safe way to make an electrical connection and they all had to be disassembled, cleaned and connected with connectors. More Fun!

Wednesday saw the attack on the black mold. My friend, Skip, a home contractor by trade, had this chemical that could be sprayed on the mold to make it go away. Mixed with bleach and water, and sprayed on with a garden sprayer, it really did the job. Of course it was not quite that simple. First you had to mix the ingredients. Next you had to cover all of the areas of the boat around the sight where the stuff would be sprayed as it would do a job on more than just mold. The I had to spray the stuff, wearing my rain gear,  goggles, and safety mask. One application did the job but then I had to wash down the surfaces sprayed to get rid of the chemical. Then I had to dry the cabin and remove all of the surface covering and trash them.

The mold was gone and next on the list was the leaky drain pipes. I first had to scrape off all the loose rust, scale and paint.  Next I had to clean the pipe with bronze wool so that it was shiny. Having down that, I had to rough it and the fiberglass up with an abrasive so that the epoxy with adhere well to both.  Having down that, I had to mix up a batch of five-minute epoxy for each joint and spread it on the joints in question.  The stink of the epoxy and the stink of the mold killer and bleach was enough to gag a maggot. You should also realize that getting to the joints required, as most projects on boat do, physical contortions that would earn me a 10 in any gymnastic competition.  And in that I had 5 minutes at most to epoxy each joint, I consider it a major accomplishment that I didn't permanently affix myself to the interior of the boat! But, case closed! In addition, I re-opened that block drains that some had plugged in the cockpit. I flushed water through them and discovered that  if the "blocker" had done so to stop a leak, he actually plugged the wrong pipe. Those drains were no the source of the cabin leaks. In point of fact, the drains down work too terribly well to begin with, but at least now they have a chance to "sort of do their intended job."

There was one thru-hull that I was unable to remove. There was no way to get a screw driver into the area above the screws holding the gland in place. It was probably the reason why this particular thru-hull hadn't been serviced in years. In my case, I didn't even know it was there. I found it mere by extrapolation -  hole in the hull equals thru-hull inside the boat. I have 10 holes and knew the whereabouts of only 9 thru-hulls which set of a search.   But how to extract it.  I was simply not able to get a screw drive where I needed it to go.  So in desperation, having hit the thru - hull with almost a whole can of PB Blaster to eliminate the corrosion, I used a trick I picked up on the ICW. I griped a quarter in a pair of vice grips and was able to get it into the slot in the screw head. After the PB Blaster had done its thing, and getting myself into another "10" position, I was able to slow, and with great care, remove the machine screws and the gland and the plug of the thru-hull! Success, and with no banging! Of course, after cleaning and lubing, it was a bit of a chore to get it all back in place but I did and it works, so what more could I want.

I siliconed the gasket on one on the ports where I had discovered another leak and I hope that it does the job as I don't have the time or the money nor the energy to pop out the ports and re-bed them all. I also cleaned a grove on the main cabin hatch and laid in a bead of silicone. I am hoping that this will handle the leak without popping that hatch. Popping a main hatch of that size is a long and labor intensive process and now is not the time. Perhaps during the summer when I have a day or so, but not now. Hopefully the silicone will do the job for now.