Winter Be Here! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

     Winter is finally here. Less those of you who hold to winter only arriving on the 21st, let me remind you that there are several "first day of Winter." The one that corresponds to the 21st day of December is the Astronomical winter, when the day is the shortest of the year and the the 22nd begins a return to sunlight, or more of it shall we say.

     Then there is the first day of winter from a sailor's perspective. This day varies from sailor to sailor but suffice it to say that for each it takes place when your boat is lifted from the water for the winter. for me, winter actually began shortly after Columbus Day, Thursday or Friday of that week. I wasn't present, but I sort of felt it nonetheless.

     I would think that today qualifies as well for the first day of Winter as I am  sitting at a kitchen table in Griswold and it is snowing.  It is cold, below freezing obviously, and snowing. If we can trust NOAA, the "exact and precise" amount of snow that we should receive is 2 - 5 inches. then again, they did predict that Philly would get "only a dusting" and they got pretty close to a foot on Sunday. So who knows. In any event, there isn't anything I can do about it except enjoy it. Later on today, when there is sufficient accumulation on the ground, Ill take a walk while it is still snowing. There is nothing like it. There is a strange softening and muffling of sound during a snow fall and there is something about it that I find beautiful. I just wish that it would do me the favor of melting as soon as it has finished falling!

Winter Be Comin'

SHIP'S LOG:

     I haven't been up to ABSHAG in over a week but I know that she is doing just fine. Bill Turner went to check on his boat in the next yard and cruised on by Yankee to check on ABISHAG and the other TYC boats wintering there. We all got the reports from Bill on Saturday night when the club hosted a membership party celebrating Hanukkah, Advent, Christmas, Kwanza, the first snowfall and the fact that we haven't been together in awhile.

     I contacted Pat the Broker and told him to drop the price on ABISHAG from $49,900 to $44,900, with further instruction that if he got an interested but hesitant potential buyer, that he could drop it to $40,000. OUCH! well, one must do what one has to do.  Still, I do not expect her to sell. It will take someone who is of special interest  considering the age and style of ABISHAG, but I am sure that  there is someone out there somewhere and that they will in time show up cash in hand.

    

Well, That's All Done!

SHIP'S LOG:

     I spent a good part of yesterday covering ABISHAG.  Actually, just the hatches and the cockpit, but that's where she needed it. I want to cover the hatches because I also wanted them cracked a bit to allow air flow and so keep down the growth of mold.  Rather than cover the whole boat, which would mean fighting with a large tarp, a real "treat" even when there is no wind, I covered the hatches with small, individual tarps. Blue-poly tarps usually don't last much more than one season, but that will be fine if they stay together long enough to keep the snow and rain out while letting the air in.

     I covered the entire cockpit with a larger blue-poly tarp that i had laying around. It is on its last legs as it were but I wanted to use it to keep the snow/ice/rain from collecting in the cockpit like they did last year. I also left the Bimini and dodger in place under the tarp. I am hoping that this will help out. I also wanted to protect the Bimini as it developed a couple of tears in it and i don't have the Marine Unit to replace it. I tried patching it with shrink-wrap tape but it didn't hold all that well. I will attempt a spring repair with heavy duty sail repair tape which theoretically will hold better. I will wait and see.

     I took all of my tools out of the boat and now ABISHAG is basically empty and wrapped for her winter sleep. There will be no need to go to Portland again before March unless we get a very serious January thaw. Should that happen, it will allow me to take down the rest of the ceiling panels and do the measuring and cutting for the re-installation.  Aside from that possibility, I am on a three month hiatus!

Post Turkey Day

SHIP'S LOG:


     Well, Thanksgiving Day was special. Basically, it was just "old" folks around the table, sharing our aches and pains, proclaiming how good the food was (and it was!!!!!) and trying to not be overwhelmed by the "triptophane" (or however you spell it, you know, the chemical in turkey that makes you fall asleep) onslaught. Everyone had plenty of the first and it was sort of a "can-you-top-this" contest. Everyone proclaimed the greatness of the feast by consuming "mass quantities," or at least more that we were planning to when we got to the table.  And while only my sister fell asleep, the rest of us did get pretty dozy.

     My "Black Friday" Shopping spree was limited to a quick trip to Harbor Freight where I purchased three smallish blue-poly traps and some clothesline for covering the hatches on ABISHAG. I want to make an attempt to keep her as dry as possible inside to prevent the growth of any more mold.  I found several products online that will do the job and all sorts of suggestions and processes to eliminate it in a "natural" way. Everything from bleach and ammonia(just DON'T Mix 'em) to borax and white distilled vinegar. It will have to wait in any case until March at the earliest unless spring comes very early. I am just getting a head start.

     I'll be heading up early in the week to do my "Christmas Wrapping" as it is too cold today and tomorrow calls for rain. Not that I really trust NOAA, but tying lines and wrestling with tarps is something best do in above freezing temperatures and dry.

Well, That's Done!

SHIP'S LOG:

     I am still amazed about how much gear, alright "crap," I have taken out of ABISHAG during the stripping out process.  I "knew" that I had it all, it is just that I didn't quite remember I had it all. Truth be told, there were few items that were not "necessary."  There was the Domino set -  never got to play anyone; there were the novels - read'em all and even traded most for "new" ones; there were hammocks and netting and redundant items of all sorts. And now they are all gone, well, at least out of the boat. It is so empty inside that you can almost hear your thoughts bouncing around and off the bulkheads. The only items that remain are the boat's electrical cords, the rudder and vane for the wind steering system, lubricants and oils, fenders and lines, the life raft and the PFDs. Sometime in the next week to 10 days, I will get up there to tied some tarps over the hatches and cockpit to keep the snow out and the long winter sleep will begin. well, at least for ABISHAG.

     There wasn't a great deal or attentive organization applied when I was emptying the boat. Basically, aside from a couple of lift out locker linings, everything went into heavy duty plastic trash bags. The days ahead -  post New Years - will be filled with getting everything out and organized. Stuff that is basically used-up, no longer functioning, passed its  expiration date and/or whose identity and purpose is just unknown will need to be tossed out. Redundant tools and spares will need to separated from those going back aboard. I won't toss them out, but merely set them aside and store them in case they should be needed. I have found that most tools don't float and spares are needed for things that wear out, but it is no longer necessary to be always prepared for every possible contingency all the time. Those items going back aboard need to be identified, cleaned and lubed and whatever to maintain them, put in proper containers which identify what they are and set aside. The rest needs only to be identified, maintained and stored.

     What may take a little time will be tool maintenance. Every socket, every pair of pliers, every wrench, every metal tool need to be cleaned and hit with a rust inhibitor. The salt air on a boat does a real nasty job on metal tools, indeed on everything metal. The salt retains moisture and it only goes away when you clean it and inhibit it. And salt air gets in everywhere. All the electronics are affected as well. cleaning and maintaining is rather limited as most are sealed but the connectors for power and antennas do have to be taken care of properly. (That also goes for those affixed to the boat as well.) So it appears that I will wile away the winter days in Russ' basement doing all that needs doing.

     Sometime before the coming of the spring weather, perhaps before I "tarp-up" the boat, I will removed all of the overhead panels. I've taken down those over the aft cabin and the aft head, as well as those in the lockers over the galley and the port settee.That still leaves most in place. I want to be careful with this next step for three reasons: 1.) I need to carefully mark the panels and where they go and how they fit before I take them down. This will set up where the extra stringers go in and how and where they get affixed. No need to make extra work for myself. 2.) I will have to measure and cut the panels while they are in-place. I didn't do that with the panels in the aft cabin and I can see that that was a mistake, but one that is correctable. Doing the cutting "in situ" allows me to be able to work alone which is often the case anyhow.  And 3.) I am pretty well certain that there will be black mold behind some of the panels and that is nasty stuff. When the panels come down, I want to be armed with serious respiratory protection and nuclear black mold killer. Anticipating this "certainty" was another reason to empty the whole boat.  Basically, I want to be able to "sterilize" the inside. It is also a reason for making the ceiling panels easily removable. I will paint the underside of the deck with white marine enamel which will show up the mold should it reoccur.

     So far as gaining access to the fasteners for the deck hardware, as far as I can tell, the only ones that I will have to cut access holes for are main back stays chain-plates and the fasteners for the stern pulpits. It is a lot less cutting than I imagined there would be and for that I am thankful. Speaking of "thankful," I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.

It Is Getting A Little Naked In There!

SHIP'S LOG:

     The interior of ABISHAG is getting naked. Now, all of the cushions are gone to their winter residence, though not without a little struggle.  While most were easily removed from the inside, the two cushions from the berth in the aft cabin were a real pain to get out.  They were "just a bit" larger that the cockpit hatch way and, being made of closed - cell foam, didn't bend much. As a result, I had to used docklines to "cinch" then and constrict their size so that thy would fit through the opening. It took a lot of cinching and a fair amount of cussing to complete the job, but once done, they dropped easily over the side. Along with the the other interior cushions and all of the cockpit cushions, ABISHAG is a lot less "Soft" than she was. All that remains inside are a dozen or so bags that contain the items stored in the various lockers and drawers. They will get transported sometime this week and then all that will remain aboard are the backup anchor, the wing and rudder from the wind vane steering system, the storm sail and spinnaker (which will also be going), the lubricants and oils for the engine, and a bottle of bleach, one of white vinegar and one of distilled water. These last three will also make the trip north to storage and then the stripping will be complete.

     I took down the ceiling panels in the aft cabin and the aft head. For the life of me, I still can't figure out where the leak or leaks back there are. They are not obvious so it will require the "Sherlock Holmes" approach to discovery - " When you eliminate all possible causes, the one that remains, however improbable, is the answer." I also removed the ceiling panels from the lockers in the galley and those from the lockers in the salon. Those provided access tot eh machine screws that hold a couple of the deck stanchions in place. It is clear that the stanchions at the starboard side gate are loose and need re-bedding. That they are also leaking is clear beyond doubt. I will make an effort to pop&re-bed all of them, and hopefully will be able to do the same for all the deck hardware, even those that are not leaking. They have all been in place for 35 years now and that is long passed any reasonable expectations for the caulking that was used in putting them in place originally. In one sense, it will be a relatively easy fix. The truly hard part is to figure out how to hold the nut in place while screwing bolt down. One is inside and one is outside and no one has arms long enough to hold and screw at the same time! But I'll come up with something or someone when the time comes.

     I am amazed at the amount of "stuff" that got "stuffed" into ABISHAG. For some reason, maybe carefully storage, it didn't seem like all that much, but then again, I only used a small portion of these items at any one time. The things that I used a lot where always at the top of the locker or in the front of the shelf or drawer, and I just didn't pay all that much attention to things that were not being regularly used. I've got a DYMO Label  Maker which I used during a two day attempt to identify and mark all the wires and hoses leading every which way throughout the boat. But basically, it has sat unused in a locker for about five years. I've got a couple of spare PFDs and tethers, and occasionally when I am making a passage with "crew," they come in handy, but for the most part I sail alone and they remain carefully store and ready but unused. There is lots of stuff like that, not to mention spares and the items needed for projects planned but undone. All these items were necessary at one time, if only to provide a sense of security away from home, but now will be the time to culled them and store them. the problem is that like most sailors, I hate to get caught "short" in a moment of need. If you gathered 5 - to -10 sailboats together, you could easily build and outfit another from all the spares and maintenance items aboard. AH, the fun of boat ownership!

"BIG SIGH!"

SHIP'S LOG:

     I am looking out the window and IT IS SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW BAD IS THAT!??!?!? Granted t is not a raging blizzard, but it is snow. I AM SOOO Depressed!

     Did another trip to ABISHAG yesterday to continue the stripping out. Out went everything in the aft cabin and with all that free room, I couldn't help but do a little "destructive" maintenance. I took down the headliner and exposed the underside of the deck. There have been some leaks back there and I am not sure whether they are from the hatches ( there are two of them back there) or from some other source. From a first cursory glance, there isn't any obvious leak-source that I can see though it is clear that there has been some leaking going on. The mold and mildew on both the headliner and the underside of the deck make that clear. It will take a serious washing down to get it all out. The raw fiberglass of the deck and topside is thick but rather rough and uneven. I have a couple of months to decide whether to paint it or level it, fair it and then paint it.

     I though I was a lousy "marine electrician," but which ever former owner who installed the goose-neck lights in the aft cabin was far worse than I. The wires had no support of any kind, just laying on the panels. Half of the connections were simply wires tied together, wrapped in yards of electrical tape. It is a wonder that the boat didn't catch fire when the lights were energized.

     I will have to add some fairing strips in the aft cabin. The panels were "formerly" held in place by being screwed along their edges into the ferrying strips. This will not provide enough support when I use Velcro to replace the screws, that and the fact that the panels will be smaller as well. One other disappointing discovery is that there is no direct access to the fasteners for that stanchion bases. The hard fiberglass liner that exists will require holes be cut into it to developed that access. There is the old boating proverb that basically says that doing one project reveals four more that also need doing. In this case, not only will I have to cut into the fiberglass liner to create an access hole, I will also have to eventually come up with a way of camouflaging it less the interior look as though insane, fiberglass-eating moles, have been at work. Once the interior is stripped out, this is some work that I can begin. I won't be able to pop the nuts and re-bed the stanchions until spring, but creating access will make that job a lot easier. I was thinking that perhaps a thin wooden panel, with a Delf tile depicting a sailing scene,  could eventually be used to cover the access hole. Now I only have to find the tiles and the cut the wood and figure out how to affix the tile to the wood and the wood to the liner.  That's FOUR!

     I am hoping that sometime this week, I can prevail upon Russ to help me haul up the last of the stuff in the boat. My new/old car actually has less room that my old P.O.S. Not that it matters that much as I would not have been able to haul the cushions and remaining sail in it anyhow. Once that is done, all of the headliner panels can come down and if it is above freezing, I will hit the interior overhead with mold/mildew killer.  And then the last thing will be to wrap ABISHAG up. I HATE WINTER .. . . . . . . . AND IT IS STILL SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!