HAPPY NEW YEAR . . FOUR DYS LATE!

     Well it is a new year at last. Have you noticed that the days are getting longer. Funny thing though, it seems that though the sun is going down later, it really doesn't seem to be rising any earlier yet.
  
     The engine will be winterized this Sunday so the final wrap will take place on Monday . .  . so long as there is not much in thew way of a breeze. It probably means that there will be a gale. It is just the way things seem to go.

     ABISHAG was haul and set in the yard about as tight to the boats on either side as I have ever experienced. I doubt that there is a foot separation from the boats on either side. It shouldn't make any real difference doing the bottom or anything on deck, but any work on the topside will be a little on the difficult side. Of course, this was going to be the spring that it was finally going to fill-in, paint and buff-out all of the scratches and dings. Right now it looks like a non-starter but perhaps the other boats will leave early and I'll be able to get to it. It will make sanding an interesting experience as where the wind blows the results is hard to say and I am rather certain that at least "a little"will travel to the other boats. Hope they are not planning to varnish or paint come the spring.

     Eric the Shaman did make one task easier. According to his professional expertise the batteries can stay on the boat so long as they get charged. With the wind generator that should not be a problem and it will save the effort that would have been necessary getting them out of ABISHAG and hauled off to a winter location and then bringing them back in the spring to install them once again. Huzzah!
 

Well, Ths Has Been Fun!

     Since Thanksgiving, I have been suffering from the "plague." Someone(s) at Thanksgiving Dinner shared it with everyone and it really hung on with me. It put me to bed twice over 10 days, first for 7 days and then for 3.  It is almost all gone now though the cough is struggling to take up a permanent residency.

     As a result, all of my best intentions to get  ABISHAG ready for the winter have pretty much been delayed. I actually got to the yard yesterday and packed and removed all my tools and all the electronics from the boat. I had hoped to wrap the boat as well, but unfortunately the winds were blowing at a steady 20 or so which would have made wrestling with the tarps an exercise in futility, especially doing it by myself. I was limited to putting up the rope frame. This is a web of clotheslines from the rails to the masts. These would offer some support to the tarps, allowing the snow and rain and sleet and other forms of precipitation to run off. It keeps the water in its various forms from collecting on the deck and other spots and then freezing and doing damage. It also keeps the water out of the boat where it would freeze and do damage inside. I also filled the bilge and the holding tank with antifreeze for no matter what I do water will get in somehow somewhere.

        Now granted it was blowing 20+ mph and ABISHAG was swaying a bit in the gusts, but I found that moving around the deck a little perilous. It happens every year when the boat is on the hard and I am moving about working on it. Strangely, I never have this problem when she is afloat. I guess sea-legs don't translate well to being aboard on the hard.

AFLOAT

      Yes, we are still afloat! It seems as though ABISHAG is really right out side the door of his office, Eric the Mechanical Shaman has not quite got around to giving her engine his full attention yet.

     Nor have I for that matter. I  really haven't been able too. I got an early Christmas gift from one those pint-size germ factories . .  . my grandnieces & nephew during our Thanksgiving family gathering. I get the impression that they were equally generous with others at the gathering as well.  It laid me abed for a good 10 days. It had all the biggies: sore throat, fever, congestion, muscle ache and my get up and go really got up and went. In addition, the weather was either rainy and cold or rainy and freezing or rainy and warm but turning cold, not the type of weather for working outdoors even when healthy.

    I have pretty much shaken it off now and I hope that tomorrow, after a trip to the dentist, that Friend Fred and I will actually be able to make at least a start of stripping her out for the winter. It should have been done a month or moer ago but you know that tune. AH! THE JOYS OF BOAT OWNERSHIP!!!!!!!

 

UPDATE!

     It has gotten colder, freezing actually, and ABISHAG is still water bound. Not only are there a dozen boats ahead of her to get hauled, Eric the Shaman Mechanic still has t work on her engine which really has to be done in the water.

     I will be heading over tomorrow(Monday)to get started on emptying everything out that needs to got into storage. I am always amazed  at how much stuff get aboard despite my best efforts to keep stuff out, I know, for instance, that there are two boxes of wine aboard that Fred and I never even got to tap on the "cruise" to Newport. There are also the sails that have to be rolled and folded and stored. Unfortunately, in the rush before th Nor'Ester we had, they just got stuck down below with no rhyme or reason. And as it is supposed to rain again tomorrow, trying to get them rolled up and stuffed in their bags should be a hoot! I am sure that I will discover things I didn't even know were aboard and will wonder how they got there in the first place. 

AH! THE JOY OF BOAT OWNERSHIP!

At Last!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

       Just this morning, ABISHAG got towed over to Ferry Slip Marina to be hauled out.  Yes, just today. Three days before Thanksgiving. After a snow storm last week.

     We overcame a sink hole in the Marina lot right where the travel lift had to go.  We overcame a blown clutch on the travel lift transmission. We overcame some seriously lousey weather including a Nor'Easter, a snow storm with 5 inches of  heavy wet snow, winds of 40 mph and just regular rain. All of these delightful scenarios combined to put Eric the Shaman well behind, so far that he still has 30 boats to be hauled after hauling ABISHAG this morning.  But she is ready to be lifted out of the water and snugged down for the winter. That snugging comes next and begins tomorrow. Maybe. It is suppose to rain  like hell. AH, THE JOY OF BOAT OWNERSHIP!

Well, It's Winter . . . .Sort of!

     I always considered that winter arrived once I hauled my boat from the water.  ABISHAG was supposed to be hauled on Friday last but she still is afloat. The reason for this is that BOAT/US who was supposed to do less-than-a-mile less haul to Ferry Slip from TYC, got kind of busy. 

     I was working my last Launch Driving shift on Friday and a whole host of boat owners at the club decided that it was the perfect day to get their own crafts haul-out. True they were probably inspired by the weather news which forecast the first Nor'Easter of the season on Saturday. It seemed a good idea. Unfortunately, a number of boats had mechanical problems and would not start. True most of them had been sitting unused for weeks and just wouldn't fire. And like most wise boats, they had bought "TowBoat US" towing insurance and made the call for a tow. That kind of used up the time BOAT/US had for doing the towing, so ABISHAG sat there through Friday, through the Nor'Easter on Saturday, on Sunday through the remains of the storm and on Monday for some reason. I am hoping that today will see her towed and hauled.  Waiting is a pain!

What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been

     Well, I wish the story was better, but such it has not been the case. I ran into a mechanical truism that I should have been better aware of but wasn't. It seems that something mechanical that is old dislikes to be fooled with, even when it needs "fooling."

     Having removed the contaminated fuel and replacing it with 10 gallons of clean fuel, I reinstalled the access plate and gave Eric the Shaman a call. It took a week for him to get the time freed up to come over and work his magic. Try as he might, the engine would not start. There is another old Maine piece of work wisdom, one that follows "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," and that is "When tracing a problem, start at the beginning."

     The beginning was the "dip tube," a tube inserted into the fuel tank that goes all the way to the bottom and draws out the fuel. It will so long as there is a vacuum. But there was no vacuum as Eric discovered as he attached his portable pump to the top of the dip tube and tried to draw out the fuel. No joy there. Obviously there was a problem with the dip tube. But there was also a problem with the access plate which held the dip tube. It was made of 1/8 aluminum, was 40years old, and was corroded around all the screws holding it in place and around all the places the various hose and their fitting went through it. It was particularly corroded around the dip tube (naturally) and Eric was concerned about being able to get it out without ruining the opening for the dip tube rendering the access plate probably worthless. But he is not a Shaman for nothing. With skill and a deft touch and alot of cursing, he got it out without further damage. The dip tube was about 2 feet long, made of very thin bronzed and so corroded that it was surprising that it didn't fall apart  when it was held horizontal after having been vertical for 40 years.

     There was at least one hole or crack or crease that was letting air in and killing the vacuum.  It was somewhere above the 10 gallon mark and below the 30 gallon mark (I never let the fuel get lower than that) and it wasn't something that could be repaired. So Eric the Shaman bult a new one, using the same fittings because they were metric (of course). After he had built the new stainless steel dip tube and attached it to the line that led to the filters, of course it didn't work. Again, no vacuum. what happen was that either when we disconnected the line when Fred and I took out the access panel,or when Eric did so, one of the fitting cracked. It is 40 years after all and because it is metric, Eric had the impossible task of finding a new one. He was unable to do and so replace the entire line with a rubber hose and easily available fittings. After he did so, he was bale to draw fuel through the entire system all the way to the fuel injector pump. We got the engine started, sort of, but could not get it to run more than a few seconds. Eric deduced that the fuel injector pump was the problem. Perhaps, because of the water in the fuel, parts within it had developed a bit of rust. Perhaps, because of the dirt and grit in the fuel from the bottom of the tank, part of the pump were block. Whatever it was, it wasn't delivering the fuel correctly to the injectors and so the engine would not run. 

     The next step, yet to be taken, is to pump fuel, loaded with every lubricant known to man, through the injector pump
to loosen and remove any rust and/or dirt. If that doesn't do it, the pump will have to be rebuilt.

     As of today (10/18), Eric a]has not been able to get out to the boat to try it out. If he is not able to to do so today or tomorrow, it means I will not be going up to Midway in Haddam. I will have to winter at Ferry Slip Marina in New London which is Eric's base of operation. Normally, that would mean paying $45 a foot as opposed to $34 at Midway. However, I worked a deal with Eric who said that he would see to it that I would pay only $35/ft. So now it is the waiting game again.

AH! THE JOY OF BOAT OWNERSHIP!!!!!!!