There really ought to be a law! And the law should read something like, "If you put something in, add a piece of equipment, put something together, or whatever, it has to come out as easily as it goes in!" You know the reason. You have a piece of equipment held in by 5 bolts, for are reachable and come out easily, but the fifth is all but inaccessible. It is blocked by something else that has to be removed first. Epoxy resin dripped on it and it is encased. The head of the bolt is rounded off and you can get purchase enough to move it, or the threads are stripped and the nut won't budge. Anyone who has ever worked on their own house, boat or car know exactly what I am talking about.
Today was "LPG Extension Day," or at least the start of the project. This entailed cutting the locker in half horizontally so that it could be dropped four inches (extended) to accept the new vertical tanks. When you think about it, how difficult could it be? When you really think about it, you know just how difficult it can be!
First of all, I had to remove the drain from the bottom of the tank otherwise it would hold it in place. It has to be repositioned along with the tank. ( Propane is heavier than air and tends to sink to the lowest point. The drain in the bottom of the locker drain the highly explosive gas overboard.) In that it was installed during the building process, it was made of the best material, copper piping fiber glassed into the bottom of the tank. I had to drill out the drain from deck level, cutting a circle around the flange of the pipe where it entered the tank.(I had originally tried to do it from underneath, but there just was room.) Not that bad of a project except for the fact that the I had to lay down on the deck and maneuver the drill accurately with both hands in a space slightly wider and deeper than a toilet tank.
Once the drain had been cut out, the locker itself had to be cut in half. This entailed drilling some pilot holes in the tank side so that I could get the saw in place. Once in place, the saw cut the fiberglass easily, at least what to could reach. The locker is located in a locker and there is little room to maneuver and I was able to cut about 40% with the saw. For the rest, it was back on deck cutting with a fiber blade on the dremmel tool. Not too, too bad except that I had to stop every few minutes to replace the blade which the fiberglass just ate up. Got 95% of the cut made when it stopped dead. It seems that during the laying up process, when the deck is built separate from the hull and then joined together, a 2x4 was glassed into the hull to use the LPG locker to help align the deck and the hull at mating. Someone also decided at that time that it would be a good idea to fiberglass the locker to the wood piece probably "for added support." And of course, the locker itself blocks access to this spot. It became a process of cut and probe, cut and probe until i was able to cut all around the spot and the locker broke free.
And the cut fiberglass dust got everywhere. Beginning at 11AM, work and clean-up was concluded at 5PM. But is is done. Now all that is necessary is to support he tank 4 inches below its former height, glass in the drain(new) and glass in the extension space. It should be done by the weekend. It will be the last major glass project that needs to be done. It is also one of four major projects that needed to be done. The wind generator is done. The watermaker gets done of the weekend. The wind vane gets attached next week and the LPG Locker will be done. It is definitely closer to the end and the beginning.
MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:
Even though there is still much work to be done, I am allowing myself to think in terms of it being done and what it means when it is done. Being done means going south. Being done means leaving. Being done means a whole new stage. Being done means a whole lot of work, different work, gets underway. As difficult and frustrating as the work I am doing now is, it is easy because it takes place on land. I have resources( people as well as part) readily available. And if anything goes spectacularly wrong, it is far, far easier to handle. Then again, I am already tiring of the view. The breezes have that cold tinge to them. Learning about me has gone about as far here as it can go without a serious nudge and that nudge is out there. It is exciting and scary both at the same time. I feel that I have everything I need and I still want to by a million or so spare parts, and more equipment and other " really necessary stuff." I both want and don't want the sailing part of the journey to start. It is an interesting balance but it is definitely starting to tip.
