Maintenance Log 04/2009 - 06/2009

June 30, Tuesday.

June 29, Monday.

Day started off by continuing with the email catchup, and computer related projects. Had a Doctors appointment for our welcome to Medicare physicals. On our way to the doctor's office I stopped by the shop and got the Mercury outboard. We stopped by an outboard shop to have them work on the Mercury, but their outboard mechanic had just quit that morning, so they were not accepting any new work. The doctor's visit  took most of the morning.

After we had lunch, we picked up the Yamaha outboard from the shop and took both motors to an outboard shop that works on both Mercury and Yamaha outboards. He said he would be able to fix them both, but the Mercury would take more time, as it is difficult to get parts for. I told the mechanic to order two extra water pump impellers and two extra gaskets for the water pump housing. I also ordered two water pump impellers for the Yamaha. I am sure it will not be cheap, but we need the motors, and it will be good to have the spares on hand.

I went back to the shop and worked on the parts I need to weld for the dinghy davits.

I also fabricated a dinghy outboard motor mount for the aft rail. Since I am installing new dinghy davits, I had to change the mount for the two outboards. I used some parts from the old mounts, and was able to cut some pieces from some PVC sheet I have on hand. I got the mount all fabricated. Tomorrow I will take the mount to the boat and fit it on the aft stanchion base.

June 28, Sunday.

Do real work projects on Dream Away today. Worked all day on computer related issues. Was also working on the next Dream Away update with all of the pictures of the party last week.

Late in the afternoon, went down to Buffalo Bayou field office and drove the pontoon boat for a special trip. Returned home around 2300.

June 27, Saturday.

Went over to the shop and started working on dinghy davit parts. I have figured out it is much easier to get the parts cleaned up and shined before welding, than to wait until all of the parts are welded. The downside of cleaning up the parts before welding is I really do not have a lot of time remaining before our departure around August first.

Asked friend Alan to come over to the shop and help with the outboard motors. I wanted to check and change the water pump impellers on both the Yamaha and the Mercury, and Alan has much more experience with outboards than I do.

We started with the Mercury, and got it apart with no broken bolts. Spraying all of the parts for the last couple of days with PB Blaster really helped. There has been an oil leak on the Mercury for some time, and we are sure I have found the problem, bad gaskets. The water pump impeller was in pretty good shape, but I will put a new one in so we are starting out with all new parts. When we drained all of the oil out of the lower unit, there was evidence of water in the oil, so putting in all new gaskets should fix that problem. I did not have all of the parts for the Mercury, so I will have get them ordered on Monday. BTW, the outboard stand I had built was great, and made working on the outboards so much easier.

June 26, Friday.

Not a big work day on Dream Away. We took our last party guest, Diana, to the airport. On the way back from the airport, I stopped at AllStart and dropped off the refrigeration DC motor get fixed. When we returned, I started work on catching up on emails and getting our address changed with all of our creditors, magazines, and such.

June 25, Thursday.

June 24, Wednesday.

Started off the day by getting all things prepared to finish the aft stanchion, cap rail project. I had two items to do to complete the project. I had to drill holes in the very bottom of the fiberglass stanchion bases to allow water to drain out. I knew there was no easy way to keep water from going down the stanchions into the holes drilled out for the stanchions in the fiberglass stanchion bases. This is not a big issue, if the water is fresh water, but under way out at sea, the stanchion bases will be filling with salt water. The second item was to drill a hole through the fiberglass stanchion bases, and the stanchions. After the hole was drilled, I put a bolt through the fiberglass stanchion, and the stanchion, with a finishing nut on the end of the bolt. These bolts will keep the stanchions from pulling out of the fiberglass stanchion bases.

The project was not with out its problems. The flat head machine bolts I had were to long, so I had to go over to the shop and cut the bolts off to the proper length. Now I can say the aft cap rail/stanchion base project is finished. I still have to install a gate in the stern, but that will come along in the next few days.

June 23, Tuesday.

Today was the day we had to take good friend Steve to the airport. We got him to the air port on time, but Steve was delayed because of airplane issues. Steve did arrive back into Boston, before the day was out so that was good.

June 22, Monday.

Another day of no real work on Dream Away, except for preventive maintenance. Today, Kathy, Judy, Terri and Lynn left. Had to get that trip organized. Finally got everyone to the Suburban, and Kitty took off with all of the girls.

Steve started working on taking down all of the ships flags, plus the code flags. I turned to on the raw water system. I removed the main raw water input strainer and the manifold. I took them both out onto the dock, and cleaned them out. Again, there were lots of jellies in the main raw water strainer basket. I brought them back and installed them into the boat. I then connected the fresh water hose from the dock to each of the hoses for the aft air conditioner, forward air conditioner, ice maker and refrigerator one at a time. After cleaning each in-line strainer, I would then turn on the fresh water hose and blow out each line. When I finished all of this, I connected everything back up, and we are now able to run the air conditioner, refrigeration. I decided to not run the ice maker as we did not need ice. The ice maker, refrigeration, and the air conditioner had been running solid since the 18th of June, so I gave the ice maker a rest.

June 21, Sunday.

No work performed on Dream Away. Today was Kitty's birthday, so we spent time opening cards. Hung out with friends and relatives who had come into town for the party. Spent a lot of the morning cleaning up after the party, which was really not so bad. The remainder of the day was spent relaxing.

The air conditioner had quit working, so cleaned out the main input strainer basket, and A/C basket. There were lots of jellies in the main input strainer. I knew I would be do a through cleaning of the raw water system tomorrow.

June 20, Saturday.

Today was my birthday. No real work was performed on Dream Away, but there was lots going on to get ready for our big blowout birthday party, Jim and Kitty celebrating our 65th, also celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary, and last but not least was a full blown christening ceremony to officially change the name of our boat from Phoenix to Dream Away.

June 19, Friday.

No work was performed on Dream Away. We did do more Party preparations, and took Dream Away out for a sail. It was wonderful to get out sailing after two years of Dream Away not being out for a sail. We had no problems, and all went very well.

June 18, Thursday.

Steve and I turned around Dream Away. She had been in the slip with the stern too so I could fit the dingy davits to the stern as I worked on them, and also to remove the old teak cap rail, and install the new cap rail and new stanchion bases. Dream Away also had to be bow in for the christening rehearsal tonight.

Steve and I also bent on the mizzen sail.

The remainder of the day was spent with Party preparations, and the christening rehearsal.

June 17, Wednesday.

Went to the shop first thing and picked up all of the sails. Came back to Dream Away and bent on the main sail and the roller furling Genoa. I also loaded the cruising spinnaker and the stay sail on the boat, and put them in the store room.

Steve and I then installed the Genoa track on the starboard side aft cap rail. We drilled and tapped the new installed cap rail between two of the new stanchion bases. This went off with out too much problem.

I was able to repair the faucet  in the head. I had repaired the faucet in the head last week, but it was still leaking, and getting worse. I looked closer at the valves I had purchased from Scandvik, and discovered I had two different types of valves. I then discovered I was sent one of the correct valves, and three of the incorrect valves. The good news was I had saved the old valves to recycle the brass. I went over to the shop and got the best valve of the two I took out last week and brought it back to Dream Away. I installed the new correct valve and the old valve, and the leak problem was fixed. I then called Scandvik and told them about my problem. The person to whom I spoke, went right out to the warehouse to check on the issue. Sure enough, the bin that was supposed to have just my valves in it, had two different types of valves in it. I must admit, the folks at Scandvik were very good. They packed up the three correct valves I needed, and sent them to me, all at no charge. I asked if they wanted the old vales back, and they said no!!. I will send them back to Scandvik, just because they were so responsive. Here again is another example of me being the QC department for some company, and not getting paid for the service.

Steve and I then installed the Genoa track on the port side cap rail. We drilled and tapped the new installed cap rail between two of the new stanchion bases. This went off with out too much problem. We were now getting very close to be able to go sailing on Friday, June 19th.

June 16, Tuesday.

Went over to the shop and loaded up the life raft and the door between the mid cabin and the forward cabin. With all of the guests coming for the party, it was important to be able to keep the room separated.

I applied the second coat of Nyalic to the starboard side sheer stripe. After the Nyalic had dried, I removed all of the masking tape on the stanchion bases and the sheer stripe. I cleaned up any issues or problems, to make the area look great!!

I installed two smoke detectors on Dream Away. One on the overhead of the galley, and one on the overhead of the garage. These smoke detectors are designed for boats and RV's. They were recommended by the surveyor.

I then applied the two coats of Nyalic to the port side sheer stripe, one after the other. When I completed the second coat, I removed all of the masking tape on the stanchion bases and the sheer stripe. I cleaned up any issues or problems, to make the area look great!!

I got cleaned up, and Kitty and I went to Hobby airport to pick up good friend, long time sailor and master rigger Steve.

June 15, Monday.

Started off first thing in the morning by putting on the first coat of Nyalic on the starboard sheer stripe and aft stanchion bases.  Called the Nyalic help desk to try and get information on how soon I could apply the second coat of Nyalic over the first. The Nyalic help desk called back after the shade moved from the starboard side of the boat, so could not apply the second coat today. They did say I could apply the second coat about 25 minutes after the first coat. This is good news, as it take about 45 minutes to apply a single coat. When I apply the Nyalic tomorrow to the port side I will be able to get both coats on.

I removed the Genoa track from the aft port side. I cleaned and filled all of the holes in the deck. I had to countersink the holes first. I used a thin polyester mash mix to fill in the holes.

Bill came over after he finished his workday at Watergate, and helped me apply the second coat of Easypoxy on the port side sheer stripe. We got the paint in the pan, the roller out, brushes ready to go, acetone and rags available, and then loaded all of the material, then Bill and I onto the work raft. We then applied the second coat of the Easypoxy paint to the port sheer strip, using the roll and tip method.

I then went over to the shop and unloaded all of the stuff I had been collecting in the truck for the last three days.

June 14, Sunday.

Bill showed up this morning, and we got started at 0900. The first thing we had to do was repair a bad spot on the starboard shear stripe. On Friday, the 12th, after we applied the first coat of paint to the starboard shear stripe, we had to move the boat so we could move the work raft around to the port side of the boat. The finger pier is on the port side of the boat, so the boat had to be moved to make enough room for the work raft. We did not notice at the time, but one of the starboard spring lines rubbed up against the newly painted starboard shear stripe. When we noticed the problem we moved the spring line but the damage had been done.

We repaired the bad spot, then wiped down the starboard sheer stripe. We got the paint in the pan, the roller out, brushes ready to go, acetone and rags available, and then loaded all of the material, then Bill and I onto the work raft. We then applied the second coat of the Easypoxy paint to the starboard sheer strip, using the roll and tip method.

When the painting was finished, I got Bill working on putting the letters back on the port, starboard and aft name boards. I had to do a maintenance cleaning of the water strainers and manifold (sea chest). Last night we could not run the air conditioner and the refrigerator at the same time. It is getting to be that time of year at Watergate. I removed the main raw water input strainer and the manifold. I took them both out onto the dock, and cleaned them out. I brought them back and installed them into the boat. I then connected the fresh water hose from the dock to each of the hoses for the aft air conditioner, forward air conditioner, ice maker and refrigerator one at a time. After cleaning each in-line strainer, I would then turn on the fresh water hose and blow out each line. When I finished all of this, I connected everything back up, and we are now able to run the air conditioner, refrigeration, and the ice maker.

When I finished the strainer and manifold cleaning project, I helped Bill with the letters on the aft name boards. We then went to lunch.

When we got back to lunch, we started on the port side. We removed the sanding tape, and wiped down the sanded shear stripe with acetone. We then masked off the port shear stripe. We then got the paint in the pan the roller out, brushes ready to go, acetone and rags available, and then loaded all of the material, then Bill and I onto the work raft. We then applied the first coat of paint to the port side shear strip using the roll and tip method. We then secured the work raft away from Dream Away, did a clean up of all tools and other goodies, and called it a day around 1830.

June 13, Saturday.

No work was performed on Dream Away today. Kitty and I went down town to work on the Buffalo Bayou Partnership pontoon boat for the boat tours.

Only seven more days to our blowout party!!

June 12, Friday.

Back to the grindstone first thing in the morning. Bill and I started masking the starboard side sheer stripe. This took about 1.5 hours to get the complete starboard side sheer stripe masked and ready. This included removing the masking tape applied so we could sand the sheer stripe, wiping down the sheer strip with acetone to verify cleanliness, and no dust, and then putting on the new masking tape.

We then poured the necessary paint, got the brushes and rollers ready. We then loaded the paint, brushes, acetone, rags onto the work raft.  Because we are going to use the roll and tip method, we would not have time to tie down the work raft. This was going to be a great balance act with all of the supplies on the raft and Bill and I attempting to keep it all steady.

The roll and tip method of painting is best accomplished with two people. This method is the best method of applying paint if you cannot spray the paint on. My original plan was to roll and tip one brand of paint on the starboard side and spray paint another brand of paint on the port side. The way the wind is blowing here, the spray method will just not work. So now I am going to roll and tip the Pettit Easypoxy paint on both sides of the boat, and then use a "miracle" covering that will keep the shine and protect the paint from oxidizing. The product is called Nyalic. The roll and tip method, is where you apply the paint with a roller, and then match up the paint and smooth the paint out with a brush. If you keep the surface wet while doing this you can get a painted surface that from 36" away, looks sprayed on. The key is keeping the paint wet, and it is very difficult to do with one person.

We got the first coat of Easypoxy applied to the starboard side, and it looked really great. The sun was high and the shade was not on the starboard side of the boat any more. We took a short lunch break, and then got back on the port side of the cap rail/sheer strip. My goal was to try and get a coat of Easypoxy applied to the port side, but that did not happen.

We did get the port side completely sanded down. The aft cap rail and stanchion blocks and the cap rail up to the bow was completely sanded down to 220 grit sand paper. By then it was 1730, so we called it a night. I hope on Sunday, we can get the second coat of Easypoxy put on the starboard side. Then get the port side masked up and the first coat of Easypoxy put on the port side.

June 11, Thursday.

Started right in on sanding the starboard side stanchion bases. Bill showed up to help, so we moved along. We completed sanding the starboard side stanchion bases, after another small application of finishing putty. We then started on the starboard stern with the 220 grit paper to prepare the sheer stripe for painting. First I had to mask off the area, so if the sander slipped, it would not mar the hull outside the sheer stripe. We moved along pretty well, with out to many problems. We got the starboard sheer stripe completed with the 220 grit to just forward of the main chain plates. By then the sun was on us, so we broke for lunch.

When we returned from lunch we had shade on the port side so we started in on the port side stanchion bases. We got the first coat of finishing putty sanded down, applied more finishing putty, and then got about 1/2 of the port side sanded. It was 1800, and I was ready for a break, so we cleaned up all of the tools and got them put away. Bill left for the night, and I hosed down the boat to get rid of all of the fiberglass dust.  With any luck tomorrow we should get one coat of paint on the sheer stripe.

June 10, Wednesday.

Good day overall, and it was three years ago yesterday we arrived back into Watergate Yachting Center from Guatemala and Isla Mujeres.

Sanded on starboard stanchion bases and cap rail. Applied some more finishing putty in places that I had missed yesterday, and sanded some more on starboard stanchion bases.

After lunch went over to the shop and picked up the chop saw and the pipe bender. Also loaded the aft original life rails into the truck. I went to Blue Water Shops Store and picked up the two pieces of 20' stainless steel tubing. These two pieces will be used for the new after life rails. I had moved the stanchion bases to new locations, and will be installing a gate in the stern, so it was necessary to get new life rails.

June 9, Tuesday.

Went over to the shop first thing. Mixed up a pot of penetrating epoxy, and put a coat on the second side of the new insert for the store room on Dream Away. Sanded and polished the remaining three stainless steel plates for the stanchion bases. Loaded the plates into the truck, and went back to Dream Away.

Got back to Dream Away, and started mixing small amounts of the finishing putty to apply to the starboard side stanchion bases and the hull to deck joint. In the morning the starboard side is in the shade.

When I finished the starboard side and the portion of the stern that was in the shade, I started another project. The person I hired to do the bright work is rarely ever on time to do any work. She started this project on the 5th of February, and is not finished yet. She was over last Monday, June first, and put the first coat of Nyalic as a sealer on the teak. She said she would be back on Tuesday, the next day. She had not arrived by today, so I had to put the second coat of Nyalic on. I needed to get it done because the Nyalic has to harden. I will be putting masking tape over some of the teak with Nyalic on it so I can paint the sheer stripe after we have finished the after hull to deck joint.

The sun finally moved, so I could apply the finishing putty to all of the port side stanchion bases and the hull to deck joint. I got all of this done. While the port side putty was hardening, I finished installing all of the stainless steel plates on top of the stanchion bases. I am using finishing nuts on the plates, and some of the threaded rod was a bit to long to use these nuts, so I had to cut some of the threaded rod off. I got all of that done, so now all of the stainless steel plates are on top of the stanchion bases.

I was still waiting for the putty to harden, so I started in on the water maker. After you use the water maker in salt water, you should use some of the product fresh water and run through the water maker. The water in my tanks now is city water and contains chlorine. Chlorine should not be put into the membrane filter, as it will cause the filter to deteriorate. This puts fresh water through out the system.

I drained the water tank on the starboard side. I then ran the water maker for one hour. The product water was run into the starboard water tank. After running for one hour, I switched the feed water to be taken from the starboard fresh water tank. I ran the unit for five minutes.

When I had finished the water maker, the putty on one area of the port side was hardened. I sanded it down, and applied the second coat of the finishing putty.

June 8, Monday.

June 7, Sunday.

Started off the day working on emails and computer stuff. I did this until noon, and then went over to the shop.

At the shop, I sanded down the new insert for the store room shower grate. I got the insert looked good and then chiseled out a place to put the lifting handle. I got that looking pretty good. I mixed up a batch of the smiths penetrating epoxy, and put it on one side of the insert.

I then used a hole saw and cut out a hole in the cockpit instrument cluster for the new Raymarine depth sounder. I then drilled the holes in the cluster to attach the depth sounder. The depth sounder fit just right. I loaded the stainless steel plates for the port side stanchion bases into the truck. I do not have all of the plates sanded and shined, but I will need them on the boat tomorrow. I also loaded all of the after stanchions.

June 6, Saturday.

Started off the day finishing off the battery installation project. Yesterday I received the silicon bronze external tooth washers I had ordered. I had put stainless steel external tooth washers on all of the battery connections. Since all of the battery terminals, and wire terminals were copper or bronze, I thought the external tooth washers should be bronze. This should improve the connectivity issue. Of course while I was replacing all of the washers, I put a non-conductive silicon grease on all of the connectors.

During the installation of the silicon bronze external tooth washers, I broke off a terminal connector that was attached to the battery. This is a very expensive product, and I am not very happy with it. I purchased 14 of these all copper, not lead, battery connectors, and three of them failed when I tightened the nut to hold the cable connectors. All three failures were because of impurities in the casting. I had to drive to West Marine and get a replacement. The nut on the bolt that tightens the adapter to the battery terminal, is not a normal size. A 1/2" wrench or socket will not fit, a 7/16" will not fit, and I could not find any metric size wrench that would fit. I ended up replacing all of the nuts wit 5/16" nuts.

Any way, I can now say the battery replacement project is complete!!

The remainder of the day was spent verifying the Bauer compressor I purchased would work off of the generator on Dream Away. I brought the compressor down to the dock, along with two empty SCUBA bottles. I proceeded to fill one 80 cu. ft. bottle from the dock side power source. This went well, and when I went to fill the second tank, it went like it was designed to.

Next I had to jury rig the wire and the connectors I will be using for this event, so I could power the compressor from the on-board generator. I did not have time to do all the re-wiring that will be required. I connected the 8 GA wire from the generator circuit breaker, to the receptacle at the stern of the boat. I was able to stretch the wire out the back of the boat to the dock where the compressor was located. I filled one 80 cu. ft. bottle with no problem. My one concern is the surface temperature of the motor climbs to 169 degrees! I did all of the compressor checks, and was able to fill the second bottle. Really strange, the compressor will not fill two bottles running on the Honda 5 KW generator I have at the shop, but I was able to fill two bottles off of the 5 KW generator on Dream Away.

This experiment was complete. We had a party to attend at our pavilion, so it was shower time.

June 5, Friday.

Bill started on the starboard side fiberglass stanchion bases. He was making sure all of the area was sanded and cleaned. He put the filler putty on the outside of the bases on the hull, and all of the area on the inside of the stanchion bases.

I worked on finishing the the bottom shelf of the store room on Dream Away. I did the electrical connections on the water maker. I also glassed in the final support for the bottom shelf with polyester mash mix.

While I was waiting for the support to set up, I started cleaning up the port side stanchion bases.

After the mash mix had set up on the support, I realized I had not put any oil in the crankcase of the water maker pump. I went on line to see if I could use the synthetic motor oil I am using for all of my other lubrication uses on Dream Away. I could not find any where it said I could specifically use motor oil, but I did find a couple of references where you could use oil from an air compressor. I drove over to the shop and picked up the oil I have for the SCUBA compressor and brought it back to Dream Away. I put the correct amount of oil in the crankcase, and finished putting the bottom shelf into the store room. The store room is pretty much complete. I still have to run the hose and blower for the cooling of the area under the bottom shelf. All of the sound proofing has made a big difference. The running reefer compressor is much quieter now than it has ever been.

Tomorrow I will put the pre-filters into the system, do one last attachment of the high pressure hose, and test the water maker to see if the membrane filter has survived. The membrane filter has been pickled  for three years, so I am not hopeful it will survive.

When Bill finished all of the putty application he took off early. When I finished the store room, I started sanding and cleaning up the port side fiberglass stanchion bases.

It is official, the store room is finished and the water maker is installed!

June 4, Thursday.

Moved water maker deck from shop to Dream Away. Bill helped me put the water maker deck into the store room under the first shelf. I bolted the deck down to the vibration isolators, and connected the input water supply, and the outlet high pressure hose. I continued with the sound proofing of the area under the first shelf in the store room. Finished up all the sound proofing I can do with out a major tear down of the area under the first shelf.

While I was working on the store room, Bill was sanding and cleaning up the the blocks on the starboard side getting them ready for the first coat of filler putty.

After lunch Bill and I turned to on the port side stanchion base blocks. We started off by drilling and tapping the fiberglass in the hull to deck joint for the 3/8" threaded rod. We did a dry fit of the threaded rod of the single piece that has the two fiberglass stanchion blocks with a single piece of fiberglass that connects the two blocks. the long single piece of fiberglass is where the Genoa track will be attached. Once the dry fit was complete, we fitted the fiberglass mat we use to attach the fiberglass stanchion blocks to the hull to deck joint. We then put up the 2"  masking tape to act as a dam for the polyester resin. I then mixed a pot of resin and we attached the fiberglass piece to the hull to deck joint.

When the first piece was installed. we repeated the whole thing for the second fiberglass stanchion base. It became obvious we were wasting a lot of time using this method, because I was doing a lot of up and down into the boat, and back to the deck, and so on.

After installing the second fiberglass stanchion base, we changed our production methods. We drilled and tapped all of the threaded rod for the remaining four fiberglass stanchion bases. We dry fitted each block to make sure there was a fit. We then fitted the fiberglass mat we were going to use on the hull to deck joint to attach all of the fiberglass stanchion bases. We put on the 2" masking tape for the dam for the remaining four fiberglass stanchion bases. When we had completed all of the preparation, I went and pured two pots of resin. I added the hardener to one pot and we started the installation. To make the installation faster and more efficient, Bill was on the work platform, and I was on the deck of Dream Away. This was a much better arrangement. With both of us on the floating work platform, we spent a fair amount of time trying to stay balanced on the platform, and were mostly in each other's way.

When we finally finished up, and I got all of the area put away and the boat hosed down, it was 2030, and the captain was very tired and sore.

June 3, Wednesday.

I am enjoying another boat drink with many ice cubes from the ice maker.

Bill and I got started early on Dream Away. I had Bill working on cleaning up and sanding the cap rail and fiberglass blocks on the starboard side. He made really good progress today, after we got all of the tools and accessories out and available.

While Bill was working on his project, I was working on the shelves and sound proofing in the store room and the water maker area. I moved the hardware for the original third shelf in the store room to the new shelf. I then installed the new third shelf, and put the second shelf in place. I screwed both shelves into their respective supports, so the shelves would not go adrift in rough weather.

I started in the sound proofing/heat shield in the area under the first store room shelf. This area houses the reefer deck and the water maker deck. Because I am not removing the reefer deck at this time, I will not be able to completely install the sound proofing/heat shield. I did install the sound proofing/heat shield on all of the removable pieces around the reefer deck. I also started putting the sound proofing/heat shield material on the underside of the two pieces of the first shelf.

We went to lunch, and when we came back, Bill and I started on the installation of the fiberglass blocks on the port side. Just like yesterday, it started to rain. I decided we would not get much more done, so Bill went home. Then the heavens opened up. It rained very hard, and we had at least 45 knot winds.

I continued with the sound proofing/heat shield installation on the underside of the first shelf. I got that all finished. I also installed the sound proofing/heat shield on the after side of the bulkhead under the first shelf. All that remains is to put the sound proofing/heat shield on the front cover of the water maker area.

Ice Maker cube storage box full!!

June 2, Tuesday.

I am sitting here at the navigation station on Dream Away enjoying a boat drink with approximately 10-12 ice cubes, from the completely functional ice maker that was able to be re-installed because the sinking mast project has been completed. While enjoying a boat drink, I will do the update for today!!

Circumstances has allowed me to hire a helper for four to five days, so I can make some significant progress on Dream Away. The helpers name is Bill and he used to be an employee of Watergate Yachting Center, and probably will again.

We got started by going over to the shop first thing in the morning. I had Bill get started on sanding and finishing the fiberglass blocks for the aft port side. I finished up cutting and cleaning the 14 threaded rods that will be needed to install the fiberglass blocks on the port aft hull to deck joint on Dream Away.

I also put the second coat of paint on the second side of the top shelf of the store room on Dream Away.

I cut some plywood that will be used to replace the floor in the store room. When I get this plywood in place I will be able to cut a hole for a four inch hose to be run through it. This hose will have a blower attached to it, and will evacuate the hot air out of the store room when the reefer or water maker is running. The exhaust from the blower will exit into the engine room and blow on the main engine alternator.

While Bill finished up on the fiberglass blocks, I worked on polishing the stainless steel plates that will go on top of the fiberglass blocks.

When Bill finished the sanding on the fiberglass blocks, we loaded them all into the truck, along with the sanders and the other necessary items to install the blocks on Dream Away.

We left the shop and stopped for lunch on the way back to Dream Away. We left Joe Lee's and went to Dream Away, and it really started to rain. We waited in the truck for about 20 minutes before we could off load and get everything back down to Dream Away.

We got everything out we needed, and moved the work platform around to the port side. We verified the placement of the blocks on the starboard side, and then made the measurements for the placement of the blocks on the port side. We started to drill and tap the holes for the threaded rod on the port side, but it started to rain again. We had to take the threaded rod out of the hull to deck joint, cover the holes with tape and move all of the tools and accessories back down below. I checked the weather, and it looked like there was more rain coming, so I told Bill to go home and I would see him in the morning. It rained for another 20 minutes. During this time I made sure the plywood pieces fit into the store room floor.

I went over to the shop. Alan met me there, and he watched while I changed all of the valves and seals in the Cat 310 pump I am using for the water maker. When I finished changing the parts, I put the system back together on the deck, ready for installation into the store room when I get all of the shelving put back and all of the noise suppression mat installed.

I epoxied the two 1/2" plywood pieces together that will be used as the substitute in the floor of the store room.

June 1, Monday.

Went over to the shop first thing, and put a second coat of paint on the first side of the new top shelf for the store room on Dream Away. I then started working on cutting and trimming up the threaded rods that will be needed to put down the fiberglass blocks on the stern port side.

Went back to Dream Away and started the installation of the ice maker compressor. I got the compressor installed, the refrigerant lines connected, the cooling water hoses installed, and all of the wiring installed. I then applied power, and wa-la, we have a very functional ice maker cranking out those really wonderful ice cubes, 3 per person!! Please see pictures following.

I then started working on the refrigeration deck. I wanted to install the vibration isolators, and the noise and heat suppression material. I looked over the installation of the refrigeration deck, and decided it would be way to much effort to install the vibration isolators. I will wait until I have to remove the deck for some other reason, and install the vibration isolators then. I will be able to install the noise and heat suppression material.

I went back over to the shop and applied the first coat of paint on the second side of the new top shelf for the store room on Dream Away. While at the shop I loaded up the noise and heat suppression material into the truck. I am planning to do the installation of the noise and heat suppression material to the panels and hull at the boat.

Ice Maker area before compressor installation.

May 31, Sunday.

Spent a few hours in the morning working on the computer trying to get caught up. Still very far behind, as I have over 175 emails to attend to.

Worked on the re-wiring of the ice maker. I had decided to move the control panel for the ice maker from where the compressor and electronics are located  to the  main electrical panel. I got the wiring moved to the panel.  I drilled  the holes in the panel for the two switches and the  led light.  I installed the switches and led light into the panel. One of the switches is used to switch on the complete unit. The second switch is to actually allow the unit to make ice. This is a nice feature, because it allows you to use the unit as just a freezer if you want to.

I spent the remainder of the day working on two neighbor's boats that we will be using for accommodation for our upcoming party. Great way to get free labor out of me.

May 30, Saturday.

Before I could put on the last two starboard side stanchion bases on the cap rail, I had to install a chock on one of the blocks I installed yesterday. I got out all of the necessary tools needed for the project. The bolts I had purchased were too long, so they had to be cut off, but I got the fiberglass drilled and tapped, and the chock installed. I then moved the dock line for the starboard aft quarter back to it's proper location. I also moved the electricity and water hose back to its proper location.

With all of the lines, hoses, and electricity wires back in their proper location, I was now able to install the last two blocks on the starboard side. I cut the fiberglass so it fit the hull to deck joint properly. I also dry fit the two stanchion bases to make sure they fit. I mixed up a pot of resin, and wetted out the fiberglass, and installed the two blocks.

While the resin was setting up, I got busy on the blocks I installed yesterday. I removed the masking tape (resin dam), and sanded and cleaned up the excess resin. I got the area looking passable if you are standing on the dock. I have a lot more work to do to get the the cap rail and fiberglass stanchion bases ready for paint. I also hosed down the deck.

I then went over to the shop to work on the port side fiberglass blocks and the stainless steel plates for the port side. Friend Alan came over to the shop, so we drilled out the seven remaining fiberglass blocks. Two 3/8" holes, and one 1" hole in each block. Each block is approximately 4" thick so this drilling is no easy task. The actual drilling is not a big deal, but the set up, measuring and so, is the time consuming part. It is so much easier with two people. Since Alan helped me drill out the starboard side blocks, we had it down to a pretty good procedure. It took us just three hours to get the seven blocks drilled.

Alan left me at the shop after the drilling project was over. I put the first coat of paint on the top of the new top shelf in the store room.

I am going to add a few pictures here to give you some idea of the cap rail project from the very start to the present. Of course, when I get some time, I will get the project all documented on the web page with a whole bunch of pictures.

Fiberglass to be made into the stanchion bases to replace the aft cap rail.

Life rail and stanchions removed from stern of Dream Away.

Set up for drilling glassed stanchion bases for aft hull to deck joint.

In the process of fiberglassing the stanchion bases to the starboard side hull to deck joint.

Five stanchion bases installed on hull to deck joint.

Installed stanchion base ready for dock line chock.

Last two starboard side blocks to be glassed to the hull to deck joint.

May 29, Friday.

Started the day on Dream Away getting after fiberglassing the blocks to the starboard side cap rail. I got out all of the parts needed for the operation. I also did a dry fit of the first four blocks to make sure it all fit. I also put 2" masking tape on each side of the cap rail just under where I was fiberglassing to catch the drips of resin. This worked out very well, and will make the clean up and sanding much easier.

I then mixed up a 10 oz pot of resin. I followed the directions on the can of resin I purchased from West Marine. It seemed like the ration of resin to hardener was very high, but you never know about these things. For the 10 oz of resin, it was recommended that I put in 120 drops, which is 1/4 oz. I put in 90 drops, mixed up the resin, and went out and started the job. I put some resin on the cap rail, then laid a piece of fiberglass down, and started the wetting out process of the fiberglass. Before I was half way done the resin was starting to kick off and harden. This was not good. I picked up the piece of fiberglass, and removed it from the cap rail. I then got a couple of rags and acetone and cleaned up all of the resin. I finally got the cap rail back to the starting point.

Normally, the ratio of hardener to resin is 2%. In other words if you have 10 oz of resin, you would need .1 oz of hardener. The next batch of resin, I mixed up and went back to work. I used 30 drops of hardener in this batch. I was able to get the first two blocks installed with this batch of resin. It seemed to be right on the border of kicking off when I was getting towards the end, so the next batch I only used 25 drops.

Before the sun got to high, I was able to get five of the blocks installed and fiberglassed down. I also got the holes drilled and the blocks dry fitted for the remaining two blocks on the starboard side. I will get these two blocks done tomorrow morning. While I was working on the fiberglassing, a cleat pulled out of the work raft I was using, and caused me to spill some resin on the deck. With Kitty's help I was able to get that mess cleaned up. When I finished the cap rail, I was able to repair the raft, so it was usable again. I got all of the parts, tools and other items cleaned up and put away.

The man from the Bauer compressor distributor called while I was having lunch, and said he was on the way.

I then went over to the shop and cut more fiberglass for the cap rail project. I have enough cut for the two blocks tomorrow, and I believe I have enough for the port side cap rail.

The compressor man arrived, and checked over the compressor. He checked all of the obvious stuff to see if there was not a basic operator problem. He was also surprised the compressor was brand new. For some reason he was under the impression the unit was an older unit. I got the generator out and got everything connected up, and we started the compressor. We got the pressure up to 3300 lbs, and the unit vented off, which it is supposed to do. We then connected the compressor to a SCUBA tank and started filling the bottle. The motor was drawing about 24 amps, which is max for that motor. We shut the compressor off after about 10 minutes of running. The motor was pretty warm, but when we tried starting the compressor, it would not start, and the motor was drawing about 75 amps. We bled off some of the pressure, but the compressor would not start until all of the pressure was bled off. Bottom line is he took the compressor with him back to his shop. They are going to get with Bauer and see what the problem is and get it fixed.

There was some noise said about maybe having to pay to get a new motor, or that the compressor is not supposed to start right away after filling one tank. I told Joe, the compressor man, that any motor replacement will be covered under warranty, and if I can only fill one tank every three hours or so, I would be talking to Bauer about sending the compressor back and getting our money back. we shall see.

I then put a second coat of penetrating epoxy on the third shelf for the store room.

May 28, Thursday.

Went over to the shop first thing and started in on the fiberglass blocks and stainless steel plates for the aft port side of the cap rail.

Went back to Dream Away as soon as Kitty called and said she was awake. I wanted to get started on the fiberglass blocks that will be used for the stanchion bases on the aft cap rail. This went very slow.

Started off having to cut the stainless steel threaded rod into seven inch pieces. This took a bunch of time as I had to get all of the tools out, and also find a die to clean up the threads after each cut. I did clean the threads with the die, and also made sure the nuts would fit on the threaded rod.

I went out to the side of the boat and started the work of fitting everything in place. I verified the measurements and placement of the blocks. I made a few modifications to the block placement. I marked the location, and also made changes to the log book.

The first piece was a lot of problems. It is actually two blocks attached with one piece of fiberglass that is 55 inches long. The long piece between the two blocks is where the Genoa track will be placed. I started out by drilling the first hole for the threaded rod. I then tapped the hole, and screwed the threaded rod into the hole. Next was drilling the second hole, tapping it, and inserting the threaded rod. When I tried the dry fit of the block over the two pieces of threaded rod, the block would not fit. I drilled out the two 3/8" holes in the block an additional 1/32' of an inch. This did the trick. I went to the second block and drilled the holes and tapped them. I put in the threaded rod, and also drilled out the two 3/8" holes in the block an additional 1/32' of an inch. The double block was able to fit over the four pieces of threaded rod.

I went on to do the same routine for the next two blocks. When I got them all dry fitted on the 3/8" threaded rod, I removed the blocks. I then dry fitted the fiberglass pieces I was using. I wanted to have two pieces of fiberglass mat, wetted out with resin between the blocks and the aft hull to deck joint. By the time I got all of this done, the sun was to high. I have started this project on the starboard side of the boat, so I can work in the morning shade. I was afraid the resin would kick off to fast if I was working in the direct sunlight. I cleaned up all of the tools and the area. I told Kitty I wanted to get started first thing tomorrow morning so I could get the fiberglassing done early.

The man from the Bauer Compressor distributer called and said he could not make it down to the shop today, but would be down tomorrow.

Spent the next couple of hours fitting the third shelf in the store room on Dream Away. After several trips to the dock, and one trip to the shop to get the saber saw, we were finally able to get the new third shelf fitted. in the proper location.

Went over to the shop and put the second coat of paint on the bottom shelf pieces for the store room. I also put the first coat of penetrating epoxy on the third shelf.

May 27, Wednesday.

Went to the shop and put a coat of paint on the shelves I am going to put into the store room on Dream Away. These shelves are covering the water maker compressor and pump, and the refrigeration compressor and motor.

Went over to Alan's to help him with a couple of projects. With his new shoulders, he can not lift very heavy stuff, so I helped him with lifting and moving floor panels in his boat.

I then went over to the shop and started in on the fiberglass blocks. I sanded down all of the blocks I have made. I put special effort into the first seven blocks, as I will be putting most of the first seven on the boat tomorrow. I also got the first seven stainless steel plates all shined up and ready to go.

I cut pieces of fiberglass mat that I will be using tomorrow to glass down the blocks on the aft cap rail. I cut 10 pieces, each one 50 inches long by three inches wide.

I had taken a volt meter over to the shop with me to check the generator voltage. I got out the generator, and the SCUBA compressor. hooked it all up, then attached the output air hose to another 80 cu. foot SCUBA tank. The whole time the compressor ran filling the tank the voltage stayed right at 120 volts. Again, when the tank was full, the motor on the compressor was extremely hot and would not start. I checked the wiring in the motor housing to make sure there were no loose wires, and it all looked OK.

I called the Bauer compressor folks and talked with a person in tech support. He said the motor should get warm, but it should keep filling more than one tank. He gave me a name and phone number for one of the distributors in Houston. I called the company, and talked with a very knowledge person. He said the compressor should be able to run for 10 hours filling tanks, and not see the problem I am having. Naturally he wants to see the compressor, and then he can better give a solution to the problem. His company is up in northwest Houston by the big airport. But he did say one of his techs would be done in my area tomorrow working at one of the fire departments. He will call me in the morning to make sure the tech is coming down, and make arrangements to get together. Hopefully it will work out, and he can get the problem fixed. If not I will have to drive the compressor up to his shop.

May 26, Tuesday.

Went over to the shop and started in working on the fiberglass blocks for the aft cap rail. I sanded down the blocks, and got them looking pretty good. Still have some holes and imperfections in the blocks. Mixed up a batch of mash mix and put the mix on most of the blocks until the mixture kicked off.

I had purchased a can of polyester resin from Kemah hardware, and had been using it, but every time I used it the surface of the work was always sticky, like it did not completely kickoff. I tried using the same hardener with some really old resin I had. It kicked off OK, and the surface was not sticky, so I knew the problem was the resin and not the hardener.  I  had Kitty pick me up another gallon of resin at West Marine.  I used this resin to mix the mash mix today, and it kicked off just like normal.

I also worked on the stainless steel plates I am using in conjunction with the fiberglass blocks. Cleaning up the plates is very time consuming. I start with an 80 grit disk, then go to a 120 grit disk, then a 120 grit paper, a 220 grit paper, and last a 320 grit paper. This shines up the stainless steel really well, but it does take time.

I worked on the eyes I a making for the hasps on the aft deck boxes. I drilled out all of the pieces a head of time. Now I have to shape the pieces, then weld them.

I got out the generator, and the new SCUBA compressor. While I was sanding the fiberglass blocks, I thought I would fill a SCUBA tank, and see how long it would take. It took about 40 minutes to fill an 80 cu foot tank. I started to fill the second tank, but the compressor would not operate. The electric motor was very hot to the touch, and just would not start. I was concerned the voltage out of the generator was low and that was making the motor heat up.

May 25, Monday.

Went over to the shop and worked on the fiberglass blocks to be used on the cap rail. Alan came over and helped me drill out seven of the 14 cap rail blocks. Making progress, but slow.

Loaded the two pieces for the bottom shelf in the storage area into the truck.

Went back to Dream Away, and marked up the two pieces for the bottom shelf in the storage area. I will paint the top of the shelf, but the bottom has to have the soundproofing applied, and I had to know where the soundproofing needed to go.

May 24, Sunday.

Stayed on Dream Away today, and finished the Battery Installation Project. I ran all of the necessary 4/0 battery cable required by everything I have read in the installation guide for the Inverter/Charger. So now there is 4/0 cable from both charging sources, Inverter/Charger and engine driven alternator to the main house battery. Of course to do all of this I had to move a tool box on the work bench in the garage. Empty the area under the tool box, and then empty the chemical locker. When all of the cables were run, and I had the battery storage looking great, I had to put all of the stuff back.

I also moved the negative wire from the first battery to the last battery. This method is called cross-connecting. I have the main 250 amp fuse within 72 inches of the house battery, and the positive and negative cables are not over 10 feet.

Battery Storage Area after paint, before batteries.

Battery Storage Area after paint, with batteries.

May 23, Saturday.

Went over to the shop. First on the list was to get a coat of penetrating epoxy on the bottom shelf of the store room. I got a really good coat of epoxy on the shelf.

I then fabricated a small buss bar that I need to connect all of the positive wires onto the positive terminal of the main engine start battery. I got it cleaned up and the holes drilled into it.

Next was finishing up sanding all of the fiberglass pieces for the stanchion blocks. I got them all sanded and wiped down with acetone. I mixed up some polyester resin, and glassed all of the remaining blocks together. Now all of the blocks will be glassed together, so when I can get Alan to help me, we will be able to drill out all of the blocks at one time.

I also worked on the eye for the aft deck boxes. It will work out, just a lot of work on such small items.

Went back to Dream Away. Kitty had gotten the bad battery terminal replaced, so I got that installed. We now have a house bank on Dream Away that consists of six 8D gel cells, for a total capacity of 1350 amp hours. This should be enough to full fill my needs for three days before a battery charge. Also the wind generators will be putting back into the batteries all the time while in the trade wind area.

Next was more wiring. I attached the ground wire I had run from the starboard backstay to the system ground. I also shortened the wire from the alternator output to the house battery. This is a 4/0 cable, so a lot of fun to work with. I still have more wires to change and/or modify.

May 22, Friday.

Today I installed the six batteries for the house battery. Sounds pretty simple, but the project took all day.

Robert came to Dream Away. We then went to the shop to load the batteries. These batteries are gel technology batteries, size 8D and each one weighs 160 lbs. Got the batteries into the truck, then came back to Dream Away. We had two dock carts, so we put a battery in each one, pushed the dock carts down to the boat. We took a battery out of the dock cart, slid the battery down the finger pier so it was lined up with the mid cabin hatch. We then tied a line around the battery, then using the port spinnaker halyard, and self-tailing winch, lifted the battery over the life rails, then down through the mid cabin hatch, to the mid cabin deck. We untied the line around the battery, then lifted the battery to the main salon floor level, then dropped the battery down into the battery storage area, which is under the main salon deck. We then slid the battery until it was almost into position, then put the battery hold down over the battery, moved the battery to its final location, then start the process all over again. We did this for all six batteries.  

May 21, Thursday.

Went over to the shop and loaded the battery hold down brackets into the truck.

Kitty went to the machine shop and brought back the plates with the 1" holes drilled into them.

I got the generator out and connected the welder. I tacked up one of the eyes for the hasps on the aft deck box. When I brought it over to Dream Away later in the day, it fit really great. When I get time back at the shop, I will finish welding the one eye, and also fabricate the remaining three eyes.

May 20, Wednesday.

Went over to the shop and started working on the stainless steel plates that will go on top of the fiberglass blocks the will go on the hull to deck joint. Kitty suggested, and I agreed it would save a lot of time if I would mark the plates for the 1" hole to be drilled and send it to a machine shop to be done. I marked the plates for the 1" holes and the two 3/8" holes. I then drilled all of the 3/8" holes in the plates, and Kitty took the plates to the machine shop. We can pick the plates up tomorrow, and then I can get to work on drilling out the fiberglass blocks.

May 19, Tuesday.

Went over to the shop first thing and started fabricating the eyes for the hasps on the after deck box. It is taking some time, but I think it will work out.

Drilled out one of the stainless steel pads for the top of the fiberglass blocks that will be the stanchion bases on the aft cap rail. I also drilled out one of the fiberglass blocks. It went pretty well, but very time consuming. I really need four hands to get all of the parts lined up, clamped down and the start the drilling. I hope to get my friend Al to help me with that part of the project. Once we get in a rhythm, it will go very quick.

I then went into town to help a friends sister. Will not go into a bunch of detail, but  I performed a marriage ceremony for a couple. The man is in the hospital, and is terminal with cancer. He wanted to marry his girlfriend of many years, so I did it.

When we got back, I cleaned out the holes where the old Genoa track was on the deck, and filled the holes with a very runny mash mix. I was able to fill all of the holes, and did not have any problems.

May 18, Monday.

Went over to the shop and cut the bottom shelf of the store room/ water maker area in half, and loaded the pieces into the truck.

Went back to Dream Away. Alan came over and helped me remove the after Genoa track on the starboard side. I will be cutting the track down and putting it back on the hull to deck joint. Alan left, so I cleaned up the overhead in the garage and head where the bolts for the track came through. I taped over the holes to get ready to pour in a polyester mash mix, that will be a bit thinner than the one I used on the hull to deck joint.

I then fitted the shelves for the bottom shelf in the store room. I had to do a couple of trims to get the fit correct, but finally got the two halves fitting just right. As soon as I get the Smith's penetrating epoxy, I will treat the shelves and get them painted.

May 17, Sunday.

Started the day working on email, and made some progress. I had my in box down to 150 emails!!

Crawled down into the battery storage area, and got all of the water hoses put where they belong, and dressed up to be very easy to maintain. Also moved some of the wiring so as to be more maintainable. The battery storage area is now ready to receive the batteries.

Went to the shop and worked on the fiberglass blocks that will be used as stanchion blocks.

May 16, Saturday.

Very busy day, but not all of it working on Dream Away.

Today was the first day of the annual Boaters Flea Market hew in Clear Lake Shores. I do not have a booth this year, but I had committed to help a couple of friends with their booth. I was at the Flea Market at 0700 and unloaded all of the items for Alan at his booth. He needed a table, so I went to my shop and picked up a table and went back to the Boaters Flea Market and loaned the table to Allan. Paul showed up, so I helped him unload his stuff and get his booth organized. I then cruised the Boaters Flea Market looking for items, that I really needed! I was not able to find what I was looking for. Kitty showed up at the Boaters Flea Market, so she did a turn looking for treasures and especially books.

I went to the shop and worked on the new cap rail pieces that I am making out of fiberglass. I mixed up a pot of mash mix, and filled in any small area's that will be a problem once the blocks are installed on the boat.

I also worked on the water maker deck. I removed the motor so I could file out the hold down bolt holes so the carriage bolts would fit into the deck. I also drilled the holes for the bracket that holds the start and run capacitors. That is all finished, and the deck is ready to install. Now I have to get busy on installing the vibration isolators on the refrigeration deck.

Went back to Dream Away, and crawled down into the battery storage area and applied the last coat of paint in the area. When it dries, I will be able to get all of the hoses and wiring back where it is supposed to be, and then install the new batteries and battery hold downs.

May 15, Friday.

I got down into the battery storage area, and applied the second coat of paint to the area I put the first coat on yesterday.

We had a power failure at the marina for most of the day, so I started and ran the generator to charge batteries and to run the air conditioner. It was actually a good thing, as I had on the schedule to run the generator next week.

I went over to the shop and worked on the fiberglass blocks, and the stainless steel pieces for the new stanchion bases.

I cut the new plywood for the shelves, to get those pieces ready for painting and installation.

Before I left the shop area, I stopped by Alan's store room and loaded all of the items he was going to sell in the Boaters Flea Market into my truck.

Went to a another friends store room, Paul,  and helped him load his trailer with his sale items for the annual Boaters Flea Market.

Went back to Dream Away, and applied the first coat of paint to another area in the battery storage compartment. I know it seems like I am spending a lot of time painting the battery storage area, but I want to get it all cleaned up, and all of the hoses and wires up and out of the way when I do put the batteries back into place. When I am finished, it will look great, and be much easier to work on and maintain all of the hoses and wires in the battery storage area.

May 14, Thursday.

I moved a bunch of hoses down in the battery storage area and prepared the surfaces for painting. I also put a piece of wood on the side of the port fuel tank to attach hoses to. I also changed some fittings on hoses to make them easier to maintain and/or change when the batteries are back in place. I also changed the fresh water filter for the on board fresh water system. When I got the area set up properly, I put a first coat of paint on the area.

I removed the new water maker deck from the store room on Dream Away to take it over to the shop and get all of the final bolts and nuts put back on the deck and get it ready for the final installation.

I went over to the shop and worked on the fiberglass blocks, and the stainless steel pieces for the new stanchion bases. I am really working to get several all ready to install on the cap rail, at the beginning of the week.

I went back to Dream Away, and worked on the cap rail area. I cleaned up the area where I put the mash mix yesterday. I then cleaned up a portion of the port side, and applied the mash mix to it.

Kitty went and did some necessary shopping today to move the projects forward. She got a five gallon can of acetone, a 4 X 8 sheet of marine plywood to make the two new shelves in the storeroom on Dream Away. She also got three pieces of threaded rod for the cap rail project, and new flares that are required by the Coast Guard and by my new survey.

May 13, Wednesday.

I went over to the shop and finished up two of the blocks of fiberglass for the cap rail. I am using one piece of fiberglass for two stanchion bases at either end, and the Genoa track in between the two blocks. Yesterday I glassed together four pieces of fiberglass for the stanchion bases. Today I glassed these two "four piece" blocks to the 55" long piece of fiberglass, at either end.

I went back to Dream Away and cleaned up the area on the stern where I put the mash mix yesterday. I cleaned up another area of the filler, and applied a coat of mash mix to that area. Tomorrow when I clean up the newly filled place, I will have the starboard side finished along with the stern. I only have to work on the port side.

I also used some of the mash mix, and attached one of the supports I need for the bottom shelf in the store room. When I cut the shelf in half, it will allow better access to the water maker components.

I went back over to the shop to sand more of the fiberglass pieces to make the stanchion bases. I also cut the stainless steel plate in 8" pieces I will be using on the top of the fiberglass blocks that help support the stanchions. I will be doing a lot of sanding and finishing of the fiberglass pieces, and the stainless steel pieces. I will get all of the pieces setup and fitted at the shop before I bring it all over to Dream Away to install.

I ordered the valves today for the Scandvik faucet we have in the head. I ordered some Smith's Penetrating Epoxy for use on wood installed on Dream Away.

May 12, Tuesday.

I started on the aft hull-to-deck joint. I applied mash mix to the holes and imperfections I cleaned up yesterday. I cleaned a new area on the aft hull-to-deck joint that went back to the center of the stern. I then applied some mash mix to the holes and imperfections in that area.

I went over to the shop with the new stainless steel hardware I purchased for the water maker deck. I got all of the hardware put on and loaded the water maker deck into the truck.

I sanded and cleaned up five blocks of the fiberglass I will be using to replace the cap rail and as stanchion bases on the back half of the boat. I then mixed up some polyester resin, and put together the five blocks. Each block is made up of five pieces of fiberglass, 2 1/2" X 8" X 3/4".

May 11, Monday.

Went over to the shop first thing in the morning and finished the new aluminum plate for the deck of the water maker. I first drilled the holes for the vibration isolators, then the holes for the motor. I then drilled the holes for the pump relative to the motor. It was very important the pump and motor line up. If they do not align exactly, when running, the belts will wear out very quickly. The whole thing with the plastic deck, aluminum deck, vibrations isolators, pump and motor is very heavy. I will bring the whole thing to the boat and check the  fit in the area where it is supposed to go.

I then went back to Dream Away and started on the remainder of the battery storage area. I got it all cleaned up, and moved all I could to get everything out of the way, and then put on the first coat of paint.

May 10, Sunday.

Did not do very much on Dream Away today. I spent the morning over at Al's shop helping him clean out from the water damage he had in the rain storm we had on April 18th. My shop is in the same facility, but as it turns out my shop is on higher ground. Where as I had about 1/2" of water in my shop, Alan had about 4".

He had put off working on the problem, but he had is daughter helping, so I was there from around 0800 to 1230.

Left the shop and went back to Dream Away. Kitty and I put up the awnings. This makes it a bunch cooler down below, so the air conditioner does not have to work so hard.

I then spent the remainder of the day just hanging out with Kitty, as it was Mother's day, and she wanted to have my time for a good part of the day.

May 9, Saturday.

May 8, Friday.

Applied first coat of white paint to the battery storage area that I cleaned up yesterday. It was a lot of fun. There is hardly room for me at all, but trying to get into the area, paint the area, and try to keep paint off of me and only into battery storage area is interesting!

May 7, Thursday.

Helped Noel work on the Mercedes so both of the seat belts would work. That took most of the morning. Nicola and Noel left the boat around 1130 and headed off to Bush Intercontinental airport for their flight back to England via Newark.

May 6, Wednesday.

Started off the day by getting right on the cap rail removal project. Noel and I started working on taking the remainder of the cap rail off of the stern and the starboard side. We had the rail off in about an hour. The good news and the bad news, is I am pretty sure I found most of the leaks, so all of this work I am going through will fix the leaks and make the life rail around the after sides and stern of the boat will be much stronger.

When we got the cap rail removed, we then had to try and get as many screws out of the hull-to-deck joint as we could. About half of the screws came out, and the other half broke off. We used a grinder to grind down the broken off bolts.

At this time I had to go to the shop for a part for Nicola and Noel, so while I was there I removed all of the brass parts from the cap rail and toe rail that we took over to the shop yesterday. I also unloaded the 100 lb fisherman anchor and several other parts which were in the truck. I then  loaded up all of the wood pieces and took them over to Watergate and left them by the dumpster for someone to have. I had thought of trying to sell the pieces, but the time, storage and effort were just not worth it. I hope someone gets the wood who can really use it.

When I got back to Dream Away I started in on the hull-to-deck joint. I had to counter sink all of the holes in the hull-to-deck joint, so the filler putty would go into the holes. I mixed up several small batches of the putty and went around the boat filling up all of the holes and cracks. Finally finished all of that around 1730. I then cleaned up the deck and put all of the tools away.

I am now committed on the path for the new stanchion bases.

May 5, Tuesday.

Started off the day with coffee at Alan's boat. Noel and I went over to see Alan and have coffee. We then went back to Dream Away after getting the Mercedes inspected.

A new project was started today!! Noel and I started taking off the cap rail and the toe rail from the back half of Dream Away. We had to remove the 100 lb Fisherman anchor tied to the stern rails. Then we had to remove the stern rail, and all of the stanchions. We got all of that removed, then we started cutting off the toe rail. That came off very easy, and before an hour was out, we had all of the toe rail on the dock.

The hard part was getting off the cap rail. I was pretty sure the adhesive that held down the cap rail was pretty much non-existent, and it turned out to be the case. The real problem was all of the brass bolts that were used to hold down the cap rail. The heads of the bolts, slotted, were in such bad shape you could not unscrew them. We then had to pretty much break off the cap rail in small sections. It really hurts to break up all of that teak, but it has to be done.

Tomorrow, when we get back on the project, I am going to try and drill off the heads of the bolts, and see if we have any better luck getting the teak wood off of the boat.

Today, we finished up by putting duck tape over all of the holes that were in the hull-to-deck joint. Tomorrow when we get the remainder of the cap rail off Dream Away, I will mix up some resin or the filler putty, and fill all of the holes in the hull-to-deck joint.

My plan will be to fill all of the holes, then put down two layers of mat and resin, and then finish it all off with the finishing putty. This will make the hull-to-deck joint look very nice and ready for gel-coat. In the meantime, I will be making the fiberglass blocks that I will be using to support the life rail stanchions.

May 4, Monday.

Went over to the shop in the morning with the measurement to the water maker deck. I drilled the holes and got the whole thing set up. I found a problem, and I will have to change the deck the pump and the motor are attached to. Presently they are on a plastic deck, that worked just great before when the plastic deck was bolted down to the boat. Now with the plastic deck bolted to the vibration isolators, the plastic deck flexes and changes the belt tension between the pump and the motor. I have a piece of 3/8" aluminum plate that I can use to make a new deck.

Went back to Dream Away with the new bottom deck to the water maker with the vibration isolators attached to make sure everything fits properly.

We, myself and Noel, went to the fiberglass factory to pick up the parts for the hatches that I will put on deck to mount the hatches on. On the way we stopped at the  USCG office to drop off some forms to get my USCG license renewed.

May 3, Sunday.

May 2, Saturday.

Most of this day was spent with just Kitty and I hanging out together, as we were alone today. Nicola and Noel left very early this morning to participate in an off shore race.

May 1, Friday.

Went over to the shop, and Nicola and Noel dropped me off to work. They went off in the truck to do some errands.

I spent a fair amount of time measuring fiberglass and stainless steel to come up with the new hold downs for the batteries in the battery compartment on Dream Away. The new plan is a good one, but I decided to not do it at this time. It would take a lot of time to make the new pieces of stainless steel, and use a lot of consumables. I decided to go with the old battery hold-downs. They have worked for many years, and hopefully, once I get the new batteries installed, I will not have to worry about it for ten years.

I spent the remainder of the morning cleaning up the original battery hold-downs getting them ready for installation. I will continue with some minor grinding of the battery storage area, and I will also clean up and paint the area, so it is a pleasure to work in.

I cut the plastic that I will be using for the water maker decks, with the vibration isolators.

Went back to Dream Away for lunch. Took the water maker plastic pieces with me. I measured the cuts, and they look really good. I also measured for the mounting holes on both of the pieces of plastic. I also decided to change the bottom shelf in the storeroom. In the present configuration I have to take everything off of all three shelves in the storeroom. This is very cumbersome, and make working on or servicing the water maker very difficult. I have decided to cut the bottom shelf in half, install a couple of extra shelf supports, and make it very easy to work on the water maker. In this configuration I can empty half of the bottom shelf in the store room and be able to service most of the water maker.

Spent the remainder of the day working with Nicola and Noel getting the problems with the Mercedes worked out.

April 30, Thursday.

Spent time on Dream Away measuring all of the possibilities for the new battery storage method. Got all of the measurements I think are necessary.

Helped Nicola and Noel getting their Mercedes running, but was not successful.

Got ready for our 40th anniversary outing.

April 29, Wednesday.

Not a lot of work done today on Dream Away. Started off the day by going to the Coast Guard Testing office to start the paper work process to renew my Captain's License. I had all of the documents, except proof of citizenship. The interesting part of this, is to renew my license from the USCG which is part of Homeland Security, I had to have a TWIC (Transport Workers Identification Credential) to renew my license. To get a TWIC card you had to have proof of citizenship. Homeland Security also issues the TWIC card. Apparently the two groups do not talk to each other, but they really do take your money for nothing.

April 28, Tuesday.

Did not mention yesterday that the really cool ladder arrived. This morning I went over to the shop and took the ladder out of the packaging and expanded the ladder, used it, and then collapsed the ladder, it is really cool. I will get some pictures out very soon.

April 27, Monday.

Went over to Dream Away first thing and opened up. Did a cleanup of all of the bug bomb cans and newspapers left on the floor. Rolled up the foam pads on the after bunk so I can inspect the rudder post after splashing Dream Away. Good friend Alan showed up to help get Dream Away from the yard, to Thunder, and then back to its home slip. While we were waiting, I tried the Inverter portion of the Inverter/Charger, and it worked just fine. I have no explanation why it did, but I will be keeping a close eye on it in the near future.

April 26, Sunday.

Went over to Dream Away and got right to work. I went into the aft cabin and verified the new paint job was dry. I then put all of the hoses, air vents and other items back where they originated. I then put the bunk all back together and vacuumed and cleaned up the aft cabin.

April 25, Saturday.

Went over to Dream Away and opened up the boat. I applied the second coat of paint in the after cabin under our bunk.

I screwed down the tool box to the work bench I had removed to install the Inverter/Charger and the vented loops. Put away more tools and other items to try and get the boat a little more presentable.

I had received the two circulation pumps from West Marine. With all of the batteries out of the battery storage area, it is very easy to work on the cooling pumps. I was able to plan the pump location. I will be painting the whole battery storage area, so I decided to paint the area where the pumps are located. I removed the water maker lift pump, all the hoses required for the lift pump and the two circulation pumps, and the wiring, and applied one very good coat of paint.

Robert came over to Dream Away, so we were able to lift one of the 8D Gel batteries up to the deck, then down the mid cabin hatch. We then moved the battery into the main cabin, then down into the battery storage area.

Next I wanted Robert to go up the mizzen mast and take off the starboard wind generator. The face bearing is starting to go bad. This was very disappointing as I had sent the wind generators to the factory to be serviced and rebuilt. The original quote said they would replace the face bearings in each unit, but they did not. Robert went up the mizzen, but could not get the wind generator with the wires attached to come up high enough from the mount to disconnect the wires. I had left extra wire in the mount for just this reason, but it seems the wire has fallen down into the mast, and we cannot get the wind generator off. This is not a good situation. I will probably go up the mast a take a look myself, but if we cannot remove the wind generator, I will have to drop the mizzen mast again to fix the wire problem, and to remove the wind generator.

I went down into the battery storage area and connected the new 8D Gel battery to the systems. I started up the DC voltage monitor/regulator to change the battery type and the present capacity, so the electronic monitor/regulator would treat the new battery right. I also turned on the wind generators to keep the single battery charged.

I then cleaned and dried the reefer and freezer lids. I put on new weather stripping on both lids. This should really help with keeping moisture out of the reefer and freezer.

Next I taped the stern of the boat at the water line to straighten out the water line. They guys at the yard have a weird idea of how water lines up on a sail boat. I got the masking tape put on in a reasonably straight line, and then painted the areas not covered with bottom paint. I put on two coats. I also painted the areas around the two transducers Jim and I had put in.

April 24, Friday.

Went over to Dream Away first thing and open up the boat. I put the second coat of paint in the after cabin under the bunks. I am not using marine paint, but a high quality Glidden Porch and Deck paint. The Marine single part epoxy paint yellows very bad after a couple of years, so I thought I would give the Glidden product a try.

Next project was to replace the zincs.  I had to emery paper the propeller shaft to get a good clean area, and installed a doughnut zinc directly on the shaft.  I also had to replace two zincs on the lower rudder pintle. The old zincs came off pretty easy, but then I had to clean and sand the pintles so the new zincs would make good contact. I also took out one bolt on each pintle just to make sure of the condition of the bolts. I had replaced all of the pintle bolts and nuts with new stainless steel bolts and nuts during the March 2003 haul out. All of the bolts I removed and checked had no signs of corrosion.

Next I went to the shop after stopping at Kemah Hardware to purchase some hex machine bolts, 5/16 X 1" X 24, fine thread. When I got to the shop I fabricated the house battery plus buss bar. I cut out the Starboard to mount the buss bar. I then drilled and tapped the buss bar for 14 connections. This should cover everything that will be connected directly to the house battery.

I went back to Dream Away, and installed the buss bar. I then attached all of the connections required to run the house battery and to start the main engine.

I moved all of the hoses and other items in the aft cabin under our bunk so I could put a first coat of paint on all the area not previously painted. The good news was, there really was not much area to paint.

It was time to leave Dream Away, so I set off three more bug bombs. Did not see any evidence the three bug bombs that I set off last night have killed any critters.

April 23, Thursday.

Jim, Kitty and I went to Whataburger for a quick breakfast. Then Jim and I went back to Dream Away. Jim was leaving to go back to Dallas, but was hanging around until the worst of the Houston traffic subsided.

My first project of the day was to clean out the battery storage area under the main salon. I not only wanted to clean the area, but I wanted to get the surface where the batteries sat level. This would mean grinding off some fiberglass, and filling in some other spaces. Jim had also come up with an idea that was a more efficient method of holding the batteries in place. As I was starting to look into the area, and Jim and I were talking about the problems of time and cleanliness of grinding fiberglass, I came up with another solution. I was going to be purchasing some fiberglass plate to use for the aft stanchions, and to bed the three new hatches to the deck, I thought I could purchase two pieces of fiberglass 4" wide and 8' long. I would take these two pieces and glass them to the deck of the battery compartment. This would solve the leveling problem in the battery area, and make moving the batteries around much easier. This solution coupled with the new design battery hold downs, would make a great total solution. We ordered all of the fiberglass we needed, including the two pieces for the battery storage area. When I get those pieces glassed in, I will paint the battery storage area. Jim and I also came up with a main house battery buss bar. This will be located in the battery storage area. This will enable all of the connections to the positive of the house battery, but I will only have one positive connection to the battery. Because of the new battery storage area solution, I will not be putting all of the batteries into Dream Away right away. I will put one battery in for the normal DC loads and to also start the main engine. It was time for Jim to leave so we drove over to the shop and unloaded six of the Gel cell 8D batteries from the Suburban. When that was finished, Jim headed out to Dallas, and I went back to Dream Away.

I started by finishing the vented hose project. I attached the hoses to the thru-hulls. I then dressed the hoses and all of the cables to and from the Inverter/Charger. When I got that done, I put all of the stuff back into the chemical locker we had to remove to make room to work. I moved the big tool box back into the garage on the work bench, that also had to be removed to complete the project. I have not screwed down the work bench as yet, but will get that tomorrow. When I finished with the tool box, I put a lot of parts and tools back where they belonged.

Now I got started on the rudder post project. I had water leaking into Dream Away around the rudder post seal. The bolts and the sealing mechanism was so badly corroded, I was afraid to attempt any adjustment with Dream away in the water. The area looked pretty bad, but when I got  close into it, I discovered there were just a lot of oxides sticking to the metal parts. I got after it all with a scraper and wire brush, and it cleaned up pretty well. The sealing mechanism came apart very easy. I was able to clean up all of the parts with emery paper and wire brush. I wiped them all down and applied grease all over the parts and fittings. I was then able to do the adjustment on the fitting. I will not know if the adjustment is correct until I get Dream Away back into the water, but now I feel confident about making the adjustment.

The leak from the rudder post had caused quite a mess in the area which is directly under where we sleep. Since we are off of the boat, I decided to clean up the area, and put a couple of coats of paint on the hull and fittings. Another two hours of some really interesting positions, and it was all cleaned up. I applied one coat of paint to most of the area. Since I was not able to remove all of the hoses and other items, I will have to do the painting in two stages.

When I finished the painting, I closed up the boat, and set off three bug bombs. This should help keep any critter from getting to first base on Dream Away. I will set off three more bug bombs tomorrow when I leave Dream Away.

April 22, Wednesday.

Jim and I went to Dream Away first thing in the morning to get started with the days projects. Since Jim was leaving tomorrow, Thursday, we decided to concentrate on the projects that needed two persons. The vented hose installation  was at a point where I could finish it by myself, so we got started on the transducers.

April 21, Tuesday.

Jim and I got up and went to Whataburger to have a quick breakfast and a senior coffee (Free). We then went to Dream Away.

We got continued with the installation of the vented loops and moving the Inverter/Charger back to it's original location in the garage. While Jim and I were having breakfast and discussing the actual vented loops, we decided we did not really need the vented loops. We could just loop the hose, and put a brass fitting in the hose as a siphon brake, and run a small hose from the brass fitting to the bilge in case any water came out the siphon brake. We did just that with the hose. I will return the vented loops and get our money back.

We got pretty far along on the vented hose project, but before we completed that project, we had to get the Inverter/Charger moved. The hoses and the wiring for the Inverter/Charger all came up through the work bench and were located in the same place. I was able to find the wires I had cut off when I moved the Inverter/Charger to the location under the main cabin floor. We got the wires spliced back together. We removed the Inverter/Charger and the DC and AC wiring to the Inverter/Charger, and also the temperature sensor and the remote wire. We had to re-route these wire to get them back to the garage and up to the work bench where we were going to install the Inverter/Charger.

Just before lunch, I received a call from West Marine saying that the new batteries were in, and the two cooling pumps for the ice maker and refrigerator were also in. Jim and I went to Thunder for lunch, then to West Marine to pick up the batteries and pumps, and finally to Kemah Hardware to get the needed brass fittings for our loops in the hose.

We got back to the yard and and started to work on Dream Away. Before getting right to it, I talked to the yard manager, and made sure the guy came buy to fix the dings in the hull. The man from the yard came buy, and repaired the dings, and them all sanded down by the end of the day.

We continued with the move of the Inverter/Charger and the installation of the looped hoses. By the time 1730 rolled around we had the move completed, the hoses installed and the wires ran. We tried to run the Inverter/Charger as an inverter, but it would not work. We then jacked around for some time trying to figure out why the Inverter would not work. We finally got power to the boat and verified the charger worked. Why the Inverter does not work, we do not know. The bad news is we did not check the Inverter operation before we moved the Inverter/Charger, so we are unsure if it was working then.

April 20, Monday.

First thing this morning we headed over to Dream Away. We disconnected the water, electricity, satellite TV, and removed the Hummer grill. We then started the engine, disconnected all of the dock lines and backed out of the slip. We then took the boat over to South Texas Yacht Service to haul the boat out. They were waiting for us. They got the Travelift set up and got Dream Away out of the water, and blocked up. The surveyor showed up and did his out of the water things that were necessary. We did notice some dings and deep scratches in the fiberglass where Dream Away was rubbing against the finger pier during Ike. There were also a few other fairly large ( 1 inch across ) dings that were probably caused by the broken piling that was wedged against the aft port side on Dream Away.

Jim and I went to look for a ladder. I was looking for a specific type of folding ladder that is a 12 foot ladder, but folds down to 2.5 feet. Very handy for a boat. We finally located one at the Sears store, but can only be ordered on line, which I did. I know, I know, I should have done it two weeks ago, but having a ladder for the haul out just never crossed my mind. Any way the ladder is on order, should be here by the end of the week. I was able to borrow a structure that passes as a ladder for our use during the haul out.

When Jim and I returned from the ladder field trip, we went to Dream Away and started the installation of the vented loops. We decided to do the vented loops first, then we will move the inverter back to its original spot. Next we plan to replace the transducers for the dept sounder and the knot meter. Then we will install the Dynaplate. The battery removal will be next.

The vented loop project meant we had to remove one of the tool boxes on the bench in the garage. When that was done, we had to cut some holes in the bench to pass the hoses for the two automatic bilge pumps. When that was finished we had to take the old hoses off of the bilge pumps, and install the new hose. We got the new hoses run to the are where the vented loops were going to be installed, but had two problems. One of the vented loops would have to be installed directly onto the hull, and I did not like that. The other problem was to install the new hose on one of the thru-hull, it had to be twisted to another position.

The solution to the first problem was to fiberglass a piece of wood to the hull to mount the vented loop onto. The solution to the second problem was to remove the hose barb from the thru-hull, clean it up, and re-bed them in the new position. We went to the shop. Jim cleaned the two parts to re-bed them, and I cut a piece of wood to glass to the hull.

We went back to Dream Away, and installed the thru-hull and hose barb in its proper orientation. I then put the piece of wood on the hull using the course fiberglass putty. We then put all of the tools, extension cords back on Dream Away, buttoned her up and went back to Thunder to get a shower, and have dinner. Tomorrow we will get back onto the projects.

April 19, Sunday.

Went over to the shop to start gathering items that will be needed for the haul out tomorrow. Got a real shock when we opened the door to the shop. It was pretty obvious that we had a lot of water in the shop. The storm yesterday really had a lot of rain in a short time. News reports had the figure at 6 inches in two hours. Anyway we did not have any water damage in the shop during Ike.

The next three or four hours were spent taking stuff out of the shop, and our other storage room and drying the items off, and then putting it all back. We did not loose very much except a lot books and notes. I had also taken a bunch of stuff off of Dream Away so I would have plenty of space to work during the haul out.  These boxes were sitting on the floor of the other storage room, so they got wet. I had to take everything out of each box, dry everything off, then put it all back in the boxes. Of course anything in a cardboard box, at least the box had to be thrown away.

We then went to Blue Water Ships Store to purchase some hose and two vented loops for the automatic bilge pumps on Dream Away. I am replacing the check valves I have in those hoses to vented loops. Much safer. The reason I am working on these now is because my good friend Jim is down to help for a few days, so I am concentrating on haul out projects where I need two people.

We then went back to Thunder, the boat on which we are staying during the haul out, to help with a problem there. We worked on a few items, and we did a cleaning of the air conditioning cooling hoses. We finished up that project around 1700.

April 18, Saturday.

Jim and I went over to the shop in the morning. We worked on getting the water maker pump and motor bolted down to the deck and aligned. This was more trouble than it seemed, but was much better with two people working on it. The insides of the two aft deck box lids had kicked off and were dry.

Went back to dream away and started planning the projects for the haul out. We also made sure we had most everything required for the haul out projects. Made a list a of a few items that will be required.

We then hunkered down for a very violent storm that passed through the area. I measured 48 knot winds at the slip, and I can only guess at the amount of rain that fell. When the rain finally settled down, we looked out and our dock and finger pier had approximately 6 inches of water over it. As of now the water is receding, but what a fun time we had. Tomorrow is supposed to be much better, so we can get some work done.

April 17, Friday.

Went over to the shop in the morning. The white gel-coat that I had put on the outside of the aft deck box lids had set up very well. The gel-coat I put on the inside was a bit tacky. I was hoping this would not happen. I was mixing the gel-coat for the inside of the aft deck box lids, and when I took the top off of the hardener, the insert for the top of the bottle that allows you to drip in the hardener, came off with the top of the bottle, and an unknown amount of hardener went into the gel-coat. Since I was not sure of the amount of hardener in the gel-coat, I was afraid to add more, as the gel-coat might kick off before I got the gel-coat applied. The other side of the coin is the chemical reaction might be slow, but would eventually kick off. The slow kick off is what happened, better safe than sorry. Tomorrow, when I got to the shop I will take my heat gun in case it still has not kicked off. The heat gun will "encourage" the chemical reaction.

April 16, Thursday.

Started the day by doing some routine maintenance. I had to clean strainers. I took off the large input strainer, 1 1/2", then the raw water manifold. I took these out on the dock and thoroughly cleaned them. Brought them back on Dream Away and connected them back up. Before I connected the refrigeration hose, I cleaned the small strainer for that hose, then connected the hose from the dock to the hose for the refrigeration cooling water hose and turned on the dock water. This thoroughly cleans out the line. I then connected the refrigeration cooling water hose back to the raw water manifold. Before I connected the hose for the forward air conditioner, I cleaned the small strainer for that hose, then connected the hose from the dock to the hose for the air conditioning cooling water hose and turned on the dock water. I then connected the air conditioning cooling water hose back to the raw water manifold. I then connected the remaining four hoses. I turned on the main sea cock and checked for leaks. All this effort was about three and a half hours work.

I then checked the electrical lines from the dock to the boat on my neighbors boat. The 50 amp "Y" cable and the male plugs that go into it are in really bad shape. I will be calling the owner about getting them replaced.

I then went over to the shop. On the way to the shop I stopped at West Marine and picked up the Dynaplate. I will be installing this for the Single Side Band radio ground during the haul out.

I drilled the holes into the deck of the water maker for the pump. That went very well, and it looks like I will be making some progress there. I still have to weld some nuts on one of the plates so I can adjust the motor, which will allow me to adjust the tightness of the drive belts from the motor to the pump.

I then put some white gel-coat on the two aft deck box lids, and also gel-coated the inside of the two aft deck box lids. They both looked real good when I left the shop. If they set up over night, I will be able to install them on Dream Away. Another project that went on way to long.

I finally ordered the vibration isolators from Grainger. These will be used on the refrigeration deck and the water maker deck to cut down on the noise and vibration.

April 15, Wednesday.

Went over to the shop and fabricated the new bracket for the water maker filter that had the 5/8" hose fittings. Got the bracket and went back to Dream Away.

I called Alan and had him meet me in the parking lot to help me start the Mercedes I am watching for our English friends, Nicola and Noel. Alan found a bad fuse in the fuel pump circuit. We replaced the fuse, and the car started right up. Alan owns a Mercedes of the same type and year, so he knows a fair bit about Mercedes problems.

Went down to Dream Away and started to fit the cross braces for the filter brackets, and the braces were 1/8" to long. Back to the shop to cut the cross braces and to trim up one of the filter brackets.

Went back to Dream Away and started to fit in the cross braces and the filter brackets. Project was going well, but had to take a break.

I had to meet the manager of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership so she could sign my small vessel sea service form for the pontoon boat. It is time to renew my USCG Captain's license so I am getting everything together to get the process started. On the way back from the meeting, I stopped at Maximum SCUBA and picked up my repaired regulator, and dropped off my second regulator to have it serviced and repaired if necessary.

Got back from the meeting and continued with the water maker filter bracket installation. By the time I finished for the night, I had all three filters installed. The new installation will make it so much easier to replace filters, and I will be able to bleed the filter housing after the filters have been changed. I still have to install the hoses, but most of the new bracket project is done.

April 14, Tuesday.

No work on Dream Away today. The day was spent in a clinic and recovering from a colonoscopy on Dream Away. Will be back at work tomorrow.

April 13, Monday.

Went over to the shop to fabricate one bracket for the water maker filter housing. The fabricated bracket fit really well, so went back to Dream Away to test the bracket and to see if the same size bracket would fit all three filter housings. The was good for all three housings, so went back to the shop.

At the shop I fabricated two more brackets, and also cut the aluminum plates to hang the brackets from. I brought all of the parts back to Dream Away to see how they would fit. A problem came up with one of the brackets I fabricated. I had drilled 1" holes in the bracket for the hose fittings into the filter housing. This worked for two of the housings, but the third one has 5/8" holes for its fittings. So I will have to fabricate another bracket.

The fitting of the brackets went very well. I have to do some adjustments on the deck the water maker pump and motor actually sit on. I may have to make additional changes on the deck, as I am trying to locate some vibration isolators for the water maker to make the unit quieter. I will also use the same isolators for the refrigeration deck to make it quieter also. Once the new filter brackets are installed, it will make it much easier to replace the filter elements in the filter housings. I am also planning to put sound proofing material on the inside of the area where the refrigeration compressor and the water maker are. This will also help with noise and keep the heat in one area. I plan to fun a 4" hose into the area with a blower that will such the hot air out of the area and into the engine room.

April 12, Sunday.

April 11, Saturday.

April 10, Friday.

Went over to the shop and had Alan come to the shop to help me with the tacking up of the davit support. I also had brought my level and machinists rule to help with the lining up of the base with the piece of pipe. We were finally able to get everything lined up and I was able to tack them together.

I went down to Texas City to get some more stainless welding rods, and stopped at Lowe's to get a sander and sandpaper for the mid-cabin floor. On the return trip also stopped at West Marine and picked up some parts there.

Got back to Dream Away and tested the davit part that I had tacked up. It fit really good, but I think I will increase the bend just a few more degrees. Where the bend is now the mizzen boom could hit the davit support. I am going to put the sail on the mizzen mast and see if it will clear the davit support pipe before I actually do the final welding of the part.

I worked some more in the store room on Dream Away. I am pretty sure I will be able to make some new mounts for the water maker filters that will enable me to not attach them to the bottom shelf in the store room and still have pretty easy access to the filters. I will work on these this coming Monday.

I also tested the new sander on the floor of the mid-cabin. It looks like it is a winner, I will need to get more aggressive sandpaper.

April 9, Thursday.

Went over to the shop. I met Alan there and we worked on his jib crane most of the day. I think we have the crane almost finished. We made the fittings so the cable can roll on pulleys and lift the dinghy. I helped Alan take the jib crane back to his boat and get the crane up on his boat and on the mounting pipe. The crane looks really good.

April 8, Wednesday.

Stayed on Dream Away and removed all of the supporting angle brackets that hold up the shelves in the storeroom. Because of the new method I am using to support the water maker filters, I have to replace the angle brackets on the bottom shelf. I decided to replace the angle brackets on all the shelves. This new angle bracket I purchased from the recycling yard for $22.00 is twice the thickness of the old angel brackets.

I took all of the original angle brackets over to the shop. This is six brackets, plus the two new brackets for the water maker filters. I cut the new brackets to length, drilled them for the screw holes to support the shelves, and drilled the holes for the screws that hold the shelves to the brackets.

I ground down the pipe for the davits again, and went back to Dream Away.

I installed all of the new brackets into the store room, and put the top shelf back in and the second shelf in. The third or bottom shelf I left out so I can work in the water maker/reefer area to make the changes that will be necessary.

I checked the spacing and fit on the pipe for the davits, and it looks like I got the angle correct. That would make sense, because I stopped at Kemah Hardware and purchased a tool that is used to transfer angles. It will really come in handy as I get more involved in the davits.

April 7, Tuesday.

Kitty left early for a meeting, so I stayed on the boat and took the shelves out of the storeroom on the boat. I was able to remove one valve on the water maker, because it was not being used. The functionality of the removed valve is being done by another valve. I am trying to move the water maker pre-filters to make them easier to service, and to make room for the bigger high pressure pump I am installing. Could not come up with a solution.

Al came over to Dream Away and we measured the angle cut on the bottom of the pipe for the davits. It is still not correct, so I will have to trim it some more. We then went to the recycling yard to try and find some 1/8" stainless steel sheet. We both need some, but were not able to find any.

I went back to Dream Away and started working on the area on the stern where the dinghy davits will go. When I removed the old davit bases, I tore some of the fiberglass off of the deck! This did not make me a happy camper. In any case I got the area all prepared. Tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful day, so I should be able to get the fiberglass repaired.

I went back to the storeroom on Dream Away, and after some consideration, I have come up with a solution to the filter problem.  I need some aluminum angle to enable the fix, so back to the recycling yard. There I was able to find the perfect angle pieces to do the job. Now I will have to replace the angle that holds up the shelves with thicker angle so I can attach other angle to it so I can attach the filters to the other angle. Sounds complicated, but I will be taking pictures, so when I get them to the web page it will all make sense!!

On the way back from the recycling yard, I stopped at the shop. I worked on the SCUBA compressor. It now has the proper amount of oil in it, and the water/oil filter installed. The electricity is all installed, so tomorrow I will see if that baby works.

I trimmed some more steel off of the bottom of the pipe for the davits. I will take the pipe back to Dream Away and check it again. I am taking it slow, because I do not want to take to much off of the pipe.

I was going to gel-coat the tops, but when I poured the gel-coat into the mixing pail, there was lumps in it. I did not have the proper size filter, so I did not get that job finished.

I did put the seventh coat of varnish on the companionway screens. Let them dry 24 hours, and they will be good to go back to Dream Away.

Went back to Dream Away, and checked the davit pipe again. it is still not correct, so I will take some more off of the end of the pipe tomorrow.

April 6, Monday.

I left Dream Away with the connectors I needed to connect the wire to the SCUBA compressor. I went by Home Depot to get a fitting needed for the electric distribution box on the compressor, then went to the shop. While I was in Home Depot, I looked at a couple of sanders. I will be purchasing a sander to sand the mid-cabin floor to get it ready for varnishing.

I was able to get the wire connected to the distribution box on the SCUBA compressor. I need to install the air filter, then I will be able to start the compressor, and hopefully fill my four SCUBA tanks.

Al came over and we finished working on his jib crane. I had one more piece to weld on.

We then got out the pipe bender and got set up to bend the first piece of pipe for the dinghy davits. Since this was the first piece we took it very slow, and I recorded everything I did so I will be able to duplicate the process. Bending the pipe went very well. I was surprised. There was no bad stretching of the pipe, or flattening of the pipe. After we bent the pipe, we cut it off at the proper angle and loaded the pipe in the truck along with the jib crane.

I went to Al's boat to take the jib crane down to the boat and get it installed. The unit looks pretty good. AL still has some more work to do to get it working, but he is making significant progress.

I went back to Dream Away. I had to sand off an area at the stern and transom area where I had put some filler last week. I got that all sanded nice and checked the two davit pieces I had welded up on Friday. They fit really good, so we are on our way there. We fit the piece of pipe I had bent earlier, but the angle we cut off was not correct. I marked the pipe to make another cut.

Went back to the shop, and on the way stopped at Kemah Hardware to get a 1" drill bit. When I got to the shop I set up the chop saw and made the new cut on the pipe. I cleaned up the edges, and put the pipe back into the truck. I then drilled two 1" holes in the base plates that will be used for the upper davit support. I drilled these holes because I will be running electrical wires and antenna wires up those hole to bases that will be welded onto the dinghy davits. It would be very difficult to drill those holes after the pipe is welded to them.

Went back to Dream Away, but it was late so I did not try a fit on the pipe. Will do that tomorrow.

April 5, Sunday.

Went over to the shop and Al came over. We spent the whole day working on his jib crane for his boat. He has had two shoulder operations recently, so has a difficult time picking up heavy objects. We had a lot of welding to do on his jib crane, so it was good for me to practice welding stainless steel and to help Al with his project. BTW a jib crane is the crane on a power boat that is used to hoist the dinghy out of the water and put the dinghy on top of the power boat.

April 4, Saturday.

Did not do much on Dream Away today. First thing in the morning We went to the shop and loaded up the items I was taking to the flea market. We then went to the flea market and as usual had a great time meeting and talking with other boaters we do not see very often. We were able to sell some of our stuff, and of course Kitty purchased some books. We also purchased a 6' Texas flag that will be flown proudly here and when we go cruising.

It is funny and we have had other cruisers tell us the same thing. When you go to foreign countries and the local folks ask where you are from, and you say Texas, you get the feeling the locals think Texas is not really part of the USA. Also when we are cruising, generally Texas is the only state flag you will see flying from a cruising boat.

After the flea market, I went back to the shop and sanded the new mid-cabin hatch. I also put on a sixth coat of varnish on the companionway screens.

Shannon came by the boat and put the second coat of Natural Cetol on the cockpit seat she started yesterday. She wanted to get two coats on before she alternated one side to the other.

When I got Back to Dream Away, we had to get the party ready for our good friend Al. It is his 76th birthday, and we were having a pot luck party for him, coordinated by his daughter who had just moved to the area from San Antonio. It was a great party as all three of Alan's kids showed up and several grandchildren and even one great-grandchild. Also a lot of Alan's boating friends came to the party, so we really had a wonderful time.

Al's party got kicked off around 1600, and settled down around 1900. Then another birthday party started for two other folks whose birthday is on the 4th. It was a great party also, and I lasted to around 2300, but the smokers were getting to me so I crashed.

April 3, Friday.

Went over to the shop first thing in the morning. Worked on the new hatch for the mid-cabin floor. I made the cut out for the pull and installed the pull. I then mixed up some epoxy with a thickening of teak dust. I put this mixture into all of the cracks that were not filled in the new mid-cabin floor hatch.

Worked a bit on the SCUBA compressor. Cut the new connection wire and verified the parts needed to connect the wire into the distribution box on the compressor. Filled the compressor with oil.

Welded up the two bases for the davits that I checked the fit on yesterday. I also welded one of the pieces for the water maker motor base. The other piece for the water maker motor base need some special elongated holes in it. I am sure I could have done the job, but it would have taken a bunch more time. I decided to take the piece to P&V machine shop and have Van cut the holes. The part should be ready some time next week, and only cost $60.00.

Shannon also showed up to put the last maintenance coat on the Cetol and start finishing the stripped teak on the boat with the new Cetol Natural light. So far it looks really good, and I think it will really look great when it is all done. Today was the first coat.

April 2, Thursday.

Did not go to the shop, but stayed on the boat. A front moved through this morning and it was really raining when I wanted to go to the shop. It finally quit raining, the sun came out and the wind started to blow, so I went to the shop.

I trimmed a bit off of the old hatch for the mid-cabin floor.  I picked up the new printer shelf and the cabinet that will go under the printer shelf and put them into the truck. The shelf and cabinet each had five coats of varnish on them which is adequate for interior parts. I then went back to Dream Away.

I fitted the bases for the lower support of the dinghy davits, that I had tacked up yesterday. One base was right on, and the second was very close, but needed a bit of adjustment. I will take them over to shop tomorrow and weld them out, then bring them back to make the final fit. I also cleaned out the area where the bases go on the stern. It needed to be cleaned up and a bit of finishing putty put down to fill a couple of small holes.

I then started to install the new printer shelf. This was interrupted by me going to the doctors. I had to move the cooling fan in the mid cabin, but I finally got the shelf in and the cabinet installed under the shelf. We now have up and out of the way our HP 4180 printer, the Kyocera KR-1 broadband router, the disk and print server, and the three backup hard drives. I have not checked out all of our computers, but I have access to all of the units. It is nice to get this installation done.

April 1, Wednesday.

Went over to the shop and sanded down the new hatch in the floor of the mid-cabin, also trimmed the hatch up a bit to make it fit into the cutout in the floor.

Went to Blue Water Ships store to purchase more epoxy resin and a pull for the new mid-cabin hatch.

Went to Great Western Metals with Alan and picked up the 1 1/2" pipe for the dinghy davits. Brought the pipe back to the shop.

Welded one of the parts for the water maker pump. I still have one more part to weld for the pump, and a couple of modifications to make so the motor belt tension is much easier to adjust. I also tacked up (lightly welded) the bases I am going to use for the lower support on the dinghy davits. I tacked them up so I could take them to the boat and put them in the exact place, and make any slight adjustments if necessary.

I applied the fifth coat of varnish to the new printer shelf, the under shelf cabinet, and to the companionway screens.

Came back to Dream Away and fitted the new mid-cabin floor hatch, which was a good fit. Tried to fit the old hatch into its spot in the mid-cabin floor, but it would not fit. It will need a couple of adjustments.

March 31, Tuesday.

Went over to the shop and picked up all of the tools needed to work on the mid-cabin floor. Drove back to Dream Away to meet Rick.

We set up and started the cutting and piecing together the parquet floor in the mid-cabin that was left. I worked with Rick for about two hours, and then I had to leave to go to the doctor's with Kitty. That was good news, and then I had to go to a doctor to get my physical and drug test for my Coast Guard license renewal. That took longer than anticipated, but I finally got back to Dream Away to help Rick with the final epoxying of the parquet floor. We were able to finish it all up. That is a real milestone. I still have to sand down the floor to get it smooth, and then soak it all in penetrating epoxy, and then a few coats of varnish.