OK, Now What?

On Oct 22nd, 2009 Published By B.J.

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It has been more than two months since my last blog entry confession.

For your penance you have to figure out how to store all the crap in that picture for the winter while stripping the old electronics gear off the boat. Then figure out how to put all that stuff back in.

Can’t you just give me 30 Hail Mary’s and a couple of Rosaries?

It’s been a busy end of summer with a lot to write about. Coming up we will see….

  • The Great Electronics Upgrade Project of 2010
  • Vacation and trip reports, or “Sandwiching fun between Hurricanes and Tropical Storms”
  • Additions to the Fleet
  • Seals
  • Teak Updates (I know you all have been dying without those…we are doing bungs!)
  • More additions to the Fleet, and the stupid things your humble blog author is planning to do with it. It involves long underwear and a dry suit.
  • The Neverending Project List Update
  • Wailing, kvetching and gnashing of teeth about hauling the boat and Winterization.

And of course a lot of other stuff I will remember now that it is getting colder and I am looking for things to help me procrastinate with my decommissioning tasks.

Posted in Electronics, projects | Comments Off on OK, Now What?

Time & Sobriety

On Aug 14th, 2009 Published By B.J.

Both of which were apparently in short supply the Provincetown vacation…so I’m way behind on updates.

What a nice vacation – great fun traveling with friends. Cuttyhunk was a pleasant stay for us, we got to walk around a bit and have a relaxing visit. Provincetown is, well altogether different. The weather was a bit dodgy and prevented any serious sun related activities, and a whale watch was not in the cards this time. Highlights included:

  • Cuttyhunk Raw Bar!
  • Mudslide night. Well, mudslide day really, since we started blending them up in the afternoon. One member of the party lost her shoes, and some of us managed to not get beat up in town in spite of our less than excellent condition. We still managed to cook dinner on the boat without blowing it up and dropping only one tank of propane in the water. New boat record set for pitchers mixed in one sitting (eight).
  • Kid’s freedom…with four kids on the trip and staying at a dock we felt OK handing them money for dinner and telling them to meet us at the boat later. They had a blast walking around on their own, and the adults had some nice dinners out.
  • Baked Stuffed Lobster at the Lobster Pot. Do not miss this.
  • Drag Karaoke night at the Governor Bradford pub. Followed by a few other places…
  • Being nice and dry in the Buzzards Bay chop on the way home
  • I have to put the rubber band guns the kids found in an eclectic store on the “highlight” list since they loved them so much. I remain puzzled on how rubber bands have ended up in some of the places I have found them…apparently there was quite a battle on board while we were at dinner one night.

Of course, it would not be a trip on Evenstar without something causing me trouble. A self inflicted Alternator injury plagued part of it – being a good do-bee and tightening my belts did not pay off this time when the socket wrench slipped and something made a really bright spark. We had a new alternator and some fuses shipped to P-Town, but that didn’t work out so well. Wrong sized mount and disk on the alternator meant we couldn’t put it on. I thought I’d trashed the old alternator, but it turns out it was just the snubber that was burned out. This is a little diode used to protect the big expensive diodes on the alternator in the event of an unexpected event, like someone turning off the batteries or some idiot dropping a wrench across the terminals. I always wanted a backup alternator anyway.

More alarmingly the instruments just sort of…stopped…on Cuttyhunk before we left. I was able to partially restore them, but they were not liable and the autopilots were no longer working. Initially I suspected the Fluxgate Compass, but it turned out to be a loose connection to one of the autopilot controls that knocked out the primary and backup pilots.

The trip home was foggy and long with a lot of roll and chop. Makes me love the hard dodger more, but also raised my frustration level with the instruments and radar to a new high.

Posted in alternator, broken things, Cuttyhunk, Provincetown | Comments Off on Time & Sobriety

Vacation!

On Jul 20th, 2009 Published By B.J.

It’s that time again! Tomorrow morning we head off for a week of relaxation and adventure. The spinnaker is repaired and on board, and we are almost ready to go. Hopefully we will be underway tomorrow morning barring any disasters or misfires.

The itinerary is pretty simple, we are meeting up with some friends and heading, eventually, to Provincetown. We can get out before they can so we are heading to Cuttyhunk tomorrow for a day or so before we rendezvous with two other boats. On Wednesday we leave for Provincetown for three nights, wending our way back home starting Saturday morning.

Due to the social nature of the trip – traveling with two other boats – we are actually going to *gasp* pay for at least one night in a slip. Three if they can fit us. Weird for us to be sure, but much easier to be sociable.

Our last trip to P-Town was a lot of fun, this time we’re traveling with some other families with kids that are friends with our kids. And of course adults that are friends of ours.

Updates to follow as time & sobriety permit…

Posted in Cuttyhunk, Provincetown, vacation | Comments Off on Vacation!

Teak Update…

On Jul 18th, 2009 Published By B.J.

While I know that all of you have been on the edges of your seats for months awaiting an update to the Great Teak Debacle of 2009 there’s not been a lot to update. Since the last update Chris has been working on the detail sanding while I deal with more prosaic tasks like replacing a head, repairing a burned out 50 Amp shore power connector and cord, and other maintenance tasks his teak work has freed me up for.

Funny, but he didn’t want to switch jobs with me yesterday when I was replacing another one of these stupid Jabsco toilets (more on that crappy job in another post…the job was OK but the head is annoying!); I would have been more than happy to offer him my rubber gloves and do some sanding.

“Detail Sanding” mostly means going around either by hand with a piece of sandpaper or with a small power tool and finding all the extra caulk we’ve not sanded off and getting rid of it. There was actually a lot – all the places the big power tools couldn’t get to; edges around things, the edge of the teak areas, and other tight places.

The detail sanding is basically done (though I anticipate finding “misses” regularly for the next year). We have two final steps before the project is essentially complete. I say essentially because we left a few lazarettes (hatch covers) completely undone because they have a lot of detail work, and they can be taken off the boat for the winter and done on my work bench at home.

The first big task is the teak bungs. These are the little round wooden plugs that fit into the screw holes in the deck where the screws that hold the deck on are. For our first attempt, I measured some of the open bung holes with a micrometer and they seemed to be about 3/8″ inches, which is a standard size you can buy at most local marine retailers in the United States. Easy to find and convenient. Hah! I estimate we have a little more than 100 bungs to replace.

About is the key word in that last paragraph, after Chris put a few in we noticed that while they were snug going in they were not snug enough and there were still hair line gaps around them. That they went in by hand and without a mallet should have been a tip off: clearly 3/8″ is too small. Given the European construction of Evenstar my thought was they were either metric, or some odd custom size. To be safe and not waste a lot of time with bung making tools or hunting down metric bungs I ordered a set of bungs from Hallberg-Rassy; these should fit. We don’t lose any time because I’m taking the boat on vacation next week anyway. 200 of the bungs and screws that Hallberg-Rassy uses to build their boats will hopefully be sitting on my porch when I get back.

The process is straightforward, if time consuming (isn’t this whole project?). For holes where the head of the screw is deep enough a quick cleaning out of the hole for dust and crud, a dab of varnish in the hole to hold the bung plug, tap in the plug and let it dry. Then you put a chisel on the edge of the bung and give it a little tap to pop the part that is sticking above the deck off, and you sand it a little.

Unfortunately more than a few of the holes are not deep enough to hold the bung. For those we have to back the screw out and take a rotary tool to the hole to countersink it a bit more. Dig it out if you will so it is deep enough to shove the bung into it and hold it there. Then a screw is reinserted with some sort of sealant (to be determined) on it, and the process continues as above.

The final task which will put an end to the job is fixing all the skips, misses and screwups. Cut out the new, badly installed caulk then re-prep the grooves. Mask it all carefuly and refill the gaps and sand it down.

The end is in sight though, and the decks are looking really, really nice even now.

Posted in Teak | Comments Off on Teak Update…

Boringest Post Ever

On Jul 14th, 2009 Published By B.J.

This weekend we went to Block Island.

Nothing Broke.

Nothing was destroyed.

Nothing caught on fire.

There was no fog.

An excellent and relaxing time was had by all.

We did have some minor drama when anchored next to Mr. “Chapman’s says I should have 7 to 1 scope dammit and I’m taking it” in an anchorage where you consider yourself fortunate to get 5 to 1 out because it is normally so crowded. But we didn’t hit him (even though he swung into the guy next to us the night before), and we didn’t drag in the 30+ knot thunderstorm that blew through Saturday night. The conversation went something like this, when he decided to clue me in about 8 hours after we’d anchored that he had so much scope out:

Mr. Chapman’s Says: We have 210 feet of scope out.
Me: I have 165
Mr. Chapman’s Says: We’re in 30 feet of water.
Me: I know. I have all chain.
Mr. Chapman’s Says: It’s supposed to blow 30 knots tonight.
Me: I know.
Mr. Chapman’s Says: It’s supposed to swing West.
Me: I know.
Mr. Chapman’s Says: I have 210 feet of scope out.
Me: I know.
Mr. Chapman’s Says: I am worried that you won’t swing enough, last night we woke up against that boat over there (points to rather beat up looking ketch NO ONE wants to end up against). When we swing we will be on you.
Me: OK. I will let more out so you don’t hit me. But we will get closer together now.
Mr. Chapman’s Says: That’s OK. We’re going in town to the movies now.

An excellent and relaxing time really was had by all…except for a brief moment with one skipper wearing boxer shorts and foulies in the cockpit during a torrential fusillade of rain while glaring daggers at the boat next to us from 2-3 AM on Saturday…but I got over it.

In all due seriousness…yes, 7:1 scope is ideal and preferred. I’ve gotten that at Block Island. In early May, and in October. Other than that it is too crowded and no one can let out that much lest they be a menace to everyone around them.

Posted in Block Island | Comments Off on Boringest Post Ever

Neglecting the good Stuff

On Jul 8th, 2009 Published By B.J.

So I’ve done it once again – filled all of your heads with all the horrendous things I’ve done to my poor boat while neglecting to point out that the other 99% of the trip was really, really nice. OK, 90% anyway, we had a lot of fog.

All the the rampant spinnaker destruction occurred on Sunday, after spending the July 4th Holiday with friends out on Block Island. And I should say it was a LOT of fun.

Rafting up with other boats is not something we’ve done a lot of; we get out on the boat to cruise every weekend my wife isn’t working and for a couple of weeks every summer. Probably 50-60 nights on the hook every season between late April and late October. We do very little of that in the company of other boats, however. Many reasons for that, not the least of which is that we simply had not had our friends pointed in the same direction as us on the same weekend. Except for Block Island Race Week in 2007 we’d never spent more than a couple of hours rafted up with another boat.

This weekend was different – we planned to meet a couple of friends with their boats on Block Island. Block Island on the Fourth of July is a bit of a madhouse. The town moorings are jammed, the docks that raft boats are rafted seven deep, and the anchorage gets pretty full. So you need to get out early to get a spot, especially without a reservation. We were meeting some friends in a Beneteau First 36.7 and a 32 foot power boat (Wellcraft? They all sort of look alike to me…) with plans to raft for the weekend. The thinking is that Evenstar with her nearly half a ton of ground tackle could provide holding for the smaller lighter boats that they ordinarily would not attempt.

In fact this worked like a charm. We got out on Friday morning fairly early, dropped a hook and rafted with the sail boat. I then spent a good part of the day waiting for the pump out boat because somebody lacked the wit to take a free and easy pump out before leaving home…everyone else went in to town. Later that night the power boat arrived and rafted just as the fireworks were starting. Cold drinks and snacks were shared out, and much fun was had by all for the next two days.

Of course getting to Block had it’s nuisance factor, in the amount of fog we had on Thursday night on the way to Dutch Harbor, and Friday morning on the way out to Block Island. It was unnerving to say the least to discover we couldn’t really even see the pilings on the Jamestown Bridge until we were pretty much right under it. But fog (and dark) is fog, we’ve handled it before and we know how to be careful.

Throughout the weekend we watched the wind shift around and saw our ground tackle hold like a mooring, we didn’t drift an inch even with an extra 26,000 pounds of boats tied to our two sides. Hanging out with a group of friends with our boats tied together like that was just plain fun, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Posted in Block Island, Dutch Harbor, Rafting | Comments Off on Neglecting the good Stuff

So other than that how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

On Jul 7th, 2009 Published By B.J.

Until some time this afternoon I was fairly convinced that we had utterly destroyed the spinnaker this past weekend.

While there is little evidence to the contrary as far as my sail maker is concerned, we have set the cruising spinnaker on this boat and on our last boat several times without having to use a knife to get it down. Unfortunately the last two times this has not been the case. Towards the end of last season was the first hideous takedown; yesterday it was the set and not the douse that nearly was the death of our spinnaker.

We spent a lovely Fourth of July weekend on Block Island, where we rafted with some friends and had a generally nice time in spite of some thick fog on the way out. Leaving Sunday, we had a nice Southwesterly breeze for the sail home. Perfect Spinnaker weather. So I carefully pre-rigged the spinnaker on the deck and got it almost all ready to go for when the wind was at a better angle. As we sailed North to the 1BI marker we agreed that the wind would be better for a set after we passed the mark. With winds around 12-15 knots on a broad reach this would be fast and fun.

We were already making almost 8 knots of speed when we started bearing off for Point Judith. I went forward to complete the rigging, then switched places with my wife so that she could do the hoist, as I am more comfortable with sailing the boat deep down wind without jibing it still. With some small adjustments we got the spinnaker up in it’s sock. Then we raised the sock and shortly thereafter all hell broke loose.

As best we can figure it we were sailing too deep and had the sail too blanketed – it did not have enough air to fill. So it wrapped around the head stay very quickly and got very tight. About this time the wind started to pick up. We tried for some time to get the kite down, but the wind wrapped it tighter and tighter, the waves were getting choppy and working on the foredeck needed two hands. We decided in what later proved to be a profoundly stupid move that we should head to the Harbor of Refuge and drop the anchor so we could deal with the fouled sail.

Bad Move.

We got to the harbor of refuge mostly sailing under main sail alone – making 7.5 knots or so. As we turned in to the harbor and prepared to anchor we figured out that the wind had now piped into the twenties. Unfortunately we proceeded with our original plan and did a quick anchoring. After a few minutes of this – yes the water was flat but the wind was howling – we realized this was worse than being on the open water. The sail was being blown back into the rig, and it was at this point that we did the real damage. We got it a little loose, just enough to get sucked into the rig, snap off some cormorant spikes, beat the speaker on our loud hailer to shards, and get stuck in the rigging. At this point the sail started to shred and tear on the remaining anti-bird spikes and other points in the rig.

We quickly realized this was a huge mistake, and our best bet was to run for home as fast as we could with the main sail blanketing the sail as much as possible to minimize flogging and shaking. So we did. With visions of making the “sail of shame” in front of my yacht club to my mooring with this massive spinnaker tangled in my rig I started making phone calls to some friends, my rigger, etc. to see about arranging help when we got in.

As we approached the area between Narragansett and Jamestown I sailed over close to the high bluffs of Bonnet Shores, hoping to get in the lee of the cliffs and catch a break on the flogging. We were concerned that the rig would get shaken apart from the beating and had secured a halyard forward just in case the head stay broke. Fortunately, my guess was right and we caught a big break in the wind. Enough so we could loosen up the spinnaker from the head stay and start getting it down.

Unfortunately the tape on the foot had gotten firmly caught on a hook on one of the spreaders. We tried to dislodge it several ways, but failed. The only solution was to send someone up the rig, but I did not deem this a safe alternative with just two of us on the boat, in open water, and no halyards free to send someone up – we would have had to use the topping lift to hoist my wife up from behind the mast and I did not feel this was safe. Instead, I snagged part of the sail with the boat hook and hauled it down hard – ripping the cloth but getting it closer. We finally use some blocks to winch the spinnaker sheet down to get the foot line close enough to cut. When it was cut the rest of the sail collapsed down, and within a few minutes we had what was left of the sail down the hatch and stowed.

The wind had dropped but become erratic in this fairly closed place, but we still managed to have a decent sail the rest of the way. Fast and fun, had our moods been a bit lighter though mine certainly improved with the sailing.

This morning it was time to pay the butcher’s bill. I ordered a new loudhailer speaker (in fact the old one had failed in the fog en route to Block Island on Friday – this incident saved me the trouble of diagnosing and fixing it at least!) and put in a work order for replacement of the broken bird spikes. But the stop I had been dreading was the sail makers. I had dropped the chute off not a month or two before to repair the cut straps on the sock from last year’s adventure, and now I was sheepishly returning after screwing it up again after having it up for not even a minute.

I was happy that after only the mildest of ribbing I was told the sail was easily fixable and would be ready for next weekend. My wife is of two minds about this, while she is happy not to need a new spinnaker I think she might have enjoyed taking a knife to this one just a little too much.

Posted in Block Island, broken things, spinnaker | Comments Off on So other than that how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

Actually, it Didn’t Really Suck

On Jul 1st, 2009 Published By B.J.

And you were expecting what?
Cuttyhunk, as seen from the deck of Evenstar last weekend.

So from my last post about last weekend one could easily get the impression that the weekend was a miserable move from mishap to mishap, barely avoiding disaster while doing my best to keep the boat running with a roll of duct tape and a screwdriver. While there was a certain sense of adventure to the weekend nothing could be further from the truth – we actually had a nice time and enjoyed the getaway.

With my wife being a busy OB/Gyn, it is sometimes possible only to get away by physically leaving the vicinity of the hospitals she works out of. Being on an island or outside the range of the beeper is an excellent excuse for being blissfully unaware of what is happening. So any time we can get out it’s a big plus.

But last weekend, in spite of the adventure factor, had some really nice things about it too. Including…

  • A nice dinner in Newport. I’m not sure if it’s a sign of success as a parent that our kids would rather go to a “nice” restaurant and order from the real menu over fast food, but I’ll take it.
  • A nice rest on the mooring away from the vagaries of the weather system we were enjoying in Newport.
  • Getting there – even though conditions were lousy, it was still a confidence builder.
  • Family walk about on Cuttyhunk, it’s always a pleasure. Seeing the island enshrouded in fog from the highest point of land was cool.
  • Cocktail hour, dinner and family reading time on the boat. Always a pleasure to hang out together and enjoy each other’s company. Especially where it is quiet and more importantly away.
  • The sail home. One of the highlights of the weekend, 15 knot Northerly’s led to a great reach across Rhode Island sound. One of the fastest trips across there ever, and we didn’t even fool with the staysail.
  • Quonset Air Show. We made it in time to catch the Canadian Snowbirds jet team and the highlight of the show, the Blue Angels.

A good time was had by all, and in spite of the, er, excitement we came away feeling confident and happy that we met some situations that would have flummoxed us years ago that didn’t make us sweat all that much.


Blue Angels at the Quonset Air Show from the deck of Evenstar.

And maybe I exaggerated just a little with that first picture. That was actually Nashawena Island, next to Cuttyhunk completely enshrouded in fog. By the time I got my camera out Cutty was looking like this:

Of course, it disappeared back in the fog a few minutes later.

Posted in Cuttyhunk, Good Times | Comments Off on Actually, it Didn’t Really Suck

Some Proof that We Are Progressing

On Jun 30th, 2009 Published By B.J.

So if the equanimity with which one approaches impending disaster is an indicator of your maturity and skill, perhaps we are progressed from the clueless newbies of so many years ago that were baffled by something as simple as a blown fuse or burned out pump.

Last weekend we were determined to get out, and we did. Our thoughts were to get to Cuttyhunk perhaps, because we had at least two more trips to Block Island planned later in the summer (including one this weekend) so we didn’t want to keep repeating the same trip.

So Cuttyhunk it was.

The weather forecast spoke of mostly clear weather with “scattered thunderstorms, some severe” around the area. When we left the sky was clear. At some point I looked up and noticed the sky was…not.

The original plan was to stop in Potter’s Cove on Jamestown and drop the hook, anchoring for the night before leaving in the morning for Cuttyhunk. Potter’s Cove does not always provide the best holding ground though, since there is grass on the bottom in places and our trusty CQR anchor is not so trusty in grass. With the possibility of “some severe thunderstorms may bring high winds and hail” we figured I’d get about 20 minutes of broken sleep all night waiting to drag, so we put in Newport and picked up a mooring for the night.

We also debated skipping Cuttyhunk because the weather was calling for a wind shift to a 5-10 knot Northerly wind over night Saturday. Cuttyhunk’s anchorage offers ZERO protection from a Northerly wind and it can be choppy and uncomfortable. But we figure less than 10 knots of breeze, it would be bearable so we pressed on. The next day, as we were preparing to leave we looked up again and discovered the weather misbehaving. Thick, deep fog was rolling across Newport. By the time we reached Goat Island at the edge of the harbor it was pea soup.

PROOF #1 – Fog no longer phases us. Really, it wasn’t so bad. Sure visibility was a few hundred feet. But we were making sound signals, minding the radar and keeping sharp eyes and ears peeled for boats. And fish traps, which were conveniently placed in a direct line between Brenton Reef and the first buoy you aim for on the way to Cutty. No wind in this fog, but no close calls at all, either.

Arriving at Cuttyhunk we found it to be completely fogged in. We drove far enough in to see the moorings, then anchored by GPS in a place we’d previously anchored and held well. Preparing for lunch at anchor, we noticed that the freezer was no longer frozen…not a Good Thing, although on a weekend it’s not nearly the disaster it would be on a longer trip when you have more than a few burgers and a lasagna in there. I opted to fix the thing after lunch, and suspected it would take more time to get access to the refrigeration units (under the bottom level of the shelves under the counter) then to fix it, if a fix was possible.

After eating lunch (gently warmed burgers on a grill that wouldn’t get hot…another problem) we were hailed by what appeared to be an Official Boat from the town of Gosnell on Cutty. We figure it was the Harbor Master (or “Wharfinger” in Cutty-speak); it was his contention that we were “anchored in the middle of a channel” and should move. Far be it from me to argue with the guy, if we were in a channel then the entire anchorage was a channel…but we opted to move since some of his points were valid about being anchored in the fog.

While pulling the anchor we had some…difficulty…with the windlass. Apparently the chain piled up in the locker and backed up on the deck and the windlass sucked in a second wrap of chain around itself. This is potentially a Very Bad Thing, since the windlass is capable of generating tremendous force and removing things like fingers and toes that get in the way. And more importantly we have a 105 pound anchor attached to a 13mm (half inch) chain which weighs something like 3-4 pounds per foot of length. There is a LOT of weight and drag on the thing. Trying to hoof this thing on board by ourselves was not working so well, since there were a couple of hundred pounds of gear to haul out of the water and we’re not that strong.

PROOF #2 – we were able to disengage the fouled windlass in the fog without removing any fingers or limbs, screaming, or hitting anything.

PROOF #3 – while we lost main power to all the instruments, winches, etc.

Really.

What we did was hand the wheel and the Chartplotter/GPS to our twelve year old son and say “Keep us in deep water, and don’t hit anything while we go work on the windlass.” Major props to the kid, he was scared spitless but he did a bang up job without complaint though I think he might have had the shakes for an hour afterward.

In the mean time us adults started trying to unscrew up the windlass. We thought a little back and forth action while tugging on it would enable us to work the chain loose. What it allowed instead was for us to blow the main fuse to the 24V house panel.

PROOF #4 – I was able to figure this out, find a suitable replacement fuse and restore power in a very few minutes, though we thought we’d lost it again and proceeded to solve the problems anyway.

With the power back on we figured a way to get the anchor on board.

PROOF #5 – We jury rigged a way to haul up the gear with a dock line run back to the primary winches. Ten years ago I probably would have taken a hack saw to the anchor rode.

Once the anchor was back in it’s seat on the bow it was easy to pull the now slack chain out of the windlass, and reset the anchor. The power was fixed (but I turned off the main switch for some reason after I fixed it) and I settled in and fixed the freezer.

PROOF #6 – It DID take less time to fix the freezer than to remove all the junk and shelves on top of it. A couple of years ago I would have fed the lasagna to the seagulls and called a repair man when we got home.

I did have an advantage because I’d suspected that it broke the same way the refrigerator broke a couple of weeks back. There is a raw water temperature sensor in the line from the thermostat, and they were looking a bit corroded around the connections. By passing the sensor, which is only there to protect your compressor against a pump failure and not required for operation, was a matter of disconnecting and reconnection a couple of wires. I have a sensor the the fridge to install, I guess I need another one.

This is the end of our scrapes for the trip with one small exception which led to a learning experience and a new operational rule for us.

We did have a nice walk around the island, and planned to come in early for breakfast at the Cuttyhunk Fisherman’s Club, which is one of the best places to eat breakfast, ever. The food is decent, but the view of Martha’s Vineyard is breathtaking. They could be mixing dog food into the hash and you may not notice it because you are looking at the view. But they don’t – the food is good too.

The last thing to come back and bit us was planning on breakfast. Bad move really, because when the wind went North it didn’t do 5-10, it did 15-18 and this did amount to some 2-3 foot swells. While those in and of themselves are bearable, climbing down into a pitching dinghy behind a huge and fearsome looking pitching boat to connect the davit lines is no picnic. Neither is climbing back onto the big boat from the dinghy.

PROOF #7 – We did something dumb, and learned from it.

The new rule is if there is ANY chance of anything but calm weather in a protected anchorage the dinghy comes up, especially if we are planning on leaving anyway. It takes a couple of minutes to do in the dead calm, and can be re-launched in as little time as well. Just laziness and poor planning on our part that found me in the pitching dink trying to get it hoisted in the chop.

Lest all of you think this past weekend was disaster on disaster – let me assure you that we actually had a nice weekend. We had a GREAT sail back – a 20 mile reaching leg at high speed, and a nice stop at the Quonset Air Show on the way home. More on all that later.

Posted in broken things, Cuttyhunk, Fog, Newport | Comments Off on Some Proof that We Are Progressing

10,000 Monkeys

On Jun 30th, 2009 Published By B.J.

The operating theory is that 10,000 monkeys, given infinite amount of time randomly punching buttons on a typewriter, would eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare.

A corollary is that one immortal monkey would actually suffice, if the time given is infinite.

Since I have neither immortality or unlimited time working in my favor when trying to make my alternator work properly I really have to maximize the whole “monkey” thing while relying on my inherent stubbornness and doggedness to solve the problem. Without throwing feces at the engine, preferably.

It is now safe to say, with 100% certainty that the dreaded 24 volt alternator dragon has been slain. This weekend we saw consistent charging in ranges over 45 Amps, there was no squealing and every time the engine was running it automagically produced power.

This was, as the title of this implies, through no real brilliance of my own. As reported earlier I was able to tighten the belts and it made power…briefly, then it sputtered out and would not produce any more. I went through all of the diagnostic tests in the manuals for the alternator and the voltage regulator to no avail. I even figured out that I was applying my multi-meter to the wrong end of the leads on the voltage regulator (hence the “0.0 V” readings) and figured out it was OK.

All was well, except no power.

Then I finally tried LAST what I should have tried FIRST, had I not been so wrapped around the axle about something being broken: replacing the belts. Duh. I KNEW the 12V alternator belts needed replacing (as mentioned in my premature crowing of victory post), I was too lazy to do it. And while doing them, doing the 24V belt was a natural since you have to take it off to get to the 12V belts.

It wasn’t until I went to buy more belts that I noticed the old 24V belt was about 2/3 of the width of the new belts. Somewhere in the reptilian recesses of my brain a very dim bulb flickered briefly.

Needless to say, the floppy-can’t-be-tightened alternator ate the belt at an alarming rate and I didn’t think to check something as obvious as that.

In the repair business a “parts monkey” is a derogatory term used on a repair technician that attempts repairs by replacing parts until something works rather than taking the time (or having the knowledge) to properly diagnose and solve the problem. Perhaps on this one I needed to be a bit more in touch with my inner primate.

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