No more Spaghetti-Os
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| Ice cold! |
We spent today re-bedding the port-lights and fixing the refrigerator. Frank discovered that the reason why the fridge wasn't running right was because of the water strainer. The water strainer, that strains out the sediment and debris from the saltwater that comes into the water pump that cools the compressor, was clogged with twigs and gunk. Also, the strainer had corroded through, so we had to go to West Marine to find a replacement. After a bit of trouble, we found one, and Frank spent a little while reinstalling it as well as tightening hose clamps to remedy a few leaks that had developed in the system. Eventually water finally started spitting out of the thru-hull, which meant that the refrigerator was properly cycling through and cooling itself, which in turn means that we now have a REFRIGERATOR. Whoopee. No more Spaghetti-Os and Progresso.
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| All better |
We also spent the other half of the day replacing the seals on our leaky port-lights (aka-windows). The process basically consisted of removing the old seals (which were brittle and weathered), scraping up the gunk that was left over, re-caulking and putting new seals in. The process was simple enough, and I hope that it works. As well, we met the previous owner of this boat today. (Not the one that we had bought it from, but the owner before that). It was a brief meeting, and he talked about how he single-handed the vessel for 4 years, from Puerto Vallarta, all through the South Pacific, to New Zealand, and the half dozen times to and from Bermuda. It's amazing imagining that one person can single-hand this boat, whilst taking only 20 minute naps, traveling the world. Makes you think, if he can do it, so can I. He agreed to come aboard for a half day and show us the systems aboard, so we're really, really grateful for that. All said and done, I think we had relatively productive and encouraging day. Hope tomorrow goes as well.
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| A cleaner space... |
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| End of a good day :) |
Ahoy! Congratulations on your new home! I hope we (Tracy and Richard) can connect sometime as we too are new HC owners. We purchased, LAYLA, a 43 HC last fall. We had fallen in love with your "SCOUT" but the timing was not right for the purchase at that time. We plan to move aboard before the fall. Feel free to write. We have much to share.
ReplyDeleteRichard Winn rwinn8@gmail.com
Hi Lu,
ReplyDeleteTracy from Layla here. I see you guys decided on gasket material for the port holes. What type and where did you end up buying it from?
Tracy
Hi Lu and Frank,
ReplyDeleteThis is Rachel and Karl on s/v Sophia (Sophia goes to Norway blog). Really great to read your blog and see some familiar projects underway. Oh the fun! It is, however, a great way to get to know your boat. Karl's interested to learn more about your water tanks. If you have a chance, drop him an email (ksevershootz {at} gmail {dot} com). Please let us know if we can help as you puzzle through problems.
Cheers,
Rachel and Karl
www.sophiagoestonorway.blogspot.com
Also, since Tracy and Richard are also asking about the port window gaskets, I wanted to pass along some additional information. We used the same gasket material you did (at least from the looks of the roll). We got it from McMaster-Carr. It has worked great! We later learned that our ports were not just leaking because of old gaskets, but also poor sealing between the whole port and the cabin. We removed the whole port and rebedded with butyl. In a couple of ports we also had to repair some rotten plywood (on the inside of the fiberglass deck house) and build up the hole with epoxy to better fit the port and prevent further water intrusion into the plywood. We also rebedded the port glass, again using butyl. Maybe your ports won't have the same leaks we did, but we thought we'd fixed it initially only to discover the additional sources of leaks while sailing from La Paz, Mexico to Panama City.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Rachel and Karl