Tieing Up Loose Ends

Note: This post was written at the end of March but didn't get posted until we were halfway down the ICW.

 The month of March has come and gone and for us it came in like a lion and went out like a lion.  Life has been a whirlwind, lemme tell ya.  We drove down to Florida at the end of February and closed on the house, turned around and came straight back to Maryland because I was still working.  On the 12th I had my last day of work.  Woohooo!  More time for projects!  On the 15th I turned 60, major milestone.  On the 20th we rented a U-Haul truck and loaded up everything we still had in storage.  This included a ton of stuff from the boat and a shed here at the marina plus a large collection of stuff our families had been keeping for us.  The truck was packed to the gills.  When we left Maryland it was in the 20's and snowing.  When we got to Florida it was 80.  Unloaded the truck, did some work on the house, rented a car and drove back to Maryland.  With a week to go before our projected departure date (April Fools Day!) we had a long list of things to do to get the boat ready.  Between working on the list and getting together with family for final farewells the time has flown by.  We've now pushed our departure date back to Easter, April 5th.  I think we can make that.

One project was getting a new anchor, a Rocna 33.  That's 33kg.  The anchor weighs 73 pounds and is a major upgrade from our 44 pound Bruce.  To get it on board we had to move the boat so it was bow in first in the slip with the bow sprit hanging over the dock.  The Bruce will now be our secondary anchor and the Danforth will move to the stern.

We also extended the cockpit railing forward to the gates on both sides.  We used 1" stainless steel tubing (Sail Rite) and Bimini fittings (Click here).  I had to cut off the loops that connected the lifelines to the aft railing.  I cut them off with a hacksaw and filed the nubs down smooth.  For the top of the stanchion I could use  a top slide (p/n MPD 462) that slips over the tubing.  For the other connections I used hinged rail mounts (MPD 491) that clamp over the tubing.  On each end of the 1" tubing that made up the rails I used top caps (MPD 171).  The top caps have a single finger that fits between the two fingers on each rail mount.  All these fittings are held in place with set screws and I used Loctite 242 on these to keep them snug.

The top slide on the stanchion had to be modified to hold the gate section of lifeline.  The gate comes with a fitting made for swaging onto wire rope.  I was planning to just cut this off and slip a bolt through the hole in the fitting that would thread onto a hole on the top cap.  When I looked at the swaged fitting I realized it was threaded on the end that connects to the gate.  I cut off the fitting and then found that the threaded part was the same threads as the set screw on the top cap.  Perfect!  It all went together like it was made to be even though all the parts came from different companies.  The only drilling and tapping I had to do was for a new set screw location on the top cap.

I also ended up adding two upright supports between the upper and lower rails 21.5" apart using T fittings (MDP 474A) that slipped over the rails.  These help to tie in the look of the side rails with the existing railing at the stern and add needed rigidity.  Now if I need to remove the side rails for any reason it can be easily done by removing four screws and the whole assembly comes off in one piece.  This was the main reason I went with assembled rails fittings instead of having it all welded in.

I got the cabinets installed in the aft cabin and they're usable but not finished.  I'll do a blurb on them when I get all the finishing touches completed.  For now I'm very pleased with how they came out.  They added quite a bit of storage and look pretty nice too.  It's nice having all the tools in one easily accessed location. No more hunting!

We've had this boat for over five years now and during that time we've repaired or replaced most of the problems that existed when we first bought her. One thing we didn't take on was the gauge for the water tank. We took it on for this trip figuring it'd be nice to know when we were going to run outa water. We'll also need it for the water maker so it was definitely time to do it. It's an interesting setup. The actual gauge is held onto a large 2.5" nut with two screws. Remove the screws and the gauge pops off with no connections. Huh? Turns out it's magnetic. Inside the tank there's a float slung between two brass rods. Through the center of the float is a third rod but this one is twisted down its length and has a magnetic bar at the top. As the float goes up or down the rod turns and so does the bar which causes the needle on the gauge to turn. The twist in the rod is something like 3/4 of a full turn so the gauge reads full scale, full to empty. Pretty clever. I found the rods to be covered in corrosion preventing the float from sliding up from the bottom. I cleaned everything up and when I tested it outside the tank everything worked great. But when I reinstalled it it still read empty. Hmm, bummer. Turns out the float, which is a plastic case with foam inside, was water logged. I replaced the float with a cork from a champaign bottle and it works fine now. I'd like to point out here that our families have provided incredible support to us in our effort to prepare for our adventure.  They've given us space in their homes for the things we just couldn't bear to get rid of and given us safe haven during tropical storms.  Our biggest supporter has been my Mom even though she's none too excited about our plans.  This last year she's helped us in so many ways without which I'd still be working and our plans would be a year behind.  Thanks Mom and many thanks to all our family And friends for all the help and support over the last five years.