Thursday
Once again we found ourselves up to our eyebrows in boat projects. As parts arrive in the mail, we prioritize and re-prioritize the work to be done. Clark started the day with a leak test on the newly repaired sink.
The water-down-the-drain test passed with no problem, but the water-down-the-overflow-hole test failed spectacularly. Much of the water poured into the overflow hole immediately poured out onto the floor under the sink. Clark added silicon sealer to the point where he thought it might be leaking. Hum-de-hum, now we wait another 24 hours to see if that addressed the problem.
As predicted in yesterday's blog entry, with the delivery of WiFi-related packages last night, Clark moved on to the WiFi antenna installation project. Installation of the brackets to hold and support the weight of the antenna required drilling holes in the boat. Given that we want to minimize poking holes in the hull, we followed the "measure three times, cut once" rule. However, I think we measured way more than three times.
Meanwhile, I had a project of my own to complete today. Having gotten less sleep than usual due to the whipping burgee on the bow of the boat rattling and banging most of the night, I decided to make a cover to put over the burgee on windy days. Clark told me to make sure I put a line through it to secure it to the railing. With that in mind, I cut a rectangle out of left-over canvas I purchased for the dinghy repairs and got to work. Frequently, as I tried to sew my cover, I got called away to hold this or do that, but I kept at it throughout the day whenever I wasn't in demand elsewhere.
At 5:35 Clark asked me what time West Marine closed. "6:00. Why?" I responded. "I need screws for the brackets. He decided I should go after the screws while he continued to work on prepping for installation. By the time he explained to me what he needed, I had lost another ten minutes. I ran for the car and headed to the store.
When I entered the store, a rep greeted me and asked me what I needed. I said, "Hardware. Screws. Can you help me?" He said, "Aisle 1". "Great", I said, "but can you help me with that?" We both headed for the screw aisle. I knew I could find the screws eventually, but with the store closing in ten minutes, eventually wasn't going to cut it. Of course they did not have precisely what Clark asked for. I bought two sets of four screws to cover my bases. Worst case ... I could return one set the next day. When I walked out of the store shortly before 6:00, they locked the door behind me. I just made it in time.
Actually, I got the better of the work assignments. To mount the bracket at the base of the antenna, Clark used two, stacked pieces of starboard (like wood but for boats) that needed to be sanded to smooth them and shape them to his specs. He used an electric sander and ended up coated in tiny pieces of starboard. I am glad I got the screw-search task.
I thought I should start dinner going given the time, but before I got that far, Clark got first one visitor and before long another one showed up. This "forced" a break from work for both of us. Dinner would have to wait. Clark had given an open invitation for Anna Mae from La Cigale to come sing while he played guitar. She had decided to take him up on the offer. Not too long after Anna Mae arrived, Ella decided she wanted to join them and sing as well.
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| Clark with Anna Mae and Ella from La Cigale |
I find it interesting that I cannot get him to take a break, but two pretty girls show up, and he stops everything he is doing! Go figure!
They found a couple of songs that the girls knew from Clark's selection of music. Both girls knew how to do the "Cups" song, so I found them each plastic cups and they performed while Clark played.
After only two songs, the girls' father came and got them as the family had dinner reservations. As soon as the girls left, Clark was back to his sander working on his starboard! I jumped up and started putting dinner together.
At 8:30, after dinner, Clark still wanted to put up the WiFi antenna. We could tell the neighbors on one side were up watching TV, and we knew the neighbors on the other side were not on their boat. We decided it was safe to make noise. He pulled out the drill and started putting the holes in the boat! The hand vacuum cleaner Clark ran to clean up the mess from drilling made more noise than the drill. Our boat neighbor came out to see what we had going on. He laughed when we told him and said, "Of course! What else would you be doing at 9:00 at night?"
To mount the wood blocks and the bracket on the boat, I turned the screw on the outside of the hull while Clark held the nut in place on the back side. To do this, he had to climb into the inside of the bench seat on the upper helm. It was a tight fit with lots of oohs and oofs and aahs. Getting in was actually not too difficult, but he had a lot of trouble getting back out again. Gravity helped going in and fought him coming out!
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| Clark installing the antenna bracket |
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| Antenna Mount mounted on starboard blocks. (Drilling / sanding dust still visible on the mount.) |
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| Mounted WiFi Antenna - antenna with cylindrical tube near top not to be confused with antennas visible on neighbor's boat |
We finally stopped work, including parts, screws, and debris cleanup, at 10:45. No blog work tonight! Before going to bed, I made sure my flag cover was in place. I planned on sleeping well tonight!
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| AGLCA Flag -- annoying on Windy Days! |
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| Cover I made for the AGLCA Flag - no more flapping in the wind. |
Friday
With the antenna mounted on the exterior of the boat instead of huddled in the corner of the pilot house, our WiFi on board has improved tremendously. Instead of struggling with the marina signal directly, I now access the internet via our booster and see a huge improvement. Clark started the day by finishing the antenna-mount work - specifically, adding a bracket to the top of the full enclosure to hold the WiFi antenna securely at the top as well as the bottom.
Hopeful that his application of silicon sealer resolved the leaky bathroom sink issue, Clark poured some water into the sink overflow hole. Once again, it poured out onto the floor, so he called me in to help. He crawled under the sink to see where the water came out, and I poured water in the hole. Good golly! I could hear the water pouring onto the floor as I poured it in the hole.
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| Clark looking for the source of the leak under the sink |
The next step in the WiFi project is to run the wires through the walls of the boat and position the router and other hardware in some more convenient and tidy spot on the boat. Before Clark could get too involved in that work, however, another package showed up for him containing the part he needed to repair his bilge-pump-check-valve concern.
Since the defective check valve could actually cause the boat to sink, Clark jumped on that installation as top priority. The hardest part of the job was figuring out where to position the new valve. Once he found the right spot, the job got completed pretty quickly.
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| Vacuum Break -- Part to replace check-valve installed with bilge pump |
It seems like the only times Clark takes a break from the boat jobs is when "nature calls", and he makes a trek up to the marina building to use the "head". These trips take a bit longer when he sees someone to talk to or sees something in nature that catches his interest.
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| Iguana wandering the docks |
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| Which way to docktails? |
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| Pelican enjoying Faro Blanco Marina |
While Clark continued to tackle his "punch list", I pulled out my sewing machine for a project of my own. Although I think the sofa in the salon is very attractive from a looks point of view, it is very difficult to keep looking nice. The sofa fabric is a navy blue material that collects and shows every bit of lint and dust, I either have a constantly dirty-looking sofa or I have to take a lint roller to it multiple times per day. Since I am also afraid to sit on it when I have sunscreen on, which is almost all the time, I decided to make something to cover the seat cushions.
I cannibalized the queen bed quilt that the previous owners left behind. My poor, baby sewing machine met its match today. The fabric was almost too thick for the machine, but I persevered and only ended up with one bent machine needle. I must say I was impressed that the needle bent to a 60-degree angle and did not break.
Just as I completed my sewing project, we got visitors. Jeanne and Kenny from Day Break arrived by boat this afternoon and will be staying at Faro Blanco. They stopped by to get a tour of Sunset Delight and say hello. Kenny got the full tour including the engine room. Jeanne passed on that last part of the tour and headed back to her boat to get settled in.
After dinner tonight, Clark went back to the WiFi project. He took several panels out of the boat to see where he might be able to run the wires and even took my galley cabinet apart to see if it would give him access. No wires got run tonight however. Instead he just scoped out the path to be taken and the tools needed to feed them through the walls of the boat. I even found him removing yet another, unrelated-to-the-WiFi project, galley panel "for the fun of it" to see what he could access.
When folks take tours of our boat, we have to tell them to ignore the tools and such that are spread around to facilitate working on all these projects. It gives the boat that "lived in" feeling!
No docktails the last couple of nights. It has been windy and chilly, so I think folks found better ways to entertain themselves. Even without the docktails venue, we had a nice sunset view tonight. Clark made sure to capture a picture for our collection.
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| Sunset at Faro Blanco Marina in Marathon, FL |
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