Projects / Maintenance

Sunday 15 Nov, HHN, boat winterizing day 46:
Playing cat and mouse with the security guard seems to have worked. Or at least last night it did. Woke up all warm and toasty with no power disconnected during the night. I realized the pod which I normally plug into is right under a flood light, making it very easy to see cables still plugged in. And in any case, this guard clearly has my number, even without the flood light. So last evening I stealthily took my power cord under the next two neighboring boats and into the next pod along which is totally in the dark shadow of a large motorboat’s swim platform. Hopefully, this strategy will continue to outfox the security for my remaining nights.

Sunday today, but no sabbath for me. I’m full on all day. I trust any readers of this blog who are not yet retired have come to realize the downside of being a retiree – yes, you lose your weekends! There are NO breaks or days off anymore 🙂

After breakfast I do a tour of the boat with Oana on a video call, to see what she would like me to bring back home for her. I’m certain the Admiral won’t be happy with the state of the boat, and particularly her galley, so I do have a tidy up before the call. What I forget to tidy up is myself. I don’t think I’ve looked in a mirror for weeks, so seeing my image on the video call was a bit of a shock. I could have at least brushed my hair! Of course, on the other end, Oana was looking gorgeous as usual. Can’t wait to get her in my arms again. This is the longest we have been apart since getting married. A bit too long, we both agree.

From then on my day is a multitude of jobs most of which are totally uninteresting. The big job though is to clean up the outer surface of the spreader bars (yes, spreaders again!). For a long time I’ve been trying to find a solution to cleanup dull and stained anodizing, like you find on masts, booms, poles etc. I seem to have finally cracked it. I use Starbright Aluminum Cleaner, applied very lightly with a fine scotch-bright (aka washing-up scouring pad).
The Starbright cleaner is only meant for bare aluminum and it actually states “not for anodized surfaces”, but with a little abrasion (as little as possible to just remove the staining) it both cleans and also leaves a protective PTFE surface on the metal. The 8 spreader bars take me several hours because the areas around all the rivet holes are really badly stained. But they come out looking superb. I doubt very much I’ll be rebuilding them this time, but it will be very nice to come back to them all glistening clean ready to rivet back together.

While I’m doing this on my improvised work bench outside, I hear lots of gunfire from the surrounding forests. Ray warned me this was hunting season and the big-guns would be out hunting deer on the weekend. Now, in UK, hunting would be done with a shotgun or a single shot rifle. But not here. It almost sounds like I’m surrounded by a war zone, because they are using semi-automatic weapons. With the rapid firing that I can hear, the deer clearly don’t stand a chance! For non-US citizens this obsession with guns is a bit perplexing. But it’s very clear that hunting (either shooting or fishing) is really deeply embedded in the American culture and certainly won’t be letting go any time soon.

Other jobs of the day include rebuilding the sheaves I’d cleaned (the ones I “had for dinner”); cleaning up below the boat; trying to get the solar panels closer to horizontal without damaging the shrink wrap; tying down the RIB (just in case the shrink wrap blows off).
Inside, I flush antifreeze through the bow toilet and set up to flush all the water system, which I’ll do the day I depart. Each time I flush something, I find something else I’d forgotten. This time, the washing machine! I guess I’ll have to put it on a quick wash cycle to get some antifreeze through. They really should provide instructions for winterizing washing machines, right? Mind you, in my 58 years this is the first time I will have winterized one.

In the evening, a violent cold front comes through, with gusts that shake the boat as thunder and lightning clatters all around (or is it just the hunters getting closer?!). In the saloon I get all the parts for the hydraulic motors laid out on the table. With zero help from Selden (so far) I’ve managed to purchase new bearings off Ebay, and I have a few other parts to take home to reproduce in a local machine shop. That really only leaves oil seals. I label and pack the ones I need to take home. I have 5 months to find them via the internet. It looks like Selden won’t get my business after all. They have put me in a corner and I’m fighting my way out!

Last few days now.