Tuesday 16 Nov, re-launch 2021, HHN day 48: Installed the new deck hatch. Painted more antifoul. Bled the hydraulic outhaul piston. SailRite comes out, to start sewing jobs.
Busy day in wonderful weather. The tide is still not high enough to launch and the wind is not helping either. But both of these factors will be better tomorrow and Thursday when there will be a spring tide combined with a strong southerly wind. In the huge Chesapeake river, the wind is the biggest factor on water height. If it’s from the north level remains low, if from the south (blowing into the river), level is high. So, no launch today, but tomorrow looks likely. Oh, and why is this important? Well, Cloudy Bay draws 8ft (2.5m) and the launch slip is only 7ft deep. Do the math!
Lots more jobs for me today. Meanwhile, inside the warmth of the heated boat, Oana is slaving away with her provisioning spread sheet, which has about 600 line items, all with historical uses so she can gauge how much to buy for a certain period of cruising. Now she is scanning all the major supermarkets (Giant, Weis, Walmart, Harris Teeter ….) looking for the best prices and deals. And trying to see if we can get delivery rather than the painful days of going up and down the aisles and bringing carload after carload back to the boat. We do this, because once we are on the move shopping is by dinghy and hand pulled trolly, or Uber. Which is OK for a few groceries, but painful for major shopping.
Outside, my key job today is to install the bow cabin hatch, a Lewmar size 70 that we received from HR-Parts. The old one was removed several days ago but we have been busy getting the teak trim/rim stripped and re-varnished. This process is much easier while it is out, and less mess inside the boat. It now has 6 coats applied, with the last 2 coasts of a satin finish to match the finish on the teak interior. It is looking wonderful again, like new.
First to install is this teak trim. It goes in from the inside the boat and 20 small screws secure it from the top. Once the Lewmar hatch is in place, these screw-heads get buried under the hatch sealant.
Next is the hatch itself. Lewmar provides a padded sealing strip that goes on the inside of the mounting frame. All I must do is apply a strip of 3M marine silicon around the rim, pop the hatch in and screw it down. But first, I take my usual time to mask everything off, so the silicon doesn’t go everywhere when it squeezes out.
An hour later, and one empty tube of silicon ( I only just had enough), the hatch is in place and screws are going in, each sealed with a dab of 3M 4200 sealant. Then it’s a matter of a few hours for the silicon to cure and pull off the masking tape, which is a mid afternoon job. Then it’s done!
The one thing we are not sure about on this new hatch is the mechanism that holds it up. On the original hatches, there are friction arms. These work well, but when there is enough friction on them, they tend to torque the frame as you open and shut the hatch. This can eventually cause leaks. So the new design is to have side hold-up bars and no friction blocks. This way the frame doesn’t get any torque. The downside is that the hatch now only opens to a vertical position. All good you might think, who needs a hatch that opens more than that? Well, when we push the spinnaker bag back into the fore cabin, we normally lay the hatch lid completely backwards onto the coach roof – way beyond vertical. So we will have to see how that works with this new hatch.
Next job is to put some more antifoul on. A third coat on the waterline and leading edges. This takes an hour or so. And I have to be very careful because we now have no masking tape on the water line. Even if I could be bothered to push some new tape in, it would not stick to the ceramic anyway. The last little bit of antifoul will be when the boat is lifted in the slings of the launch cradle and I can get to the bottom of the keel, which to date had been firmly sitting on large wooden blocks.
Last job before it gets dark is to bleed the hydraulic outhaul piston. Previously, I had the piston out and replaced all the oil seals. On reinstallation I had tried hard to ensure no air in the system, but then when adding new hoses it is inevitable some air will be in there. And air, which can compress, will mean a very “spongy” outhaul action. It’s a job I’ve been putting off because whenever I touch huydralics I always get the damned oil all over me and everything I touch! So it is with great care that I place plastic all over the deck, remove the bleed valve covers and install the special bleed hoses. And, you know what? I didn’t spill a drop… so far.
Now there is a few minutes of deep engineering type thinking regarding the actual bleeding. I need to get the air onto the high-side of the piston such that it flows out the orifice that joins to the bleed hoses. This means tilting the boom either up or down (depending on which side of the piston I’m bleeding) and then operate the outhaul In/Out control.
First cycle does release a few “spurts” of air. But really not at much as I anticipated. And the 2nd and 3rd cycle, no air at all.
Great! Much easier job than I expected. All done and cleaned away without a single drop of oil spilt. One for the record books. And the container with the captured oil is removed from the boat and taken to the oil dump as fast as I can.
In the evening, the Sailrite sewing machine comes out. I have a multitude of sewing projects to do but right now I need some essentials done. The velcro that holds the chaps (protection covers) on the dinghy has all fallen off in the summer heat. The hypalon glue didn’t adhere to the velcro. So I’m using an new technique this time. I have cut 1” strips of vinyl plastic (Shelterite). I will sew new velcro to these strips and then glue the vinyl onto the dinghy. Hypalon-vinyl will apparently have a much better bond. And why the need to do this now? Well, we want the chaps on the dinghy from the get-go and also this is a job that can only be done with the dinghy on the foredeck. Not possible once it is back on the davits, where it will be when we sail.
Long day, lots of job. And quite a variety too. As we go to bed at midnight Oana says: “who else would fit a hatch, bleed a hydraulic system, and work on a sewing machine all in one day?” 😊