June 18 - June 19, 2011: Ashbridge Cruise 

The varnish on the saloon table is starting to get thin enough that I am concerned about moisture getting into the teak. Learning to get an almost perfect finish on such a large surface required some additional work on my technique. Generally when varnishing floors I have applied varnish sectioning the floor at a convient strips of holly (the light wood). However, the table is basically square and trying to keep a wet edge across the table proved to be very difficult. In the end I found that short sections which brush into the previous varnish slightly resulted in a better final surface. After 5 coats of gloss varnish I applied the first coat of rubbed effect and it came out so well that I stopped for the time being as I expect there will be minor scratches by the end of the season. The rubbed effect varnish is harder and so the desire is to build up 4 to 5 coats of rubed effect this winter. The edge of the table is hardwood and so I am not as concerned about moisture getting in as I am on the veneer and so I am putting off the edges of the table until I have more time.

May 28 - May 30, 2011: Corsair Yacht Club Opening Day! 

The nav station is starting to come together, I installed the 19" Samsung flat panel TV along with a Lenovo dual core atom PC. Two USB to serial converters and Raymarine's Raytech software. The Lenovo PC consumes about 20 watts at full load which is very impressive and appears to have sufficient capability to run the Raytech software without any difficulty. I also installed a 350 watt 24V -> 110V sine wave inverter which has worked very nicely. It easily runs the Lenovo PC, two flat panels (the 22 inch and the 19 inch) which are being used as a two screen desktop, the network switch and the Netgear ReadyNAS with 6 2TB hard drives without any issues.

Integration of the Standard Horizon Matrix 2150 with the rest of the system has been very good. The Raytech software does import the AIS targets and displays them as an overlay on the chartplotter display. 

Overall the integration of an original Autohelm 1990 vintage autopilot (2 7000 series controller, very early autopilot brain), knot log, and wind point, 2007 wireless Raymarine Remote, 2010 vintage depth sounder (ST40 series), a 2011 AIS data source, the RC320 chart plotter I bought before leaving Kwajalien in 2001, and several repeaters are all working together quite well even with two different versions of the seatalk physical layer.

There have been a few quirks which I continue to sort out.
1) it appears that the order in which hardware comes up has an impact on which chartplotter thinks it "owns" the buss. The only thing which is impacted is from which device (the RC320 or the Raytech) can set waypoints to the autopilot. 
2) The RC320 occasionally spontaniously reboots. This behavior appears to be related to the GPS engine because when I disable the internal GPS the problem goes away. The plan to fix this is to provide an external GPS source to the SeaTalk bus and not us the internal GPS
3) When the Matrix 2150 looses the GPS signal it becomes very annoyed and sets off  a very loud alarm which the volume cannot be adjusted. Thus, forgetting to turn off the radio can result in a rude awakening when the GPS portion of the RC320 causes the unit to lock up.

The knotmeter appears to be somewhat intermittent, unfortunately I have not yet been able to find a mechanism for failing over to the GPS for speed for the various calculations.

April 30 - May 2, 2011: It is time for the first Corsair Yacht Club work party and I will be bringing a crew of 5 for the voyage (this is the largest overnight crew I have attempted). Being that I have room for a couple in the forward cabin, two bunk beds in the midship cabin and one more bunk in the saloon and a couple in the master stateroom aft the boat can accomodate a crew of 7 without significant inconvience and a crew of 6 without having to bed anyone down in the saloon. 

April 22-24, 2011: Easter cruise with the Corsair Yacht Club, the Easter Bunny was well received at Isthmus and many children collected over 1000 candy filled eggs which had been hidden! The trip over to Catalina was definitely "interesting" on the way over to the Island the entire boat went dark! I immediately started chasing DC electrical system problems and found that the battery system was fine as the bilge pumps worked just fine (Directly connected to batteries via a fuse) but the rest of the electrical system was not working. After a couple of minutes the problem went away and the boat rebooted. After happening twice more during the passage and tightening connections it appeared to be corrected. Then on Saturday evening I pressed the button for the forward electric head and the entire boat went dark AGAIN!!! With the boat stationary I was able to carefully work through the electrical system with a volt meter across each of the connections and rapidly determined that the primary battery disconnect switch had about 1.8V of drop with nominal amperate running through it. Later testing showed the switch to have about 10 ohms of resistance. Luckily I had a spare switch and heavy guage wire and was able to bypass the switch for the passage home. Even better I found a spare switch which fit perfectly when I got back home! The replacement does not look exactly the same on the backside but looks identical where exposed and is a "Hella Marine On/Off Switch P/N 002843011" switch, Interestingly this switch is rated at 50A continuous and 500A for 10 seconds at 24V. I would definitely not want to run serious current through this switch. It is fine for the main power panel but not for inverters and the like. The three additional switchs are used for the winches (intermittent), engine start (intermittent and 24V), and generator start (intermittent an 12V which has twice the surge capacity). I wonder what the rating of the original switches are but it is something to pay attention to. The diameter of the shaft going through the woodwork is the same size and is a snug fit which perfectly replaces the old switch! Since there are 3 more of these switches I will buy several spares to have around.

The sailing to and from Catalina Island was wonderful and we were able to sail the whole trip both ways. With the borrowed UK tape drive #1 the ability of the vessel to move in light air is positively amazing.

The first real use of the Standard Horizion Matrix AIS 2150 receive only AIS and VHF radio was very impressive. Comming back from Catalina there was a convergence of 3 container ships at high speed and two other sailboats. After a call from one of the container ships to talk to a sailboat which I thought was Botany Bay I was able to sort out that that he was referring to a different sailboat, contact the container ship to inform them that they had not talked to the vessel in question and then contact one of the other container ships to confirm if he desired I go in front or behind him. The result was a rapid response from a container ship in broken english but we were able quickly make a decision and keep going (he wanted me to maintain course and speed as he needed to make a turn in a couple of minutes. Overall AIS looks to be a very good system and I will be installing a transmit system shortly.

Leaving Isthmus we had over 20 knts true with mid 20's on deck under main and staysail. The boat was very comfortable and scooting along at between 7.8 and 8.1 knts going upwind! I was able to keep the boatspeed in the high 5's to low 6's as the winds lightened up and when the wind on deck got under 12 knts we rolled out the UK tape drive #1 and and the boat speed went from 5.5 knts up to 7.5 knts with both headsails up. We sailed all the way until just off the breakwater in Redondo Beach very much enjoying the sail and no further issues with the electrical system. 

Once home I immediately replaced the main DC power switch. The extra resistance is most likely caused by years of "hot switching" this switch. Basically there are DC to DC converters which were always connected to the bus as well as some other items and so the switch has probably been "hot switched" many times over the years resulting in contact problems.

April 2011: Completed installation of Whale IC based pump for the forward head to service both the sink and the shower drain. The result is really spectacular. All of the benefits of having a sump for the sink and shower to drain into but with the advantage of an integrated non-contact switch as well as a water-tight interconnection harness. I did wire up the existing manual switch for the old grey water pump to allow turning on the pump if  only a little bit of water is put down the drain.

Completed initial installation of the new Matrix AIS 2150 VHF radio, this is a receive only AIS system which is dependent on an external GPS signal being provided. I have hooked this up to the NMEA 183 output of the old Raymarine RC230 chartplotter which I moved over from Little Botany Bay.  I am still trying to determine why the chartplotter shuts down occasionally. It might be an electrical connection right where the cable connects to the chartplotter but it always comes back when I turn the unit back on. It might be worth trying to reflash the programming.

Completed initial installation of a Samsung UN22D5000 HD TV where the old weather fax machine was at the  back of the saloon above the Nav Station. This will be an ideal place for a "rear view mirror" which will use a camera looking out the aft transom. This will allow me to see when guests come knocking on the back of the hull. Also this will make it easier to keep an eye on things comming up from behind while down below checking the radar or the like.

Started initial rewiring of the nav station. I started trying to add in the Matrix AIS VHF radio and found that the electrical system was more of a mess than I thought. It took a couple of weekends to sort out all of the wiring behind the nav panel and then make a new panel out of plywood to mock up the new installation. I made two panels at the same time slightly oversized and then using a microplane to get it to fit correctly. The current plan is to install a new UN19D4000 HD TV as a computer monitor, using a Kill-A-Watt meter the TV consumes about 12 watts in "eco" mode and about 25 watts in full power mode. Interestingly the TV has a power factor of 0.6 which means that the inverter needs 12/0.6 = 20 VA when the TV is running in "eco" mode, when in full power mode the number is more like 45VA to keep the TV running. This is when running off of a nice sine wave source (like shore power), when running on an old "statpower" modified sine wave (read square wave) inverter the power factor is about .35 making running the TV off of a 50 VA inverter a bit marginal even on eco mode. The larger 22" HDTV uses about 18 watts in ECO mode and about 35 watts in full power mode. The power factor is about 0.6 when running off of shore power. I have run some tests of the larger Samsung HDTV systems at a friends house and found that the new UN55D6000 consumes about 103 watts and about 106 VA with a power factor of 0.99. It would appear that Samsung did not do as much to keep a reasonable power factor on the smaller monitors. Also interesting is that a Samsung 23" computer monitor (also LED) consumes about 45 watts and this appears to be relatively consistent, the HDTVs appear to have spent more time trying to make the units efficient.

As part of the re-wiring I added one of the new Blue Sea "SafetyHub 150" Fuse Blocks behind the master circuit breaker panel. This unit has 4 high power fuses and 6 ATO fuses. While I was rewiring the nav station I found that other than the master cutoff switch there were no fuses between the master power cutoff and the circuit breaker panels. Unfortunately, circuits need to be fused to the smallest unprotected wire in the circuit and this is not the case for this installation. So, Now there is a MIDI fuse which services each of the portions of the circuit breaker panel as well as seperate fuses for running the 24V DC -> 12V DC converters which were previously wired directly to the primary power bus. The result is a much safer installation. I will also be adding an additional distribution panel or two down by the primary power switch (most likely one directly connected to the battery for bilge pumps and the like and then a second for just after the master power switch)

So, the Nav station looks like it will have a 19" HDTV (which has lots of inputs for remote cameras, computers, USB, etc) and then a tablet like an iPAD or Android Tablet and the remaining space will be used for dedicated instruments. Currently I will reuse the existing instruments knowing that I will probably rework much of that over the next few months. There is in fact room for two of the 19" displays or two of the largest Raymarine E-Touch series display (15"?) or one display and one E-Touch display. I expect to run a low power PC in the nav station and I have ordered a 350VA - (300 watt) Victron 24V -> 110V 60hz since wave inverter which will be dedicated to running the nav station and basic computer infrastructure. The cost was about $148 and comes highly rated. Hopefully it will be ready to install after the first Corsair YC work party.

March 2011: Installed new propane system. An upgraded stove (Force 10 Three Burner with Thermostat Oven), Trident propane sensor and control, new 30' propane hose, two stage dual tank regulator, control solenoid, and fiberglass propane tank in the aft locker. The existing copper line was quite corroded (I never hooked it up because it looked bad) and had several compression fittings in the lines which made me nervous. The new system has the propane line run outside the cable chase and the control solenoid line running inside the cable chase.  

Completed the varnish of the saloon floors, in the end I applied three coats of gloss varnish and then 5 coats of rubbed effect varnish. The result appears to be very tough although I have continued to only walk on it barefoot or in socks (grin). The result is beautiful, I will have to complete the rest of the floors as soon as possible as there are definitely some thin spots in the rest of the boat.

I finally got around to installing new Non-Skid material on the companionway stairs. The result is beautiful!

I finally got the new Aqua Signal Series 34 LED Based Navigation lights installed on the bow. I still need to install the new stern light (I have the light it just will be a bit harder than the others to install as the existing mount is welded on!!! Rather than bolted)

Started looking into the problems with the existing 110V inverter from Trace. It is a 1500DR series from 1997 and unless it can be completely debugged I would not want to continue using it. After spending some time degugging the unit with an oscilloscope it is probably not worth trying to reuse. Time to consider at least a small inverter for the nav station.

February 2011: Varnishing saloon floors has begun! After all of the mast work and getting the new head installed it is time to get the floors sealed up before the sailing season to make sure that I end up with moisture in the floors. Based upon the recommendation from Epifanes I am applying 3 coats of gloss varnish and then at least 5 coats of rubbed effect varnish over the existing varnish. The goal is to sand the existing varnish enough to get to a clean surface but not sand all the way down to the underlying teak so that the color remains the same. 

January 2011: Finished installing the new Raritan Marine Elegance head. This version has the "smart flush" control and the salt/fresh water option. The "water saver" flush is approximately 1/2 gallon and the "normal flush" is about 1 gallon.

December 23-24, 2010: Headed down to Long Beach to have the mast re-stepped at "The Boatyard". Allan and his team from SeaTek arrived right on time and we got started. By early afternoon the rig was back up and the spartight was poured. Because I was not on a tight schedule we decided to wait until the next day to remove the lines holding the mast in the right place and clean up the last details. This gave the SparTight lots of time to fully cure. The result is absolutely spectacular. Everyone has been saying that the rebuilt rig really makes the boat into a Yacht! I could not be happier with the job the guys performed, they did a great job, on time, on budget, and very professionally performed. There is a link to a review of SeaTek's work down in the "links" section as well as here. The full discussion of the overall mast rebuilding, decisions, etc is this link.

November 2, 2010: Time to visit my mast and see how the project is progressing! The condition of the mast after media blasting (walnut shells) is very nice. I am very impressed by the condition of the surface which is the result, it is obvious that the texture will result in excellent adhesion of the first coat of zinc chromate primer!  Current plan is to have the rig back in the boat by the end of November! I have decided on using Sta-Lok fittings as I have rerigged three vessesls with them (including Little Botany Bay, Amadon Light, and one other) and that all Oysters 575 and smaller are currently rigged with Sta-Lok fittings. My thought is that by going with Sta-Lok this will make it easier for Oyster Aftersales to help me whenever I might need support, especially during the Ralleys. Definitely decided to go with the Lopalight masthead light. 

October 24-25, 2010: Time for the much anticipated refurbishment of the standing rig for Botany Bay! Tom and I sailed Botany Bay down around Palos Verdes into Long Beach to have the rig pulled for complete tear down and rebuilding. The rig was pulled at "The Boatyard" across from the Long Beach Yacht Club under the watchful eye of Allan and Mike from SeaTek Marine of Wilmington. The plan is to dissassemble the mast as much as possible, strip the paint and coatings off and then rebuild completely. This is expected to take about 5 weeks so I should expect the mast to go back into the boat around the first week in December.

Appear to have a very small weep of oil at the connection between the oil cooler and the engine block. Not enough to be more than making your finger a bit shiny after 10 hours of running. Other than that, the engine cooling system rebuild has ben completely successful. 

So, the winter refit projects are in full swing at this point!

October 2-3, 2010: Cat Harbor is always a treat in October for Buckaneer Day at Isthmus. Last year was a bit more interesting that anyone wanted with a couple of boats up on the rocks coming back home in a large storm. The result was finding all of the leaks in the boat. This was the reason for spending so much time getting the boat into as good of shape as possible because the weather can be rather unsettled at times this late in the season. Having just rebuild the cooling system on the engine I was definitely on edge checking the engine every 5 to 10 minutes. However, the amount of heat in the engine room was WAY down even though the engine temperature was running at the recommended level of about 170F.

September 20-October 1, 2010: Took apart the cooling system for the engine looking for the restriction. At first I thought I had found the worst of it when I found many impeller blades plugging up the front of the raw water to antifreeze cooler. By this time I had both of the coolers off the engine (antifreeze and oil coolers) but the cooling stacks looked very good even though  they had never been off the engine! Thinking that there might be hidden plugged up areas I sent them off to my friends at S&W Diesel in Wilmington, CA who took them apart and rebuilt the units. Then over the weekend I found that the little box on the side of the transmission (Hurth HWB 250) was made of aluminum and had corroded to the point where when I wiggled the hose going from the box to the raw water pump it came apart in my hands. The hole through which the water was having to get through was about 1/4 inch! In fact, the back of the box (pressed against the transmission) was so badly corroded that a screwdriver could be pushed clear through it with minimal effort! So, off to Wilmington to get more parts. In the end it all came together Friday evening and after tugging on the dock lines for about an hour without issue we were off to see the pirates! The installation of the oil cooler appears to be a bit twitchy, when I first installed it there was a significant oil leak which dumped a couple of quarts of oil into the bilge in about 5 minutes! There are three bolts which are not quite in line making the torque pattern difficult to determine. In the end I torqued the bolts on either side of the oil passages and then the last one.

September 17-19, 2010: Emerald bay for Comodore's cruise! Based upon the fog coming in late in the evening and forcast into the late morning I motorsailed over in the late afternoon/early evening. Talk about a quick passage, left the harbor at 5:10pm and arrived in Emerald Bay at 7:50pm or about 2 hours 40 minutes! Boat speed was in the high 8's after getting wind in the sails off the R10 bouy. Without sails up the same throttle setting was getting 7 knts. I will be very interested in how the fuel consumption numbers look for high speed motor sailing. The engine seemed to be running without a huge amount of load. 

The return trip was a bit more interesting. Sailing back as far as the traffic separation scheme was a wonderful sail at 7+ knts, however, when a large ship showed up on the radar at about 8 miles and was holding a fairly constant bearing at 6 miles (looking like it would go behind us but not with a huge amount of margin) and the wind became somewhat lighter causing a reduction in boat speed I cranked up the engine to make sure I had a couple of miles of room between us and the ship. The engine overheat alarm came on about 15 min later (it is set for about 200F and so nothing serious) and rapidly came back down to 185 with the load off. At this point we are well clear of the ship. So figuring I had picked up a back or just ran at higher load than I thought did not worry too much about it.

Then trying to sail around Palos Verdes I needed to motorsail for a few minutes to make the point without tacking and the engine almost immediately show signs of overheating (195F and climbing when significantly above idle and significant steam in the exhaust). I checked the inlet strainer and the flow rate was quite low. 

So, I sailed the rest of the way to Redondo at very low speeds (got some nice polar data) and then entered the harbor just off idle doing about 4knts.

I expected that the heat exchanger was plugged up as the raw water flow rate has always been lower than I thought correct but I had no proof. When I got everything apart I found a pile of impeller blades in the intake side of the heat exchanger! I am always careful to collect all of these if an impeller died, obviously some Previous Owner (PO) had not been so careful. Ah well, with the primary heat exchanger and oil cooler off the engine (they had never been removed before, I had to break through original paint!) I sent them off to S&W Diesel in Wilmington, CA for a careful going through and rebuilding.

September 4-6, 2010: Labor day weekend at Emerald Bay! Probably the first warm weekend of the summer! A wonderful event with the Corsair YC. Coming over from Redondo Beach the Boom Vang started acting up. I managed to get everything together enough in route to avoid any issues while putting the sails away. Over the weekend I managed to get the blocks jammed inside the vang apart without damaging anything and then find enough parts onboard to provide a good fix until the mast is pulled this fall.

August 12-15, 2010: Back to Emerald Bay again! Collected a considerable amount of polar data on the way over in the 10knt of true wind range.which has been included in the current spreadsheet. The Corsair YC had an "Emerald Idol" competition which was alot of fun which the crew of Botany Bay participated in by performing "Jammin Hambo". Amusingly we did not have the right music aboard but got a friend to e-mail the right music at the last minute!

July 23-25, 2010: Over at Emerald Bay with the Corsair YC. I collected useful measured polar data on the way over and back. On the way back I paused north of the R10 bouy to try many points of sail as the winds were very steady and the seas were quite flat. Hopefully these will make developing a set of polars relatively painless.

July 10-11, 2010: Portofino Round up at Isthmus, moored in Cherry cove, as usual my efforts with horse shoes were pretty bad. Oh well, another good excuse to Catalina! The weather was still pretty grey!

July 2-5, 2010: July 4th holiday weekend at Emerald Bay! The weather was overcast and drizzily all weekend. The only exception was part of Sunday. However, much fun was had playing cards in the evening and I spent some of the weekend installing new hull to deck / toerail bolts. There are a total of 210 countersunk bolts which go through the toerail, deck, and hull flange. Of these I have replaced approximately 120 of them. The key being to replace the bolts which are local to a given cabin while all of the cabinetry is apart for varnish.

June 19-27, 2010: The forward cabin varnish has gone much quicker than I had expected. Two weekends and the evenings in between managed to get this portion done! The hand rail around the forward berth could use a few more coats of varnish but it will probably get some minor scratches in it while I am installing the new holding tank system 

April 30-2, 2010: Took Friday off to sand varnish... This is a huge chunk of varnish to be doing at the same time. Currently I have the nav station forward of the saloon bulkhead and all of the galley sanded out. It has taken 3 evenings and all of Friday to get it ready for a first coat of varnish. The first coat of Epifanes gloss went on thinned 50/50, while the nav station went pretty well, the galley was a nightmare of wood grain which did not fill and "fish eyes". Even after two rounds of sanding and applying TSP several times first (actually a new substitute) the result was rather disheartening. Sunday morning some of the varnish was still slightly sticky even though the heater had been on all night, a classic case of the oils in the wood grain slowing down the cure. But eventually it sanded well enough to get a 75% Varnish/25% thinner coat applied. I probably used a bit too much alcohol to clean the surface and ended up with what looked like dust but this coat did appear to cure reasonably. I will be out of town until Wed evening so hopefully by Thursday evening it will be hard and I can start sanding this coat out. From the looks of things it is getting better but I suspect it will take at least two more coats of gloss to get the grain to fill and have a good base for a total of 4 coats of gloss. Then two coats of rubbed effect should get to the final coat. This bit of varnish will get everything in the saloon/galley/nav station complete except for the grab rail around the saloon and the locker doors. Those should be able to be completed in one remaining chunk.  Well, the 7th coat of gloss varnish on the companionway hatch is very smooth but has dust!!! Arggg. The agony of the varnish! I think it is time to put off the last coat of varnish on that piece until later. Hopefully Thursday evening I can sand out the worst parts and get an additional coat on in an attempt to fill the wood grain and fish eyes completely on the first coat of the weekend. It would be nice to get a first coat of rubbed effect varnish on the whole area next weekend.

April 30, 2010: Finally ordered the 24V version of the Raritan Marine Elegance toilet with Smart Fresh. The price ended up being $949 with $30 shipping. I also ordered two spare joker valves and a spare electronic solonoid at the recommendation of Raritan. It will take a couple of days for them to build the head and then about a week to ship across the country.

April 24-25, 2010: The only exterior teak (three pieces around the companionway) now have 6 coats of gloss varnish and look very nice. I am definitely going to have to replace the hatch boards with smoked Lexan to have a consistent look. The first couple of coats had significant color variation as the exposed teak after much sanding had dark and light colors. After a couple of weeks of exposure to the sun the color is definitely becomming more uniform. The piece of teak on the hatch cover has some brush strokes which are showing so at least one more coat. The ladder came out beautifully with rubbed effect varnish and we decided to do all of the interior woodwork around the companionway in the same coating. Absolutely stunning. The base for the second electric 66 winch went back down.  I have been cleaning winch parts in the evenings during the week. It is currently taking me about  6 hours to pull a 66 series winch apart, clean it, make sure all of the screws are not frozen, check pall springs, etc. The newer Lewmar 54's only take about 2 hours to go through the same process.

April 17-18, 2010: The aft bulkhead now has four coats of gloss varnish and the grain has finally filled! It really looked bad above the galley originally, I was not sure if it would ever fill in completely. A couple of coats of rubbed effect varnish and it should look very nice. Three of the eight removed cockpit winches have been reinstalled (the two newer 54's, one of the electric 66's).  

April 9-11, 2010: The cabinetry in the saloon on the port side is now mostly assembled with only minor sanding here and there to get things to fit again after adding 5 coats of varnish on all of the surfaces.  The aft bulkhead of the saloon, the companionway frame and the companionway ladder have been sanded and the first couple of coats of gloss varnish have been applied. We had rain over the weekend and the forward edge of the mast partners was leaking a bit. Going to have to chase that down and work it some more. 

April 3-4, 2010: The two aft chainplates are back from the machine shop having had the scratches buffed out and a deep shine applied. At the same time I had the frozen screws pulled out of the toerail fittings for the dock lines. Now three of the four primary chainplates have been completely worked through and now have no leaks. I also tried to plug up the leak around the mast. of the 13 bolts holding the fitting on the deck I can only get 10 of them out without pulling the mast. So, I pulled all of those bolts and rebedded them with polysulfide. However, the next rain confirmed one leak remaining. All of the leaks from the 10 bolts pulled and rebedded have been sealed up, however, there is a small leak on the starboard side of the mast forward which drips between the mast and the deck where the mast wedges are found. It is not clear if it is the one remaining bolt forward of the mast (unlikely) which is in the cabin just forward of the Saloon (the bunk cabin) or if it is the mast boot which I replaced last year (does not look likely) or is between the plate on the deck and the deck itself. Some research will be required to see what is going on.

March, 2010: The saloon windows took three weekends of hard work to get them re-installed! A total of 21 tubes of ArboSil sealant were used up! The comments from the peanut gallery noted that I would apply 3 or 4 tubes of sealant at $15/tube, push the window in, scrape off 2/3 of the sealant applied using $5 worth of paper towles! Probably true, but no leaks yet!  

January 16-17, 2010: The varnish project is now underway! The first coat of Epifanes high gloss varnish has been applied to the teak paneling around the large windows in the saloon. After much discussion and sole searching I have decided on the following buildup: 2 coats of high gloss traditional varnish then 2 coats of rubbed effect traditional varnish. Any areas which sand to the bare wood get one coat of high gloss traditional varnish thinned 50/50 prior to building up the remainder of the layers. 

September ??-??, 2009: The Cat Harbor cruise with Corsair YC was an eventful voyage to the backside of Catalina. This cruise is traditionally the same weekend as the "Pirate Festival" at Two Harbors and is always fun! The sail over on Friday evening was uneventful getting in just after dark and a wonderful lazy saturday was had by all. Sunday was a bit boisterous for the run home which took 9 hours from the mooring to anchored inside of the breakwater at King Harbor (we waited a couple of hours for the wind to die down prior to trying to get back into the slip). The maximum true wind was about 38knts near westend with 8 - 12 ft seas and 5 second period! The close reach home saw average true winds of 35knts and continued to have large seas on the beam. Other than a couple of significant deck leaks and a few leaking hatches the boat did very well. Not that I would go out of my way to find those conditions again!

September ??-??, 2009: Botany Bay visits the Long Beach YC with the West Coast YC for my first attempt at "Med Mooring" a 55' sailboat which does not like to back up in a straight line. We dropped the hook and backed in very nicely. Tom and I sailed down from King Harbor on Friday afternoon and we had a wonderful weekend enjoying the hospitality of the Long Beach YC. For the return voyage Tom, Emily, Chris, Dianne, and Cameron sailed back to King Harbor after a quick stop to pick up 140 gallons of diesel fuel (the single tank was down to about 10" of fuel, we measured the amount of fuel for each inch of fuel added and found that after getting away from the bottom of the tank, each inch of fuel is about 10 gallons, close to full tanks is about 28" of fuel). 

September ??-??, 2009: Another fun filled weekend at Emerald Bay with the Corsair YC for the "Commodore's Cruise".

May ??-??, 2009:  My first trip to Emerald Bay with the Oyster, getting onto a mooring is going to take a bit of time to get comfortable but with reasonable winds and current and the help of my fellow Corsair's we got onto the mooring without issue. In fact on Saturday we had an "open boat" party and something like 30 corsairs came to visit during the day. At about 3pm 14 of us went "day sailing" off the mooring and had a great time, Botany Bay did take a nibble out of Jauque when he pinched a finger in one of the rope stoppers but a good time was had by all. When we got back to the mooring it was blowing with a 12 knot cross wind and so many fenders went out an as we went by "Bandwagon" we discovered they had setup a used dingy lot complete with a "no reasonable offer refused sign"! Our trip home was uneventful. Roger of "S/V Jolly Rodger" which significantly improved getting the in mast furling mainsail in and out. 

April 15, 2009: Today I took possession of Oyster 55 #19 in San Diego, California. So ends the search over large portions of the planet looking for a somewhat larger vessel to call home. Since October of 2005 when I started actively searching for a new vessel I have visited many places, met many interesting people, and crawled through the bilges of many beautiful vessels all over the world. Now, the search is over and it is time to focus on getting her home. 

 April ??, 2009: Sea Trials for the Oyster! Bill and Emily were along for moral support. We had both very light winds and very heavy winds. I was pleasantly surprised with the light air performance and that the in mast furling system seems to work reasonably well in light air. The only unfortunate surprise was the gally sink drain will overflow when the vessel is healed significantly and the seacocks are frozen. Emily and the brokers were both trying to find a way to stop up the galley sinks. The engine seems to run well, the autopilot was definitely intermittent and will need some attention along with the rest of the electronics.

Much Older News! All with regard to "Little Botany Bay" (LB^2)

May 1-16, 2005: The machinery spaces aft of the engine room have gotten a major facelift. Almost everything is painted bright white, the wiring has been cleaned up, the refrigeration compressor is cleaned up and looks nice, the autopilot course computer has a much more easily maintained home. There are still a list of projects to complete before leaving the machinery spaces but it is manageable. 

February 5-6, 2005: The new fire extinguisher is installed, applied white Formica to the outside of the engine room enclosures. Soundproofing project proceeding. Installed Murphy Gauge for the engine water temperature which will allow for an adjustable engine alarm level. Will also get a low oil pressure Murphy Gauge to give a mechanical oil pressure gauge in the engine room. Additionally I replaced all of the oil pressure sensors due to minor leaks (low oil pressure switch, electronic oil pressure monitor)

January 29-30, 2005: Botany Bay's engine finally gets completely enclosed for the first time ever. The engine room blower was moved from the transom to inside the engine room and plywood forms were placed around the engine room. Determined that the engine room fire extinguisher has possibly lost it's overcharge (later determined it may have been a bad pressure gauge as it discharged by accident later and rather violently) The original unit (a Kiddie FM200 system) is no longer supported by the original manufacturer and in fact the support line was not terribly polite in telling me to go away. So I am now the proud owner of a new FireBoy system which is rechargeable.

January 22-23, 2004: Botany Bay's engine runs again for the first time in many months. She seems to be running just fine although a little rough at idle. Probably just needs run in a bit

January 15-16, 2005: Botany Bay's engine room is nearly complete, Tom and I spent the weekend cutting sound proofing foam for the engine room.

December 16, 2004 - January 10, 2005: Not much got done on Botany Bay's projects as I had to have my left knee rebuilt. Dr. Feder did an amazing job cleaning out the joint and following up the post operative recuperation.

November 12-15, 2004: Botany Bay's engine is coming through the refit with only a few problems. I had to replace the dipstick tube (the bottom end broke off, luckily I could retrieve the broken piece off), got the exhaust manifold resurfaced, obtained a honest to goodness Perkin's return spring for the kill solenoid. I readjusted the injection pump because of clearance with the kill switch leaver. It is was offset about a pencil line width to one side, it is probably half as much to the other side. I have the raw water pump off for rebuild. I have removed the fuel lift pump as it is almost 35 years old and probably should be replaced. It turns out it is a 4-108 pump (4 bolts) instead of a 4-107 pump (2 bolts). Probably a cross over year in the production cycle. I also ordered a gear pump for transferring fuel and polishing the fuel. Tom and I will be installing nearly identical systems on Botany Bay and Alegria this weekend!

October 23-24, 2004: The battle is now well joined! It appears that the first winter project will be giving the old Perkins diesel engine a careful once over. The last careful tear down and refit was back in the fall of 1999 before heading out to Kwajalein so she is well due. I have removed the exhaust riser and salt water injection point (I was seeing the start of corrosion around the water injection point), the exhaust manifold (the exhaust manifold to head connection nearest to the transmission was leaking), the header tank (to replace the 5 year old thermostat and make sure that the aluminum tank can be removed from the steel bolts), the injectors (last rebuilt in 1998 with the injector pump) and pipes, raw water heat exchanger (last cleaned of calcium deposits late 2000 while at Kwajalein), swap out the original starter (which has quite a bit of corrosion) with the spare one purchased for the trip home from Kwajalein to LA, the forward/starboard motor mount bracket (under the heat exchanger) will be cleaned up and repainted. The injector rebuild and having the exhaust manifold flange to the cylinder head will be sent out for work and should be back in a week or so. I will also take this opportunity to get the engine controls correct for the new Edson steering system.

October 10, 2004: Well, winter is coming and the fall project season is upon Botany Bay and Alegria. It appears that Alegria has fouled an injector and so we will be delving into removing injectors for service while also doing valve lash adjustments and the like. Botany Bay has quite a few little projects remaining after finishing the big refit of 2003. There is a link below to last years project list and completions as well as the new list for this year. There are quite a few things but unlike last years projects these can be taken into in small chunks and not drive Tom and I to distraction!

October 1-3, 2004: Arrrrrrh! Tis time for a pirates booty to be found at Cat Harbor with the Corsairs of Emerald Bay! In fact it was quite the adventure with Botany Bay and Alegria sailing together for the first time in a while as Tom and I have 

September 18-19, 2004: Corsair Yacht Club's Labor Day cruise was wonderful, the sail over was one of the best of the season, the sail home was the roughest, I was single handing back from the island with a single reef in the main and a bit of the Genoa out and was still a bit overpowered sometimes. The mid channel was 26-28 knts with short periods above 30knts! The seas were about 8 feet with an additional wave train coming in about 30 degrees offset from the first at about 6 feet. A real washing machine!

September 3-6: Labor day at the cove! A wonderful time was had by all, one of my Kwajalein beach towels disappeared from the cockpit rail where it was drying! Luckily Al Kim noticed a blue splotch on the bottom 20+ feet down and retrieved it for me! His free diving skills are amazing, I would not have had a prayer of getting it without diving gear! 

August 20-22, 2004: The second weekend of cruise week! While I had missed the intervening week of festivities (including champagne bingo!) I did make it back for the second weekend of Cruise week! Another day over at the Boy Scout camp seeing the amazing salt water aquarium setup which they maintain to teach salt water biology to the Boy Scouts who cycle through the facility for a week at a time. Quite an amazing operation!

August 13-15, 2004: It is time for the Ashbridge cruise! A race up to West end, around eagle rock and back, staggered start so I bring my crack crew of Kent Nelson and Mike Fuchs to help in my assault on the trophy. We departed King Harbor in the early afternoon on Friday the 13th (sounds ominous to me as you Never sail on Friday much less the 13th) and were ready for the racing on Saturday. We did pretty well, holding our own but as I (yes the captain did choose and thus must be held responsible) chose to take the outward passage and the racing boats took the inward passage I lost some significant distance to the old timers but did reasonably well. We were 4th out of a field of 6 but the top 2 were hard core lightweight racers so I would say second out of a field of four "real vessels of merit"! Dinner and the punch bowl were wonderful and we had a wonderful sail home with a crew of four as we picked up Lance who needed to work like the rest of us instead of spending the rest of the week over at the cove! 

July 17-19, 2004: One fish, Two fish, Red fish, New Fish! It is new fish in the cove weekend as as there are not many new fish for 2004 I was drafted although I won't be a full member until the August Dinner Meeting. The fire was HOT, the coals were ready and the Luau was planned by the new fish in the cove (i.e. new members) of Corsair YC! We cooked and we cooked and made a huge mess of ourselves, our aprons, and the like! I think everyone would agree that is was one of the most memorable dinners in the cove for the year. Those of us who helped with the decorations will always remember the "folded fish" which drove grown men to tears!!! 

July 27-29, 2004: Refurbishing the house battery bank, take a look at the "house bank" section under "equipment", after four equalization cycles the bank has evened out and has 625 amp-hours of capacity after 4.5 years. The original capacity of the bank was approximately 645 amp-hours originally and the specified capacity is 660 amp-hours. I have also added some links about battery capacity.

July 26, 2004: Repaired the fan on the inverter with plastic super glue! Total cost to repair $2.95! See the inverter section for an update and pictures. This will allow me to refurbish the house bank with the equalization cycle and high rates of charge.

July 19-25, 2004:Replaced the water pump on the diesel, see the section on the main engine for a discussion of the trade offs of changing to a different belt system. In the end, with the help of dear old dad, I realized that the current system has worked very well for the last 8 years and it is probably best to just do the same!

July 17-18, 2004: Corsair Yacht Club new fish in the cove weekend. While I am not yet a full member of Corsair YC I helped out with the new fish in the cove dinner where I learned all of the tricks of running a dinner for 150-200 people at the Emerald Bay facility. It turns out that the water pump on the engine (fresh water pump) is failing and starting to leak so I will have to replace it.

July 9-11: Another beautiful weekend over at Catalina for the weekend with Tom and Alicia on Alegria

July 2-5, 2004: What a wonderful weekend at the Corsair Yacht Club facility at Emerald Bay! The first trip to the Island after the refit, there are a few systems which are still a bit our of whack but she sails well.

June 17, 2004: LP stayed shiny overnight and the decks were dry, sanded with 220 and then applied 1/2 quart of paint. Looks like complete color coverage, all that is left is to apply non skid paint. Will spend the weekend bolting down the cockpit hardware and then paint the non-skid and let cure! Almost done!!!

June 16, 2004: First coat of LP in the cockpit after yard work. It covered most things but not all, will need one more coat. It takes 1/2 of a quart to do all of the cockpit except for the sole and one of the bridge deck non-skid areas. Just using the excess in the roller to build up layers for color on the non-skid areas.

June 15, 2004: Continued to sand out the cockpit, it is taking a bit to get everything just the way it should be

June 14, 2004: Spent the morning getting the last of the yard grunge out of the cockpit and get it mostly sanded down for painting.

June 13, 2004: And we bolted down even more parts and pieces, everything forward of the cockpit is bolted down except for the bow roller, the dorade boxes, hatch in head, and the deck vent for the hot water heater. The bolts are down for the hatch, however, the hatch and sea hood need to be painted. Now onward to the cockpit

June 12, 2004: Tom and I spent the day bolting down hardware on the decks, we made a lot of progress, now with lifelines and the like she is starting to look like a boat again

June 10, 2004: Applied second coat of non-skid to the side decks, the previous layer stayed glossy even with using pure brushing thinner instead of my normal 50/50 mix with brushing thinner (2333N) and spraying thinner (2316). The gloss of that layer was somewhat higher than the other portions of the non-skid done with the 50/50 mix. This coat went down with the 50/50 mix. The side decks need approximately 8oz of unthinned paint with 2oz of 2333N, 2oz of 2316, and 2oz (by volume) of non-skid beads. This is equivalent to 8oz of beads per quart of unthinned paint. Two coats seems to result in a very even surface. Yesterday's weather had temperature when painting of approximately 64 degrees at 65% humidity, the high was 70 degrees at 53% humidity, the nighttime low was 61 with a dewpoint of 56 degrees and a humidity of 85%. The decks were wet this morning, the low was about 3am and the sky was clear. Tonight should be similar with some additional overcast to help keep the decks warmer. 

June 9, 2004: Applied first coat of non-skid to the side decks, this is a bit of tricky business as the portlights were installed with a silicone based sealant which tends to cause significant fisheye problems with paint. So, first I scrubbed the decks with simple green, then scraped any suspicious areas with a nice sharp razor blade, then scrubbed the decks again with simple green. Then I wiped the decks down with Interlux 202 dewaxer/degreaser, sanded with 220 grit, and finally re-wiped the decks down with Interlux 2333N. Amazing that I ended up with no fisheye problems at all! Tomorrow morning I will apply the second and final coat of non-skid on the side decks which will make way for installing all of the stanchions, chainplates, deck fills, sail tracks, and other related hardware.

June 8, 2004: Finished hatch slide installation with ability to remove without having to pull headliner, reinstalled headliner.

June 7, 2004: Installed bolts in coach roof for the sea hood

June 6, 2004: Installed insert in rub rail, drilled hatch slides and developed T-nut based solution to allow removal of the hatch slides without removing the headliner. 

June 5, 2004: Pulled headliner down, installed rebuilt hatches on coach roof, installed hand rails.

June 4, 2004: Tom and I installed the new bow pulpit! We also installed the top works of the Lighthouse Windlass!

June 3, 2004: The new bow and stern pulpits arrived! I have cockpit seats! The new bow pulpit is wonderful. Tom and I test fit them last night and only a couple of mounting holes needed drilled out and none nicked the core so no epoxy work! The new gate stanchions, cockpit seat tops, and companionway hatch guards should be ready on Monday!  

June 2, 2004: The hatch slides and the spacer to raise the traveler up 3/8" are made of UHMW plastic and the UV of the tropics was pretty hard on them. I took the originals over to Plastics Depot and they are making replacements. Total cost was about $50, what a deal! 

June 1, 2004: Tom and I installed the remaining three portlights and then I spent the evening cleaning up the excess sealant. It is amazing to have crystal clear windows again! 

May 31, 2004: Tom and I test fit all of the new portlights except the one in the cockpit (the painting is not finished there). We also masked and papered any part of the deck which might get a hand print of silicone sealant! The side decks still need a couple of coats of nonskid paint and I don't want to be fighting fish eyes! We managed to get the three forward portlights installed, I installed another three after dinner with some help from my dock mates and finished up about 3am! Three more portlights to install, they really look wonderful!

May 30, 2004: Tom and I finished the installation of the new rub rail, we used a total of 15 tubes of 3M 5200 with almost no wastage, that thing will never leak again! It was a long day though! We also worked on Alegria's batten pockets which seem to not reliably hold onto the battens.

May 29, 2004: Tom and I started final installation of the new rub rail. It became apparent that I had not purchased nearly enough 5200! Off to Home Depot for 12 more tubes! We finished about half of the rub rail this morning then I spent the afternoon getting the portlights ready to be installed. I also reinstalled the rebuilt foredeck hatch!

May 28, 2004: I picked up the hatches and portlight frames today. The powder coat process is beautiful, the guys at Marine Windshield in Costa Mesa are truly remarkable! The SilPruf sealant for the portlights arrived today, 24 tubes of goo! Then I went to West Marine for 4 tubes of 5200 and 4 tubes of white lifecalc and some other odds and ends.

May 27, 2004: Tom and I lightly bolted the rubrail to the hull deck joint. Now I can mask it off to put 3M 5200 under the joint.

May 26, 2004: One more coat of nonskid LP on the foredeck and coach roof.  

May 25, 2004: Cleaned decks and part of below from the time in the yard. 

May 24, 2004: Botany Bay splashed this afternoon (about 1pm) and I spent the afternoon watching for leaks and cleaning up. The engine is not hooked up to the coupling and the steering system is not installed so she was towed back to her slip. The only leak appears to be the P.S.S. shaft seal which may have gotten a bit of oil on the face and had to be cleaned to stop a minor drip. 

The work performed at King Harbor Marine Center was wonderful, I have nothing but good things to say about them! 

May 20, 2004: I installed the transducer for the new ST60 depth sounder this morning, luckily it is the same diameter (2") as the previous standard horizon unit. Extracting the old unit from the hull proved rather difficult though, in the end, I used the hole saw trick (drill it out with a 1 7/8" hole saw and then pick out the bits left behind). I have to go to West Marine and get some water based bottom paint for the transducer as it can't handle solvents.

I also applied another coat of bottom paint to the jack stand pad areas and the rudder. One more coat of bottom paint and then I let the whole thing cure until Monday.

May 19, 2004: The third coat of LP was applied to the transom after sanding the second coat very lightly with 220 grit. An additional coat of Micron Extra was applied to the rudder. This coat seems to have achieved full coverage. Called West Marine about the boot strip tape (three colors, 2" total width, black, gray, and silver), they only have one 50' roll and I need two so they are ordering it and should have it by tomorrow evening. Good thing I called!

May 18, 2004: The second coat of LP was applied to the transom after sanding the first coat very lightly with 220 and wiping the surface with 2333N. An extra coat of Micron Extra was applied to the leading edge of the rudder.

In the evening a third coat of bottom paint was applied to the exposed blocking pad locations. 

Thus far luck has been with me, there has not been any significant dew on the hull since May 15th! The LP on the hull is hardening up very nicely with no damage from moisture getting to the paint too soon. 

The current plan is to splash the boat on Monday so I will be spending some time this weekend installing hardware required to make Botany Bay watertight. Actually, most of the holes are well above the waterline but it would be nice to get them sealed up anyway.

The hatches and window frames are ready at Marine Windshield. I will pick them up next week after Botany Bay is in the water and ready for them to be installed.

The new depth sounder has been tested and functions correctly, now it is just a matter of extracting the old transducer. It is in there pretty tight, spent a couple of hours destroying the old transducer and trying to get it out of the hull. I have the backing nut and backing plate off, the flange outside the hull has been removed so now all that is holding it in place is the 3M 5200 between the threads and the hull. The new ST60 depth transducer is exactly the same diameter but uses a completely different connector. The original unit uses an RCA style connector while the Ray Marine hardware uses three spade connectors. The next step in removing the old transducer is to get the right size hole saw and re-bore the hole.

May 17, 2004: The first coat of LP was applied to the transom after sanding the primer with 220 and then wiping the transom down with 2333N. The result is some of the best painting I have done.

In the evening a second coat of bottom paint was applied to the exposed blocking pad locations. The bottom paint damaged by the travel lift slings was sanded and a coat of Micron Extra was applied.

May 16, 2004: Sanded out the transom and applied two coats of Interlux 404/414 primer thinned 25% with Interlux 2333N. The normal wipe with 202 dewaxer, sand heavily with 80 grit, wipe with 202, apply primer, sand with 220 grit, wipe with 2333N, apply primer and sand with 220 grit was followed. The HIN was protected with blue tape through these steps. 

The exposed blocking pad locations were sanded, some minor osmotic damage was found and repaired with 3M vinalyster putty and a coat of Interlux 2001 barrier coat applied, 5 hours later the first coat of Micron Extra was applied.

May 15, 2004: Sanded out hull for last coat of LP, ready to paint by 9:45am, a nice, dry, hot day. For some reason the paint simply would not flow out. Specifically there were millions of bubbles in the paint after application which normally all pop about an inch behind the roller and it simply was not working, tried all the tricks, changed thinner ratios, worked in the sun, worked in the shade, etc. Finally sat down, had a coke, and tried one last time, PERFECT. No change in the thinner, worked in sun, in shade, almost could not go wrong. Slight change in the weather, more overcast and the humidity came UP! In the end, a spectacular last coat of pain, no runs, no sags, no voids, no bubbles, probably one of the best coats I have put on.

May 14, 2004: Today I helped Tom do final installation of his new 18" maxprop. It is turned by a 56HP Yanmar diesel and has an SD40 Saildrive. The recommended initial setting for the prop is 18 degrees of pitch which is equivalent to 11 inches of pitch. Then we took Alegria out for a quick spin. With the two bladed Martec folding propeller the vessel would run at 2900rpm and achieve 7.3 knts of boat speed on flat water, above 3000rpm we would have significant vibration. With the Maxprop at these settings the maximum in gear rpm was 3800 (not to be run at for any length of time!) and achieves 7.3-7.5knts of boat speed at 3000-3050rpm. We need to determine from Yanmar what the preferred rpm is for this engine. From some web resources it appears that the preferred operating RPM for this engine is 3200rpm but I need to verify that.

Botany Bay was reblocked late in the day and although there was some marring of the bottom paint (it was still soft), the topsides LP held up with minimal scratches. If I can get the final coat of LP on tomorrow it will have 9 days to cure and should be hard enough to be put in the water with the travel lift.

May 13, 2004: This evening I will make a decision about applying one more coat of LP. Hopefully Botany Bay has the full 6 coats of bottom paint applied and is ready for re-blocking. It will probably take me a day to get the support stand locations prepped for bottom paint. So, probably out of the water all next week and then splash the following Monday. Assuming Tom's 18" Maxprop arrives today Alegria will be coming out of the water this afternoon and Tom and I will install the new prop to replace the folding prop which lost a blade on his last trip to Avalon. 

Alegria is out of the water now, the new MaxProp is ready to install, however, the SD40 saildrive needed a new zinc and no one seems to have one, Diver Joe is going to get Tom one first thing in the morning and help me to install his MaxProp a second time. 

Tomorrow I will have Botany Bay reblocked so I can get started with the areas under the jackstand pads. Tom and I also removed Hans the self steering vane off the back of Botany Bay and tomorrow I will prep the transom for LP!

May 9, 2004: Applied what may be the last coat of LP, I had to patch a little spot where I missed painting the sanded spot and hopefully it will blend in, if not, one more coat. Reinstalled the rudder, applied second coat of bottom paint. 

May 8, 2004: Tom and I worked hard on the boat, installed the 5/8" bolts plugging the old holes for the kelp guards, installed a new cutless bearing, dropped rudder, sanded it out, applied barrier coat and first coat of bottom paint. Installed new bellows on the PSS dripless packing.

May 6, 2004: Applied first coat of LP to the hull. It looks wonderful, two more coats of LP to go! Still need to drop the rudder and finish sanding and primer. I have to pull the propeller shaft also.

May 5, 2004: Applied second coat of Micron Extra, this coat is green. Pulled the V drive out to get access to the coupling. Worked on plugging the old kelp guard holes. Went to Lovelady hardware and found 5/8" Silicon Bronze bolts, I will install four electrically disconnected bolts into the existing holes and then bed them in 3M 5200. Sanded out aft end of hull which I could not reach in the water. Applied last coat of primer to hull.

May 4, 2004: Overcoated patches with interprotect barrier coat 2002e and then applied the first coat of Micron Extra. This coat is red. 

May 3, 2004: Sanded out the blister patches. Pulled the bolts which fill the kelp guard holes. These had caused a significant leak on the return trip from Kwaj. I replaced the bolts when I returned while in the water, the bolts had significant crevice corrosion again. I will have to come up with a better way to plug these holes.

May 2, 2004: Washed hull carefully with water and then patched the ground out blisters with 3M high strength vinaylester putty

May 1, 2004: Ground out blisters in the barrier coat, there were only a couple of blisters which were not just in the boundary between the interprotect barrier coat applied in 1994 and the hull. The deeper two  were only one layer of fiberglass into the hull. All ground out blisters were cleaned carefully with water

April 30, 2004: Botany Bay is out of the water, currently preparing the bottom for painting.  

April 28, 2004: Ordered replacement bellows, setscrews, and o-rings for shaft seal. PYI recommends that if water injection is used that it be at their fitting instead of on stern tube. Additionally ordered two tubes of lubriplate grease and the grease kit (including one tube of grease, a zirc fitting, and a grease gun). I also ordered a complete replacement screw set for a 70mm hub maxprop. Botany Bay will soon be ready to haul out and get serious about the underwater refit!

April 27, 2004: Up at 6am this morning and finished sanding out the aft end of the port topsides. So, now the decks are painted with LP but need some non-skid here and there, the starboard topsides have two coats of 404/414 primer and one coat of LP the port topsides have a single complete coat of 404/414 primer with an additional coat on areas where the white gelcoat was sufficiently crazed that the underlying black gelcoat started to come through. Hopefully tomorrow morning I can sand out the primer and apply a second coat for coverage. Friday is coming soon with haul out, I need to determine which cutless bearing is required (1 3/8" shaft but is the stern tube a 1 7/8" ID or 2" ID, I think it is 2"), the outside diameter of the shaft log inside the boat is needed to determine which bellows to get to replace the one which has been on the boat since Feb, 1997 (PYI says life expectancy is 12 years, recommends replacement at about 6 years), still working steering gear issues, found local welding shop to do the work, will have to pull transmission to access bolts through hull for old kelp guards so will take down to the local Borg Warner shop for a quick once over.

April 23-25, 2004: Took an extra Friday off to work through painting issues and the steering system. Three days of difficult work but half of the hull has its first coat of LP and the other half has its first coat of primer. Started working steering gear issues. Looks like the new pedestal will need to move forward a couple of inches to leave room for the 6" idler sheaves but otherwise I think it will all work out. Keep an eye out for "in progress" pictures of Botany Bay coming soon! 

April 19, 2004: The Edson steering gear arrives! Those 6" sheaves are huge! Assembled the system from its components and it all looks very good, there a couple of quirks which will have to be worked out and there will be some welding below decks to get everything working correctly. The biggest issue will be reversing the direction of the engine throttle control as pulling on the control cable increases the RPM instead of decreasing it.

April 12, 2004: The Ritchie compass has arrived! It is beautiful, a new powerdamp compass card, all new stainless covers, absolutely wonderful, best money spent this far!

April 7, 2004: Edson has not yet shipped the steering gear, should ship Friday the 9th. Should get here late next week or early the following week. Hopefully I will have the cockpit completed by that time. Currently targeting haul out for bottom paint the following week. Planning on 5 coats of Micron CSC Extra, at 16hours between coats it will be 4 days for the 5 coats and then move the stands and do it again for the jack stands and any hull repairs.

April 6, 2004: Tried throwing a tarp over the boat in the evening, I was a bit later than I should have been but the decks stayed shiny! Will experiment with the spraying thinner this weekend while working on the cockpit and will try covering portions of the deck after painting. Should manage to get the whole decks one color this weekend and get started with the topsides (waterline to the rub rail), hopefully I can get primer on some of that. 

April 3-4, 2004: The decks are white back to the forward edge of the cockpit! I seem to be having a bit of trouble keeping the paint from going dull in the evening dew. Painted first thing in the morning and still had dew problems. Talked to Interlux and they recommend trying a 50/50 mixture of the brushing thinner and the spraying thinner. Otherwise, try throwing a light tarp over the boat as late in the evening as possible without dew under it.

March 24, 2004: Ordered new steering system from Edson, see the equipment list for a detailed description of the choices.

March 23, 2004: Major sanding of primed decks, everything back to the forward end of the cockpit is ready for two final primer coats, then I get to move to the cockpit and finish up there.

March 22, 2004: Old D-515 Ritchie compass arrived at manufacturer for repair and a new housing. Total cost to rebuild compass and replace the chromed brass housing with a new stainless one was $495. Work should be completed April 8th and shipped back to me.

March 16, 2004: Sanded out the 410 Microlight filler and applied the first coat of Interlux 404/414 filler to the decks. Everything forward of the cockpit has one coat now, about half of the cockpit has a coat also as does the sea hood and companionway hatch. Hopefully I will get a day with good sunshine soon and I can get some pictures. The decks appear quite smooth and even.

March 15, 2004: Various gouges and imperfections in the nonskid were filled with West Systems epoxy and 410 Microlight Filler. Note that using this filler precludes painting the decks a dark color as this filler cannot handle extreme heat. These areas are very small and should not be any problem at all with white decks. 

March 13-14, 2004: Two 12 hour days of sanding the nonskid off the decks. New nonskid will be created from Interlux polymeric beads. I used a Porter Cable 6" random orbital sander with a vacuum attachment to contain the dust. The only remaining portion to sand is the cockpit sole.  

March 7, 2004: Final decisions about replacement steering gear from Edson, ready for ordering. Sent compass back to Ritchie for rebuilding and a new housing. 

March 6, 2004: The decks are finally stripped, getting quotes from the various local yards to determine how much of the work to do myself and how much to hand off.  

February 28, 2004: The windlass is back from Lighthouse, looks like new and the additional equipment for reversing direction and counting the amount of chain let out looks wonderful. All of the hatches and frames are off to Marine Windshield in Costa Mesa for rebuilding and powder coating. Using original equipment blanks from Bomar and powder coating bright white. 

February 3-12, 2004: Contra dancing in St. Croix! What a beautiful place! The sailing was wonderful, the diving spectacular, and the dancing sublime! 

January 19, 2004: New lenses are back from Plastic Depot and over in storage waiting for the decks to be painted. Lighthouse windlass is off at the manufacturer for preventative maintenance. Preparing to send all of the ports off to Marine Windshield in Costa Mesa to be rebuilt and powder coated, also having all of the frames for the big port lights powder coated with the same process. New hatch has been installed in the head. Remaining projects before starting to paint: Rebed upper shroud chain plates, remove lower shroud chain plates, install propane locker, remove rub rail, remove second dorade box, remove two foot switches for windlass on foredeck and install a third for reversing.

January 1, 2004: The beginning of a new year! Most of the major deck glass work is done. The foredeck heater stack hole is plugged up, the old windlass holes are reglassed, the old Yacht Specialties pedestal holes are complete, all of the random holes in the cockpit have been glassed up and sanded smooth. The remaining glass work: Install new hatch in head, remove the electronic instruments and glass up the holes, build propane regulator locker, and patch the mounting holes for the removed Deck mounted 406Mhz EPIRB. Assuming nice weather for Southern California I should be able to complete those projects this weekend and prepare to move forward on painting. I still need to rebed the cap shroud chain plates and remove the lower chain plates to make painting easier and I need to remove the new rub rail.

December 25, 2003: Rain comes to southern CA. I found a couple of places I did not get all of the leaks plugged from removing hardware. Nothing serious but mostly annoying. I have managed to get all of the outer rings removed from the Lexan Pilot house windows with Tom's help (Thanks Tom!) In fact we managed to pull all of them without bending any frames. Now I am carefully breaking the lens loose from the inside frame. Hopefully I can leave the inner frame in place and not have to risk repainting the inner frames or the inside of the coach house. I have three out of the ten lenses removed and have a technique which seems to result in a lens coming free every 30 - 45 minutes. The next three days are forecast to be dry which will let me get them all out and then something covering the large holes this leaves in the deck. It is rough not having a digital camera around (it is in the shop) and so I can't take pictures of the process. The wind is blowing very hard, making the process of keeping a tarp over the boat difficult. Hopefully I can have Botany Bay sealed back up before the next big rainstorm hits early next week.

December 14, 2003: The project work is coming along nicely. All of the hardware on the coach roof and main deck have been pulled and the holes filled with polysulfide to keep the rain out. I found a source of 1/2" MR-10 Lexan to replace the main cabin port lights. Thus far the only significant concern is the condition of the Bomar cast aluminum hatches. The coatings have failed pretty badly and many of the fasteners for hatch dogs and openers are frozen to the hatch. 

October 18-??, 2003: Time for repairs and maintenance, starting to strip the decks of all hardware for rebedding and painting. Take a look at the list of projects for the winter of 2003! In the meantime take a look at www.dancegypsies.com which I put together for my folk dancing friends.

October 11-12, 2003: I am single handing Botany Bay over to Catalina while buddy boating with Tom and Alicia of Algeria. The winds are perfect for a close reach with the asymmetric spinnaker and I decide to try flying it alone for the first time! The purple monster is out of the bag for the first time in over two years and it is a glorious sail to Isthmus! Even better I get to fly the purple monster again for half of the sail home! Too bad Algeria was too far away to get pictures.

September 12-14, 2003: Kayaks to port and starboard! 

September 11, 2003: As I prepare Botany Bay for sea, escorting 10 kayaks to Catalina, I reflect on the events of two years ago as I was preparing Botany Bay for the passage from Kwajalein to Los Angeles via Midway Island. The memorial at Midway was where I came to terms with the events of two weeks before. 

August 29, 2003: Labor Day weekend with the Corsair Yacht Club at Emerald Bay, Catalina Island. As has been the case most of this summer, all of the moorings at Catalina are full. However, it is an excuse to practice single handed bow and stern anchoring. I have just about got the system down.

August 2003: Botany Bay gets a new rub rail extrusion. It has taken me years to find an extrusion which looks good and covers the hull to deck joint on a Cruising CAL 35, it protrudes outward about a half inch from the hull and deck.

July 28, 2003: Pushed the images of Kwajalein Departure, Likiep Atoll, and the Midway to Los Angeles Passages onto the web site.

July 25-27,  2003: West Coast Yacht Club cruise to Newport with a raft up. I got my first "sawhorse" due to a frayed line on a fender which floated away. I did not get the sawhorse for the fender floating away but rather for the truly ratty line which was on it. I pleaded my rebuttal based upon sentimental  value of that piece of line which I applied to that fender shortly after purchasing Botany Bay. The club felt that the line had "parted ways" with me and that I still deserved the sawhorse.

July 4, 2003: I spent five glorious days anchored behind the big rock at Emerald Bay. The Fireworks were wonderful, the comradely of the Corsair Yacht Club was spectacular!

July 1, 2003: Finally, a potential new rub rail for Botany Bay. There is a part from Morse Industries which looks like it may fit perfectly, look good, and be easy to install. Samples should be here in a few days.

November 9, 2001: Rick and I made it from Midway to Los Angeles after 5 weeks at sea.