Wind and Fire

Powerful and dangerous Santa Ana winds spread wild fires across the state and created a few problems in the marina this week like broken dock cleats.  But I still managed to get a couple of boat projects done.  Here's the story:

Winds of nearly 30 mph, gusting over 45 made it

very uncomfortable to be outside and created 

"extreme red flag" warnings around the state. 

 It would also be almost impossible to evacuate 

boats safely if there were to be a fire in the marina.

Equipment for fire crews from Arrowhead pre-positioned

in the marina parking lot near the beach.

Fires and extreme red flag fire hazard areas around

the state on October 30.

A boat caught fire on the end of D dock in my marina at

2;30 in the morning.  Fortunately it was a windless night

and quite a ways from A dock where I am.  It was 

extinguished fairly quickly by the Harbor Patrol's

fire boat.  Rick Moser photo.

By the next day, what was left of the boat had been towed

to the boat yard.  These are what was left of the surf/paddle 

boards.  A cat on board didn't survive, but no people

were hurt.  The adjacent boat was also damaged.

With high winds making it impossible to

do outside work, it was a good time to

tackle an inside job.  The finish on the

beadboard at the head of the v-berth had

been slowly destroyed by the oils and

enzymes from my scalp, and it had gotten

to the point I needed to do something.

Gross!

Repainting it would be a lot of work and would suffer the

same fate as the original finish, so I decided to cover the

old panel with vinyl beadboard. (Removing the old panel

would have been a big job requiring removing all the 

shelves and trim.)  After cutting and fitting the new

panels, I glued them in place with silicone (to allow

easy removal should that be needed in the future).

To hold one uncooperative corner tight against

the bulkhead while the silicone set, I used my 

trusty wet mop.

Funky, but it worked great.

Next step was cutting, shaping and finishing three

trim pieces.

Much better!

During the calm days I continued the annual maintenance

Cetol coating on the exterior brighwork and finally did

a proper repair of the damaged caused by a big wake

going through Marina Cortez when I was in Mexico.

A chock had been pulled out and bent.  I had already

straightened the chock, now I needed to fill the 

damaged screw holes with epoxy/filler, drill new

holes, refinish and remount the hardware.

All securely back in place and successfully tested in

the big winds.

Hummingbirds

Yesterday I found a spot popular with hummingbirds, but I didn't have my camera with me.  So today I got up before dawn to be there at sunrise and take pictures.  It's tough to get a good shot for a number of reasons, but by taking many I got a few good ones.   They were all shot in the field with natural light.  Here they are:

 

The Saga of the Toilet of Circadian

In my last post I talked about tackling the leak from the pump handle shaft seal in my Skipper head.  While I got that leak fixed, it turned out that there were more.  It became a frustrating cycle.  Either the fixes didn't work or a new leak appeared once the previous ones were fixed.  I've had to pull the head out, flip it over, open it up and try new methods at least five times.  I THINK I've got it sealed now, and I've learned a couple of useful things along the way.  First, I found an easier way to prime the intake pump after opening up the head:  simply fill the bowl to within a couple of inches of the rim using the shower faucet.  (much easier than the hose connected from city water to the intake.)  Second, you can't reuse the factory paper gasket even if it looks fine because it has already been compressed.  Finally, everything needs to be tightened to the max!
Whenever I run into a frustrating problem like this, I always remember one of the pearls of wisdom I got from a friend years ago who was a former engineer in the Navy: "Sometimes you just have to be more stubborn than the problem is."
Although it appears to be leak-free now, I have been fooled before, so I'm a bit cautious about feeling flushed with success until more time has passed.  Check back in a week or two to see how the drama unfolds.  In the meantime, here are the details:

To find out why the joint at the base of the

head continued to leak even after I had
tightened the mounting screws, I had to
dismount it, flip it over and remove the
base plate.

While the gasket appeared undamaged...

...careful inspection revealed traces of the

leak where I had seen it before.

Evidence of the leak on the base plate as well as the head side.

So...I re-cleaned both mating surfaces again and tried

a different method.

This time I tried silicone form-a-gasket.

After putting it back together, remounting it and painting

it, it still leaked!  But in a different place!

Tore it down again and found the silicone a bit thin in the

area of the leak.

Cleaned it off again.

This time I was more generous with the silicone and put

a coat on both sides of the joint.

I put it back together without tightening
down the mounting screws fully for
 about an hour. While I waited for the silicone
to fully cure after tightening down the
screws, I moved the porta-pottie
from the aft head into the main head
so at least I had something to use in
the meantime.

When I tested it again, I found if it was 

STILL leaking at the base.  In addition,

there was now also a pin hole leak at the 

output hose connection.

Emergency rubber repair tape took care of the hose

connection leak, but I had to find another solution

for sealing the base joint.

By this time I was pretty quick at disassembling the thing

and cleaning the surfaces.

I decided to use rubber gasket material that was nearly

1/8 inch thick.  That allowed for plenty of compression

and there would be no thin areas or missed areas.

To mark the pattern for cutting, I covered the sheet

with masking tape, laid it on top of the base plate,

and pounded around the joint surface with a 5 lb hammer.

The resulting embossed pattern was good enough

to serve as a cutting guide.

While not factory perfect, the result was definitely good

enough: no gaps and the holes aligned.  I was optimistic.

Imagine my disappointment when I found it was leaking 

AGAIN right where it did the first time.  Okay,

time to try tightening the base mounting screws more,

even though I had made sure they were tight before.

This time I disconnected the hoses, flipped
 the head over and tightened the screw in question a bit
 beyond what I thought was prudent.  I went to the max
 even though I was concerned about stripping the slot or

breaking the screw.  It seemed to have stopped the leak

at the base.  HOWEVER...

Now there was a new leak at the intake elbow.  It was difficult

to get a wrench on the nut without disassembling the

head, but I managed to turn it just enough to stop the leak.

But wait...there's MORE!  Also a new leak at the output

elbow.  The engineering geniuses that designed this

put the connection bolt so close to the body that you

can't get a wrench or socket around it.  Fortunately I had a
 set of claw wrenches that could be mounted on the end

of a socket wrench extension, so I was able to barely

get to it and torque it down just enough to work.

I found I had just enough extra output hose length to cut 

off the first inch, hoping it would cure the leak I had 

previously patched with emergency tape.  Good idea;

it just didn't work.  So it was back to the emergency

tape trick, which did work once again.

After pumping through quite a bit of

water and allowing it to sit over night
with no signs of a leak, I remounted
the head and touched up the paint.

So far, so good.  Not counting chickens yet,

though.