That’s today’s project. Bummer is, it’s not even on The List! Ann noticed it looked suspect when she was cleaning/polishing the cabin sides. I took a closer look and yup, the outer flange/seal was starting to come loose. Next step for that is a leak and core damage. Glad we caught it early.

So…hammer, chisel and wedges to break the seal, then lots of scraping to clean the old gunk. Now some epoxy to fill in some voids and the old screw holes – let dry a couple days and put it all back together with new sealant.

Flange pried off, cleaning out the old sealant.

Another exciting day in life aboard Charisma!

It’s nice to check a couple things off the old boat repair list.

Today, we got new fuel lines for the Racor. In retrospect, this is what I “shoulda” done in the first place. The old ones looked a little suspect – I don’t know why I just didn’t replace them with the old Racor. Anyway, done!!

The new Racor and new fuel lines all tucked in nice and tight.

Ann’s been polishing the stainless and may have found a leaky porthole – that’s tomorrow’s project, to take that apart and look at it.

She has also been working hard on our South Island tour and has booked hotels and plane flights at great prices! WooHoo!

This evening we had a delightful and unexpected time with a bunch of “yachties” at the BBQ. There must have been a dozen or more and a couple of Ukes. I played one and got some positive review, so I’ll have to bring mine in future. We had fresh corn, eggplant, kumara (sweet potato) and yellowtfin tuna grilled very rare. Yum!

Ugh! I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy project. At least the first half of the varnishing is done. We’ll do the second half of Charisma when we’re back in mid-March. It was a great idea of Ann’s to do half now since varnishing is tedious as hell.

But, on the fuel filter project – the short, flexible fuel lines between the Racor and the hard copper lines leaked once I had everything back together. A long story, but 26 year old brass crimps on rubber hose didn’t hold up to the wrenching around necessary to take them apart and put them back together again. I knew it would be like this, yet hoped it wouldn’t! Arrgghh… That’s what boat projects are like (sigh).

So… I’m having a shop that builds hydraulic lines look and see if they can tighten the crimps. I’m asking them to pressure test any fix so I don’t end up reattaching and filling the lines (again!) with diesel only to find they still leak. If they don’t test, I’m asking them to build new lines. “They’ll be at least $100 each!” And what is my alternative!!??

Oh well, that’s not even one boat dollar!

Today’s project, putting in a new diesel fuel filter – also known as “the Racor”, for the name of the manufacturer. A messy job and irritating. I bought the exact same model, but wouldn’t you know it, the inlet size has changed. Had to order special parts that won’t come in until tomorrow, meaning, we get to live with a very messy cabin until I can finish the project.

Yuck! The old one was full of crud.

The filter lives under the floor.

The new unit getting ready for installation.

OK, we’ve been goofing off for a while. Our trip home for the holidays was great but it’s nose to the grindstone time-well, at least for a week or two, then we’re heading to the South Island for some more touring. Ann has booked the Otago Bike Trail Tour. Something like four days and a hundred miles or so on mountain bikes. Lots of world class fly fishing along the way too! More about it later as plans firm up.

In the mean time, today’s projects included sending both anchors and all our anchor chain out to be regalvanized. The coral up in Fiji rubs all the protective coating off the iron chain and it rusts.

Here's one of rusty anchors waiting to be removed.

The other project today was shortening the whisker pole. It is actually a spinnaker pole and too long to use to wing out the jibs. So I cut three feet off so it will be a better size. Since the pole was tapered, I also had to “shim” the fitting a bit with some fiberglass.

Adding fiberglass to the fitting.

Ann is working on our boat inventory as well as starting on the hull waxing and doing laundry. Not as much “fun” as my projets, but essential nonetheless.

It's Charisma time, but spreadsheets must also be updated!