Sounds more fun than it is. The tool chest drawers under our cabin table have an annoying habit of flying open and spilling all the socket wrenches and other sundry stuff when we’re in rough weather on port tack. We have had a Rube Goldberg kind of solution with straps and buckles, but it loosens over time and fails anyway.

So…today, with all the other big projects done, I finally tackled this problem and here’s the solution:

I found a piece of plexiglass, drilled out four corners and tapped the steel chest for screws...

...then I glued wing nuts with Loctite onto screws for home-made, easy to open fasteners.

And that’s our excitement for today on this very windy, squally day at the dock. We’re ready to go out to Barrier Island for our shakedown, but this wind won’t ease for another day or so.

Scanmar is the company that makes our Monitor wind vane (affectionately known on Charisma as “Wilson”).  They not only make a great product – it’s the only “autopilot” on our boat and steers 99% of the time – but their customer support cannot be surpassed.

Late last week, in continuing to get Charisma ready for our long 2015 voyage back to the US, we brought out the vane part of the wind vane (which is kept in the cabin when not in use) and discovered that it had cracks up each side of the strengthening dowels inside the vane.  We suspect the cracks are not a fault of the company’s but due to the fact that we keep it under the cabin cushion when not in use.  In other words we sit on it.  Well, even though it’s lasted through five years that way, we’re not going to do that anymore.  But more to the point we have very little time until we leave and needed  both new vanes – the standard and the heavy weather one – and were wringing our hands worrying about how long it might take.  I sent an email to Monitor and almost immediately across the time zones, received a reply.  “In stock, will ship out the next business day”.  Wow!  And it really did.  Today I got the UPS shipping notice and it should be here in about a week.  No problem, no worries.  One of the best companies we have worked with.  Highly recommended!

P.S.  A big shout out to Susy at Scanmar for taking such good care of us!

I think that’s one of the reasons we’re paying extra attention to the little things that leak. We’re about to sail from the lower left of the Pacific to the upper right. In miles, 10,000 probably isn’t too far off. Little leaks add up to big ones over such distances.

So, a couple more pictures of today’s bolt rebedding project.

Here's the jib track and fitting one of the screws.

Using a syringe to really get the bedding compound deep into the joint.

Couldn't help buying some of this. If a leak shows up while we're underway, I've heard this works-at least temporarily. Besides, how can you resist a name like that?

I’m replacing six screws on the jib track. They are stainless steel, and about nine inches long since they go through the toe rail, scuppers and deck. I had to have them custom forged as no one stocks 1/4″ diameter screws that are that long.

OK, so I got the new ones made in just a couple days thanks to the generous help of Terry from Custom Alloy and Stainless here in Riverside, Whangarei. He’s really busy, but I think he took it as a bit of a challenge to fabricate them. Lucky for me. He ended up taking 1/4″ bar stock, putting it into a custom made die the shape of the head of the screw, then heating and hammering it into shape. He then cut a slot for the screw driver and cut threads for the nut.

Here's the die. It ultimately broke, but lasted long enough to complete the job along with a couple extra bolts.

BUT…there’s always a “but” with a project like this. Five of the old screws came out without too much convincing. Ah, but the sixth one…it’s always the last and hardest one to get to that causes problems. The nut for this one resides in the very back corner of a silly 14 inch deep shelf that is only four inches from the ceiling. I can barely get my hand in there with a wrench. Hmmm, this could get ugly!

With Ann’s able assistance holding the wrench (much harder to do in real life than it sounds) I went up on deck with my impact driver (a regular screwdriver went no-where). It started to turn then absolutely seized up. I tried going forward then backward to loose it, but the only result of that was a broken driver tip.

I considered several other strategies including dismantling the shelf, but an idea Ann had finally was our next step. I would drill off the head of the bolt and punch it down through the deck. Only problem…a 4″ shelf and an eight inch long screw. Ann’s solution-drill a hole in the back corner of the shelf that the screw could go through. Brilliant!

The rest was just drilling and punching.

The carnage. Bolt, drilled out head and broken tools.

The final tally: one bolt removed, a broken driver head, broken punch, destroyed screw and heroically burned out drill bit.

Phew. Boat projects, ya gotta love the challenge.

The winch that is.

Yup, it’s winch maintanence time. Glad I did it. Several of the mast winches showed signs of clogging from dried salt. There’s nothing like strapping in to go up to the mast in 30-plus knots of wind and high seas at 0330 on a “dark and stormy night” to reef the main only to find the winch is jammed. Hopefully we can avoid that with a little preventative maintanence.

Winch cleaning day!

Boat project wise, that is. The long list is almost done.

Page one of two. Almost all are crossed off. Now we just need a weather break to go for a shakedown. Rain this weekend and next. Maybe after that.

On another subject, we were delighted to have lunch today with Bright Angel Bob and Linda! They were up from Gulf Harbor where Bright Angel is getting new teak decks. So great to see them and catch up!

Rigging check day.

Brian, a local rigger went up the mast for a check and to oil the halyard sheaves. He pronounced everything in "excellent shape".

Down below, Ann is working on one of her most disliked tasks. Vacuum sealing food for the voyage. This is a very convenient way to have portion-sized food easy to access with reduced volume and packaging.  It also protects the food from spoilage.  It’s very tedious though and the packing machine is temperamental.

Portion size, freshness and reduced volume.

A few of the packages showing sizes and bay leaves inside, which are purported to keep bugs at bay (no pun intended).

On the boat work front, progress is still being made. I’m on the last coat of epoxy to fill the wood rot, then will varnish tomorrow.

The patch getting fitted (as seen in a previous post).

Patch in place and coated with a final coat of epoxy. The hardest part has been lack of proper woodworking tools.

One thing we pay very little attention to on Charisma is the boom crutch. It’s not a major structural thing, it just holds the boom when the sail is not up.

The boom crutch on the deck after I took it down for maintenance.

Imagine my surprise when I took it apart and found this!

Bummer! I guess water had seeped down some screw holes and rotted a part of the wood.

New wood rough fit

Oh well, another day, another unexpected project. I’m squaring up the hole and fabricating a piece of wood to fill the void and will sandwich it with an epoxy/micro-balloon slurry which will dry stronger than the original wood. Then trim, sand and varnish and it’ll be good as new and ready to go back together.