Steering.... DONE!

Yesterday, I went to Fastenal to buy a replacement nut for the steering unit...  I ordered it and a spare nut and bolt at the same time.  When I went to pick my order up the folks a Fastenal were having big problems with their computer sytem...  After waiting about 10 minutes, the fellow who was looking after me came from his boss' office and said that just because they were having problems, that was no reason for me to waste my day, so they handed me my order and said "have a nice day" and sent me on my way....  Can you believe it?  NOW THAT"S CUSTOMER SERVICE!  Now granted the whole order was only about $10, sending me on my way with the parts I need for free went way further than companies go these days...  Thanks Fastenal!

Today, with a little time with the temperature above freezing I was able to get the steering ram connected and the bracing glued and screwed into place... Whooo Hoo!

I also took some time to update the software and firmware on our Raymarine E9 Multifunction Display...  I think that we have made a good choice with this new equipment from Raymarine...  This unit will work with our iPads so when we are at the pilothouse helm, we can see what is on the E9 at the outside helm...  A very cool system...

The Hole From Hell......

Okay, so after almost 2 1/2 hours this afternoon, I FINALLY drilled the hole through the rudder steering plate and attached the new hydraulic steering arm...  As usual, somehow I have misplaced (lost?) the $7 nut for the 3/4" bolt used to attach the cylinder...  Oh well, I'll order a replacement on Monday... 

Steering Installation....

After many months we were finally able to get the new steering ram installed this morning.  Earlier this week I purchased a block of aluminum and a piece if 3/16 stainless steel at the Metal Supermarket.  Then yesterday I purchased about $100 worth of hardware at Fastenal.  Last night my neighbour, Clayton helped me pre-drill the steel and the aluminum and this morning my father in law, Ed came and helped me with the installation....

We had partial success...  The aluminum and steel went together PERFECTLY, however, the steering plate on the rudder needed to be drilled out from 1/2" to 3/4"...  Easier said than done!

I purchased a drill kit at Princess Auto for $30 the other day that had a 9/16", 5/8" and a 3/4" drill bit.  Everywhere else wanted more than $30 for just the 3/4" bit....  Now I know why...  We tried to drill the steering plate on the rudder for almost an hour before we got less than a quarter of the way through and ruined the bits.....

This afternoon I went back to Princess Auto and found, what I hope, is a better quality 3/4" bit and bought 2 of them....  Tomorrow I will try again to get the rod end connected....

That all said, we used a smaller nut and bolt to hold it in place to see how the other end might line up and in the end we seem to have both helms working GREAT!  We still need to do a little more bleeding, but in the end we should be good to go....

Successful Travels...

After Church on Sunday Shelley, Kelly and I left for Niagara Falls NY. Our plan was to stay over 2 nights so we could bring $800 worth of stuff home to Canada tax and duty free.... From an earlier post you know that we ordered the sail kit for our Walker Bay dinghy.

It was expensive enough to make the money we spent on a hotel for 2 nights worth it and we are now the proud owners of an awesome sail kit! It is simple and it will make the dinghy way more fun in anchorages.

That said, while we were at West Marine, we met Mike, the store manager who was very helpful and knew all kinds of stuff that helped us out... While we were there unfortunately (or fortunately depending on who you ask), we found a neat inflatable kayak... Regularly priced at somewhere over $300, it was on the clearance table for $129.00!!!

An inflatable kayak has been something that Shelley has wanted for a very long time. My argument against it has always been the size and the cost. This thing will fit anywhere and for less than $130, who could argue it was too expensive.... We are now the proud owners of a new kayak....



The other neat thing we now have is a fairly large, homemade dry box. we bought a rechargeable de-humidifier and a resealable container. We have had an electronic humidex in my cigar humidor for many years. Now that I never smoke cigars, we installed it in our box. Now we store sensitive electronics and cameras in a place where they won't get any moisture damage... Cool!



We also got some great family time in and went to see the new Wizard of OZ movie in 3-D and on the second night we went to a bowling ally next door to our hotel and had a ball, bowling for the first time in MANY years.... My last recollection of bowling was after many beers in Cozumel.... nuff said... Our only disappointment might have been that the bowlers on either side of us actually knew what they were doing... pretty scary...

When we got home I worked out the final details for installing our new replacement steering ram. I have ordered the bolt for the rudder end from Fastenal and have now purchased the aluminum and stainless steel from the Metal Supermarket to secure the other end... All I need to find now is a 3/4" drill bit to ream out the hole on the rudder plate.

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On the Boat for the First Time This Year.....

On Friday the sun was shining and the temperature was finally above 0(c). So after a few hours of work I opened the back of the boat to see how the new lazerette latches might fit. They fit great! I just have to make the plunger a little longer.


Then I looked at how the new steering ram. I need to make some pretty significant changes to get it to work... That will be my next job....

Then I worked out a way to re-arrange the scuba shop (starboard mid-ship cabin) to accommodate all our scuba gear.

There will be a ton of effort put in before we get the boat back in the water and ready to go, but in the end, it will be worth it.... Lastly, we found a new home for our iPad that will be used as our gps repeater.



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Getting Scuba Gear Ready....

I have been an Instructor for almost 15 years and Shelley has been a Dive Master for almost 10 years... Together we have logged thousands of dives and love to blow bubbles and see places in the world that very few others get a chance to.....

Thanks to the help of my great friend, Bruce, the owner of Groundhog Divers we are gathering six complete sets of scuba gear to keep on the boat. Today I went through all the gear in the house and gathered together a bunch of stuff including a supply of spare parts and accessories that will be hard to find later.





At the end of the day I discovered that we just need a few more regulators (the breathy bit) and we will be all set to go. And of course, (see previous post) we now have a compressor that will fill the tanks anywhere we need air....

My hope is that we will spend as much time as possible blowing bubbles, exploring some of the most beautiful reef systems in the world ...

This summer while we are shaking down the rest of the boat, we will try to get a little wreck diving in... The Great Lakes have hundreds of wrecks and we will be passing over literally dozens of them so we hope to enjoy some of them...


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A New Scuba Compressor Ready to Go.....

,Late last fall we bought two more scuba compressors. Today I combined them to make a nearly new 220volt compressor that will replace the one that is currently on the boat. It also leaves us with a complete spare motor and head. We will now sell an almost new Honda 5 hp gas engine.





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Small Jobs...

Last night and today I checked every sail over and re-stiched where nessesary. I also made sail bags for the drifter, and the tri-sail.  Here is the sail Inventory for Blowin' Bubbles:

Main Sail - (with 2 reefs)
Mizzen Sail - (with 1 reef)
Genoa  - (furling headsail- 120%)
Yankee  - (furling headsail - hi-cut)
Drifter - (like a spinaker with a dousing sock)
Staysail - (a light running sail raised on an inner forestay)
Gail Sail - 100 ft2 - (a storm headsail raised over a furled head sail)

I hope that inventory will be sufficient for whatever weather we face.....

I also made a Log Book. It contains  Daily Log Pages, Engine Log, Boat Log, Radio Log, Boat Expenses Logs, Boat Specs and a record of our courtesy flag inventory.

We now have our batteries sorted and inventoried.

 We now have Excel speadsheets for: re-fit costs, vessel consumables, vessel inventory, tool inventory, first-aid inventory, medicine inventory, spare parts inventory & scuba inventory.  These sheets are a lot of work, but when complete finding things on the boat will be real easy.

Last job today was to get everything here at the house ready to go back to the boat.