Deck leaks 2

The trouble is that Walden’s had no teak so I’ve substituted a Brazilian hard wood that is use for decking on houses as a replacement board. It has the same properties as teak IE: very low shrinkage, rot resistant and it contains natural oils within the wood. Walden’s let me use their table saw to shape the new deck board and I then used hand planes, saws and chisels to do the final shaping. To install the board, I put a coat of thinned epoxy into the area. Thinned epoxy will capillary into rot just in case I missed any when I was cutting out the bad wood. I then followed this with a coat of thicken epoxy to bed the new board in place. The next morning, I pounded a bit of cotton around the edge of the repair (thank you for the yarn Anna) and filled in the grove with rubber calk. Just in time too for it began to rain again within the next few hours! As you can see the final results aren’t too bad for having limited tools to work with.

Dry fit, looks good

Deck leaks 1

The beauty of a teak deck is the wood... the headache of a teak deck is deck leaks. During this last bit of weather (3 days of torrential down pours), we discovered a leak in the bathroom, in fact, we had to put a couple of pans out to catch all of the drips. Well, when we got the Goose back into the water I finally had time to go looking for the leak and found a bad deck board (rotted) under the propane tank locker. I started to cut away the board and found that about a foot long piece was rotted and needed to be replaced. When you cut out an old deck board you have to go back far enough to insure that the remaining board is good wood and has no rot in it. I had to cut back 14 inches to find good wood then taper the end with a 45deg angle to glue the new board to. Next the new teak board.

Rigging problems 2

Now that the 1/4 inch wire is cut off, the wire end is ready to have a new fitting put on. The Stalok is a mechanical device that uses a small cone inserted into the middle of the wire and then, when clamped together, it bends each wire end over so that when it’s tightened it will trap both the bent ends of the wire and the wire between the cone and the body of the fitting to “pinch” the wire in place. A very tight, secure way to hold a wire. Just before you do the final assembly you have to put a gob of silicone sealant into the fitting (to prevent water intrusion) and add a bit of Perma-loc to the threads. Here are a series of pictures that show the process of installing a Stalok.

Rigging problems 1

When we left the Snow Goose in June I had noticed that one of the stainless steel wires that hold up the mast had an issue. The end fitting, by the deck, that attaches the wire to the turnbuckle was cracking apart from age, rust, or maybe water/ice buildup in the winter. Either way, it had to be replaced before we could do any sailing or the top of the mast might just snap off! As you can see, there is a rust/crack line running up the side of the fitting. Anna helped me hold the wire down while I cut it in half with a hacksaw. when it came apart you could clearly see that the fitting had actually been cracked on both sides and I’m sure that it would have pulled out during the first strong windy day that we ran into. Walden’s had the proper sized replacement fitting for our size wire and clevis pin hole. Whereas the original fitting had been placed on the wire with a hydraulic press that squishes the metal of the fitting around the wire the replacement, a Stalok fitting, is a mechanical device that has to be assembled on the spot. Next, how to install a Stalok fitting. (4 pictures “a”)

Ready to float (after lots of work)

Another month goes by and it seems like all I’ve done is work. I haven’t even had time to write in this Blog since it entails getting in the car and driving up to town to find an internet connection, so, there are quite a few entries that I’ve backlogged and will be posting soon. The shore “to do list” though, is very short and the Snow Goose is looking good. Today we go back into the water and will find a spot in the bay to anchor for a few days to wait for the weather to change before we leave for Washington DC. IE: anything but north winds. Because of the storm that blew thru the last 2 days, I haven’t done much work to the boat but I did get the main water tank lids pulled off, the tank cleaned and re-sealed. (the tank leaked when full of water). I also ran a new vent line for the black water tank (yuck)! A very hard job that I’ve put off for 2 years. I also Finished painting the bow thruster. Now, into the water and another year of adventure and hard work.

Getting ready to leave

It turns out that Anna’s car needed a new fuel pump but I didn’t want to drop the gas tank to change the pump... So, a friend told me that he had cut the bottom out of his kids trunk (with a grinder) and took the fuel pump out through the opening. Now, that sounded too good to be true so, I took the seats out of the van and cut up the carpet and then took a grinder to the floor! In a ½ hour the fuel pump was replaced and the floor was being bent back into place. (I did put a piece of metal over the cut up area so that we wouldn’t lose any grand kids through the floor when we were going down the road.) The repair took 1/3 of the time it would have taken to drop the tank to do the job, and since the van is about ready for the junk yard it seemed like the appropriate way to handle the repair.

The last week is here and I still have a few more projects that I have contracted to do. You would think that I would have had enough of working for the time being but people keep wanting to give me money for doing what I enjoy doing so, I keep agreeing to “just” one more job. Anyway, two more projects to complete, and we will be off to Virginia and back to the Snow Goose this weekend.

In other news, we have another great grandchild! Here is the newest one only 2 hours old.

I’ve also finished the new davit mounting hardware. I tried to buy some “starboard” to build the mounts out of but up here the price for a small strip of the stuff would have been over $100 opposed to the cost of the stainless which was $5.00... I went with the metal.

Hope that you enjoy the upcoming year of travels. Now that the summer recess is over with we will try to keep the web site full of interesting things (or if not interesting then just full). Email us with any comments or suggestions.

Bath time

It's getting close to the time for us to leave Grand Rapids and so, Edie got her much needed bath....She didn't think it was fun at all.