inspired by progress on the lockers in the head

The initial TSP scrub and cleaning of the head lockers inspired me to expand the project on to some of the salon lockers.  So today I disassembled the cleaned the starboard lockers in the salon.

Once the rinse cycle on the hull was complete, I took all the hatchs, seat backs, and miscellaneous pieces stripped from the lockers home for sanding and painting.

I do not have enough workspace to tackle all the pieces at once so it will take a couple rounds of sanding, priming, and painting to finish up.

Being interior pieces, I've elected to save some money by going with primers and paints purchased at your standard big box hardware store.

meanwhile back on C'est la Vie

I was able to put in a couple hours of work at the boat this morning.  My efforts went into prepping the head and vee berth lockers for painting.  I rely heavily on on Don Casey's, This Old Boat for guidance on boat projects.  Don suggests painting lockers as a method of perfecting painting techniques prior to moving on to more visible areas of the boat.  The first step in his outlines is to scrub the fiberglass surfaces with a TSP solution.  TSP (Trisodium Phosphate) is effective at removing mildew and greasy residues from hard surfaces.  Here is a series of before ==> during ==> after images from the locker the houses C'est la Vie's holding tank.

Before - The holding tank rests on the bare wooden shelf and is held in position by the grey bands.  I am going to attempt to fit in a larger tank.  New tank or not - I plan to remove the wood shelf and create a more finished and substantial mount.

During - The TSP is packaged as a granular powder that must be mixed with water.   I scrubbed the hull with the TSP solution, right bucket; then used a sponge to wipe the area down with fresh water, left bucket.  I continued to rinse with clean water until the fresh water remained clear after my wipe down. This took several cycles.  I also used the shop vac to suck up water that pooled in any areas.  Some water worked its way to the bilge.  At the end of my cleaning session I used a water hose to rinse the bilge.

After - still have some sanding to do, but the TSP did a great job of removing mildew and dirt.

Tired of waiting on Mother Nature...

I've given up on waiting for the ideal morning to move forward on applying the topcoats to the Arctic Hawk and moved the project indoors.

 The conditions are ideal, but the process is not without it's complications.  First due to the length of the kayak it must enter the house through the window seen behind me in the image above.  Also, all human inhabitants must flee the house for 4+ hours after painting is completed.  This makes for some interesting scheduling.

It is gratifying to be making forward progress and be able to predict a completion date for later this week.
Below is an image of the hull after the application of the 1st coat of Brightsides.

more time with the birds

Today we banded pelicans on New Dump Island off of Atlantic, NC in Core Sound.

The concept is the same - pick up the juvenile birds before they mature into flight and place a metal band on their right leg.  Since pelicans are much larger and less agile than the terns we do not use an impoundment, but rather use groups of people to hem in groups of birds.  Once a group is surrounded we wade into the crowd and pick on the birds by the beak.

We banded approximately 250 pelicans.  Anne and our friend Becky joined the team of volunteers today.

If you would like to see additional images from either day of banding here is a link to my picasa web album - Banding Birds in the OBX 2011.

today's time for boat projects went to the birds

I spent the day today banding Royal and Sandwich Terns at the north end of Core Sound on Wainwright Island. We have participated in this project in the past and are always eager for the opportunity.

Aluminum bands are attached to the juvenile birds before they are able to fly.  The process involves setting up an impoundment pen and herding in the young birds into the pen.

Next, groups of less and 200 birds are then herded into a smaller  pen where the species are separated.  Once identified the appropriate band is attached to the birds right leg.

Today 12 volunteers banded 3000 Royal Terns and 400 Sandwich Terns.  Each band has a unique number.  If you ever find a dead or injured bird with a band on it's leg, then please record the number and report it via www.reportband.gov. 

More images from the day are available via my picasa web album - banding birds in the OBX 2011. Tomorrow we will be banding pelicans!

juggling boat projects

How many boat projects is too many?

At dawn I, applied the final coat of primer to the starboard side of the kayak hull.  Then Bud and I headed out the the boat yard to remove the windlass.  On the way back from the boat yard we stopped in the machine shop to check on the bobstay repairs. The repair is moving along and should be complete by the end of the week.

Once back and the house, Bud and I began to disassemble the windlass.  The removing the aluminum cover plate on the bottom of the windlass exposed a foul mass of fatigued grease that ranged in color from eft red to toffee tan to aged banana brown.  Salt water corrosion  had breached the plate in a couple spots so Bud volunteered to take the 1/8" aluminum cover home to Mooresville and fabricate a new one.

Lunch time internet research yielded exploded diagrams of the windlass assembly and an supplier in England that sells spare parts for the windlass.  Hopefully no replacement parts will be required.  A couple of the bolts refused to part ways with the windlass body.  Rather that force any fasteners I am attempting to encourage the bolts with afternoon applications of vinegar and an overnight soak in penetrating oil... remember replacement parts must be shipped from England don't want to force anything.

Reaching an impasse with the windlass, I turned my attention back the the head plumbing.  I did not have the time to remove all the valves and fittings from the hoses or the holding tank on Saturday.  So I brought the old hoses, fittings, and tank home to deal with them at a later date. 24 hours of curing in the backyard and the need to deal with cleaning the salvageable parts of our toilet plumbing would no longer be ignored.

A couple hours of removing hoses and scrubbing crevasses yielded the assortment of plumbing hardware pictured above.  The majority of the fittings removed from the plumbing are serviceable.  All the old hose is retired.

As  mid-afternoon thunderstorms begin to rumble, I return my attention to the kayak hull.  Baked in the coastal sun throughout the day, the morning's coat of primer now beckoned.  A session with some 220 grit sandpaper and the hull is ready for tomorrow's application of primer.  

So tomorrow's projects will start at dawn with the application of the final coat of primer on the port side of the kayak hull.

add another project to the list

Part of painting the decks is stripping off deck fittings that will prove difficult to work around.  One such deck fitting is the Sea Tiger 555 windlass.  The windlass is a mechanical winch that assists us in hauling and generally managing the anchor rodes.  Here is an image of the windlass rigged with two rodes as we prepared for Hurricane Earl last summer.

We are very pleased with the windlass and she works well, but judging by the peeling paint some maintenance is due.  The Lovetts were in town to celebrate Anne's birthday so I recruited Bud to assist with  removing the windlass from C'est la Vie's bow.

 Extricating the windlass progressed smoothly.  The only surprise was the existence the second hole in the deck, likely the original  hawse hole for the anchor rode.  We will properly glass in a patch prior to progressing with painting the decks.  Since the hole is covered by the windlass, I'm not too worried about the cosmetics, but structurally I'm not fond of having two large holes in the the foredeck that are less the an inch apart.

My plan is to refinish the cast aluminum windlass body.  This process will likely involve sandblasting.  In preparation for sandblasting the inner gears/mechanism will need to be removed.   Here is an image of the port side of the windlass. 

Being a creature of habit I have created a web album to record the progress of this project - Refinishing the Windlass

Stripped and dirty - the start of a new project.

Here is the pile of plumbing, valves, and hardware I stripped out of C'est la Vie's head today.  Weeks after purchasing C'est la Vie in December 2005, we replaced the holding tank and some of the plumbing hoses.  Now we are stripping down the head and doing a complete rebuild.  Below is an image of the naked & dirty head.

 Due to lack of use and issues with back flooding through the drain while heeled under sail we removed the plumbing from the sink years ago.  The plan is to cover the old sink and faucet openings with a new counter.

We like the Lavac Toilet and plan to keep it. The holding tank is forward of the head, under the port side of the vee berth.  As part of the process we removed the tank.  The current tank is only 10 gallons.  I hope to find a larger tank, but due to space restrictions I think our options will be limited.

Next step is to repaint the inside of the lockers and hull.  I'll continue to post updates of progress on this project.  I also added a link to a new photo album dedicated to this project - Refinishing the Head.