The slippery slope continues...

The slide into more painting projects continued today as we expanded the locker painting to include the portside salon bench and lockers.  No doubt they need the attention...

Upon attempting to sand the lids to the lockers we discovered the plywood was cracked, so two new lids coming right up.

 We did progress from the prep to the priming stage with Anne doing her time in the lockers.

Greg from Paradise Welding spent the morning completing the polishing work on the gallows.  He does an amazing job and the welds are not visible.

Can you all find Anne hidden in the image above?

Greg also dropped off the tubing arch for the bimini project.  We have decided to go with building a hard bimini ourselves and are awaiting the arrival of some fittings for constructing the frame.  Once we have the fittings in-hand the bimini construction should move quickly.  

A slippery slope...

With the generator box and the boom gallows completed, we are now waiting on tubing and mounting hardware so we can move forward on creating the frame for the bimini.  The lull in projects gave us time to address some lower priority needs... wiring the new tiller pilot and replacing the accumulator tank on the pressure water system.  Both of these project required that we remove all the items stored in the port and starboard cockpit lockers.  With all the lines, blocks, buckets, cushions, PFDs, etc. removed the lockers are large enough for us to crawl inside...

Once inside I was appalled by the amount of dirt, mold, and flaking paint.  My guess is the paint in the lockers and on the bulkheads is the original coat from 1966.

As is the norm with boat projects initiating a minor project becomes a slippery slope.  Using the paint left over from Anne painting the quaterberth area in May, we now plan to paint the inside of both lockers.  Let the sanding begin.

We anticipated sanding would generate a cloud of noxious dust and stream of paint chips so we taped up all the openings to the bilge and cabin area.  I also donned the protective gear.  About four hours of sanding per locker over a two day period and the area is now ready for painting.

We hope that this project does not delay our departure - yes we are still planning on spending the summer traveling aboard.  Waiting on contractors for components of the gallows and bimini project continues to push back our departure date. Greg from Paradise Welding is scheduled complete the polishing of the new welds on the stern rails and deliver the tubing for the bimini tomorrow.  Due to delays with the canvas shop we are now exploring the possibility of making our own hard top for the bimini rather than continue to sit at the mercy of someone else's schedule.

Hanging the gallows

We hung the gallows today!

The act of hanging the gallows, drilling the final four bolt holes and tightening down the bolts, was not a challenging task.  The satisfaction of installing the finished product and nearing the completion of a project started two months ago is a feeling to be relished.

Note in the image above the stern rails originally ended at stanchion (vertical post) that slopes aft.  We added the forward section as bracing for the gallows.  This has the added benefit of providing more security in the cockpit and a great backrest when sitting atop the cockpit combing. There are still lingering aspects of project - polish the new welds and possibly purchase/create some leather covers for the cradle sections of the gallows.

In the images above and below the dodger is missing since we are continuing to refinish the wood on deck. 

To me the gallows looks much larger with the dodger absent.  We did complete all the brightwork this afternoon and plan to reinstall the dodger tomorrow.  I'll post a set of pre  & post gallows images once the dodger returns to the picture.

Completion of the generator storgage box!

The threat of rains deterred us from applying the final coat of finish to the exterior wood.  So what to do when the rains threaten?

Cleaning day, of course.   Anne tackled cleaning the dodger and other sumbrella items from C'est la Vie while I unfolded our Porta-boat dinghy, Origami, which has been stored under the lodge for the last 8 months, and began the cleaning. 

Adding gasket material to the lid...

and buckles to the box were the final two steps in completing the generator storage box.  Here is the finished product...

I've contemplated various methods of testing the airtight seal...  place a lit candle in the box and see if it runs out of oxygen or place a bowl of ammonia and sniff test.  Any other ideas out there?  The lid does fit tight enough to form suction on the box (i.e. I can pick the box up with the suction from the lid.)  This brings up another concern... if the box is truly airtight, then if we seal it up during a low pressure system and then move to high pressure will the lid become stuck?  Hmm.  I will take it as a compliment to my fabrication if we actually face this issue. 

There is a link on the right to a photo album of the construction process of the box. This is my first fiberglass project where I fabricated an original design.  All my previous projects have been repairs to existing creations.  While I am pleased with the finished product, I am also amazed at the time involved.

6 coats in under 12 hours

With all the prep work completed yesterday, Anne and I were able to jump directly into applying Bristol Finish to the brightwork on C'est la Vie.  Anne took on the taping...

 while I began to mix and apply the two part finish.  We also rigged a sun  tarp over the majority of the brightwork to keep the surfaces from becoming too hot.

We've realized much better results, less issues with bubbles, if we can keep the surface in the shade/cool.  With the tape and tarp in place it then became a game of pacing and timing to continue to add wet on wet layers of the finish.  We did get very lucky with the weather.  In the image above note the passing shower in the upper, left corner. By days end we had applied six coats of finish with enough time remaining to avoid losing luster to the evening dew.

  We plan to come back to the larger surfaces (i.e. the companion way cover above) and apply a final topcoat after another round of sanding.

tis the season...

With 6 coats of Bristol Finish applied to the gallows, generator box, and lazurette hatch, I moved on to the brightwork aboard C'est la Vie.  Tis the season to knock out refinishing the brightwork.

We have little wood topsides, but it feels expansive when driving a sheet of 220 grit sandpaper.  I did complete all the sanding & prep this afternoon, so barring any rain tonight or Sunday, we will be able to complete the refinishing tomorrow.

I spent some time this morning researching the various NMEA protocols and methods of linking electronics aboard the boat. The realization that our GPS, VHF, handheld VHF, & autopilot all speak NMEA0183 inspired the morning research.

I learned that NMEA0183 allows one device to be the "talker" and multiple other devices to "listen".  Thus with our system the GPS would be the talker and the two VHF's and the Autopilot would listen.

The newer NMEA2000 standard allows for each device to be both a talker and a listener.  Currently none of the systems on C'est la Vie are NMEA2000.

So back to the the task at hand... create a network where the GPS can talk while the VHFs & autopilot listen.   I believe that this could be achieved with a simple electrical bus, but my internet research lead me to the Actisense QNB-1 network block and we now are awaiting the shipment.

The ability of this block to host communications and act as the power supply/ground will allow us to simplify the wiring in our electrical panel and avoid numerous runs from electronics back to the panel.  Another great aspect of this block is that it is both NMEA0183 and NMEA2000 compliant.   So as we upgrade systems this block will not join the growing bin of obsolescent boat parts (note: the block can be either 0183 or 2000, but cannot host both systems simultaneously.)

Why does do our VHF Radios and Autopilot want to listen to the GPS? 

Both our fixed VHF - ICOM422 - and our handheld VHF - HX600 are DSC equipped.  This feature enables the VHF radios to broadcast a distress signal that identifies our vessel and it's current location - if the radio is linked to a GPS.

Connecting the GPS - Garmin492 - to our electric autopilot, a Raymarine ST1000+ , will allow the autopilot to steer to a waypoint selected on the GPS system.  In the past we used the GPS to identify a point to which we wish to travel, then we asked the GPS to give us a heading in degrees, then steered this heading, and then set the autopilot to the heading we were steering.  Allowing the GPS to talk to the Autopilot would eliminate many of these steps and hopefully make the system more accurate.

I'm guessing that a large portion of our blog followers are simply wishing that Anne and I would cast off already and start posting more images and narrative about our travels.  What is all this talk of NMEA and images of projects day after day after day.  I'm also growing weary of the projects and the price tags that come along with the projects.  Soon the day will come... at least that is my mantra while I sand the brightwork.

nearing the finish line.

Before...

 and after...

The difference is four coats of Bristol Finish. Since the lazurette hatch has previously been finished four coats is enough.  For the boom gallows and the  generator box, I will continue on until there are 7 coats of Bristol finish per side.  It feels good to be nearing the finish line on these projects.

All together now...

The clamps are off and the sanding is nearing completion on the generator box.  For the first time I can show everyone a picture of my vision of the box  because it is all together now...

The only remaining work is to 1)apply Bristol Finish to the wood, 2)install a gasket where the lid meets the box, 3)install cam buckles on the webbing.   For those of you following along, yes the riding mower is still up on blocks.  I strategically positioned myself to have the box eclipse the mower in the image above.  Don't worry we now have the part to get the Husky back to mowing - tomorrow mornings project.  It is a big ole yard and the grass is getting long.

Back to boats... Anne and I also installed our new battery monitor today.  Advice from the Sailnet.com/forums lead us to choose the Victron Energy BMV-600S.   Working as a team the installation went smoothly.  The only outwardly visible change is the circular, digital interface on our electrical panel...  middle, right with a blue backlight in the image below

The monitor provides an accurate, real-time report on battery voltage (volts), battery charge/discharge (amps), amp hours consumed, and state of charge (% of charge remaining in battery).  The unit will also provide a dizzying array of historical data for the battery bank.  We will definitely need to spend some time, manual in hand, to fully reap the benefits of the monitor.  The monitor did provide us some immediate insights into our power consumption.  Immediately after the installation Anne began turning on various systems one by one (i.e. instruments, cabin fans, fresh water pump, propane sniffer, etc.) to measure the amps drawn by each system.  We also can now monitor the input of the wind generator.  Boaters and non-boaters are always asking,  "How much power does the wind generator produce?"   Perhaps soon I will have a good answer.

My suspicion that our 2 year old, 360 amp hour house bank made up of 4 six volt, gel batteries fails to hold a full charge is what lead to the installation of the monitor.  Prior to installing the BMV-600S our systems for monitoring the state of the batteries was either the analog gauge at the breaker panel or a monitor embedded in our Garmin GPS.  The two monitors would often diverge by .2 volts with the Garmin consistently reporting higher voltage than the analog gauge.   Hopefully the new monitor well provide some answers... now we only need to figure out the right questions.