Paint vs rain

Fay is arriving on Thursday mid-day, I depart for Panama City tomorrow afternoon, and we need a place to live when we return. New Morning needs to get into the water! But first she needs a new coat of bottom paint. The bottom paint cannot be applied in the rain and the sun has been out for only 4- 5 hours in the last nine days.

Yesterday it quit raining about noon and the sun never came out, but by 2pm the hull was sufficiently dry to start painting and they got one coat of paint applied. This morning is again blowing a steady 25-35 with intermittent rain. The wind helps dry the hull so that's not as big a problem as the rain. If we can get the second coat on today, we can launch first thing tomorrow morning and I can get New Morning tied up, the refrigeration started, water tanks filled, etc before I depart for Panama City. We just need 3-4 hours with no rain.

Channel surfing in Panama

Still apparently under the strong influence of Rome, there is no happy hour on Domingo; well drinks (the only kind available) are $4. But there is live music, and on the TV (not turned off during the live music) there is widespread flooding, landslides, road closures and a few helicopter rescues, all related by perfectly coiffed news babes in prom dresses. Even accounting for my poor understanding of Spanish, there is still a disconnect there.

As my bar tab hits $12 and I enjoy the only reliable thing on the menu, a cheeseburger, we watch the Bears play New England in a snow storm at Soldier Field; also a bit disconnected when it's 75F at 8pm.

The sun played peek-a-boo today, intermixed with squally rain. If the weather is at least that good tomorrow we'll get the bottom painted and be back in the water on Tuesday. Life on the hard is - well - hard. It would be nice to be back in the water.

Arturo comes through!

The gating item on getting back into the water has been getting the bottom painted. The paint arrived in Panama City, but the crazy weather had closed the road. Yesterday, in a driving rain, I heard knocking on the hull. Arturo had arrived with the bottom paint (and a bunch of other stuff). The normally hour and a half drive had taken him four hours! The road was one lane in many places due to mud slides and conditions were the worst he had ever seen.

But now we have bottom paint, and today there is a hazy sun peeking through the clouds drying things out a bit. Once the bottom is painted we'll wait a day or two and be able to get back into the water. New Morning feels so much better in the water than on the hard.

Plan B1-2-3...

The last 24hrs was pretty wild weather. There was so much rain that yesterday they closed the canal, or more accurately they opened the lock doors, so they could drain water out of Gatun lake. This was only the third time the canal has been closed in its 96yr history. The last time it was closed for weather was in 1915. This was the heaviest rains recorded in the 73yrs that they have kept weather records in Panama. With the canal closed we were temporarily cutoff from Panama. Even after they opened the canal (and the bridge across the Gatun Locks), the road to Panama City was closed and our delivery was turned back.

It blew 25-30 all day and kicked up to a steady 35 for awhile in the late afternoon, but there was not much rain. There is a large breakwater, 4 miles in length, that protects Colon and the Gatun locks from the ocean; large waves were breaking right over the top of it. Shelter Bay is a protected lagoon off of the main harbor and there were 3' waves from the outer harbor breaking adjacent the entrance to Shelter Bay.

The cloud cover and wind kept the temperature down to the high 70's so I continued on with my projects inside New Morning. Yesterday I was able to complete part 1 which was to put the damaged pump back together to be able to use it (though it will be leaking) to limp across the marina after we go back in the water.

Yesterday I also started part 2 which was to separate the shaft seal vent from the engine sea water plumbing. I was able to dismantle the existing plumbing and work out the new solution. In the process I realized that the Lyman Morse plumbing was fatally flawed, it was more complex than just plumbing to the wrong side of the anti-siphon vent. Since the "T" they installed to bring the shaft seal vent into the engine was mounted below the waterline, it would either siphon into the cylinders, or siphon out the impeller cover; two bad choices. Today I ran new hose from the heat exchanger to the anti-siphon valve and then to the exhaust mixing elbow. Unfortunately the location of the anti-siphon valve and the path for the hoses made that much more difficult than it needed to be, but I'll spare you the details. I brought 6' of 1" hose and used exactly all of it; how lucky was that!

Finally I temporarily strapped the shaft seal vent about 10" above the waterline. That should be sufficient to get across the marina to a slip. Fay is bringing new vent line hose and then I'll be able to mount it higher and have a permanent solution.

But the weather has shifted our schedule. The delivery of the bottom paint was delayed by the road closures and it's not clear when it will get through. So we'll be on the hard longer than expected, I'm stuck in the Shelter Bay "hotel" and Fay has rescheduled her flight to Panama. We must be cruising again.

Plan B

Plan A was to replace the pump, but since I've learned that it requires removing an engine mount, I'm going to try Plan B. Plan B is to insert a heli-coil, basically a new set of threads. I'm told the hardest and riskiest part of the job is removing the broken screw.

But first is plan B1, which is to put things back together (hoses and bolts), enough to be able to limp from the haul out slip to our real slip. And this takes us back to the original problem which is that once back in the water we'll be siphoning water out of the ocean and into New Morning through the incorrectly plumbed shaft seal vent. So Plan B2 is to re-plumb the shaft seal vent before we go back into the water.

The incorrect installation of the shaft seal vent by Lyman Morse two years ago has led to an amazing series of discoveries and problems; none of which they consider to be their problem.

Yanmar debacle

Today did not go so well. I bought the service manual. I bought the parts catalog. And then I bought the parts. There is nothing in the Yanmar 4JH4-HTE service manual that says to replace the water pump I need to remove the engine mount! What kind of bogus service manual is that? What kind of design is that. Some engineers in Japan should be fired! Remove the engine mount to change the water pump? I guess they must believe that their water pump (made by Johnson in Sweden) will last longer than the engine, or that engine mounts are easily removed (I was advised to unbolt it from the stringer to avoid changing the alignment)?

Unbelievable!

It makes the canal work

Rain. Torrential rain. Lots of rain today. Steady, warm, driving rain. And wind; a steady 25kts at the masthead, gusting higher. The boat is "shivering" a bit on the jack stands where we sit adjacent the travelift.

Yesterday was a good day. I identified the exact nature of the problem behind the water siphoning into the boat through the shaft seal vent (Lyman Morse plumbed it to the wrong side of the anti-siphon loop), cleaned off all the hard growth on the shaft, prop and prop gears that had accumulated in Bonaire, and replaced all (but one) of the zincs on the shaft and prop. Unfortunately the Spurs line cutter needs a special zinc which I had not identified previously and don't have. It will have to wait until next time. Fortunately we don't spend too much time in marina's so the zinc doesn't look too bad.

Today is water pump day. Last May, when I attempted to replace the impeller in the water pump for the third time, I managed to snap off one of the small bolts that hold the cover in place. Apparently in my previous attempts to replace the impeller, when I did not yet understand that the bad plumbing was the source of the river running through it even when the thru hull was closed, enough salt water got into the thread and around the bolt to cause it to corrode in place. Then I cleverly applied too much force and snapped it off. As usual, an accumulation of errors. So now I need to replace the entire pump. I haven't been looking forward to this job because the pump is supremely inaccessible. But it's a good day for an indoor project and the temperature is a nice cool 79 so this is about as good as it's going to get.

Time to get to it.

Packed for Panama

Just finished packing for a 6am flight out of SFO tomorrow morning. A full day of travel and I should be in Panama City tomorrow night. A little shopping on Saturday and then to Shelter Bay on Sunday.

Next week I've got some critical work to do while New Morning is on the hard, like replacing the raw water pump on the engine. Then the plan is to go back into the water on Friday and then move back on board. Back to the boat means back to boat projects!

Log book

The last two years we've used a log book that we purchased from the Mystic Harbor gift shop. But in practice I crossed out many of the headings and put different information into the columns. So this summer I was motivated to create my own log book. Fay and I discussed what information we wanted to have and used the same general format as the Mystic Harbor book, but with columns for what we wanted to record. Then we added some additional pages for frequently requested general boat information, emergency communications, the location of through hulls, and our abandon ship procedure. We printed it on our little HP printer, had it bound at FedEx Office, and then Fay grafted it into the Mystic Harbor book so that it had a nice hard cover. If you'd like to make your own log book, you're welcome to start with ours which you'll find on the Downloads page. A year from now I won't be surprised if we revise it again.

Carte de sejours

Yesterday, on a balmy November day, we visited the French consulate in San Francisco and received our "long stay" visas for French Polynesia. Technically they are just 90 day visas with a request for a "carte de sejours". But our documents have been sent to Tahiti, and approved, so we are told it is just a formality to receive our "carte de sejours" or "residence card" which will allow us to spend more than 90 days in French Polynesia. Our plan is to spend all of next season there (May - October) and leave New Morning in Raiatea. But you know about cruising and plans....

Yanmar service manual and parts catalog

I was able to find the Yanmar service manual and parts catalog on the web. The parts catalog covers the Yanmar 4JH4-TE and 4JH4-HTE. The service manual covers all the 4JH4 models, including the 3JH4-HE, 4JH4-AE, 4JH4-TE and 4JH4-HTE. Verbosity for the benefit of Google. You'll find them on the Downloads page.

Use your sunscreen

For the last month I've been treating my face, neck, chest and arms with Fluorouracil (aka Efudex or 5FU). This is what I looked like yesterday, a week after I quit applying the treatment and definitely past the peak of the reaction and inflammation. It not only doesn't look pretty, it feels miserable. Most of the last two weeks my skin has been on fire, alternating with an intense "pins and needles" sensation that makes me want to rip off my skin. Application of a topical steroid and liberal applications of Aquaphor create a mess, but ease the discomfort.

I tell this tale so that you will be encouraged to use sunscreen every day. Sun damage is accumulated from sun exposure over your entire life. Ten minutes six times a week is the same as one hour on one day.

No mold

Good news from Panama. We asked some cruising friends to check in on New Morning and we got back the report that she is looking good with no mold on the interior. Also no leaks so she is sitting pretty, just waiting for us to return.

The coldest winter I ever knew...

Mark Twain said it first, but it was confirmed by NASA:

"The invisible summer, seamless from spring to fall," said Bill Patzert, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who studies the role of oceans in the global climate. "The ocean never warmed," Patzert said. The cause was a stalled jet stream pattern in the Northern Hemisphere that created a semi-permanent trough of low pressure from Alaska to southern Baja California, Mexico, and kept the entire west coast of North America cool, Patzert said.

In Sausalito we've had the furnace on almost every day since we got home last May, though now that summer has officially ended, it has actually warmed up! We did escape the cold a few times, including some great time at Lake Tahoe which included this hike to the top of Ellis Peak at 8,700'.

But now our attention turns to New Morning as we have roughly two months to prepare everything we need for a year of cruising. We plan to return to Panama in early December and repair the autopilot, install the new solar panels and fix a few other problems that were identified back in April. These include an incorrectly plumbed shaft seal vent, broken raw water pump, and a few problems we created ourselves while decommissioning in April. We have plenty to keep us busy, probably right up until Christmas. Then we plan to return to the San Blas Islands for a few months before transiting the canal in late March.

Sunware update

As I mentioned in the past, we've had de-lamination problems with our Sunware solar panels. Nothing that had actually stopped them from working as far as we can tell, but probably would have eventually.

I'm pleased to report that Sunware stood behind their product and shipped us 6 new panels, via air freight, to replace the failing panels. While installing the replacements is still another project, we're very pleased that the company backed their warranty and sent the replacements.

San Blas and Panama

The last of the pictures for now, San Blas and Panama.

Passage to San Blas

The pictures are now uploaded to the Passage to San Blas page.

Los Roques and Bonaire

I finally got to posting some pictures from Los Roques (and nearby Aves Barlovento) and Bonaire. Enjoy!

Pt. Reyes Cleanup

Toto, we're not in the tropics anymore!

Last week we got an email alerting us to a beach clean up at Pt. Reyes. Like most windward shores, the north side of Pt. Reyes collects a lot of debris. Unfortunately I got the schedule wrong by one day and when we showed up at 9:30am the parking lot was as empty as the wind swept beach. Fay and I looked at each other and decided we didn't need instruction on how to pickup plastic. The 53F wind was was blowing a steady 15-25 knots (35 when we later visited the lighthouse) so we bundled up, grabbed two shopping bags and started walking the beach. The beach was actually surprisingly clean compared to many windward shores we saw in the Caribbean. None the less we were able to fill two shopping bags with bits of plastic, and a few bottles, in about an hour. The largest piece was a Japanese fishing float, the smallest was a toy figure. In between were lots of pieces of shattered plastic, tooth brushes and bottle caps.

By coincidence, Manuel Maqueda of the Plastic Pollution Coalition spoke today at the St. Francis Yacht Club. There is excellent information on their web site, particularly regarding the myth of plastic "recycling" and why once created, plastic is forever.

Pictures of Los Roques

I posted a few pictures from Los Roques. Pictures from Aves, Bonaire and San Blas coming soon. The pictures can be found under Where we've been.