Captain’s log
Dateline: 03.08.2022

Hydraulics! Part Deux

Ken’s help taking and diagnosing the hydraulic motor on the right side was absolutely immeasurable. He had to use his Ryobi impact wrench to take one of the bolts off.

The good news is that the motor is okay, it was rotating just fine in both directions once detachend from the prop shaft. Buying a new motor like that would’ve been at least 2 grand. Anyway, the prop shaft was the problem this whole time. After pouring some linear rail oil that I have for lubricating my 3D printer, and slowly working that shaft bit-by-bit with bare hands, I was finally able to turn it 360 degrees. This means that my cat now officially has two working screws!

The bad news is that the stuffing box was covered in salt crystals and got glued to the stainless steel rotor, and when I set it loose, it started pouring seawater into the bilge. It was a bit scary at first because my floting switch on that side is broken and can only be activated manually, but after a couple of seconds it became more mild and then reduced itself to just dripping. It’s still filling the bilge slowly with saltwater, but I should be fine. At some point I might switch to dripless stuffing box, perhaps even use that as a source of water either for my water maker or to flush toilets, getting rid of one or more through-hulls. Might be a bad idea, dunno yet... something to think about.

Ken’s grease gun worked extremely well on bush bearings. It sealed them well. That grease should last for many years. He said that grease fittings were rusty, which is a very unusual thing to happen.

Ken and Julie also said they know a captain here who operates a barge with two screws five days a week. That could be a good idea to reduce my chance of bumping into something along the way. They also suggested towing me and going through the canal with a range meter to find narrow spots and develop plan of action going through those. And they’ve recommended me to watch Captain Ron. I love Kurt Russell, surprised I haven’t seen that one. Last but not least, Ken used to rewire diesels back in the day, I almost asked him to help me do that to mine so that I don’t have to hotwire it every time I need to get it running, but didn’t want to be one of those people whom you give an inch and they take a mile.

Folks from Bob & Annie’s congratulated me and recommended running the thing for a couple of minutes just to make sure none of the hydraulics "blow up" after being without use for so long. Good advice.

Having good friends makes all the difference in life.

More equipment

My nke autopilot and electronics are finally on their way to Bob & Annie’s, and I’m also in the process of ordering B&G’s AIS, HALO20+ radar, along with their ultra-bright glass helm chart plotter. Randy from Charleston Yachting was of great help to pick, order, and get those toys delivered, so big kudos and shout out to the guy!

AIS will help me see other ships and be seen as well, and chart plotter is just so much better than using iPhone or paper charts, not to mention the ones I have are really dated.

Can’t wait to leave, really overstayed here, plus need to make cockroaches go extinct and avoid letting new ones on board in the future. It’s great that thanks to Bob & Annie’s I had a shipping address and dumpster to use here, will certainly miss those luxuries. I’ll likely soon kill my Amazon Prime membership and rely mostly on what I grow, catch, or print on my 3D printer.

Ultra switch

Replaced broken Rule floating switch with one of solid-state Johnson Pumps’ Ultima switches that I bought months ago. It’s currently used with a 2000 gph pump, and all the old wires seem to be oxidized and became extremely brittle after 24 years. Their silicone jackets are still holding up great though! I’ll have to rewire pretty much the whole boat, good thing that I can do it bit-by-bit and currently have almost everything working.

The switch isn’t mounted yet but seems to be working fine. Found it hilarious how I see pumps and their switches mounted using screws directly to the hull of the boat below the water line, while the very first page of the manual for that switch says how a piece of marine plywood must be epoxied first, and then the pump must be mounted on it using short screws. I swear some people just want to sink. I will of course not use wood, I hate wood. I'll 3D print something hollow but sturdy and epoxy that to the hull.

Captain’s log
Dateline: 09.08.2022

nke

My autopilot and other gizmos from nke have arrived!

After first shipment of $12K worth of electronics got lost (courtesy of FedEX), 4 months after the day I ordered them, they’re finally here. I obviously got very unlucky. Plus they were shipped via freight, not air mail. And didn’t go directly to me but went through one of the only distributors in the US.

Supposedly they have the best set of instruments and autopilot. I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference since it’s my first marine autopilot and my first boat, but the feature that really caught my attention is their little remote control that you wear around your neck while sailing, and if you fall off the boat, it’ll point the vessel into the wind, effectively slowing it down enough for you to swim to it and not die alone in the open ocean. Might come in handy.

New name, new life

Received two stickers from Lettering.com that I ordered 4 days ago. The order was shipped yesterday, and I received it today! Color me impressed.

It was Friday afternoor when I placed my order, so I totally understand why it wasn’t manufactured last week instead of yesterday, I only have my procrastination to blame.

GoPro

My GoPro Hero 10 is here! This means I’m very close to starting my YouTube channel and becoming like one of those people.

The feature I’m already missing is that it doesn’t support wireless charging. With salt everywhere here including the air, it might give up the ghots sooner than expected, but I’ll do my best to only open it when far away from moisture. I might be able to add wireless charging to it, we’ll see.

Attached a floating strap to it, will test tomorrow to see if it’s enough to keep it afloat.

Sealing round hatches

Four out of ten round hatches in my cabin weren’t glued shut, so I had to get them prepared with acetone and then sealed using black 5200. Their locks are old and broken, and I’m not comfortable having a boat that’s easy to get into, so decided to convert them into windows. This Saturday, before departing, I’ll remove those handles to give larger and clearer field of view from the cabin. It makes the boat look more polished somehow.

Ryobi’s power caulk gun really helped, turned out to be a very good tool! I used the lowest speed, but the moment you lose angle or slip even just a little, the neat string of whatever substance it’s exrcreting messes up the target surface and you basically have to use it like a stick to kinda sorta undo the damage and make things a little bit more even. I think I did well. Well enough for a project boat that’s slowly turning into a real amazing catamaran she once was. I’m gonna ditch those round hatches for something larger and prettier anyway.

Will sleep in a different state room for a couple of days, those fumes of curing 5200 seem not to be too good for you. That thing takes at least five days to set, but after that — bound forever.

EPIRB NOAA registration

My 406 MHz GPS emergency beacon got registered with NOAA today. I’ll email them my AIS MMSI when I have it, so they could update their records to have that there as well. Should probably also give them address of this website.

They’ve mailed me some kind of decal that I’m supposed to physically put on the EPIRB itself. I won’t be back in Hawaii for at least three more months. My documents for the boat will likely also be shipped to my mailbox in there. I’ll basically need to forward mail from Maui to myself somewhere on the mainland in order to go through Panama Canal. That NOAA EPIRB sticker should be in my mailbox along with my vessel documents by then.

Stanless steel nuts for lifelines

Installed new 5/16"-24 stainless steel nuts. It’s for my lifelines, four pelican locks located on the bow side, more specifically. There were only two bolts when I bought the boat, and those were a bit rusty and had no markings of steel grade on them. So, now they’re all 316 and at least come from the same factory. I wish them to live long and stay shiny.

I sometimes think I should slowly replace all metal with aluminum and titanium, but both those metals look like shit, never shine, and in general bend or break easier than stainless steel. That 60% weight reduction on metal parts is sweet though.

Gecko

Something moved up the wall and scared the living shit out of me. Turned out to be a tiny gecko. I love lizards and snakes, so he’s absolutely welcome to stay. As a captain of this vessel I’m responsible for everyone, including this mysterious passenger. Too bad I don’t have a PFD of his size, but I think he knows how to swim. He better.

He refused to eat a dead mosquito, don’t have anything else to offer him. He’s very young and skinny, probably not even a year old. They live long, over a decade or something like that. Hope not to step on him by accident, he seems like a chill little guy.

Will for now hide that bug zagger so it doesn’t kill him, geckos may be attracted to light just like bugs, don’t need his cold blood on my hands.

Probably got in while I was sealing those hatches, or maybe been here for weeks if not months, eating little bugs.