Day of finding deck Leaks
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Wed 7 Apr 2010 02:59
in. With Gary with me we are able to do some deep investigation into a
couple of long term deck leaks which showed up on our travels down the
coast. One on the bow which contributed to the wet bedding in Z Wat on that
bouncy passage and one in the aft area. Both have been with us since we
bought the boat 10 years ago, we have reduced them by fixing other leaks
around them but and they are not straight forward as the resulting leak was
a distance from the actual leak.
We were able to run the dock water on multiple places until eventually
narrowing it down to the windlass switch on the bow, and the water running
in the head liner back 5 feet in the boat until it came out a screw hole.
The after came when we washed the aft deck and got water into the aft Gas
(LPG) locker and the water drain is blocked. As you can imagine these took
hours to find, we were able to fix the bow one and I have the parts to fix
the after one tomorrow. This will be a big improvement.
Then we went on to the next job, when we left Newport we had an outboard
engine made in the center line of the boat leveraging the "boom rest" stand,
we used the recycled plastic 1 by 6 inch board, the idea was to bring these
significant weights close to center line of the boat vs the side rail
especially in heavy seas, and the system worked well. But the constant
movement eventually cracked the recycle board and broke off with the 9.8
engine on it, luck we are were at anchor and it only fell a couple of
inches. Well we found a furniture maker about 2 miles away down the estuary
and he was able to give as nicely machined 6 inch by 2 inch by 8 feet length
on Maple wood, which looks way over kill and strong, but only cost $12 US.
The would is beautiful it seems criminal to use it for engine mounts, but we
bought with the other wood for this other schooner redo, so it is ideal, we
will mount this tomorrow. I have a list of 18 items to complete while here,
and I am trying to halve this while on the dock especially the ones that
need a dock. 95% of them are regular maintenance like change the oil in the
engines, and improvements in design based upon our learning's over the last
couple of months, I am very pleased with all parts of the boat. We are also
sharing experiences on parts and improvements with a sister ship which has
sailed to the Marshal Islands on the other side of Pacific which we pass how
we solved and improved items. It is amazing how we find the same things, and
we improve in different ways both having their advantages.
This morning Alex and I went for breakfast about 6 properties down the
estuary a nice clean restaurant on a wharf out over the water, as we walked
there we past some deer which Alex adopted, and we visited a number of side
stalls looking for milk and fresh bread (did not find what we wanted we will
go to the markets 4 miles up the estuary tomorrow), we saw buses the
colorful Latin American buses and we dodged cows on the path, all to Alex's
delight. This morning walk allows Tracy to do letters and violin with Sean
with out interruption and allows Alex and I to explore together.
I ran into two Australians on the docks today one is the captain(AJ) on
Chula a large luxury power boat, that is crusing the coast in search of mega
surf. AJ comes from Byron Bay which is close to our house in Yamba, and as
you would expect he is a surfer but this is dream way of seeing remote
spots. We had a good chat they will be here for 10 + days before moving on.
Tomorrow is a up the estuary exploring for markets.
It is very relaxing here.