It was another nice weekend down at the marina with air temperatures in the low fifties and partially sunny skies. There was a marked uptick in activity; boat covers are starting to come off, I heard the sound of an electric sander for the first time this year, move activity on the docks, a couple of boats were moved and even a sail was raised. Early and welcomed signs of spring. We were busy too. Most boat projects seem to fall into either of two broad categories; 1) two-steps forward, one-step backward or 2) a fall into a tar-pit. As frustrating as it can be boaters shoulder on because there is no other option short of giving up. We experienced both 2-step & tar-pit problems last weekend. It started when we went to add a Y-valve into the waste system. Opening up the waste line reveled 1/4" to 3/8" of calcium deposits on the tube walls which greatly reducing flow capacity. A tar-pit... So we decided to replace two waste lines with new sections of odor-resistant tubing. That's when a half-hour job turned into an all-day affair. The new tubing is much stiffer than what it replaced which made running it quite challenging. In the process we ended up pulling the holding tank out if its nest under the starboard lazarette. We were able to verify that the vent line to the tank was functioning (don't ask) and discovered that two of the fittings on the tank needed to be resealed which we took care of. This job tested the limits of our patience with each other which made us stronger and we managed to get it all back together again in the same day. That was Sunday.
Saturday started out well, Spicer's marine store was having a sale which we took advantage of to pick up the supplies we'll need to do our bottom, er... Gypsy's bottom, that is; $750 worth of epoxy (West System), barrier coat (Intrlux 2000) and bottom paint (Petit Trinidad SR). Next we met with Jim Funk the most excellent canvas worker. Jim had finished our bimini and delivered our dodger fame complete with new handle that he had covered with elk hide. We examined the new binini and I was again amazed by the precision and craftsmanship of his work. As much as I would have liked to, we refrained from putting the bimini cover on, we'll wait till after the launch to avoid any possible damage to our new treasure.
After Jim left we went over to our mast to test the new LED tri-color light that we had installed the previous weekend only to discover that the light was dysfunctional (insert strong sailor-talk here). The starboard 120 degree arc of coverage had no function at all, no navigation light (green) nor anchor light (white) and didn't strobe. The rest of the light worked perfectly, unfortunately 2 out of 3 is not good enough when it comes to navigation lights. One-step backwards... I called Orca Green Marine on Monday and they agreed to send out a replacement as soon as I return the faulty one. At least we found out before we stepped the mast.
Last but not least we bonded an old liberty silver dollar that Susan had to the mast base for good luck. We had cleaned and painted the mast base the previous weekend so the old coin with its silver and dark patina looked good against the gleaming white background. The tradition of placing coins under the mast goes back at least as far as Roman times. We sailors are a superstitious lot who will do almost anything to assure that we remain on the good side of luck.227 days...
