Last Few Pre-haulout Projects

June 18 thru June 25

—Blogpost written by Bob

Monday, June 18

At 10:30 AM it is already 87 degrees F outside.  The humidity is very high and scattered thunderstorms are in the forecast for this afternoon.  I guess (as the locals say) summer is here. 

Lola, our nearly seven month old Maine Coon kitten, and
Captain Jack, our 14-year old rescue, sit on the
mid-section of our dining table trying to get
my attention. Lola is already bigger
than Captain Jack.

My day started out slow because I had to fill the water tanks and do some other domestic boat chores. I have only four small projects on my pre-haulout “to do” list:

(1) improve leak tightness of ice box

(2) remove coaming over companionway and address leakage of rain water

(3) check for loose connection to chart plotter/GPS

(4) plug 4 old (solar panel mounting) holes in hard dodger.

I decided to begin work on #1 today, though it is likely to continue for a few days.

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We have a significant amount of leakage of humid air into our ice box and it creates a lot of frosting on our cold plate.  Last year we used a hollow rubber seal that attached to the inner lip of the ice box. This seal did little to solve the problem and eventually came loose. Since mid-winter we have gone without an elastomeric seal and there hasn’t been much (noticeable) difference in the amount of frost that develops.

As a mechanical engineer, I wish that I had some way to measure the efficiency of the fridge and be able to tell how much of an improvement I am making but I simply don’t have that capability. I just have to make improvements that make good sense.

The cold plate builds up this much frost in about
a week. Frost diminishes the cooling
provided by the cold plate.

In surveying sources of air inleakage, I found this 
3/8-inch diameter hole that was used for wires 
in the previous system. I drilled the hole out 
a little larger and filled it with a teak plug.

Three of four corners just below the opening lid
have significant cracks allowing some 
air to leak into the ice box.

There is a piano hinge in the middle of the ice box lid. Adding a seal on the underside of this hinge will also inhibit leakage of air. I used a piece of modeling clay (closing the lid against it) to determine the thickness for the seal in this area. It turns out that the seal in this area needs to be 5/8-inch thick (slightly compressed) x ~1-1/2 inches wide x ~14 inches long. (Tomorrow, I will visit Home Depot to try find this size seal in a foam rubber that is very compressible.)

The hot pink block in the photo is modeling clay used to
determine the compressed thickness of the
new seal just under the door hinge.

Tuesday, June 19

This morning, I started feeding both cats in the same area. They still have separate food bowls but they now have a common water bowl and a common dry food bowl. This saved us a valuable 2 square feet of floor space in the main cabin. The change was uneventful as far as the cats were concerned. 

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Today is going to be another hot and humid day. I’m glad to be working inside our air conditioned boat.

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Speaking of boat work, this morning I hunted down seal material (3/8" thick x 3/4" wide) to use between the two hinged pieces of the ice box lid.  I decided to fasten it with some VHB tape rather than rely on a relatively weak adhesive backing that came with the insulation strips. I applied two layers high (of 3/8” thick x 3/4” wide foam insulation) on each side of the hinged ice box lid--this made the total width equal to 1-1/2 inches and the total (uncompressed) thickness to be 3/4 inches (about an 1/8" greater than the desired (compressed) thickness.  After trimming the ends nicely I closed the lid to check the fit up. The lid wouldn’t close completely under its own weight—so I added some weight to each side, hoping that the foam insulation would compress and take a set.  (It didn't but allowing it to sit for awhile helped the VHB tape adhere well.)

As the weights were sitting on each side of the lid I noticed that the piano hinge was loosened.  (A gap had opened up between the hinge and the lid and it was visible from the top.)  So, I opened the lid to address the loosened hinge.  

I carefully tightened all the screws--some of the holes were worn out, so I inserted toothpick ends in the holes before re-installing the screws.  This corrected the problem of the worn out screw holes and the hinge being loose on the lid.  I still had a problem with the lid not closing under its own weight.  To remedy this, I tried to use my orbital sander with 100-grit sandpaper to sand down the insulation a little on each side.  This effort did not work--so, I went back to the hardware store and bought a roll of the next thinner foam strip (1/4").  I pulled off one side of the 3/8" thick foam strip and replaced it with the 1/4" foam strip.

The new seal under the hinge in the ice box lid.  The
final solution involved one side have 3/8" 
thick foam and the opposite side
having 1/4" thick foam.

Finally, I got a good seal while the ice box lid closed under its own weight!  I'm going to address the corners when I address the painted seal (some type of rubbery paint) around the perimeter, during our upcoming haulout.

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--THE FOLLOWING IS A POLITICAL RANT--

It is one thing to have a president without morals, one who lies and cheats at every opportunity, but to institute an immigration policy that separates young children from their parents is a new low (and it is un-American to treat immigrants is such a demeaning manner).  Then, to skirt responsibility by blaming it on his opposing party is a typical TRUMP maneuver.  I am appalled by the gutless Republicans in Congress (Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, namely) and people in the administration who blindly follow him and defend his actions until they are pressured into doing something differently.  

Finally, late on Wednesday an executive order dealing with the family separations was issued by Trump but it didn't address the 2,300 children that were already separated from their parents.  There was never a system set up to match the detained children with their detained parents because the administration didn't think that far ahead.  Now, some of the detained children are thousands of miles away (even in New York and Virginia) from their detained parents.
  When are we going to learn that the best way to deal with the extensive Central American immigration issue is to help fix the gang situations in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador that are causing it?  I guess that doesn't fit with Trump's phony nationalism and his narrow-minded "America First" agenda.

In addition, the manager of one of the primary non-profit organizations (a subcontractor to the government) that houses a lot of the detained children made a $1.7 million salary last year!  This is a whole other issue that should make an average American's blood boil.

As I'm writing this paragraph, I got a news clip on my iPad that the U.S. is withdrawing from the U.N Human Rights Council.  What happened to our nation's moral leadership? 

Wednesday, June 20

I was up early and drove to Annapolis for a blood test needed prior to my annual doctor’s appointment (which is next week).  While in Annapolis I did some chores and had lunch before coming back to Baltimore.  In the early afternoon it started to rain, a nice gentle rain.

An image from Weather Underground
showing the rain showers around us.

.

I didn't do anything toward the completion of our boat projects today.  It felt good.

Thursday, June 21

Today is summer solstice, the longest day of the year (in terms of daylight), with very close to 15 hours of daylight here in Baltimore. (I wish we had long days like this in the fall and spring when we traveled the ICW between Norfolk and West Palm Beach!)

With rain in the forecast for Friday and Saturday, I planned to work outside today, plugging four holes in our hard dodger. However the sky was overcast this morning and rain threatened the postponement of my outdoor project. So, I drove to Annapolis (again) to pick up our new raw water pump for our engine that had just arrived at the local Yanmar dealer's facility. I also picked up a spare impeller and a couple oil filters to replenish my onboard stock. While in Annapolis, I had lunch at Italian Market, our favorite pizza restaurant, and stopped by our storage unit to return my shop vac. 

It was a very relaxing day with no projects underway.

Friday, June 22

The day started out with an densely overcast sky.  By 9:30 AM a light rain had developed. The wind was out of the east, a sure sign of oncoming rain showers.  I sat out in the cockpit with Captain Jack, our red-headed stepchild of a cat, while it rained.  Lola, our huge Maine Coon kitten, was very close to coming out with me but, in the end, didn’t want to leave the safety and security of the cabin. She ‘ll be coming outside (under our constant supervision) before long...

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Today's rain brought to light a couple leaks that I have to address--one is over my navigation station.  Even though the rainwater is coming through some old bolt holes over my navigation station (which I will plug), I think the source of the rainwater is from the coaming over the companionway hatch (which is #2 on my list of four remaining pre-haulout projects). 

The companionway coaming is the white fiberglass
molding that is screwed down to the cabin top.
This is the area under the dodger. The leak
is believed to be starting forward of the
dodger and running through
this area.

This is the companionway coaming forward of the
dodger.  The leak is believed to originate
somewhere around the periphery
of the coaming in this area.

I've decided to tackle the coaming removal next week (probably starting Sunday or Monday morning) when Maggie is here to help me and we have a favorable weather forecast.  In order to remove the coaming,  I also have to remove the main sheet traveler.  (The companionway coaming hasn't been removed in the 35-year life of the boat--I don't know what we are going to find beneath it.)   

I plugged the interior holes with thickened epoxy today.  (After I plugged the obvious holes, the rain water started dripping from a small 12-volt panel light fixture in the area!)  Clearly, I must solve the leakage problem at the suspected source, under the companionway coaming.

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Lola came out into the cockpit
tonight on her own!

Stay tuned for our removal of the companionway coaming and how we address the rain water leakage next week...


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