Tuesday, December 23, 2014

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Pinoy Boat Service
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

Tis the day before Christmas and all thru the boat seems to be the feeling of Bah Humbug!! It must be that we have been here in the boat yard far to long. We are in the process of readying the boat to get underway. The necessary projects have been completed and now it is mainly waiting for a package to arrive that was sent from the States Nov. 13. The company failed to follow our instructions and send it USPS Priority and instead sent it First Class. Who knows when it may arrive. Perhaps we will decide to do without. So Bah Humbug has been the theme this year.

No matter that as we sit here today we wish  you ALL A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Sunday, December 7, 2014

GUSTY WINDS AND RAIN

Pinoy Boat Service
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

For us here secure in Pinoy Boat Service just north of Cebu city typhoon Ruby was kind. Ruby brought us gusty winds to perhaps 40 knots late last night through this morning. We continue to have a light but steady rain that started last night. So far the only drawback for us has been the loss of electricity. We have been receiving the internet on Kathy's phone to follow what has been happening as Ruby tracks through the Philippines to our north.

Tomorrow will hopefully bring back the sun and we can put the boat back together. Perhaps I will also fill in the missing weeks of no blog.


Friday, December 5, 2014

READY AND WAITING

Pinoy boat Service
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

All of our preparation for Ruby's arrival has been done and we now sit and wait. Yesterday was very busy in the yard as all the workers helped in the preparation. More lines were added to both bows and sterns  of all the yachts. Anchors were deployed from bows up and across a wall to augment bow lines. Shades and furled sails were removed. Mainsails were wrapped on their booms. Dinghies were relocated and tied down securely. The roof of the upstairs restaurant/bar was tied down. Busy, busy, busy!! All the while this was going on we were busy looking at various internet weather sites for updates on the forecast and projected track.

This morning, Saturday 6 December, we have gray sky's with some gusty winds but less than 25 knots. so far we have had no rain. Most important Ruby continues to track a bit north of west and when she makes landfall will be about 120 miles to our north and east on  the island of Samar.
We will experience wind and rain but as long as this forecast holds things will not be to severe for us.

LATEST FORECAST TRACK

THIS MORNINGS SAT PHOTO


WE HOPE THE WALL HOLDS

PO IN THE MIDDLE WITH
LINES LIKE SPAGHETTI

WE'RE ALL CROWDED IN

STERN LINES GOING EVERYWHERE


HOW MANY LINES CAN
ONE CLEAT HOLD
As long as we have power and internet I'll try to send updates. Based on what we see now we hopefully will have no problems in this area of the Philippines.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

TYPHOON RUBY

Pinoy Boat Service
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

To any faithful readers I apologize, it's been several weeks and there has been a lot happening here in the boat yard. Sorry but all of that will have to wait as we are on typhoon watch. Local name Ruby, international name of  Hagupit is on it's way and depending on which model used we could be in for severe weather. We are hoping that the US Navy site JTWC is the correct one and ruby will make a last minute turn to the north leaving us on the fringes and with winds on  the 40 knot range. Time will tell.

We have been watching this system develop over the past five days starting as a mass of clouds near the equator and now developed into a category 5 or super typhoon with sustained winds of 155 knots and gusts to 190 knots.

We are about 90% prepared as I write this on Thursday evening here. We will finish up tomorrow adding additional stern lines, tying up the wind generator and some other small jobs. Depending on the forecast model that comes true our area will start feeling the effects around noon Saturday. by then we should also know where Ruby is going.





I'll try to give some updates during the next few days and once Ruby has left catch up on the last month activities.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

A BANNER WEEK

Pinoy Boat Service
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

We had a very productive week from start to finish. We were very busy with several different things and all were steps forward.

Monday began with me setting the plugs in the screw holes of the cap rail section that had been installed on Sunday. It was then off to Cebu. I left the bus before Kathy to head to Broadwater Marine where I purchased the new water pressure pump it cost about $80.00 US more than had we been in the states but it was the only game in town. Next I was off to the store to get more screws for finishing the cap rail, then to the big Ayala mall to meet Kathy. Kathy disembarked the bus at the terminal and then taxied to the S&R membership store. It was 700 FP or about $16.00 US to join. Kathy says just about a duplicate of Costco, including lots of Kirkland products. Next for her was Ayala mall and her favorite western products store Rustons. We then met at the Moon cafe which serves fairly good Mexican food. After our late lunch as there were lots of heavy bags we splurged on a taxi back to the boat yard.

Tuesday's first job was to install the new pressure water pump very nice to once again use the faucet rather than the foot pump or water from a bucket for showers. Next the wood plugs in the cap rail were trimmed and some cleanup work to the actual genoa track so it would be ready to install  as now the last section of cap rail was in place

Wednesday some more work on the genoa track and then the re-mounting of some other hardware on the cap rail.

Thursday Chen Chen was here to clean the inside of the boat. We finally received our package from the states so I can install the snaps on the enclosure and then Hyde Sails can continue with their sewing. My day was taken up drilling the holes for the genoa track mounting. Thankfully I have some 12" long drill bits as each of the 36 holes trough the cap rail and bulwark's/ toe rail needed to be 7 " deep for the new machine screws and nuts. Each hole was also countersunk in order to hold the bedding compound to keep things from leaking once the track was bolted down.

Friday was spent getting the genoa track bolted down. First we put the machine screws through the track and then down through the bulwark's/ toe rail and then we attached the washers and nuts. this left the track held up by some wedges above the wood of the cap rail. Next we spread the 3M 4000 adhesive/ bedding compound down, took out the wedges and were then able to bolt the track in place.
Friday evening I called the bank which held the loan on the boat. Finally the loan has been paid off and Po Oino Roa is now ours free and clear

Saturday and today I spent re-filling the lockers that had been emptied out to gain access to the areas where the genoa track bolts were. Next it was mounting the GPS which Kathy had purchased in the states and re-mounting other navigation station instrument's.

There are a couple of small things to finish up on the starboard cap rail tomorrow and then I 'll work on the snaps for the enclosure before stating on the same process on the port side. At least now I have experience.
READY FOR THE BOLTS

CHICA HELPING AND
A MESS TO BE PUT
AWAY

BEDDING COMPOUND WAS
ADDED AND THE TRACK
BOLTED DOWN

NEXT REMOVE TAPE
AND EXCESS COMPOUND

THE NAV STATION
IS BACK
TOGETHER



Sunday, November 2, 2014

MOSTLY MOVING FORWARD

Pinoy Boat Service
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

Another Sunday and more drivel. There is truly not much new to report. The work on the cap rail continues. I attached the last section on the starboard side today. The plugs will go in tomorrow before we make a trip to the big city of Cebu. It's time for our monthly shop.

We plan to do this shop just for the day, rather than spending the night in the city. Our plan has us splitting up. I will go to the marine store in Lapu Lapu city, Broadwater Marine while Kathy checks out a membership grocery store then off to one of the big malls where I'll meet her later.

My trip to Broadwater is to purchase a new pressure pump for our on board water system. Ours has died and when I got the spare out which I believed to only need a new pressure switch I found it's motor to also be toast. Broadwater carries Jabsco pumps so though we have always previously used Surflo pumps we will now be changing. After getting the pump I will head to the old part of the city to load up on the rest of the screws, 135 or so, that I need for the rest of the cap rail project. then off to meet Kathy.

In all our time here we have heard good things about the S&R membership store having a large range of western products, tomorrow Kathy will check it out.

We are still waiting for stuff to arrive in the mail so things can move forward on the enclosure. The package has arrived in the Philippines,cleared the sorting facility and enroute to the local post office here. We're hopeful to see it this week.

   


Sunday, October 26, 2014

TRYING TO KEEP UP

Pinoy boat Service
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

OK, here it is 1900 on Sunday and I've realized that I have yet to get started on a weekly update of this blog. Hey I have made the last several weeks in a row so, turn on the computer, pour a rum and get to it.


A FINE PHILIPPINE RUM


So it has not been a terribly impressive week as the cap rail project just keeps moving along at it's own pace. There is forward progress but as far as anything impressive just the same old stuff. Pick out plugs, clean old bedding compound, grind out fiberglass, fill voids, fit the cap rail back on and re-attach with 5200 compound and screws and finally plug over the tops of the screws. I did manage to remove the last section on the starboard side today. A detriment has, for this USA sports follower, been the baseball world series. Here the games are televised but with a start time of 0800 it makes it hard to both watch and get work done.

The big news of the week would be finally getting the Automatic Identification System up and working. For those that don't know this is a transponder system for vessels showing various navigation information and allows us to keep track of vessels required to have transponders as they navigate on the oceans of the world. For more just google AIS. This was an electronic gizmo that Kathy had brought back from the states been installed but really was not functioning, Friday morning I started anew and got it to work on both our computer navigation program and the newly installed chart plotter



READOUT ON OUR PLOTTER

INFORMATION ON MANGO

ON THE COMPUTER

Add caption



Above we see the read out of four vessels in our area, Mango is only 313 feet away from us and in our danger zone. Not to worry he is in Pepe's boat yard next to us an not moving. Only the one with the MMSI number, google that, 111111111 is moving. Next you see Mango's information. The other photos show a later time with other vessels represented as green or yellow triangles, these are on the navigation program Open CPN. If I were to click on the triangle I would get similar information as you have seen about Mango. So as we cross the oceans we'll now "see" other vessels and they will see us. When registering I said we were the undersea vessel Nautilus commanded by Captain Nemo just to keep everyone aware that we could be perhaps "Po oino" or a little crazy in the head.


Manana en la manana more cap rail work and the world series.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

MOVING FORWARD

Pinoy Boat Service
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

Another week of moving forward and another weekly post, though this will be a short one. We just continued on with our projects. There were no snags or newly opened cans of worms. I cut the plugs off the installed sections of cap rail. Next it was back to filling void  areas with the monster mash bog of epoxy and chop strand fiberglass. Cleaning up the next section to be ready to install etc. etc.
Next more time with Hyde Sails on the enclosure. It seems to rain on the day they come. We did not put the finished sides up due to the rain. Next I need to install the snaps to hold down the bottom but we're waiting for them to arrive in the mail so there may be little activity on that for the time being.
We also spent time talking to Hyde regarding a new furling genoa. We'll be ordering that soon.

The rest of the week saw the same old stuff. Cap rail work for me and cleaning, cooking and laundry for Kathy.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

TWO SECTIONS INSTALLED

Pinoy Boat Services
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

Progress was made on our current project though not as much as hoped for but that always seems to be the way of these things we do to our boats. Two problems arose during the week. Lando the carpenter quit on Tuesday afternoon. We disagreed on the fact that since he is paid to work till 5 PM therefore he should not start cleaning up at 4:30 and be gone by 4:35. Tuesday he did stay but said he was not coming back to work for us. The job is now all mine. I don't really care as if we had started this project anywhere else in the world the job would have been mine, we only were using a worker for this as it is so inexpensive here and it would have been a bit faster. The other problem has been lots of lite rain not allowing work to progress.

Monday and Tuesday Lando continued on filling the void spaces and the removal of the plugs for the next section while I finished getting the bolts out of the genoa track and  removed it.

Wednesday I managed to remove about half of the screws holding down the next section of cap rail. On the other half the head just broke apart leaving me some drilling and grinding work.



FILLING THE VOIDS

ADDING EPOXY

BOGGING  THE TOP 
I NEED TO CRAWL INTO THIS SPACE 

SOME HOW I FIT

GENOA TRACK BOLTS

LIFTING THE TRACK

BOLT REMOVAL

Thursday was once again a fitting on the enclosure with Hyde Sails. We are taking things very slowly with them so no mistakes are made. It's coming along fine with all the windows and zippers in both of the sides. This fitting was for where the jib sheets and other lines would pass through and the bottom.


LOTS OF WINDOWS

THIS "TONGUE" ZIPPER WILL
ALLOW US TO GRIND
THE WINCH

WE'LL BE WARM AND
DRY IN HERE

Friday it was back to working on the fitting of the cap rail. We had on and off again rain so I did not want to drill the mounting holes but did some sanding even though we are not planning to do any finish with varnish or paint. I also spent time with the electric drill equipped with a plug cutter making plugs to fill the screw holes. We had a Friday evening special as it was Roger from "Wings and Strings" 63 rd birthday, we all went to a local restaurant for dinner. 

Saturday Kathy once again had Lloyd here to wash the outside of the boat. Saturday is also yachties BBQ day at the bar. Everyone brings something for the grill and a dish to share. always a nice social gathering to end the work week.

Today, Sunday, our normal day of rest I was busy doing the install of the first two sections of cap rail.

READY TO DRIVE THE
SCREWS HOME

Everything was fitted then 5200 adhesive applied and the cap rail was screwed in place. :Plugs were then epoxied into the holes and tomorrow they can be cut of and we can move on to the next sections.

As always Kathy's job is support so I can keep working.





Sunday, October 5, 2014

CAP RAIL PROJECT STARTED

Pinoy Boat Service
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

We finally managed to get started on the next big project, the removal and then replacement of the cap rail and genoa track. We had been waiting for Lando the carpenter who did our previous work to finish another yachties job.  Monday was somewhat of an exploratory day as I did not truly know how the hull to deck joint covered by the cap rail was put together. I do now. There are four sections along each gunnel. Screw heads had to be exposed, then the screws removed before trying to pry the cap rail itself up. Whatever adhesive/ bedding compound they used back in 1979 when the boat was built was still very sticky. Using some clamps different pieces of wood and the anchor roller we, yes I am actively assisting Lando, got the first section up. Once it was removed after getting the screws out the second one came up a bit more easily. There was a thin layer of resin filler over the top of the joint but no fiberglass cloth. This was ground off to expose the joint.


PLUGS AND SCREWS REMOVED

CLAMPS USED TO PULL AND MY FOOT

UNDERSIDE OF CAP RAIL AND ADHESIVE

CAREFULLY REMOVING THE SECOND
SECTION OF CAP RAIL

EXPOSING THE INSIDE OF THE JOINT

THESE HOLES WERE FOR CAP RAIL
SCREWS AND TO HOLD THE
WOOD THAT HAS ROTTED
AND BEEN REMOVED

THE JOINT SHOULD LOOK
LIKE THIS

Looking at the photos you can see some portions of the joint have noting at all between them and some are somewhat filled with wood. Some of this wood is water soaked and rotten. At the bottom of the joint is a fiberglass tab joining the inside of the hull to the underside of the deck. If you think back to a previous blog when we discovered leakage in to some areas of the galley there was a photo where I had drilled a hole through this fiberglass tab and poured out. That water had been trapped in in these areas of void and rotted some of the wood there.
 The solution that I have decide on is first to remove as much of the rotten material as possible and then fill the space with an epoxy and chopped strand fiberglass mix. The rest of Monday and Tuesday morning was spent removing rot and getting ready to fill the void area. Late Tuesday morning progress ground to a halt. Lando got sick and eventually went home not to return till tomorrow. I did continue on with removing the bolts for the genoa track as it needs to come up before the next section of cap rail.


THOSE ARE THE NUTS I HAD TO
REMOVE THERE IS ANOTHER
BEHIND THE WHITE HOSE

NOT LOTS OF ROOM FOR
MY WIDE BODY

GREAT FUN

THE RESULTS OF MY EFFORT

WHAT WOULD BE TERMED
OXYGEN DEPRIVATION
CORROSION


As you can see from the photos the areas that I had to access to get to the track bolts made it a bit difficult to even get a wrench on the nut. Sometimes I only could get a third of a turn with each grip of the wrench and no room to use a socket. Of course as you can also see on a few just the application of the wrench caused the nut to break off. So far I  have only a third of the bolts removed so more fun tomorrow.

Other days of the week were spent doing all the regular stuff. Kathy doing laundry, shopping and cleaning; she even managed to finally get another of her new dresses. Two down and three to go. I also managed to get the first re-chromed winches installed and the one on the boom removed by drilling out a couple of the mounting bolts.

Friday for me was off to Cebu. First immigration for visa extensions, then two different hardware stores of things, the chrome shop to pick up winches and finally a mall for canned cat food. Immigration was first to get both Kathy's and my visa's. All stop!! A new regulation was in place and we had to fill out an additional two forms on both sides and you had to be there in person. The new alien registration forms also required additional photos and full fingerprints. At least there were no extra charges only time consuming and now Kathy will have to make the trip next week. It only took me an extra hour, Roger from another yacht had gone to the main immigration office and it took him SIX hours. the rest of my day was uneventful.

the weekend has been quiet. I've been watching baseball playoffs and following the upsets in NCAA football or perhaps as some readers might American university gridiron.

THE SIDE ENCLOSURE NOW
HAS TWO WINDOWS

BLUE AND CHICA READY FOR
THEIR MORNING
WALKABOUT 



Sunday, September 28, 2014

LAST WEEK AND A LOOK AHEAD

Pinoy Boat Service
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

Sorry that last weeks edition contained no photos. I am not sure why but we have not been able to ever upload videos to Google +. I kept trying and then never got around to adding the stills. They will be included at the end today.

Monday Lloyd was supposed to be here to wash the boat. He evidently had to much fun at the fiesta yesterday was hungover and unable to work. This seems a common excuse here. Having run all the wires for the AIS it was now time to get it mounted in it's permanent location. This involved taking everything out of a cupboard then removing the built-in shelves, running fused power cords for it, the GPS along with changing the one for the VHF radio. Thankfully I managed to get it all done in one day.

Tuesday found me at the mast tacking apart winches. There were three to do. I could get the drums off and some of the gears but some were held in by a retaining pin that you are supposed to hit with a punch to make it rotate so it can be removed. None of the three cooperated. I left them to soak in a break free solution overnight. I was able to clean the other parts.

First thing Wednesday i started on the winches again. After a night soaking i managed to get all three apart and cleaned. They will be ready to go in for their re-chroming on Friday when i pick the others up. Next it was off to the town of Consolascion to try and get some info on the repair of the broken 12 volt refrigeration compressor. I also sent an email to Technautics Inc. who manufactured the system regarding some trouble shooting. The shop here had no idea regarding a 12 volt system but would do some checking for me.

Thursday was once again the day for Hyde Sails to come for fitting on the enclosure. No work had been done as after they left the previous week we had discovered a problem. Today all the problems were hopefully worked out and next week we'll see progress again. I also had received an email from Rich who now is the owner of Technautics with some ideas on trouble shooting the compressor problem.

Friday I was off to Cebu to both pickup and drop off winches. Then shopping at one of the malls. Kathy had Chin Chin here to clean. They did the outside and then the inside. the evening brought a very big rain squall lasting about two hours. As the boat was just cleaned we even managed to fill a water tank.

Saturday is somewhat quiet as the workers get off at noon, it's also when we yachties get together up in the bar for a BBQ bringing a dish to share and something on the grill. Yesterday we were also treated to the "Grand Final" of Aussie rules football. This would be the equivalent of the "Super Bowl"   for the followers of that sport. One of the yachties is is an avid fan of Hawthorne who won the cup. I spent the morning working on the refrigeration compressor problem  but there is still no joy in Mudville.

Today was spent resting as tomorrow begins the next big project. The carpenter we have been waiting for is now available so we'll start on the removal of the cap rail and genoa track which has been causing leakage problems. I'm not totally sure what we are going to discover but it is definitely possibly opening a BIG can of worms.  the cap rail covers the hull to deck joint and is made up of five sections on each side and one along the stern. Its is attached by screws alternating into either the fiberglass of the deck or hull with a space in-between. There are approximately 95 screws on each side. Tomorrow we'll see what is what and what we do to put things back together. Lots more to come on this project.

Now Kathy has gotten no mention so far but on supervising and helping of the Friday cleaning, She is always busy with laundry done in a bucket along with daily cleaning and cooking and never ending job of looking after me.
FITTING MATERIAL BEFORE CUTTING OUT THE WINDOW

NOW A WINDOW AND GRACE THE SEAMSTRESS

RAINING BUT THEY'RE NOT MELTING

BLUE CAT PERCHED ON A WINCH
YOU CAN'T HAVE A PARADE WITHOUT
SOUND THESES WERE EVERY
100 METERS ALONG THE ROUTE  

A LOCAL GATHERING WITH DINNER ON THE BARBIE

A BIT OF DANCING

ABOARD ONE OF THE FLOATS

A SMILING PARTICIPANT

READY TO GET UNDERWAY
A LOCAL JEEPNEY

THE CAP RAIL WITH PLUGGED SCREWS
ALL TO BE REMOVED 

THE 12 FOOT LONG GENOA TRACK
NEEDS TO COME OFF TOO
HERE YOU CAN ALSO SEE
THE JOINT IN THE CAP RAIL

Above I finally did manage a video of part of our tryke ride from Danao after the fiesta I'll attempt some more but no guarantee's It seems the videos are o long but I'll keep trying