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.

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.

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.

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