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

THREE IN A ROW

Pinoy Boat Service
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

It's 1830 or 6:30 PM here in the Philippines and I am managing to keep with my plan to post every Sunday.

On Monday typhoon "Luis" moved over Luzon and off across the south China sea. As the new week started I went to order bottled water from the little store here in the Republic Dry Dock where Pinoy Boat services is located, this is a weekly thing. The city water is not potable so we fill our tank from 20 liter bottles. We use this for both drinking and bathing as it is just easier. Kathy does use the city water for clothes washing and boat washing. A 20 liter bottle or 5 gallons is 30 FP or $.75 US., Our normal usage is 200 liters a week.

The next several days were spent working to get the AIS talking to either of our computer navigation programs. In the end I can get it to work on one of the programs on what would be our primary navigation computer but not the other on that same one and not on the small computer which I am now writing on. It all has to do with the "ports" that are used. I'll hopefully get some help from another cruiser here who is more literate than my about seven year old status.

Wednesday the yard foreman Edsel arrived to paint the name back on "PO" we removed the name more than two years ago in Langkawi when we were hauled out there. Before the name was in vinyl letters and after having the topsides done we wanted the name painted too. A graphics shop made up the stencils, Edsel applied them and sprayed the paint. there was a rain delay as Wednesday afternoon the rain came from tropical storm Fung-Wong to our north and continued till early Friday morning when he completed the job. On Wednesday I also discovered that the 12 volt system in the freezer box was not working correctly, from the tests I've done we may need a new compressor. More on that in the weeks to come as we can do without a freezer at this time. We had continual rain from Wednesday afternoon through most of Thursday. Hyde Sails did arrive Thursday morning to continue the fitting of the cockpit enclosure, conducted in the rain but hey nobody actually melts in the rain but "Frosty the Snowman".

Friday I was off to Cebu to take winch drums in to be re-chromed. It was planned to have the brother and sister team in to clean that day but due to a death in their family only Lloyd came. The death was to a cousin only 32 years of age and from RABIES. He had been bitten by a rat but could not afford to go to the doctor or hospital for a vaccine so took the chance that the rat was not rabid. That would be unheard of in most places in the world but not here.

I made my way to Cebu, located the plating shop and dropped off two of the five winches that need re-doing. Next week I'll pick those up and drop the other three off. The price 400 FP each or less than $10.00 US.

Saturday is yachtie BBQ at the bar her at Pinoy Boat Services. During the week Kathy keep busy with her laundry and supervision of workers.

Today a normal rest day we did a big clean out of the freezer box as it will not be in use till I figure out the compressor problem. then it was off to Danao for FIESTA. With luck I will be able to upload photos from our afternoon watching the parade and all the festivities. The best may be the video of our tryke ride back home.

That's it for another week, hopefully more next Sunday

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A BUSY WEEK

Pinoy Boat Service
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

Things were a little more busy this past week. First was redoing the track for the enclosure. This time with no adhesive in case we need to make more adjustments. Next I finally managed to fix a galley light that needed a new switch. While the soldering iron was out it was time to get started on the AIS first attaching the connector for the whip antenna. Soldering is not one of my finer skills but the connector is on and looks to be OK.

Tuesday found me continuing to work on the mounts for the AIS. The L bracket for the whip antenna needed to be modified to attach to our stern arch and it took several tries and most of the day to finally get it correct. Kathy had a trip to Danao where she was able to get the first of her new dresses. The seamstress is now working on the next one. When done Kathy will have four new ones.

Wednesday we had the boat cleaners here doing the inside and outside. On cleaning days there is to much going on for me to get any projects done so I just made a trip to Danao to pickup some laundry. Kathy was kept busy supervising and directing the cleaning operation.

Thursday the folks from Hyde Sails came to continue the fitting of the enclosure. Lots of talking back and forth as the fitting progresses. We are supplying the material and if there is a screwup There may not be enough, therefore the work will progress at a slow pace and hopefully no mistakes will be made. In the afternoon I dismantled the navigation station area in preparation for the mounting of the new chart plotter and running the wires for the AIS. The area may stay torn up for awhile as we also need to get behind the panel to access the bolt in the genoa track. We also started an increased weather watch as the GRIB files showed what could be an approaching typhoon.

Friday we first continued on our weather watch. My morning routine always begins with the gathering of weather information. I first check GRIB files out six days. These give me wind forecasts for that  six day period, Next it's the Philippine site Typhoon 2000, Then the US Navy's Joint Typhoon warning site depending on what I've seen I may then check several other to try to figure what is in store for us for the next several days. The Friday reports showed tropical storm "Luis", the Philippine name, on a projected track to the northeast coast of the Philippine Island of Luzon. The track wold keep it well north of our location. Next was running the wires for the AIS down through our stainless steel stern arch and then behind various cabinets up to the navigation station. This took the rest of the day.

Saturday showed "Luis" to continue well to our north.  We would get some wind and rain but nothing severe. Landfall on Luzon was predicted for Sunday evening. Rather than continuing on the AIS and plotter I embarked on replacing a faulty alternator on the engine. Actually after much testing it turned out to be the voltage regulator that needed changing. A spare was installed and now the alternator is once again putting out.

Today, a normal rest day, was spent hooking up the electrical to both the AIS and plotter. The plotter is working correctly. I believe that the AIS is too but need to have one of the other yachtie's here turn on there receiver to really see that it is putting out a signal. On our receive side I was unable to get either of our computers to recognize the AIS, tomorrow I'll get some help from another yachtie who is more computer literate than I.

THE PROJECTED TRACK WHEN "LUIS"
WAS A TROPICAL DEPRESSION

SATURDAY'S GRAPHIC OF "LUIS"

A QUIET SUNDAY

Pinoy Boat Services
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

A restful day here in the boat yard. There are no workers on Sundays and it's a day I try to catch up on the blog.

For the last few weeks we have been busy with first putting away all the stuff that arrived from the states and then starting to install some of the new items. First was the new lifelines. The old ones had been sent home with Kathy and marked with what the new lengths should be, They were made up at the Newport Beach West Marine store, thankfully they fit just right. Next were lots of little things such as new handles for the freezer and refrigerator lids, grommets to be set in the T-top shade on the stern arch and then getting it laced back in place with some of the new line that came to. I'm still putting off the bigger jobs of getting the AIS [automatic identification system] with it's two antennas and the new navigation station GPS up and running. The AIS will involve drilling new holes for the wiring to pass through the stainless arch and then up through the boats interior to the nav station and then figuring out the connections. The GPS can use an existing antenna but will require a new cutout in the nav station instrument panel and it's wiring. I'm never quite comfortable installing and wiring electronic things therefore I keep finding other projects to do first.

One of the more important items that was shipped was the material to finish our cockpit enclosure. Last week I put up the bolt rope track and the folks from Hyde Sails were here to start work. The first pattern was done and as it was being fitted  Kathy and I were making some changes in how we had first imagined it. The first major one was in the placement of two of the bolt rope track sections, of course these were the two that had been supposedly permanently installed with both 3M adhesive and screws. Yesterday I managed to remove those sections but did cause some damage to the paint that will now have to be repaired. As the enclosure continues to be built we're sure there will be lots more decisions for how the sides will roll up, where the sheets will run to the winches etc. etc.. Tomorrow I'll get the new track pieces up and then it's wait till Thursday when Hyde will be here for the next fitting.

We have yet to start on the removal of the genoa track and cap rail to get those leaks fixed as the carpenter we want is busy on another job. It does look like we may get started on that late this week.

Kathy has been very happy to find two new workers, a brother and sister, for polishing the stainless, washing the outside and cleaning the interior. They're paid 50 FP an hour or just $1.25 US. They both work very hard and the boat is clean and stainless bright. Unfortunately the outside does not stay clean very long as the shipyard next door is constantly sand blasting and we get the dust fallout.

Lots to look forward to this week starting on the AIS and GPS installation and the next fitting of the enclosure along with what ever new comes up.

GRACE AND RAYMUND 

MAKING THE FIRST PATTERN

ONLY A DAY AFTER WASHING
THEN SOME RAIN AND WE
HAVE DIRT!!!!

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