Sitrep 9

B Log Entry...21FEB2011 Hello all and Happy President's Day. I am working an aviation competition in Las Vegas this week while Joann is home repainting the kitchen, den, and utility room from top to bottom. Well, actually, she is supervising the job. Nida's element of the competition (aircraft power distribution system troubleshooting event) is all set up at the convention center which gives me a couple of minutes to catch everyone up on the latest Travels news.

In my last B Log, Sitrep 8, I may have alluded to the fact that with the fuel tanks out we were at the end of the destruction phase of the overhaul. Well, I may have spoken a bit too soon. Enter Richard Blackford...destruction master extraordinaire. With the fuel tanks out and the tank area cleaned up, Richard recommended that we take a close look at the thru-hulls. Probably a good thing. It turns out that our bronze thru-hulls were attached to brass valves. In a salt environment, well in any environment, these two metals don't get along. Every thru-hull below the water line was completely corroded and welded together. No way of removing them with conventional weapons (tools). We ended up having to cut all the thru-hulls apart with our magic all-purpose tool. We decided to reduce the number of below-the-water thru-hulls to two. That means we will be filling in and fiberglassing 4 others that are no longer needed. The remaining thru--hulls will serve the engine cooling system and a salt-water wash down pump. Since we decided to remove the existing head (toilet) and replace it with a composting head, we will no longer need the three thru-hulls for that system. The composting head will also eliminate a macerator, holding tank, and a host of wye valves.

So, with the thru-hulls removed, that should have been the last of the destruction. Again, enter Mr. Blackford. Rich was showing Joann some pointers on sanding the hull when he decided to try his planer to smooth out some of the thicker paint. Just the act of putting the planer (at zero setting) on the hull started to shake the existing paint off the boat. It looks like a previous owner had completely epoxied the hull and then put what appears to be house paint on it. The paint flaked off the epoxy like ice from a Dallas stadium roof. Once he started stripping that part of the hull there was nothing left to do but completely strip it down. On the bright side, we did find the original waterline and we found that the blisters we were working on were about all there was on the hull. Very good news.

Now the not-so-good news. With the hull paint stripped, Joann went to work sanding the epoxy on the hull to get it smooth enough to get a base coat on it. To get on and off the boat, we had been using the upper half of an old aluminum extension ladder. It was typically placed directly on the stern so we could hop on and off over the stern rail. Joann was working on the starboard side of the hull, aft of center, sanding away blissfully. It was a particularly windy day and a large gust of wind caught the ladder, sending it down and around the starboard side of the boat. The end of the ladder hit Joann on the head and cut her pretty bad and you know how head wounds bleed. The cut wasn't a gash as much as it was a skinned knee thing. The end of the ladder scraped her head as it bounced to the ground and the wound bled like crazy. I grabbed a tee shirt and we put direct pressure on it. She held the shirt to her head while I cleaned up the area, covered the boat and tied it all down. By the time we got her home the tee shirt looked as if it was red tie-died...but the bleeding slowed down for the most part. We cleaned the wound area and found that besides direct pressure and ice, there wasn't a lot we could do since a scrape, albeit a serious one, cannot really be stitched and Joann did not want that part of her head shaved. So with TLC and a couple days of taking it easy, the wound healed and soreness wore away. Well, that was it, the first serious injury on Travels. We are glad that it hit her head and not her face or eyes. I guess it could have been worse but it sure was scary for a moment. We have since replaced the ladder and do not work on the outside of the boat in strong winds.

The boat has not been without improvements despite the continuing destruction. We have built the floor supports and floor panels for the pilot house sole. The sole has been redesigned so all of the panels will be removable to get to the fuel tanks and other important items. We have also ordered and received the water tanks. Since the tanks were gone when we bought the boat, Richard had to design them from scratch using measurements that we took under the deck. He came up with drawings for two 70 gallon tanks that can be filled from the aft deck fillers or via rainwater scuppers when away from potable water sources. The tanks looked bigger than the area where they go when they arrived but we did a dry fit and they will work perfectly. Joann has sourced custom fuel tank manufacturers and, again with Richards help on the drawings, we will be ordering those in the next two weeks. To accommodate for the new pilot house sole and supports, we shortened the tanks making them 45 gallon tanks (each) instead of the original manufacturer's 50 gallon tanks. The shorter tanks should help with vent lines and fuel quantity senders; not easily accessible on the original tanks. We have also started replacing the port and starboard deck areas above the fuel tanks. Those areas were a bit rotted from the leaking fuel filler holes. So, we are making headway on the reconstruction.

We had a number of B Log visitors since our last boat log. Jack and Judy Olsen, from Cookeville, TN came down with Ron and Marilee Kluge. They are Joann's aunts and uncles and have been following the B Log for most of the year. I guess they wanted to see Travels at its low point and we did not disappoint them. In addition to our Tennessee group, Bruce McCalister, a long time friend from back in my high school days, came to visit from Leadville, Colorado. He went from 10,400 feet to near sea level making him the highest altitude visitor to the boat that we have had. We also were visited by Tom Klein of Clearwater, FL. Tom is another good friend from high school. So now Travels has been visited in the rough and I cannot wait for all of our visitors to see her again on launch day...not coming to a marina near you any time soon. Unfortunately, those of you who visited do not get your name in the boat helper log unless you grab some sandpaper and spend a few intimate hours working with the boat. Needless to say, no one who visited made the helper log. No Katie, chipping one tiny speck of paint off the hull does not get you helper status. I do think, however, that given more time, everyone would have donned a face mask and started sanding. It is that kind of project that is easy to get involved with. Joann and I thank all of our visitors for your words of kindness and encouragement. We would thank Richard also but I don't think he has finished with his destruction phase.

Until next time...

Kevin and Joann

[Sitrep 10]