A slight change of plans...

Apparently it's a popular place these days.

This is Halifax. At this point, the last day of August, we had expected to be near or nearish to it and booking interesting activities like apartments and hull treatments. But we've had a very busy last six weeks or so, and while frustrating and sweary in parts, it's also been productive. Two weeks ago, circa August 15th, we decided to overwinter here in Toronto, leave the boat in "layup afloat" (mast in, at a slip, covered over with a frame and plastic and with agitators breaking up the ice) so we can go down the St. Lawrence in spring 2020 without rushing and having honed some rather rusty sailing skills.

Also, there was this factor:

We didn't want to rush to the Maritimes chased by fall gales and not lingering in nice places because we were racing bad weather.

Nonetheless, we've now sailed some and repaired or installed a great deal more. The boat's in good, serviceable shape and we have a good game plan for doing here in Toronto what we would have done in Halifax in less familiar surroundings. We've even got a land-based apartment as I do not propose to sleep aboard the "job site".

Some refitting highlights follow. Amazing what living aboard does for one's productivity!

 It's been a hot summer and we tend to skip lunch. Dinner, however, makes up for it. My belt's needed five new holes since May. Hmm.

So many parameters!

 After a rather steep learning curve with the hydraulic steering, we got the autopilot sorted and properly installed. And attractively mounted, if you ignore the previous generation of gear's mounting and conduit holes.

The rudder feedback sensor took a day to mount correctly.

We are at the point now where the AP steers better than we can, so we let it. Basically, we input a true compass heading and correct to conditions. We derive that bearing by putting a cursor with generous offing near our desired destination and just keeping a watch on events. It's clear that a lot of local sailors are going to some waypoint very close to, say, a buoy or other nav aid. That's not so prudent when two or three of 'em do it at once, we feel.

Lazyjacks took effort: the irony did not escape me.

 Lazyjacks and two separate Dyneema-core reefing lines are now on the main. That's a safety improvement, as are the preventers we can now rig for downwind sailing in blows.

 Fact is, prior to actually leaving, we haven't needed reefing lines. Alchemy can carry a full main well past 20 knots apparent wind, and if we encounter more, we've just gone to the staysail. But all is different now.

The secondary fuel filter: Not, evidently, guilty.

 We had a big delay around August 1, when, while on a test sail in light air, our engine basically sputtered and died and only started again reluctantly and at very low RPMs. We made it back to our dock with difficulty and an odyssey of troubleshooting commenced.

And goat sacrifice to the Dark Diesel Lords.

 Basically, we were:

• 1) starved of fuel, and
• 2) the fuel was old and grotty, and
• 3) we needed to change it all, which involved moving all the batteries to access the tank tops to vacuum out crud, and
• 4) we changed all the supply side fuel lines in case of said crud, and
• 5) we installed an inline fuel pump (a Walbro FRA-1, for the intrigued), and
• 6) we changed out all the filter elements, primary and secondary.

And don't forget the goat.

 Very long, laborious story short, the problems seem solved. We've done about 50 hours of rocky and calm motoring without issue, but it took a very long process and a lot of questions strewn about to the helpful people at the club (and elsewhere, thank you!) to solve Why Won't Beta Purr? I feel we were fortunate not to bugger the injectors and we will be cycling thrugh the fuel...and the biocide for the fuel...moe quickly in the future.

Ahctual crap sailing!

 Meanwhile, there's life aboard. Frankly, it's pretty nice.

My sleep schedule's changed.

 There's a lot of sky watching...

Nothing's ripped!

 ...and practising sailing in various modes...

Scored an end dock. Sweet.

 ...and travel to exotic places. OK, this is Trenton, jewel of the Bay of Quinte and where we keep stuff.

An actual exotic beverage, this was. The brewery was micro, indeed.

 We plan to sail as deep into the fall as weather and insurance allow, to see what breaks or falls off. Best to know here than 1000 NM eastbound, I think.

Cobourg, a harbinger of Trenton.

 A happy side effect of deferring our departure is that we get to attend my nephew Ryan's wedding. That required some collective sprucing up ashore and the acquisition of more formal duds.

Cabin Boy, soon to be Cabin Man.

 Lastly, I put the AP controller on a "helm extender", because just having the thing sticking out of a hole on a NMEA 2000 cable wasn't a long-term game plan. It looks about as nice as I can do with a piece of scrap teak.

The answer was "more helm".

More to come and sooner next time!

Good grief, we are aboard!

Had to come down at dark o'clock to secure this on deck during a gale: Thus is boat life.

My apologies for the long delay in blogging, but boat jobs, moving jobs, the appalling need to downsize and a severe time crunch involved in all of the above have hampered my "free"time and, ironically as we are supposed to be in semi-retirement, I have never worked so hard in my life, and I suspect Mrs. Alchemy would concur.

Replaced the fridge compressor. It's doing well.

Rather than list my domestic horrors trying to ship half of our possessions into storage and realizing the remainer equalled three boats' worth of stowage, I will simply list the jobs done, approached or best avoided.

Hatch strut for forepeak. Stayed up in 25 knots.

 Some jobs have manifested on the basis of deliveries or even weather. In the inevitably severe "culling of the gear", a few items were obviously and quickly done, like putting handholds in tricksy spots.

Needs further protection, obviously.

 Other jobs relied on outside contractor enthusiasm. These welded-on SS bars make the three-inch bollard horns four inches...a small but real improvement suggested by Mrs. Alchemy.

"Barlow's Bollard Extenders"

Other mods/additions were literally a decade in coming. I acquired these Lewmar 44 winches in 2009 or so. They required very precise measuring to get them in place where they would a) not interfere with each other and b) could be effectively bolted onto the deck. They are the new primaries, with the Andersen 40s relegated to staysail heavy weather sheeting and/or drogue retrieval. I spoke to Angue of Ocean Brake who suggested their switch to all-Dyneema leader in the fall means I should defer a drogue purchase to the winter.

Brought to you by trig and ADD.

Biggest winch handle versus working clearance.

It's down a bit, but not more than six inches. There's a shallow beach on the seawall beneath the waves.

 Meanwhile, flooding proceeded apace.

He's usefully taller now, about three cm. shorter than me, which makes him able to reach pretty well everything aboard.

 Cabin Boy completed his secondary school education.

Water tank frames completed.

The water tanks were measured, ordered and prepared for.

Huge pain in the ass, this job, but necessary.

The pilothouse roof was hoisted, strips of electrically isolating HDPE were secured between the mild steel flange and the alu roof, butyl and sealant and bolts restored and rubber leak-stop was sprayed.

Bonus: It holds the hatch open for brief, calm-wather egress.

The Lofrans Tigres windlass was installed. Still facing some wiring issues and a hard short to find, however. If it wasn't raining today, I'd have it apart on deck today instead of blogging about it!

Bit of a saga choosing 2 ga. wiring.

 

Every journey needs a map, right? Most of the jobs I do are first-time for me. The windlass is more like rewiring a starter motor, so not completely weird or novel.

So many holes in the steel deck makes me nervous....

The job took a couple of days and a couple of hole saws. I've gotten pretty efficient at putting holes, however, in steel decking, by necessity.

HDPE standoffs insulate the windlass body from the steel deck, as recommended by the Italiate instructions.

Looks good, but I have to trace a short.

Other ridiculously varied tasks followed. We had a custom table support made for the saloon. It lowers so that the table forms a bed platform if one is not overly enthusiastic.

 Windshield wiper finally found. I had to fab the link in the shop...

And wire it up...later...

We had to get out of our rental apartment by June 30. June 27, a truck with three burly Bellevillians showed up and hauled our "stuff" to the Trenton rental property. Said stuff filled a basement bedroom and about 60% of two sheds. We should have, in retrospect, given away even more, because too much crap came aboard and we are still culling, although the sole is visible in places now and other club members are benefitting from our compelled largess.

So many...heirlooms?

Mrs. Alchemy questions the logic of materialism.

The older, wooden, more tool-orientated shed features limited electricity.

Books, beds and toaster ovens?

That Pelican cooler is great, but too big for the voyage. We brought the beat-up Koolatron as an auxiliary fridge.

Behold the spare main...at least it's not stuffed into the forepeak.

 Once again, despite having significantly reduced our belongings last year, we gave away/Freecycled/curbed a vast amount of surplus things. Apparently, one is richer than one thinks!

The ubiquitous "Billy" bookshelves. Six of these were successfully curbed in the alleyway.

Well, that's nice.

We got aboard, although it nearly broke Mrs. Alchemy and made us uncordial at points, and started to experience life aboard. But more was to come...

Another case of loads of measuring and planning and interior alterations to get this, pun intended, in gear.

 Behold the second, "outside helm" throttle shifter. This allows us to correct a real shortcoming of Alchemy and to operate the engine from beyond the pilothouse.

I did not know one could purchase a 2 3/8" hole saw a close match for an Italian spec. Now I do.

 

Took some adjustments, but it works as advertised and we've practised docking with it. A fine mod.

Mast, moon and mainsail.

The "sundowner" has become a fixture of the day, but so have very early nights (2130-2200h) and rising with the dawn. Mainly due to exhaustion. 

Wait until you see the plumbing this requires...oy!

There's doings on the autopilot front, but I will save that for a later post. Needless to say, it's deferred our departure (again) and I'm doing it myself.

Foot plus switch.

Yes, that's a fused negative. Buy me a pint and I'll tell you why.

Further progress on the windlass. Nearly there...

This seemed a reasonable spot, semi-protected yet near the end of the vessel.

Lastly, or rather, lately, as in yesterday, I mounted the EPIRB, the emergency beacon designed to alert search and rescue folk we've got trouble aboard, or no board at all.

Goes off both in water or if buttons are pushed.

Belt, meet suspenders.

May we never, as with the liftraft, need it.