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.