October 16-23, 2016 Brunswick

Mary slept in this morning so I added one last dog walk before relinquishing dog duties back to Mary.

We started unpacking and the de-cluttering the forward stateroom which held all the things I had to remove for the hurricane that I hadn’t had time to put back.

Pickling watermaker membranes 

Today we were going to pickle the watermaker membranes and then tinker with the stove and permanently attach the lower helm station overhead brace.  All we got to was some laundry, and the membrane pickling. Sodium Metabisulfite on hand for pickling.  Pickling basically means flushing them out with this chemical which acts as a preservative and disinfectant.

 Luckily I had just enough

The stuff in the pickling solution

The procedure is pretty simple.  Circulate a solution of sodium metabisulphite (1 cup per gallon) through the membrane for 30 minutes. This pretty much prevents any fungi or bacterial growth which can clog them when left sitting for long periods of time.

Only issue was an old filter.  I had to remove the original canister type filter because it was so corroded.  It took a quick trip to Home Depot for another one.  Then I had to install it and rig up the plumbing, turn on the pump and wait 30 minutes, then clean everything up and reassemble the water maker plumbing with new Teflon cups in the high pressure fittings.

Done.

Tomorrow we do the other things we were supposed to do today.  And I may have to extend the car rental for another day because we have to go shopping too.

The Packers lost so I was told.  I'm living with a disgruntled stockholder.

We took the car and went shopping for a few things and then helped Brent and Susan move some chairs into their salon.

Installed the depth sounder screen and it works wonderfully except I’ll have to go through and re-configure everything again.

Ready for hanging

We hung the rest of the fly bridge windows.  It was warm enough so that they weren't too terribly tight and we could zipper them and anchor the bottoms on the anchoring studs.

Top zipper was missing its little zipper doodad which I found

We also, thanks to my idea, fixed the port side window zipper.  I had all the zipper pieces and we just sort of put it together on the fly and it worked much to the amazement of certain nay sayers.

We went to the nightly cocktail party.  And Rhonda once again texted me a reminder for the Net which I once again slept through.  The Net, a gathering of people on VHF channel 69, is sort of a chat room (the verbal kind) where announcements are made and things can be bought and sold.

This morning we went to Home Depot to buy carpet cement and a few other hardware things.  While I was waiting at Home Dept to talk with the floor experts I chatted with a retired Salvation Army lady who lives on St. Simons Island.  Interesting tales.  She ended up in Waycross,Georgia at a shelter where she sort of volunteered working during the hurricane.  She was at Home Depot getting a few things becasue they were just beginning to let people back on the island.

Crisp newly cleaned curtains

We hung the newly cleaned and pressed curtains I had picked up earlier.  I'm told they a crisp and look much better than before when they were evidently crumpled and lifeless.

Back on the boat I took several hours to scrape off  the old cement on the stairs so we can adhere the new carpet.  I ended up having to dig out an old shop vac we brought from our house in Green Bay to suck up all the dust and debris.

New carpeting!

We ran off to the carpet store to retrieve the two missing squares of carpet they forgot to cut.  Then a quick stop at Walmart before we started on the carpet installation.

We did the steps to our stateroom first.  It went pretty smoothly.  The carpet cement was similar to wallpaper paste.  We laid on the carpet piece and I stapled it in place.  After a few hours it was pretty solidly attached.  Don’t want to think about having to pull it up though.

Cocktail party tonight.  Again.  Guess its becoming a habit.

In  big picture window was this diorama in a big house on a dark street

Walked around Union street after and caught this window display in a large house which made me laugh because it's hard to discern exactly what it is for a few seconds.  Then it hits you.  Quite funny.

Tomorrow we do the rest of the carpets, and more shopping since the car has to go back at 3PM Friday.

Mary was up before me today but kind soul that she is, waited until I was up and ready before taking the dog for a walk.  I ended up talking to Gelbert on a catamaran here who just sold his house and stuff and had his kids enrolled in school here for a bit before they take off for points south.  He’s pretty young too.

Mary put the new carpet pieces out on the bow so they could warm up and be pliable when we install them, but one square blew off into the water.

Fierce garter snake 

So it was back to the carpet store.  As we walked up the path to the front door Mary let out an "Eeeek...", becasue there was a tiny garter snake guarding the door.  We were delayed a few minutes while I urged the snake off to safer ground.  Mary wouldn’t walk across it.

The nice carpet folks cut a new piece and didn’t even charge us. 

We installed the carpet pieces after we returned from the store.   They look fine except for the staircase leading up to the sundeck from the salon.  I stuck it in on upside down so there is a small notch cut out where there shouldn’t be one.  Oh well,  The stuff isn’t coming off anytime soon so we have a spurious notch in our stairway carpet.

We went to Subway to eat so we wouldn’t have to use the stairs.  A convenient excuse with little merit.  The real reason was no one wanted to cook.

Packers seem to be winning, giving a disgruntled stockholder, hope.   And I voted and mailed in the ballot tonight.

I pulled the large salon rug out and washed it with Dawn (per the instructions), using a brush and the hose.  Then sucked most of the water out with a Green Machine.  It was pretty dirty.   I left it up on the fly bridge to dry.

Mary was up by then, so after a dog walk we drove to the CVS located within a Target store and discovered they wouldn’t accept Mary’s CVS coupons.   After several discussions she admitted defeat so made me drive to a stand-alone CVS store near downtown.  There she got most of the stuff she wanted.  It did take several attempts to get our CVS discount number correct but we managed.  Mary was not going to be denied her discounts regardless if we needed the items or not.

 The clerk said we saved $25!

Back at the marina we unloaded the car and then I took it back to Enterprise.  The guy who took me back to the boat was a nice young man intent on discussing politics.  I listened politely and offered a comment or two but what was amazing to me is how he recited “facts” that are known to be fictitious.

Weird.  It points out an emerging idea about "facts" and confirmation bias.  A fact is a fact if it fits your worldview which is confirmed by accessing information from sources which confirm your worldview.  And this phenomenon seems to be observable in most everyone, liberal, conservative, centrist, extremist.  And even Mary and I!!

My driver friend suggested I read the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Breitbart News, before taking on the Drudge Report, World News Daily and Rachel Maddow.   His favorite though is The Guardian.  I check these outlets every day or so but heck.  I'm retired and I wouldn't have time to read all these every day.  He must be a really fast reader.

Back on board again, we moved the couches away from the wall and I cleaned the floors and walls and took a few extra watermaker filters from their storage bags in the cabinets behind the couch.  Then I took the rugs out of our stateroom and cleaned those and while they dried I cleaned the floors in our stateroom and the bed pedestal.  

While Mary was doing laundry I went over to help Brent with his flybridge canvas enclosure.  It’s vinyl and, being only in the low 70’s, made getting it zipped and snapped pretty tough.  Steven came over to help too but we ended up only getting about half of it on.  He discovered some pulled out zippers that need to be repaired too.

We three couples, Steven and Sharon, Brent and Susan, and Mary and I went to Indigos, a funky little restaurant that was to die for, foodwise.  Yummy stuff.  Mary drove over with Steven and Sharon because she had to pick up her laundry while Brent, Susan and I walked the ¾ of a mile to the place.  It was really good.

We declined the invitation to play Farkle afterward and went to bed.  The temps are plummeting into the high 50’s for a few days now meaning I don’t need to run the AC!

Rob texted me saying he and Sue were stopping in tomorrow afternoon and staying the night!  

Mary went off shark tooth hunting at 9 this morning.  I took the opportunity to lay down the salon rug after I cleaned the floor and the walls. Lots of dust!  How can a boat get so dusty?

Mary returned and then Rob called saying he couldn’t contact the marina so I walked down to  see Chris at the office but she was tied up with a boat that was just arriving so I had to wait for a few minutes.

She finally talked with Rob on my cell phone and got everything straightened out.  Meanwhile I told her about the water leak and lack of water pressure on our dock but she knew about those issues already.  It’ll get fixed tomorrow,  so we’re using water in our onboard tanks which is probably a good thing.  It's better to keep water moving a little instead of letting it sit in a tank for weeks.

Later I cleaned out the aft shower sump then dusted off the lower helm station.  So now we have a sparkling interior.  The exterior, not so much.

Rob and Sue talking to Mary and Bubbie

Rob called again and was coming in to dock 10 and the T-head.  So Steven, Sharon and I along with Pete from the marina helped them dock.

Steven and Sharon know Rob and Sue so I invited them along with us to Foxes pizza.  Good stuff.

We had a great time there. 

We tackled a number of boat projects today.  But first we took the dog for her morning walk and went to see Rob and Sue off at the fuel dock.   I had discovered the water appeared to be back on just before.  A few hours later it was off again so we are using what's left in our water tanks

I got the high NIT monitor we use for navigation re-installed up on the flybridge and the nav computer updated.

Then I spent awhile adjusting the oven.  It was always dying when it reaches a certain temperature and the fix was to increase the lowest flame height by adjusting the low flame adjusting screw.  But first I had to drill a hole on the faceplate of stove guessing it would line up with the tiny screw.

Seems I got that part right.  So in theory when I adjust the screw the burner will be lit enough so when the thermostat opens the gas valve the flame will just get higher.   Before it would simply go out and the thermocouple would close the gas valve.  In any case it seems to be working now so we’ll see.

The front face didn't seem to fit too well before adjusting the support

I re-adjusted the lower helm station overhead support column which I had put in about a ¼ inch too high.  Now everything fits much batter.

Next was the Glendinning engine synchronizer power light which burnt out several months ago.  But it turned out to be a fitting with an unreplaceable bulb.  So I had to order a whole new bulb and fitting.

Mary, Steven, Sharon on their boats back deck

A few hours later we went over to Steven and Sharon’s boat for dinner.  Superb soup.  Yummy stuff.  They are fun, both from Michigan.  She's a farmgirl.  And Steven used to sell universities physics lab equipment.  They traded their Krogen42 in for a go fast Dettling 51.

Then it was back to laundry and then bed.  Its dropping down to almost below 60 tonight!  Great sleeping.