She floats! She runs! She shifts!

The moment of truth came this weekend with being put back into the water after almost a month on the hard. Given all the surgery I had done with the engine and shaft and such, it is a bit tense when you get splashed back in to make sure you hadn't messed something up in the process. Naturally, I go through mental checklists ad nauseum, and by doing so I hoped for the best.

Deck getting painted with Kiwi Grip non-skid. Grey is new, other side is taped but not yet painted.

When they lowered the straps and carefully placed her back in her element, I ducked below and plopped down to check the PSS seal to see if it was watertight. Sure enough! No leaks! I then burped it a few times to let water squirt between the two seals to clear out any dust and small debris and to void some air bubbles.

Alignment, re-assembly, painting, prop work, Oh My!

Another weekend of work on Aeolus while she is sadly high and dry in Friday Harbor. I can't say enough about how much I love being hauled out at Jensen's Shipyard (despite being sad to be out of the water). Besides being in an idyllic location, the place just wreaks of island history with old buildings and equipment lying around. So if you have to be stuck on the hard, it is a great place to do it. And the people are as nice as can be.

Hauled out at Jensen's Shipyard in Friday Harbor

But back to boat projects. My last post sounds a bit whiny to my ears now, but it told the truth of how last weekend felt. This current weekend was nothing so tough, and instead went like clockwork with no particular difficulties. I worked from dawn to dusk every day, but there was none of the body torqueing gymnastics that were so punishing last week. I'll present the weekend projects in a list format:

1. NEWLY CUT SHAFT: Perhaps most importantly, the newly cut shaft turned out to be an exact fit. I had it cut down to my specifications at Prop Shop LTD in Mukilteo WA, and though they were a bit unfriendly and I felt a bit overcharged (they charged me $85 to cut down the shaft, which was quoted, and then an extra $35 to clean the shaft of some light growth, which was unexpected and seemed way too high), their work seemed to be fine. Between the added flexible coupling and the longer transmission, I needed to take 3.01" off the shaft. Talk about measure twice and cut once. I must have measured this cut 100 times. So it was very gratifying to put the new shaft in place and see that the length was perfect.

I would have thought it best to place the shaft back in Aeolus from the outside, but after several attempts it kept binding and catching, and so I resorted to sliding it in from inside the boat. I had to lift the engine anyway to adjust the mounts and alignment, and it was smooth and easy for the shaft to fit from this side. I don't know why the difference existed, but it did.

Hauled, Tranny in, bruised and battered

It's now been a few days since I hauled Aeolus out, and I am just now beginning to not feel bruised and somewhat broken. It's not that I incurred injuries hauling her out myself, no, not all 16,000 blessed pounds of her myself, but once she was out, I entered a torture chamber of physical abuse. My main task was to replace the original Hurth transmission with the new Twin Disc MG 360 that I have written about here before.

My first day went smoothly, and all things considered, could not have gone better. I had the yard pop the prop off, and then I hoisted the engine up off her mounts. This is a tedious process, in that you must make sure to disconnect everything that would otherwise get torn. Fuel lines, water, electrical, battery cables, and all the rest.

A Gulf 32 keel. 6,000 pounds of lead!

To do this, and this is prelude to what I did all weekend, I have to more or less lay myself down on the floor and cross beams to access things down deep in the bilge where the engine resides. Part of the great design on a Gulf 32 is that the engine is down deep and easily accessible from all sides because it lies directly under the floorboards of the galley and navigation area. This is the good news. The bad news is that it gets a rain of dirt and dust down on it that prevents cleanliness and it is DOWN below, which means you have to lie down and reach down to reach things.

Whirlwind prep for haulout, plus

Next weekend I will be hauling Aeolus out for bottom paint, a new transmission, deck painting and whatever else I can fit in. So this weekend, I went to Aeolus to do the prep work for the haulout and take care of a few miscellaneous items on the To Do list. It was a whirlwind effort, and I barely sat down until time for dinner each night.

New KiwiGrip on Port Cockpit side

This shows a before picture of removing the teak and dealing with the 5200

One of my primary tasks was to thoroughly scrub and clean the topsides in preparation for putting KiwiGrip on the deck. The original gelcoat surface has worn smooth, and it has become too slippery standing at the mast to raise sail and reef on the sloping dome of the cabin top area. I'd slipped too often for comfort. So I started off my weekend by doing a very, very thorough job of scrubbing the entire deck with normal deck soap. Hit all the nooks and crannies etc. One of my other goals is to paint the hull stripe, which is long overdue as the original blue gelcoat is beyond resurrection. I've rubbed, and polished, and waxed and loved and polished and waxed that darn hull stripe and no matter what I do it needs it again in six months. Forget it. Time to paint with Perfection Mauritious Blue, a gorgeous two part epoxy deep blue color that will look beautiful for years with almost no maintenance.

Why do we go?

We are just returned from another wonderful weekend sailing in the San Juan's, and just before leaving we were asked by some dear friends about how much trouble it must be to gather ourselves and the boys together to make these trips. In essence, they were asking why we go. Why do we go to all the trouble for just a weekend?

I've heard this question from people before, and I am always dumfounded by it. It is asked with full interest and sincerity, and without any hint of judgment, and yet the affect on me is as though someone has asked me to explain why I breathe air. It is nearly impossible for me to know where to start.

Perhaps you also go, and get asked this question, and feel similarly unable to craft a reply that rings true to what you believe?

Anchor chains galvanized

After six years of heavy but not full-time use, our 3/8 BBB anchor chain had started to show the early signs of needing some attention. Rust had started to form on all links, and though it was only light, it is a rapid deterioration from that point to bad places. Given our approaching trip around Vancouver Island, I am making certain that everything is in the best shape possible and this motivated me to look into getting our chain re-galvanized.

Here around Seattle there are several places that will galvanize chain, and I suppose they each have happy customers associated with them. I decided to use Emerald Galvanizing in Ballard, and was happy with the service and price. They charge $.80 a pound with a $100 minimum. Evidently they are unusual in that they are able to run your chain through a centrifuge to break up any stuck links. I dropped off my main chain and secondary chain on a Tuesday and picked it up early the next week.

Transmission oil change solution found-Updated

We all recognize that having an oil drain hose installed on your diesel is one of the seven wonders of the sailing world. To change your oil as simply as hooking up your vacuum pump to the hose connected to the oil pan is a thing of immense elegance and time savings. Aeolus has this arrangement, and I am repeatedly grateful for it. Our previous boat, an Ericson, did not have this, and so I had to insert the little hose down the dipstick hole and hope for the best with reaching the bottom.

MG 360 with dipstick hole as intended oil drain access

It is not merely the time savings and ease of operation that these oil drain hoses afford that makes them so valuable, but the mechanic in me is well aware of the benefits of sucking the dirty oil from the bottom of the pan, thereby sucking out the metal shavings that are a part of engine wear and tear and that further contribute towards engine problems.

So what about our marine transmissions! I changed the oil in my old Hurth tranny at least once a year, and it involved sticking a small diameter hose down the fill hole and hoping for the best that I was reaching the bottom and getting all the old oil and shavings out. So with my new transmission, a Twin Disc MG 360, I thought about finding a way to install an oil drain hose just like with the diesel.

Turns out, not so easy.