Jeff's Log ~ Monday, June 30th, 2008

Noon

Today has been wonderful so far! My friend Kakihara helped me put the main sail back on Pipe Dream. It is a very large sail which weighs about 300 lbs. between the two of us; we lifted it up onto the deck from the dock, and then unrolled it and installed the battens. We then untied all of the lines from the dock so that the boat could swing and put her nose into the wind. The sail went up smoothly with myself at the mast installing the slides, and Kakihara working the winch and hoisting the sail. We installed both sets of reefing lines as we hoisted the sail. That was another great big checkmark on my list of things to be done.

Kakihara left to fold and stamp the club news letter, and I got another visitor shortly after he left. Mr. Yoshida who is a past commodore of the yacht club came and brought me a bouquet of fresh cut flowers from his flower garden. They are really pretty and sure do brighten up the salon. There are two colors of gladiolas, snap dragons in a magenta color, some purple tiny wild flowers, and one pink hydrangea blossom. I do not have a proper vase, so they are displayed in one of our finest screw top food storage canisters, placed in the middle of the salon table. It sure is nice being an adopted member of the yacht club here. I am going to finish my lunch and then finish cleaning the bottom.

It is now 8:30PM. I invited Kakihari for dinner to thank him for his help. I had to stop on the bottom a little before finishing because jellyfish were coming in on the tide. That left me time to run to the store and get some meat and garlic for spaghetti sauce. I got cooking about 5:30, and Kakihari got here promptly at 6:00. I made a simple spaghetti and meat sauce dinner with home made garlic bread, and we both enjoyed it. He gave me a copy of the news letter, and Pipe Dream was a featured story complete with a color picture. We chatted for a while about cruising, and called it an early night. I was pretty worn out because of my highly successful work day

Jeff's Log ~ Sunday, June 29th, 2008

5:30 AM!!!

It has been a little while since I have written anything. I have been working very hard on the boat trying to make everything right in time for the arrival of guests on the second. I have reassembled the forward cabin after sealing the water leaks and have been trying to polish all of the chrome in the forward head. I honestly think that this was the first polish the faucet had ever seen. Scott leaves the small overhead hatches open a lot of the time for ventilation. Due to the submarine characteristics, sometimes waves go down the hatches too, so that head takes a beating. It is looking pretty good now though, and I think Gill will be happy when she gets here. I now have parts of the headliner removed in the salon. I need to tighten the hand rails on the cabin top, but cannot get the teak trim off to access the center bolts. I have e-mailed J-Boats for instructions. The teak arch in the center is a structural support, so I need to know how to go about the repairs properly.

The last couple of days, I have been working on cleaning the bottom. I have been scrubbing the black stain that we acquired in Manila, and now have blue bottom paint in that area again. Last night I turned the boat around so that I can do the part that was against the dock. Naturally, after turning the boat around, a wicked storm rolled in with 40 knot gusts blowing from behind now. The dodger turns into a big wind scoop in conditions like this, and the snaps on one of the side curtains let go, causing it to flap against the boat. I awoke with a start at about 4AM when that happened. I got up and secured it the best I could. I did not want to remove it because in order to unzip it from the top, the supports must be disengaged. It was blowing too hard to even consider that!

I tried going back to sleep, but with all of the wind and the waves slapping at the bottom of the hull, that didn’t happen. I got up and made some coffee, and checked on the cushion repair that I had glued last night. The cockpit cushions have the foam encased in a PVC envelope so that it will not soak up water. On one of the cushions, the tabs holding the snaps to the cover tore loose, and things got a bit twisted up. The glue joints in the envelope came apart in spots, so I had to re-glue them. I also sent all of the covers out with the sail maker when he returned the main sail. He sewed in some reinforcement, and re-sewed all of the snap tabs. Hopefully, this will end the cushion woes.

I have also removed the fore deck hatch to reseal the hatch to deck joint, and repaired some of the hinge mountings that had broken rivets. That was a hard job, as some of the old sealing compound was very much intact. I thought that would be a one day job, but just cleaning the joint area was a one day job, after almost a full day removing the hatch. Reassembly was only a couple of hours or so, and I ended up with only a few scratches around the hatch flange. Not too bad for a field repair I must say. The rigger was here a couple of times, and we now have new running backstays installed. These are lines that are secured about two-thirds of the way up both sides of the mast. The windward one gets tightened when we are sailing to keep the mast from pumping in the center due to mechanical forces generated by the sails.

I’m a little late, but a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Cathy, Clara’s daughter and Trinity’s Mom. I received Trinity’s pictures and she is a cutey. Congrats also to Chad on his high school graduation. I understand that he is headed for the fire academy, wanting to follow in his Dad’s foot steps. Best of luck! Birthday greetings also to Clara’s niece Desiree, she will be twenty on the fifth.
If I have missed anyone's birthday... Happy Belated Birthday!!!
There is some very sad news too. Chrissy, a very dear friend to anyone who knows her has taken ill with cancer. Please remember her in your prayers.