Some progress

Not a whole lot on the boat front today, although... I cancelled my rudder order with Catalina and ordered one from www.newrudders.com. They can ship me a new rudder in 2-3 weeks instead of the maybe 5-6 from Catalina. This outfit got high marks from my friends at the C30 e-mail list.

I built the box that will become the galley cabinet and stove holder. This will fit easily into the space left by the old oven. I'll then put a frame with door over this to seal up and to make it look nice. The final fit of front and top will happen at the boat so I can get to really fit. There are practically no square corners on a boat so the best way is to fit and trim and fit and trim (swear) fit and break something and finally fit it perfectly.

Tomorrow we'll take that box up and begin to re-bed through-hulls for head and engine. We also have to put the new spreaders onto the mast in preparation for having it stepped later this spring.

Finally, we found an extended stay place in Elk Grove village which is near here. That will be our temporary lodgings from April 26-May 26 when then boat is launched and we move aboard for good

new rudder on the way!

Well, we had to make a decision fast. I could have taken off the old rudder and messed with it, tried to dry it out (it haswater in it), repair the broken and cracked fiberglass and so on. To get a new one though is going to take 4-6 weeks if we're lucky! Catalina direct, the people who make parts for old Catalinas, can't promise. So we orderd it because to wait is to really flirt with disaster. We HAVE to get out of Chicago on June 12 or we will run out of summer before we can make Norfolk VI. June 12 gives us plenty of time but that assumes that nothing serious breaks along the way. I am going to write to them often to see how things are going and see if they can hurry things along for us.

Today I'm staying in Des Plaines (city of DESTINY) to build the box that will replace the area where the stove was. Our small two burner alcohol stove will be afixed to the top of this then. Got to get this done while I still have my tools.

More trouble...

Back at the boat today...I dremelled out the crack that is forming in the rudder to see how deep it really was. Deep. I never really came to the bottom of the crack as you would if it was really just cosmetic. I also found that the cracking continues up the forward edge of the rudder to the top. As you can see from the picture below chunks came out when I started to dremel this. I also drilled a couple of holes toward the bottom of the rudder and they were weepy for the rest of the day. So, I am trying to contact Catalina Direct Tech support (this will challenge your patience). I am probably ordering a new rudder from them but want to make sure that there isn't some other sort of fix. The new rudder would not be cheap and it will take 4-6 weeks to get here. That's cutting it a little close for us!

OK, so back on board I attempted to change out the old gate valves with ball valves. As I was unscrewing the one for the head I suddenly realized that the valve wasn't turning at all but, rather, I was turning the half-inch pipe within the fiberglass! It came out nicely! I was told to replace these pipes and I was hoping to avoid this but now I'm glad this happend. This really shows how delicate these old pipe stem fittings can be. Now I'll replace the entire through-hull for both the head and the engine. Fun.

So, maybe I can work on something and NOT break it! I replaced the packing in the prop shaft compression fitting . We'll see how I did on this when we measure how high the water squirts when we put her back in the water!

I opened up the crack in the rudder and as you can see this is NOT cosmetic. I can see down to the rudder post. A chunk even fell out as I was dremeling the crack open a little. This is probably not good... 

Uh Oh...This "cosmetic" crack is starting to look serious. What is inside here? Should I drill some of this out? Duct tape? New rudder? Please comment to this post for advice. We also see some rust drips on the outside of the rudder here and there...and THAT can't be good!

At Last! I remove the old water tank. This will be VERY valuable storage space for spare parts and other things that have been cluttering up the cabin. 

Music via Ipod

There are probably some more important issues when fitting out for a long cruise like we are but having music on board can really make life more pleasant. I got the idea to put all music on an Ipod and then play it through some speakers. This way we don't have racks of CD cases to deal with. My good friend Gary, the audio wizard, agreed and bought us an Ipod for a going away present! Thanks Gary! I've found that I can play the ipod through a set of powered computer speakers and it sounds great. Gary loaded over 3000 songs onto the ipod and it is only half full! This is a great solution to having music aboard a small boat.

Sue and I are both on spring break this week and hope to begin to accomplish some boat projects Including...

Building a small box/counter in the space where the oven used to be. We've purchased a small two burner alchohol stove which will make for much storage underneath where the oven used to be.
Installing the new inverter I just received from InvertersRus.com (no kidding) It's 300 watts and pure sine wave so should work for recharging computer, camera, ipod etc. I plan that when we are on the engine for one reason or another we will also use that alternator time to recharge our various electronic devices.
Stare at the rudder again and consider how to take some of the play out of it.
Refinish new spreaders I've built and put them back on the mast
Check out wires in the mast and fix steaming light.
Probably replace exhaust hose...it's got a little leak right where it joins the checkvalve. Probably means the whole thing should be replaced. Don't want that to split somewhere out in the middle of the lake.
Change oil and filters, coolant, trans fluid on engine
General clean up and organize.

Stay tuned for pics and updates as our outfitting picks up steam

OK, buy my stuff

Sorry, the house of destiny is SOLD!

Believe it or not we showed our house to exactly ONE person today and now have a contract. Wheeeeee… This is a big thing. Now we haven’t taken our slip in Burnham and today we sell our house. I guess I should resign my teaching position at some point! Not to mention we still have to sell all our stuff! So I’m changing the mantra for this hunk of the Blog to …

BUY MY STUFF!

At this point we are set to close at the end of April so all of you with couch space get ready! We don’t plan to move aboard Enee Marie until the end of May.

OK, let’s see when I get to Buffalo I turn right, or is it left…DO! (spoken like Homer Simpson)

Des Plaines house is on the market

Yep, the 'cozy cape cod' on Walter street is officially on the market via owners.com. Here's a link to the actual listing. Go there and BUY MY HOUSE!

Here's our little house in Des Plaines Illinois. BUY IT! 

99 days in Des Plaines on the wall...99 days in DP

Hey, who wants to buy a house? Here's a picture!

We had a 100 day party last night (March 4th). And now the count down really begins. You remember the song "100 bottles of beer on the wall" well here we are in Des Plaines drinking a beer (at least) a day until all are gone. The count down days, I mean. At the party family and friends came to look through books, knic knacs, stuff in general and now some of this stuff lives in their houses instead of ours. Soon our house will be a the sleak, sailing vessel Enee Marie. Less room, more adventure. Can't wait.

Buy My House!

Preparations are now hot and heavy for selling the house. We've painted, sanded floors, fixed old problems so that the next owners will reap the benefits of me putting off all those jobs for about 10 years. We're going to try to sell it ourselves so now we HAVE to keep it looking good. Ugh.

Nothing new with Enee Marie. Haven 't been up to see her in weeks so we assume everything is ok and not too much water (ice) in the bilge.

Sue and I are working on proper timing of our resignations, starting new health insurance, selling house, etc. Timing is everything. This friday we are having a 100 days party as on that day it will be 100 days until we shove off.

It could really get warmer any time now!