Hurricane Prep

Still on the mooring in St Thomas doing exciting living in paradise stuff. Yesterday, I spent most of the morning rebuilding an electric head. Now that's living! Oh and I have been doing a little varnish work as well. Rather enjoy that after all the heavy sanding is completed.

The big project at this time is replacing a steering cable. This cat does not use the standard raw cable and pulley system,  it uses a liner around the wire and has no pulleys.I  have been unable to source the liner material to date. I have several outfits looking.Worse case I can reuse the existing liner and go with a smaller wire until I can source the correct part.

Some other exciting projects include changing hoses on the yanmars,  oil changes,installing new mixing elbow on generator, servicing water maker. In regards to the water maker , when in Seattle I found a stainless steel prefilter. So far an impressive addition to the unit. It was expensive though, about $100. In theory I will not need anymore disposable filters except the 5 micron.

The wind has died down today, so it is clean the hull day! When I dove the hull the other day the bottom paint looked good but a great deal of soft coral was growing on the sunny side. It removes easily but with 128 feet of waterline (42 x 4) on the boat it does take some time to clean. Plans are to rent a bottle of air and don the scuba rig.

I am a ham and use a ham rig and a SSB rig. A project that needs constant attention in the marine enviroment is the counterpoise(grounding system). A poor ground and transmission suffers. Cleaning connections and the ground plate is a constant job if peak performance is desired. I stumbled across a product that I installed yesterday. It is called KISS-SSB. Rather than run copper foil to a dyna plate this cable is stuffed with the correct lenghth wires for all the SSB and most ham frequencies. It is one connection to the back of the radio. The cable can be placed anywhere...under settees, floorboards, anyplace there is room. So far this morning I notice a definite improvement in radio performance. I will report on efficiency after going down island.

Sorry if I bored anyone with this rave. It is just to let anyone stuck behind a desk that life out here is arduous and making ice is a constant affair. My biggest complaint is the position of the sun has moved North. Now those of you who live North of the Virgins might think so what, summer is coming. I like to sit with a Dark and Stormy and watch the sunset every night, but now I can no longer see the sun slip into the sea as it goes behind the island.I still marvel at the colors reflecting off the clouds and the different hues and shading but something is missing. So it really must be time to move on to an anchorage with a more northerly view.

In the middle of Nowhere

After leaving Ocean Park I decided to follow Willipa Bay north using Highway 101 to reach I-5 then on to Seattle. I was just outside Raymond ,Washington and saw this big cat in a field next to a small creek. I stopped to look and get a pic and the owner of Pelican Yachts was there and we chatted about catamarans for over an hour. They have been building cats since the 1970s and do custom work from a number of designers. This boat is a carbon fiber 52 Shuttleworth. The person who ordered it decided they wanted bigger so they are building an eighty plus version with a spiral staircase now!

Clamming

I have some time in the Pacific NW before I go back to the Virgins on May 3. The State of Washington opened the razor clam season to morning tides this week so off to Ocean Park. Located at the tip of the Long Beach peninsula, the area has long flat beaches that allow car access during clam tides.

I hooked up with Dale Rohl, an old friend from my days as an Ironworker. He resides in Ocean Park and has all the equipment to search for the elusive clam. His niece Denny was there as well as his cousin Mindy.They were my partners for the trip up the beach to capture the clams.As it was a minus tide were were all able to get our 15 clam limit in short order then back to Dale's clam shack to do the cleaning, which is quite a bit of tedious work if one is particular about guts. Denny is on the left with the clam in her mouth..

Hoover Dam

Back to the NW

The job only lasted 12 days for me so somewhat of a disappointment dollars wise but I did update my security clearance so that was a good move. I am good for another year! I drove the 2400 miles in 3 days and was my sciatica acting up!

The desert is interesting especially in Arizona. Driving along and flat as , then all of a sudden these huge mounds of boulders plopped in the middle of nowhere. Drive another mile or two then flat again.


The desert was still in bloom and snow line reduced so I chose to go to Las Vegas and stay with friends there then north to Reno then Susanville, CA. From Susanville follow highway 36 to 44 then to 89 which goes all the way to Mt Shasta. The trip on 89 over the Sierras is not to be missed.

Just before arriving at Las Vegas is Hoover Dam. A wonder. They are building a new bridge there and very close to putting in the tie in girder.

Workin in Texas

I am now back in Darrington, WA. getting boat parts together and prepping for the trip back to the Virgins. Thought I would include some pictures of the project I worked at the South Texas Nuclear Project.


I was working for Bigge Crane and Rigging removing the old reactor head and doing the install on the new one. The head weighs 70 tons so it was a interesting rigging job.Radiation levels were a high in the center of the head at 140 mrem/hour. I picked up 10 mrem for time spent there. Not bad.

The crane we used was a 300 ton Leibehrr. The device used to pull the head out of containment consisted of two very large girders mounted on a triple set of rolling wheels similar to train trucks. We used the crane to move the head from a vertical position to a horizontal position when outside the building. While in containment we used a 5oo ton overhead polar crane to change the configuration so we could get it out the hole in the side of the building.

In Texas

I arrived in Texas a week ago and have spent the last 4 days waiting to get my security clearance for the Plant. Cannot work overtime or enter the PA (protected area) until the clearance is approved.

On the way one of my many stops was in Phoenix, Arizona. I stopped to spend the night with the "Kelly's". They kinda swallowed the anchor a year ago after their circumnavigation aboard Moorea, a DuFour 35. They purchased a brick home in Phoenix at rock bottom prices. As I was leaving town after my visit I heard a house advertised on the radio for $29000. I imagine the neighborhood would be a little dodgy but you cannot purchase materials for that sum.

Shortly after I arrived the Kellys and I went for a well needed jog. Felt great to jog/run after driving 1200 miles. The picture is of us in front of a sugaro cactus. I was told they do not develop the arms until thay are 75 years old. As you can see from the picture, a lot of holes in the cactus for the birds.