November 6 - 24 -- Work Continues, Slowly, But What's The Rush

 In addition to observing the "Reverberations" exhibit and paying my respects to Erwin at his internment in Mahwah NJ where half the mourners were Harlemites and the other half were friends and family, I had three work days totaling only 7.5 hours during this period. On two of them, David, a fellow Harlemite whose apartment window gives him a good view of ILENE, upon seeing that my ladder was up and thus knowing I was there, rode his bike over and we had nice chats. So far the old electric space heater has not had trouble keeping the chill out of the boat. Of the two areas of work in New Rochelle (in addition to errands on City Island) one involved scraping bare the propeller and shaft and lubricating the prop's internal parts via the  grease gun through Zirc fittings. Now all I need do is sanding the bare metal to give it "tooth" wiping away all external grease with acetone and it will be ready for primer and paint. On days when the weather is warm enough, this can be done in the fall, saving time in the spring. The other job, other than taking more water out of the bilge, is sanding the veneered interior plywood to stain it back to its original cherry wood color and coat it with polyurethane. It especially looks bad on the port side of the companionway ladder where after 20 years the wood has become a bit bleached out by the sun and weathered by salt spray. I don't think most people will notice but I do. (Also in cleaning out the bilge I discovered that one of the handy plastic tags, this one labelling a through-hull valve  "AC Intake" needed a bit of work. After 20 years in the bilge, the glue of the label strip had given way as had the wire physically letting it hang from the correct through-hull. I used the Dremel tool to "engrave" the  words into the plastic tag (not neat but legible and it won't come unstuck) and some new Stainless wire to reattach the tag it in place.

I have also occupied myself on the internet. Parts of an abandoned Saga are being sold off. My request for a $20 plastic cover for one of the cockpit instruments that I've been protecting from the sun by hanging a cockpit cushion from the port coach roof winch was rather ignored; it was the bigger pieces, costing thousands of dollars that got the attention. But one of the men who reads the Saga Net heard my plea and having upgraded to new instruments recently, has shipped me a cover. No charge. His boat is in  Salem MA and we will try to stop there to say hello and buy him some drinks. Thanks, Jeff.

   Another owner reported that a hinge for the heavy, well-insulated, top-opening refrigerator lid had broken and I remembered where we had bought ours in 2012 and sent him the name of the Fort Lauderdale chandlery which is still in business. But I also get several conflicting answers to my question to the Facebook Interest Group on Marine Electrical Issues.  Trojan, the manufacturer of the six six-volt golf cart batteries that comprise ILENE's "house bank", recommends that lead acid batteries be "equalized" from time to time. I had tried to research the issue, having never done this process. My batteries have been in use for ten years this month, and having otherwise been taken care of, they are still going strong. Apparently equalization involves overcharging the batteries (after taking off the fill caps) which cause the sulfuric acid water in them to boil which transfers sulfur that has accumulated on the lead plates back into the acid, thereby prolonging the life of the batteries. But how to do this dangerous sounding and hours long project. Several folks told me I'd need to get a stronger charger than the built in "smart" one, because the smart one has a controller designed specifically to prevent such an overcharging. And during this process I have to use a tool that I would have to buy and learn to use to measure the fluid in each cell of each battery until it measured just right. Another of my internet teachers (and I'm grateful to them all) told me what I really wanted to hear: "Just let it go and enjoy your existing batteries for as long as they last." And that is what I've decided to do.

Its always something.