It's that time again! Time to get SAGA shipshape after almost 2 years sitting in the Sonoran desert. We arrived in San Carlos by sunset and got to see Saga a bit before nighttime. The following day was spent extricating her from the shredded blue tarps that had once protected her from the sun. There was blue vinyl confetti everywhere! It was a real task to clean her off. But we hosed her down and took a closer look. The varnish is very rough throughout. The rudder gave Jann some moments pause. He vacillated between fearing he would have to replace or repair it, since the wood had shrunk and you could see much light between the planks that make up the rudder. As it turns out, he's decided that it's ok to leave it just like it is, minus a few small chunks that have managed to fall off the very edge, and hope that it will swell again once we're back in the water. We did have to do some other repairs and replacements. There are too many jobs to list, but here are just a few of the items we have done: 1. replaced all head /Lectrsan hoses, cleaned and reinstalled toilet & Lectrsan 2. replaced engine salt-water intake hoses, reassembled pump and installed it. 3. removed Coolerator and plumbing, and reworked salt-water wash down/water maker plumbing. 4. removed bilge pumps and reworked plumbing to two separate thruhulls, instead of using the same for both. 5. replaced dead starting battery (we didn't leave it in the circuit and therefore it died of neglect.) 6. emptied, cleaned and restowed all areas and inventoried the whole boat using an Excel Spreadsheet, so that we can now locate sh.., - stuff, more easily. 7. got rid of some stuff through two swap meets and the morning VHF net. Thereby reducing the clutter below! No more large tubs of food in the salon or under the table. 8. cleaned and reinstalled knot meter 9. had yard do the bottom job, sanding off old paint, covered hull with 5200 epoxy, 2 barrier coats and new bottom paint. 10. painted bootstripe and cove stripe 11. cleaned bilge, pumping out the gallon of Joy that broke and ran down from the V-berth and mixed with the oil that spilled. (now we have a sparkling, lemon-fresh bilge!) 12. cleaned water tanks 13. installed an in-line water filter below galley sink 14. new zinc on prop, polished and waxed prop 15. checked alcohol tank in head 16. checked copper foil connections to Ham 17. checked transmission shift linkage and shaft connection 18. checked output of solar panels 19. changed oil and oil filter 20. replaced corroded faucet and knobs in head with new ones we found right in Guaymas! Kewl! |
Down to the gelcoat
This is what we found after the bottom paint came off. Ugly, nasty blisters. We operated on as many as we could to open them up before the fairing coat of epoxy went on.
| Never ones to pass on a good deed or some extra clams.... We hauled out the Sailrite sewing machine and set up shop in a cow pasture behind the work yard. Our neighbors on "La Brujita" needed a sun-protection edge of Sunbrella on their huge jib sail. All that white stuff to my left is sail! Of course, as people see us out there slaving away under the hot sun with only a flimsy gate between the cows and us, they come by and ask us to sew for them. Maybe we can cover the cost of the paint on the bottom now! |
There's SAGA in the background
