Recently I had the pull cord on my Honda generator break. I tried to restring the coil myself and somewhere along the line I screwed up the release that allows the coil to disengage from the cooling fan (I think I overtightened the screw that holds the assembly together). This caused the coil assembly to chew up the teeth on the cooling fan. Now we couldn’t...
The interior painting continues. Completing the main salon painting is a significant step towards completion. Fixing the leaks in the portlights, repairing the water damaged shelving and painting opens up a lot of storage allowing me to get everything organized and ready to start the systems repairs and upgrades. Rebedding Port Lights To make the storage areas...
It’s been a year since I made the six-day (just under 700 miles, at around 4 – 5 knots) solo sail around the coast of Florida from Fort Myers to Jacksonville between Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria. As is commonly the case when sailing to a schedule, I had a week to move a boat that was ill-prepared between two hurricanes; the trip had some highlights:...
The final area in the forward stateroom renovation was to clean and remodel the forward head. For starters, the head had a horrible mold issue as it was closed in with almost no airflow for a few years. Also, the previous owner never finished the install of the electric toilet. This project was a little more complex than the head remodel on the original boat I owned...
On my trip from Fort Myers to Jacksonville last year, I ran into issues with the engine overheating. The shop in Fort Myers that fixed the transmission also did a temporary fix on the heat exchanger where the cap fits onto the top of the heat exchanger. The cap connection had been welded before me buying the boat, so having a second weld was far from optimum. ...
The first step in remodeling the forward stateroom is the v berth painting. The v berth will be the secondary sleeping area of the boat but in the interim, while doing the refit, this area will serve as my workshop and tool storage area. Right now, I have all my tools and supplies piled into the main salon and it is an organizational catastrophe. The sleeping berth...
One of the known issues, when I purchased Pomaika’i, was a few soft spots in the deck. The bow area that supports the windlass, an electrical winch that raises and lowers the anchor chain, was the worst area on the deck. When you used the winch the deck would bounce so much the windlass just turned into a blur of motion. Definitely not something I could rely on...
2017 was a challenging year. Between having a trawler crash into my previous boat, dealing with insurance payout delays, shopping for a new boat, getting it moved to Jacksonville and dodging a hurricane or two I was stretched financially and spent the last three months focusing on rebuilding my cash reserves. This boat project is being done on a cash available basis...