A warm hello to all of you following the progress of the M/V Sephina:
This week saw more significant progress towards launch:
We got the electronic compass operating. The magnetic card compass is not properly installed and is all but useless. So it was critical to get the electronic compass functioning. Once we launch, we will calibrate the compass, a process known as swinging the compass, to establish the deviation at any given heading. (Variation on an electronic compass can be factored in digitally.)
And we got the main engine running - the Caterpillar 3304 purrs like a kitten. Great sound to hear - and much quieter than the GMC diesels that I'm more familiar with. (Now I know why they call the GMs 'Screamin' Jimmies'.)
Genset is another story. It needs a fuel filter which I don't have. Its funny - I have no fewer than 50 assorted fuel and oil filters on board, except for the one I need...But once I have the filter, I'm confident she'll run just fine. It's a Lugger 3 banger mated to a Northern Lights 12 kW generator. The genset will provide us with 110/220 VAC while under way.
I also freed up the gear shift cable, which was frozen, so we now have a gear box as well.
Some of the harbor guys came and repositioned the jack stands on the boat, so we could finish the areas of the bottom that the jack stands were covering. They are now scraped, primed and painted. I also polished the propeller to a nice smooth finish, barnacles removed, so we're good to go there.
We've ordered sacrificial zincs (13 of them) which we should have on Sunday. Then, one or two small issues and we are ready to launch. Barring anything unforseen, we should be in the water before next Shabbat.
Speaking of unforseen: we had our first major setback of sorts. You will recall from last week that I was busy trying to understand the fuel distribution and polishing system. But I was confused about the location of the fuel storage tanks, which I could not see - at least from the ER.
There are several access hatches around the boat - big steel plates held in place by 20 or so screws, haven't been cracked in years. So I started opening them. I wanted to visually inspect those tanks, and I knew they were located forward of the forward ER bulkhead. The only way to get to it is from an access hatch in the main stateroom, just aft of the head. (There is another access hatch in the head itself which I opened earlier - and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it looked like the day the boat was built: painted, rust-free and dry. Yay!)
The problem with this hatch is that at some point, the previous owner (hereinafter known as the PO) divided the (once spacious) owner's stateroom into two smaller (cramped) cabins, and built the partition wall right over this hatch. (Who thought this was a good idea??) Anyway, I had to deconstruct the cabin wall to get to this hatch. When I opened it up, what to my wondering eyes should appear? Diesel fuel. The hold was filled to the brim with fuel, hundreds of gallons. (Imagine opening your basement door and seeing water up the top step.) This was very bad - this hold should have looked like the other one, clean and dry. Fuel tank rupture? Maybe the rumors about the PO dumping diesel overboard were true...
In order to diagnose the problem, I had to get it pumped out, and the harbormaster very kindly arranged to get a special vane pump and 500 gallon tank to drain the hold. This we did on Wednesday. Turns out 50 or so gallons of diesel was floating on what was mostly water. I managed to skim most of the diesel off the water, thinking it might be salvageable (and since marine diesel in Hoonah is $3.80 a gallon). But the water doubled the mystery: where did 500+ gallons of water and diesel come from?
Once the hold was pumped, I got into a bathing suit and climbed down into this (very cramped hold). Visual inspection revealed no obvious source of water or diesel, just a lot of rust and sludge. I've been monitoring this hold since Wednesday, still dry as a bone. And its been raining heavily, so its not rainwater.
So my working theory for now is that the multiple fresh water leaks in the head immediately forward of that hold, both on the supply & drain side (which I've already fixed) made their way into that hold. The PO clearly knew about this problem, because there were globs and globs of bathtub caulk along the bulkheads and access hatch. Instead of fixing the problem at the source, they tried to fix it with a little glue and duct tape. Over many years of neglect, that drip-drip-drip of water filled the hold. Brilliant.
As for the diesel: it was only 50 gallons, and if there was a rupture in one of the tanks, that tank should be filled with water. Yet both port and starboard tanks appear to be empty. So for now, both tanks are suspect until I can pressure test them for integrity.
But now at least I have some clarity about the disposition of the fuel tankage: a forward tank under the forward stateroom; a large starboard tank amidships in the aforementioned hold; a smaller port midships tank in the same hold; and an after tank under the aft stateroom.
The two 275 gallon tanks in the ER are described as day tanks, while others are considered fuel storage tanks. The idea is to pump a metered amount of fuel into the day tank (port or starboard) from one or more fuel storage tanks so you can monitor your fuel consumption as you go.
I initially thought the two tanks in the ER were the port and starboard midships storage tanks, and a small 30 gallon tank in front of the main engine was the day tank. I thought this because I am not familiar with a two day tank setup, and because 275 gallons is pretty big for a day tank (they're usually between 60 - 100 gallons.) But by the same token, the 30 gallon tank I thought was the day tank is kind of small for that purpose - you'd have to refill it every 6 hours or risk running the engine dry. And we none of us want to do that, especially at sea.
And that also explains why the 30 gallon tank is plumbed to supply the Hurricane diesel heat system for the boat (of course inoperative.)
As long as I can fill the two day tanks from fill tubes on deck, I can run just fine off of those for now and deal with the integrity of the fuel storage tanks later.
So in light of the foregoing, I hope to be posting to this blog next week with my feet in the water.
Shabbat Shalom from the Last Frontier's Last Frontier - Hoonah, Alaska.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Friday, September 13, 2019
Rust & Sludge & Grossness - Oh My!
Shalom shalom to all those kind souls near and far who are following progress of the M/V Sephina:
This week saw major progress towards hitting the water.
We cleaned and polished the hull above the waterline (the blue part) so it wouldn't look so tatty, but there are still lots of chips, areas where runoff has eroded the paint, etc. So while it looks significantly better, its still not thrilling. They can't match paint colors at the local hardware store, but I did discover a half gallon of old blue paint for the hull. Since we have so little, we have to be strategic about where we apply it. I began to remove the old name from the transom, but it takes the underlying blue right with it. So we'll reserve the paint to recover the transom and the forward hull identifiers, and if there's any left over after that, we'll hit the eroded paint under the forward scuppers, which look pretty rugged.
The major work this week was the fuel system. I tore into it this week in earnest. First I spent a full day diagramming all the fuel lines, return lines, etc.
There are four fuel tanks - two large midships tanks port and starboard, an aft tank, and a forward tank (there used to be five - a small fuel tank in the forepeak, but that was sacrificed about 20 years ago to make room for the bow thruster). One of the locals here in the yard told me that there was a diesel leak coming from the boat and that the former owners, who were running her for charter, were kicked out of Icy Strait and Elfin Cove because of it. (DIscharge of oil or diesel is strictly prohibited and illegal.) That put the nail in the coffin of their failing business. Don't know if that's true, all kinds of stories whirl around, and I don't see evidence of a fuel leak. It is true that I can't easily visualize the forward and after tanks, but the two main midships tanks are easily accessible from the ER and they look fine. So I will only be pulling from those two tanks for now.
Then I inspected the whole system. Most of the lines are galvanized steel, and one particular section looked extremely crusty (and rusty), so I cut it out and replaced it with new pipe. Then I attacked the fuel filters. Each tank has a Racor FS200 fuel filter and water separator; the main supply line filter is a Dahl 300 fuel filter and water separator, and then there yet is another fuel filter on the engine.
There are dozens of replacement filters/filter cartridges of various types stored on the boat, so I also catalogued them to see what I have, etc. I suspect that half or more of them are to equipment no longer on the boat. (Maybe I'll hold a filter yard sale haha.) I also found a 1970's style sealed beam headlight, haven't seen one of those for decades! I was about to chuck it, and then I realized that it might be for the searchlight, so I set it aside.
The fuel filters were absolutely filthy, I mean unusably filthy. The Dahl in particular was half filled with water, and the other half with sludge and rust. What a mess. There is no way an engine would run with fuel coming through that filter.
Also, there is a fuel transfer pump built in to the system to transfer fuel between tanks to maintain trim, etc. It doesn't work, but I think it's because it pulls 12 volts from the genset starting battery, which has to be replaced. Once that's operable, I'd like to transfer all the fuel in the port tank to the starboard tank, open the inspection port and clean out any water, algae, mold and any other garden-variety schmutz from the pick ups at the bottom of the tank. The reverse the process and do the same for the other tank.
With clean filters, new lines, clean tanks, and help from Above, the engine should run just fine. We'll see after Shabbat.
In the ongoing plumbing wars, I managed to open the shower drain so it doesn't back up now. That drain line is the common drain for all the gray water (showers and head sinks) so hopefully all those will drain freely now. The gray water dumps to a holding tank with a bilge pump to pump it overboard. But the holding tank lid is open, the bilge pump is inoperable (of course) so for now the gray water is overflowing right into the bilge and is pumped out from there. No big deal; this is a minor problem I can fix down the road.
The galley sink drain was another matter. In theory it is supposed to dump directly overboard. But it was clogged and nothing seemed to help. Since the galley drain line runs along the headliner in the ER, I took out my handy dandy die grinder and cut the 1-1/2" galvanized steel pipe. The sludge and rust that I dug out was so impacted that no amount of snaking or NaOH was going to fix it. Patched it all up and lo and behold! runs great now.
So yeah, what plumbing issues remain seem to be more on the discharge side, not the supply side, so we're making progress.
Once the engine and genset are running, we can schedule our launch. Stay tuned.
Shabbat Shalom from the Last Frontier's last frontier - Hoonah, Alaska.
This week saw major progress towards hitting the water.
We cleaned and polished the hull above the waterline (the blue part) so it wouldn't look so tatty, but there are still lots of chips, areas where runoff has eroded the paint, etc. So while it looks significantly better, its still not thrilling. They can't match paint colors at the local hardware store, but I did discover a half gallon of old blue paint for the hull. Since we have so little, we have to be strategic about where we apply it. I began to remove the old name from the transom, but it takes the underlying blue right with it. So we'll reserve the paint to recover the transom and the forward hull identifiers, and if there's any left over after that, we'll hit the eroded paint under the forward scuppers, which look pretty rugged.
The major work this week was the fuel system. I tore into it this week in earnest. First I spent a full day diagramming all the fuel lines, return lines, etc.
There are four fuel tanks - two large midships tanks port and starboard, an aft tank, and a forward tank (there used to be five - a small fuel tank in the forepeak, but that was sacrificed about 20 years ago to make room for the bow thruster). One of the locals here in the yard told me that there was a diesel leak coming from the boat and that the former owners, who were running her for charter, were kicked out of Icy Strait and Elfin Cove because of it. (DIscharge of oil or diesel is strictly prohibited and illegal.) That put the nail in the coffin of their failing business. Don't know if that's true, all kinds of stories whirl around, and I don't see evidence of a fuel leak. It is true that I can't easily visualize the forward and after tanks, but the two main midships tanks are easily accessible from the ER and they look fine. So I will only be pulling from those two tanks for now.
Then I inspected the whole system. Most of the lines are galvanized steel, and one particular section looked extremely crusty (and rusty), so I cut it out and replaced it with new pipe. Then I attacked the fuel filters. Each tank has a Racor FS200 fuel filter and water separator; the main supply line filter is a Dahl 300 fuel filter and water separator, and then there yet is another fuel filter on the engine.
There are dozens of replacement filters/filter cartridges of various types stored on the boat, so I also catalogued them to see what I have, etc. I suspect that half or more of them are to equipment no longer on the boat. (Maybe I'll hold a filter yard sale haha.) I also found a 1970's style sealed beam headlight, haven't seen one of those for decades! I was about to chuck it, and then I realized that it might be for the searchlight, so I set it aside.
The fuel filters were absolutely filthy, I mean unusably filthy. The Dahl in particular was half filled with water, and the other half with sludge and rust. What a mess. There is no way an engine would run with fuel coming through that filter.
Also, there is a fuel transfer pump built in to the system to transfer fuel between tanks to maintain trim, etc. It doesn't work, but I think it's because it pulls 12 volts from the genset starting battery, which has to be replaced. Once that's operable, I'd like to transfer all the fuel in the port tank to the starboard tank, open the inspection port and clean out any water, algae, mold and any other garden-variety schmutz from the pick ups at the bottom of the tank. The reverse the process and do the same for the other tank.
With clean filters, new lines, clean tanks, and help from Above, the engine should run just fine. We'll see after Shabbat.
In the ongoing plumbing wars, I managed to open the shower drain so it doesn't back up now. That drain line is the common drain for all the gray water (showers and head sinks) so hopefully all those will drain freely now. The gray water dumps to a holding tank with a bilge pump to pump it overboard. But the holding tank lid is open, the bilge pump is inoperable (of course) so for now the gray water is overflowing right into the bilge and is pumped out from there. No big deal; this is a minor problem I can fix down the road.
The galley sink drain was another matter. In theory it is supposed to dump directly overboard. But it was clogged and nothing seemed to help. Since the galley drain line runs along the headliner in the ER, I took out my handy dandy die grinder and cut the 1-1/2" galvanized steel pipe. The sludge and rust that I dug out was so impacted that no amount of snaking or NaOH was going to fix it. Patched it all up and lo and behold! runs great now.
So yeah, what plumbing issues remain seem to be more on the discharge side, not the supply side, so we're making progress.
Once the engine and genset are running, we can schedule our launch. Stay tuned.
Shabbat Shalom from the Last Frontier's last frontier - Hoonah, Alaska.
Friday, September 6, 2019
Northern Lights and Eastern Stars
Hello to all of you following our progress!
This week, we finished painting the bottom with anti-rust primer and the ablative anti-fouling. The bottom looks so good, it makes the topsides look shabby now - haha (We'll have to do something about that...)
There are still a couple of hull-related issues to deal with before we splash in - we have to install the sacrificial anodes (ordered), and I will have to fab up some strainers for the sea water intakes, as the old fiberglass ones have eroded off over time. These are coarse strainers on the outside of the boat to prevent sucking fish or debris into the engine or genset. I also need to polish the prop. But these issues are minor; the hull is just about ready.
In addition, I was able to patch and paint the leaks on the boat deck that were dripping into the salon. We'll see next week (during the next big soak) if the patch works...
And Baruch Hashem (thank G-d) for it - the weather has been unseasonably mild and dry, giving us the time to complete the exterior work. You can't help feel that Hashem is really looking after us, guiding us on our path.
The Holy Place: this week also saw major progress in the engine room, starting with major cleaning, organizing of tools, etc.
Last week, you'll recall that I hand cranked the motor. This week I was able to connect the cranking batteries, figure out how they're linked and connected to the house batteries (and why), and crank the starter. Without firing up the engine. And lo and behold! It cranked.
I don't want to actually start the engine for reals until I make sure that she has a clean, water-free supply of fuel. This is a big issue that I will tackling on Sunday. You see, the boat's been sitting for eight years with fuel tanks only partially full of diesel. As temperatures fluctuate, the moist air above the fuel condenses on the empty part of the steel fuel tank walls, resulting (over time) in a lot of water in the fuel. (In order to prevent this problem, many boat owners keep their tanks topped off even if their not going anywhere.)
This week, we finished painting the bottom with anti-rust primer and the ablative anti-fouling. The bottom looks so good, it makes the topsides look shabby now - haha (We'll have to do something about that...)
There are still a couple of hull-related issues to deal with before we splash in - we have to install the sacrificial anodes (ordered), and I will have to fab up some strainers for the sea water intakes, as the old fiberglass ones have eroded off over time. These are coarse strainers on the outside of the boat to prevent sucking fish or debris into the engine or genset. I also need to polish the prop. But these issues are minor; the hull is just about ready.
In addition, I was able to patch and paint the leaks on the boat deck that were dripping into the salon. We'll see next week (during the next big soak) if the patch works...
And Baruch Hashem (thank G-d) for it - the weather has been unseasonably mild and dry, giving us the time to complete the exterior work. You can't help feel that Hashem is really looking after us, guiding us on our path.
The Holy Place: this week also saw major progress in the engine room, starting with major cleaning, organizing of tools, etc.
Last week, you'll recall that I hand cranked the motor. This week I was able to connect the cranking batteries, figure out how they're linked and connected to the house batteries (and why), and crank the starter. Without firing up the engine. And lo and behold! It cranked.
I don't want to actually start the engine for reals until I make sure that she has a clean, water-free supply of fuel. This is a big issue that I will tackling on Sunday. You see, the boat's been sitting for eight years with fuel tanks only partially full of diesel. As temperatures fluctuate, the moist air above the fuel condenses on the empty part of the steel fuel tank walls, resulting (over time) in a lot of water in the fuel. (In order to prevent this problem, many boat owners keep their tanks topped off even if their not going anywhere.)
The other issue is that there are five fuel tanks on the boat, but it appears from the tangle of ad-hoc fuel lines running everywhere that the previous owners drew fuel from only one tank. In fact, the main fuel filter/water separator, fuel transfer pump and fuel manifold are completely bypassed. I had a similar situation on my old boat, but in that case it was because there were integrity issues with the tanks themselves. Not sure what's going on here yet. But the port and starboard midships tanks hold about 1000 gallons of fuel, which is more than enough to get us down the Inside Passage to Seattle, so I'll close off the other tanks for now and deal with them later.
Thus my major task next week is to pump the fuel out of each tank, open the inspection ports and suck out any water or debris living in the bottom of the tanks. After that, fresh filters and water separators, and then we can start the main engine. With the hull finished and the engine running, we can then schedule the boat launch.
I also replaced the air filter and air intake strainer, ripped apart the raw water side of the cooling system, cleaned the fine raw water strainer, fixed a few potential problems and buttoned it back up. They don't sell a replacement raw water impeller big enough for the Sephina here in Hoonah, but the old one looks to be in good shape, so again, it will get us to Seattle.
I also got the depth sounder to fire up. This is an important piece of equipment that tells the pilot, in real time, the amount of water under the keel. This is a critical piece of data as the Sephina draws 9.5 feet of water, so we don't dare run the Inside Passage without a functioning depth sounder. Whats funny is that it is an OLD Raytheon unit, a huge box with an oscillating light that spins around and indicated your depth. 1960's technology. But hey - 1960s tech got us to the moon, and the depth sounder works, so off we go...
The other item to report is that we saw the Aurora Borealis one night this week. Spectacular!!
Shabbat Shalom from Hoonah, Alaska, the Last Frontier.
Friday, August 30, 2019
Mitzvot in Hoonah - and Progress
Warm greetings to all of you who are following our adventure!
Three important things happened this week:
1.) We caught some fish.
Ok, not real fish, at least not yet. (More about fishing below.) You will recall that last week I hung a sign out behind the boat welcoming cruise ship visitors to Hoonah, in Hebrew & English, from the the "Hooner Rov", inviting people to stop by and say hello. Several people did , in fact, stop, point, smile and snap pics. Well, Wednesday evening two lovely Israeli couples actually dropped in: Gaby & Diana and Alex & Claudia. (I am omitting their surnames out of respect for their privacy.)
We were delighted to offer them coffee on the Sephina. We shmoozed, chatted about how all all these Jews ended up in this most unlikely of places, gave them a tour of the boat, and made new friends. Hachnasat Orchim (we fulfilled the mitzvah of inviting guests to your home) in Hoonah, Alaska. You can find mitzvot anywhere if you look hard enough. Big shout out to Alex, Claudia, Gaby and Diana if you're reading this - great meeting you all!
2.) I spun the engine.
This week I hand cranked the main engine, a Caterpillar 3304 turbo-diesel, for the first time. I'm delighted to report that she spun just fine, no indications of problems. The motor oil looks good as well. I was also able to hand spin the propeller at the shaft, also bodes well.
3.) Bottom painting.
The bulk of our efforts this week went to grinding, scraping, and sanding the hull, and applying the anti-rust primer to the hull. Even with only the bottom painted, it looks like a different boat. And with the bottom looking def, one begins to feel that we're making real progress.
It takes a full day just to paint one side of the boat, so Sunday and Monday (weather permitting) we will apply the ablative anti-fouling topcoat to the bottom, install new sacrificial anodes (13 of them) and then proceed to phase three: getting the mechanicals ready for sea. After that, I hope to put the Sephina in the water, sometime during the second week of September.
I also did a little more asking around about Jews of Hoonah. One of the locals said that yes, at one point, there were a handful of Jews who lived here. Were they merchants, trappers, tradesmen? Apparently, most of them were in the smoked salmon business. DUH - all they catch here is salmon (five kinds). OK they also catch rockfish & halibut - but a lot of salmon. In fact, they had a salmon cannery here until the 1960s or so.
I'm told that the winter king salmon they harvest here have the perfect fat content for making great lox, and so the Yidden were here, making lox to sell back east and ship to Europe. Go figure.
Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov from the last frontier - Hoonah, Alaska.
Three important things happened this week:
1.) We caught some fish.
Ok, not real fish, at least not yet. (More about fishing below.) You will recall that last week I hung a sign out behind the boat welcoming cruise ship visitors to Hoonah, in Hebrew & English, from the the "Hooner Rov", inviting people to stop by and say hello. Several people did , in fact, stop, point, smile and snap pics. Well, Wednesday evening two lovely Israeli couples actually dropped in: Gaby & Diana and Alex & Claudia. (I am omitting their surnames out of respect for their privacy.)
We were delighted to offer them coffee on the Sephina. We shmoozed, chatted about how all all these Jews ended up in this most unlikely of places, gave them a tour of the boat, and made new friends. Hachnasat Orchim (we fulfilled the mitzvah of inviting guests to your home) in Hoonah, Alaska. You can find mitzvot anywhere if you look hard enough. Big shout out to Alex, Claudia, Gaby and Diana if you're reading this - great meeting you all!
2.) I spun the engine.
This week I hand cranked the main engine, a Caterpillar 3304 turbo-diesel, for the first time. I'm delighted to report that she spun just fine, no indications of problems. The motor oil looks good as well. I was also able to hand spin the propeller at the shaft, also bodes well.
3.) Bottom painting.
The bulk of our efforts this week went to grinding, scraping, and sanding the hull, and applying the anti-rust primer to the hull. Even with only the bottom painted, it looks like a different boat. And with the bottom looking def, one begins to feel that we're making real progress.
It takes a full day just to paint one side of the boat, so Sunday and Monday (weather permitting) we will apply the ablative anti-fouling topcoat to the bottom, install new sacrificial anodes (13 of them) and then proceed to phase three: getting the mechanicals ready for sea. After that, I hope to put the Sephina in the water, sometime during the second week of September.
I also did a little more asking around about Jews of Hoonah. One of the locals said that yes, at one point, there were a handful of Jews who lived here. Were they merchants, trappers, tradesmen? Apparently, most of them were in the smoked salmon business. DUH - all they catch here is salmon (five kinds). OK they also catch rockfish & halibut - but a lot of salmon. In fact, they had a salmon cannery here until the 1960s or so.
I'm told that the winter king salmon they harvest here have the perfect fat content for making great lox, and so the Yidden were here, making lox to sell back east and ship to Europe. Go figure.
Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov from the last frontier - Hoonah, Alaska.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Der Hoonah Rov
This past week saw major progress on getting the Sephina in the water.
1.) I managed to get the inverter to charge the house batteries. I'm not sure if it will invert, i.e., take 24 volts and convert it to 110 VAC, but we'll deal with that later. Keeping those house batteries charged is crucial.
2.) Got the hot water heater functioning. The inner lining of the Bradford-White 19 gallon unit was corroded, so I replaced it with an 11 gallon HWH that I was able to scavenge from an old sailboat. This unit is cool because you can actually heat water with engine coolant (when the engine is running, of course) without needing 110VAC. Sweet.
3.) Still plagued by plumbing leaks all over the boat, especially (it seems) on the hot water side. In particular, there is a bad leak in the aft head in the hot water line running up behind the shower. Problem is, there's no way to get to it without cutting into the fiberglass shower insert...Solution: I'm just plugging that line for now. We have two other showers aboard, so having that shower out of commission is not critical. Should have the last of the other leaks repaired today.
4.) We got to work on the bottom as well. We were about a quarter of the way through sanding and grinding out the rust when we were stopped by the rain. If all goes well, we should have the hull primed and painted by week's end - major step towards getting her in the water.
5.) In the heavy rain, we also discovered a roof leak up on the boat deck. Half the ceiling tiles in the salon have fallen down, because, I was told, of the high humidity associated with the temperate rain forest environment here. Yeah, right. It was really because of the roof leak. Good news is that I know right where its leaking and should be able to fix the leak readily.
I also decided to do a little fishing this week. I put up a sign on the fence behind the boat that reads:
Even though Hoonah is a Tlingit village numbering in the hundreds of people, cruise ships dock here several times a week. No one's come up to say hi yet, but several people have taken pictures of the sign. Haha we'll see what happens this week.
I also find it extremely interesting that there are no fewer than three Jewish headstones in the local cemetery, all dating back to the early 20th century. (I took pictures of the headstones, but we only have dial-up speed internet up here, so I'll upload the photos another time.)
What were Jews doing in Hoonah 100 years ago? Traders? Merchants? No one here seems to know.
Well have a good week. I hope to post more on our progress in very soon.
Aboard the M/V Sephina
Hoonah, AK
1.) I managed to get the inverter to charge the house batteries. I'm not sure if it will invert, i.e., take 24 volts and convert it to 110 VAC, but we'll deal with that later. Keeping those house batteries charged is crucial.
2.) Got the hot water heater functioning. The inner lining of the Bradford-White 19 gallon unit was corroded, so I replaced it with an 11 gallon HWH that I was able to scavenge from an old sailboat. This unit is cool because you can actually heat water with engine coolant (when the engine is running, of course) without needing 110VAC. Sweet.
3.) Still plagued by plumbing leaks all over the boat, especially (it seems) on the hot water side. In particular, there is a bad leak in the aft head in the hot water line running up behind the shower. Problem is, there's no way to get to it without cutting into the fiberglass shower insert...Solution: I'm just plugging that line for now. We have two other showers aboard, so having that shower out of commission is not critical. Should have the last of the other leaks repaired today.
4.) We got to work on the bottom as well. We were about a quarter of the way through sanding and grinding out the rust when we were stopped by the rain. If all goes well, we should have the hull primed and painted by week's end - major step towards getting her in the water.
5.) In the heavy rain, we also discovered a roof leak up on the boat deck. Half the ceiling tiles in the salon have fallen down, because, I was told, of the high humidity associated with the temperate rain forest environment here. Yeah, right. It was really because of the roof leak. Good news is that I know right where its leaking and should be able to fix the leak readily.
I also decided to do a little fishing this week. I put up a sign on the fence behind the boat that reads:
ברוכים הבאים
SHALOM
Welcome to Hoonah, AK
~ Der Hooner Rov
I also find it extremely interesting that there are no fewer than three Jewish headstones in the local cemetery, all dating back to the early 20th century. (I took pictures of the headstones, but we only have dial-up speed internet up here, so I'll upload the photos another time.)
What were Jews doing in Hoonah 100 years ago? Traders? Merchants? No one here seems to know.
Well have a good week. I hope to post more on our progress in very soon.
Aboard the M/V Sephina
Hoonah, AK
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Romance vs. Reality
Last week began with the Fast of Av, which was pushed off to
the 10th of the month because the 9th fell on Shabbat of
course.
It was also the first day we started work on the boat in
earnest.
As I surveyed my new vessel, I was reminded of the verses in
Eichah where Jeremiah contrasts the once incomparable beauty of Jerusalem with
the gut-wrenching scenes of utter desolation after the Babylonians were finished
with her.
Not to compare the Sephina with Jerusalem – but it was
impossible not to observe how lovely this boat once was, in contrast to the decay,
neglect and abuse we saw before us.
We spent most of our first week cleaning, scrubbing,
discarding trash, etc. I pressure washed the topsides of the whole boat. There
was so much moss and green slime growing on everything, especially the teak,
that I wondered whether I had bought a boat or a terrarium. LOL
On the one hand, I like pressure washing because it indulges
my childish need for instant gratification: from gray/grungy to sparkling white
before your very eyes. OTOH, it’s also pretty boring, so it gives one lots of
time to think. And think I did.
After surveying all on-board systems, I decided that my
strategy for tackling the work ahead would be as follows:
- - Basic cleaning, scrubbing
etc.
- Making the interior spaces
habitable (hot & cold running water, electric, propane for the stove,
functioning heads and showers, functioning washer/dryer, etc.)
- - Sanding, scraping and
painting the bottomsides
- - Work on engine and genset
-
Make sure nav equipment,
lights and other safety equipment all meet Coast Guard standards.
The hull concerns me the most, because the weather is
supposed to start turning rainy and cold, and I want to bang that out early in
the process. I can work in the engine room (aka “The Holy Place”) during a
rainstorm; not so true of the bottom.
So how did we do?
We got 110 VAC (household electricity for you non electrical
engineers) to the boat. The good news is lights came on. So did the galley
fridge, freezer & microwave. I also
got one of the davit winches to operate. (The starboard davit winch needs
rewiring – a project for later.) The bad news is that that’s about all that
runs on shore power.
Most of the boat’s electrics run on 24 volt direct current;
a few things run on 12 volt dc, but they too get their power from
the 24 volt system through step-down transformers or directly from 12v batteries.
And as the 24 volt system was non-existent, I got to work
rebuilding it.
We schlepped four 4D batteries (each weighs 120 lbs.) from
Pennsylvania for the house bank. Getting those batteries aboard was quite a
task, but B”H the winch made it manageable.
So by Wednesday evening, we had a house bank – and lots of
other things came on! In particular, the 24 volt salon lights cast a very soft,
warm glow on that space. Very cozy.
By Friday I had the 12 volt system up and running. This was
critical, because the propane stove in the galley is equipped with a 12 volt
cut-off solenoid. Extra safety precautions and procedures have been established with regard to propane use at sea: propane, which is heavier than air, tends to settle in the bilges or the lowest place it can find. One spark and you can cause an - ahem -"exothermic reaction." So for
example, constantly lit pilot lights are a big "no no" on board. And the propane supply is regulated by a switch; no power to the switch, no
gas. The oven now works.
Water is a different matter. There are two 275 gallon water
tanks on the boat, one portside aft and the other starboard aft. Once I had the
24 volt system up and running (for the water pump) I filled the tanks with
water. Not my brightest move.
We discovered multiple water leaks, broken pipes, etc.
throughout the boat. Also plenty of clogged drains, in part from biologicals
taking up residence in my pipes. I spent a good part of the week patching those
leaks, replacing pipe fittings, elbows, opening clogs etc. Still have a major
leak that’s pumping water into the aft stateroom head. I hope to have that
plugged by Sunday. So I can’t even test out the washing machine until the
plumbing is intact.
But we accomplished a lot this first week, and are about 80%
of the way to the making the boat functional – hot & cold running water, operable
oven/stove, refrigerator, freezer,
operable heads and showers, washer/dryer.
Next week we’ll finish that last 20% and get going scraping
the hull.
Shabbat Shalom.
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Allentown to Skagway
A Brief Summary of our drive to Alaska –
We left Allentown Thursday July 18, and arrived in Skagway,
Alaska Friday, August 2. The 4,000 mile trip took us through Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, N. Dakota, Saskatchewan, British
Columbia, Yukon Territory, and finally, Alaska.
 |
| Bison beside the Road |
 |
| Mountain Goats Crossing the Highway |
The trip was as beautiful as it was challenging. Being up close
and personal with the wildlife (bison, moose, mountain goats and sheep,
porcupines, and bears) was fun, and in particular, the drive from Fort Nelson,
BC to the Yukon border was one of the most spectacular drives I’ve ever taken. Highly
recommend this drive, especially around the Monchu Lake region. The drive down
from Carcross to Skagway past Lake Bennett was also indescribably beautiful.
 |
| Monchu Lake |
The challenges were all mechanical. I had just had a rebuilt
engine put into the Suburban, and although it ran well in town, once we hitched
up the RV and really put her to work, several significant issues emerged. Fuel
leaks, coolant leaks and exhaust leaks were “overlooked” by the crew who did
the rebuild and installation, and we lost two full days (and a great deal of
money!) getting most of these issues resolved – 500 miles from PA. Arghhh…
We lost an oil cooler line north of Chicago, and the high
pressure oil sprayed everywhere – engine bay, side of the truck, the trailer,
everywhere. Although dangerous, I was able to make a roadside repair and
continue onward. But from then on – even after scrubbing the truck and the
trailer – everything was covered in inky black motor oil. Just leave your clean
clothes at home…White shirt for Shabbat? Hahaha
We wound up needing four new tires on the travel trailer, as
each one blew serially. But by far the biggest issue we had to deal with was
overheating. The GM 6.5 liter turbo diesels have a rep for overheating, but in
the 12 plus years I’ve owned "The Beast", I never really had much of a problem
with overheating – until this trip. Then I understood.
First, it became clear after the first day or two of driving
(during the 105o heat wave of ’19) that the air conditioning in the
truck couldn’t be used if we hoped to keep the engine cool. Luckily, we had a
room air conditioner, so once in Toledo we mounted the generator to the top of
the Suburban and ran the 120V a/c unit off the genset. Clever solution makes
for a happy crew. And the a/c in the RV works like a dream. (As we wended our
way north and west, we found ourselves needing the a/c less and less of course.)
The drive is very mountainous, and we were pulling a heavily
laden 27’ travel trailer with a heavily laden Suburban. We were lucky to do 60 mph
on the straightaways and 20-25 on the inclines. The Alaska Highway has several
really long inclines, climbing straight up for over 8 miles or more. Steamboat
and Summit Mountains were absolutely brutal. On three or four occasions, the
temperature and pressure build up in the cooling system got to where the coolant
reservoir hose forced itself off the reservoir fitting, dumping all the coolant onto the road, EVEN running the heaters full blast, and even after I double clamped it. (Always treat Boyle's Law with due respect!) FINALLY I had the seichel (common sense) to open the cap
and relieve the pressure on the system. Of course it boiled over a few more
times, but we only lost a gallon of coolant each time instead of four.
But we overcame those challenges and others, and B”H we made
it to Alaska. The truck looks like its been to Bosnia and back haha, a real war
veteran…
There are no intercity roads south of Skagway in Southeast Alaska, so the
plan was to take the State-run ferry first to Juneau and then to Hoonah Island,
where the boat is. Only…we were informed that, for the first time since 1977, the
Inland Ferrymen’s Union went on strike, so there would be no ferries until
further notice. Ah, perfect.
Chasdei Hashem (thank Gcd for small mercies),
the ferry strike was settled as we were pulling in to Skagway, but the first
ferry wouldn’t be until Wednesday, August 7. As I write this, we are spending
time in Skagway, waiting for the ferry tomorrow.
Skagway is an interesting place. It sits on a fjord and is surrounded on four sides by mountains with glaciers. Because it was the jumping
off point for prospectors during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898, they’ve recreated
the town to resemble a Gold Rush village. There are five or six cruise ships in
port at any given time, so from May to October, the town is crawling with
tourists.
And – wonder of wonders – I discovered (after Shabbat unfortunately)
that there are a handful of Jews here in Skagway, running one of the tourist attractions!!
We went over to make friends – and in the finest tradition of my Bubby &
Zayde, A”H, we left them with an Abeles & Heyman salami, since they haven’t
seen kosher meat in months.
We spent our first Shabbat on the road with my sister Gabi and
B-I-L Mike Mallin, who were, as always, the most wonderful and solicitous hosts.
Shabbat #2 was spent at a quiet RV Park in Saskatoon, and our most recent Shabbat
was spent in here Skagway.
We will actually first see the boat Friday afternoon, when
we drive off the ferry in Hoonah. But no worries – at these latitudes, Shabbat
doesn’t come in until 10:00 PM or so.
Then the real adventure begins.
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