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:

ברוכים הבאים

SHALOM

Welcome to Hoonah, AK

~ Der Hooner Rov

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