Saturday September 29: We Have a Plan

 So we have a plan! After spending yesterday looking at options we have what we think is a good plan. At first we thought we could just put a fiberglass insert into the shaft tube - so a tube in the shaft log - which would keep the water from exiting the holes in the shaft log. Sadly the shaft is 1 1/2 inches in diameter and the metal shaft log is 1 3/4 inches in diameter - not nearly enough room for an insert.

Must be time for a break and lunch at nearby Oriental. We need to think about what we can do now.

On the way to Oriental, we pass over our brother-in-law's bridge - funny that he never mentioned that he had a bridge here in North Carolina!

The view from his bridge is that of the town of Oriental which is one of the largest towns on the Neuse River. They bill themselves as the sailing capitol of NC. Not hard to believe with the number of sailboats moored and docked here.

There are a few restaurants in town along with a hardware store and an interesting marine consignment store. Quite an interesting collection of items in that store but we didn't find anything we needed.


During lunch (we do our best thinking when we are eating :-) ), we decided the best (and possibly only) solution is to dig out the concrete surrounding the shaft log near where the leaks are and enclose the shaft log with a 'sleeve' (in yellow in the first picture) - sealed at both ends. This would effectively contain the water which at the present time is flowing out of the shaft log and making it's way into the boat. So that's the plan.

First step is to remove the totally rotted wet wood from the fiberglass box which holds the top of the shaft tube in place. Dave (the fiberglass guy here) will decide what to put in the box to replace the wood (again wood or maybe some liquid epoxy mix?? not sure). So Steve spent quite a bit of time digging this mess out. Once that was pretty much done, he attempted to cut the fiberglass covering the concrete (it's above the white fiberglass crossbeam in this picture) but we just don't have the right tools.

We've done (well, Steve did) what we could. Now we wait on the yard to have time to take over the job. Hopefully Dave will be able to free someone up on Monday to start attacking the concrete area.

In the meantime, two guys from the yard tackled the job of replacing the cutlass bearing. This bearing is just a rubber sleeve that keeps the shaft centered in the shaft tube. There really wasn't that much play in it but Steve thought we might as well replace it while the shaft was out.

What a job. Of course Steve knew this because last time we replaced it (4 years ago) he tried to do it himself. Finally gave up and had the marina in Cleveland finish it.

It was no easier the second time around - much to the dismay of Don who does this all of the time. Said he'd never had one so hard to get out.

Basically a sawzall is used to cut the bearing (bronze with rubber) several places and then pound it out. As you can see, it became quite stuck.

Success in the end though :-)

 So that's where we are. A plan - yet to see if it will work or if the concrete can be broken up without destroying the shaft tube (my nightmare now is watching the jackhammer go right through the bronze tube!). We should know more Monday. The marina is closed over the weekend so we are enjoying the day being around Matt and Wendy's home. Funny how well it has turned out that they live here on the east coast instead of still being on the west coast :-)

Thursday September 27: On the Hard Again

So Yesterday's Dream is on the hard again. The schedule looked like it would be Monday until the marina could haul us out but due to Steve's gentle persistence, they  decided we could take the place of the sailboat that was being put in this morning. By 10:30 it was time to being work.

Our original plan was to have everything done by the marina. The trouble though is that they really don't have any time for us yet.

So Steve started on what could be done ourselves

First was working inside the boat. The shaft is attached to the transmission so these bolts needed loosened. This needs to be done before the shaft can be removed (goal for today).

Once the shaft is detached from the transmission, the prop needed to come off. There are two nuts which secure the prop that needed to come off. Steve used the biggest wrench we had and that still wasn't big enough. Time to go for the GIANT wrench the marina had around.

Taking off the nuts was no problem after heat was applied to the nuts and the giant wrench was applied.

Once the nuts were off, the prop was next. This requires the use of a wheel puller as the shaft is tapered and the prop needs to be pulled loose. After we broke our wheel puller, the marina guy brought out the GIANT wheel puller. With a bit of heat applied again, off it popped!

The shaft was now ready to be removed. Fortunately someone had the foresight to put a hole in the rudder so the shaft can be pulled straight out. It's about 6 feet long and 1 1/2 inches in diameter made of stainless steel.

It took a bit of pounding by Steve (with a 5 lb hammer no less) but in the end, he won :-) His comment was that he wouldn't have been doing this a year ago!!

Next step was to remove the plate at the top of the shaft tube by removing the 4 lag bolts holding it to the crossbeam in the boat. We thought the bolts looked rather interesting. Guess there has been a problem in this area for some time now :-)

Last step for the day was to turn the inside fitting off of the shaft tube (which can be seen in the center of the picture).

There was definitely a hole in the shaft tube. It was easily seen by looking down the tube with a light. Just to check, we filled the shaft tube with water and sure enough the water came out at the same spot in which the leak first appeared.










So this is the story of day one. Tomorrow will be an early start to keep this project moving .....

Wednesday September 26: The Work Continues!

We're at a very nice dock here at Wayfarer's Cove Marina. Some shade throughout the day is nice as the weather seems to be abnormally warm for this time of year.

Highs in the 80's for the next 3 days - no rain until, of course, the weekend. For us, it doesn't matter but it's sad for folks around here that work during the week and then come the weekend, not so nice weather. I remember those days .......



It looks like the yard will pull us out tomorrow. We're still not exactly sure where the water is coming from but pretty sure it is coming in from within the keel. So whether it is coming around the shaft tube or through the shaft tube (holes in it), the challenge will be to decide how to stop this water from entering the boat.

These old Taiwanese-made boats can have just about anything in the keel! Seems that when the boats were being built, leftover junk pieces of metal were thrown into the keel and it was then filled with concrete. But that doesn't mean Yesterday's Dream was made this way. So I think we're going to drill a hole into the keel to find out what exactly is in there - should prove to be interesting.

In the meantime, Steve continues working on the outside of the boat doing normal maintenance. Today the job chosen was to clean all of the stainless rails. It's a long process of painting this goopy stuff on, let it dry and then clean it off by scrubbing with water. Sure looks good!

Matt and Fozzi came out for dinner last night (Wendy is in Ohio on a work related trip) so we could go back with him to pick up Wendy's car to use while she's out of town. Thanks, Matt!! :-)

So since we had a car this morning we drove to Oriental (been there by boat but never by car) seeking out a place for breakfast. Found a decent place right on the main street of town.

The road there goes right by the Neuse River - it was as flat as could be - amazing. One of the guys that works here commented that he's been in 80 foot waves on the ocean and 12 foot waves on the Neuse River - he said would take the 80 foot ocean waves any day compared to the ones on the Neuse River.

A couple we met at Dowry Creek said something similar. They and their boat are from Long Beach (they had the boat shipped to the east coast) where they boated on the Pacific all the time. When they arrived here and boaters were hesitant to go out on parts of the ICW if the waves were more than 3 feet, they thought perhaps the east coast boaters were just a bunch of wimps! They discovered it's not the height that makes the waves so bad but rather how fast the waves follow one another.

While Steve was outside, I was inside making bags. I have found that I really like having shade screens, flybridge plastic and misc canvas pieces it their own bag. Guess it seems like we are more organized that way :-)

Plus we'll change where things are stored based on the condition of the shade screens and plastic after sitting for 2 1/2 months. These will all go under the flybridge storage area on top. Stuff under there seems to keep dry. Lifejackets will move to the storage area under the flybridge furniture.

One of these days we'll get this boat exactly the way we want it!

Monday September 24: Deja vu: Back to Wayfarer's Cove on the Neuse River

Dowry Creek is like a home away from home. Each night the owner Mary hosts a happy hour at 5:30 in the clubhouse. And if there are enough boats in, as there were last night, she hosts a pot luck and provides the main dish (in this case spaghetti - yea!!!)

Many of the boaters that were in were MTOA members - the group of trawler owners to which we belong - that were returning from a rendezvous held a couple of days north of here in Portsmouth, VA. One of the guys there was from a trawler that we docked next to in Jacksonville last January. Small world.

So the plan was this: leave Matt and Wendy's, travel 5 days north to the Chesapeake Bay, meet up with former East 55th St Marina dock neighbors Joe and Joy, meet up with Jim and Linda from Edisto Island now on Symmetry II and of course to meet up with Dave from Mary Lee in Baltimore who is almost ready to head south after rebuilding the engine on his sailboat. Then return to Wayfarer's Cove, leave the boat for 3 weeks to go to DC for the Marine Corps Marathon (Matt is running in it) and then on to Ohio for a couple of weeks.

That was plan A. Plan B was to turn around and go back to Wayfarer's Cove. Seems we were taking on water. Not a lot mind you but there can only be two places it can come from. It's either fresh water from our pressurized water system (so the water tank is leaking or a fitting is leaking ....). Or the water is NOT fresh water and is coming from outside the boat. Given the two options, the preference is of course for it to be a leak in the fresh water system.

We were finally able to determine that the water was coming from around the shaft - which of course is never a good thing! One thing we always try to remember is that this boat is now 34 years old and that issues are just going to happen.

So the structure of a shaft log looks like the picture above. The packing gland base is in the inside of the boat. The cutlass bearing base is outside the boat - just forward of the propeller. The 8 foot or so stainless steel shaft goes from the transmission goes in the packing gland, through the metal shaft log and out the cutlass bearing base. The propeller is then attached to the shaft.

Basically then there is a hole in the metal shaft log that is allowing water to seep through and enter the bilge. So the question becomes one of when it is bad enough to fix? Our basic philosophy has become one of this: we can choose the time/place to address this issue or the issue can choose the time/place to fail! So we are back to Wayfarer's Cove to get this work done.

Updates later ....

Friday September 21: Dowry Creek, NC

Thursday was a great day. It was my 63rd birthday (I just don't know how this is possible .... I've hear tell folks living on boats age at only half the rate of landlubbers :-) ). Wendy made brownies instead of a cake which was great! My favorite ... I even took a few with us when we left:-)

Matt picked up his I-pad on Wednesday night - what a happy guy! Not sure if he has the bouncing martian app yet but I'm sure he'll want it ....

After driving around the Havelock area for the past week, I feel like I no longer need the GPS to figure out how to get where it is I want to go. Of course just getting on base is always an experience unless you have "the pass" and then it's pretty easy.

Matt and Wendy's house itself is really easy to find. How many of us have our name on a plaque at the end of the driveway?!

But it's time to get the boat back into the water ...

Once at the marina, we found the lift just about ready to put Yesterday's Dream in the water. We had time to finish loading stuff from Wendy's car and then we just needed to be ready to move the boat to our dock for the night.

Wendy and Steve got us tied up and into the dock in record time. No hitting of the dock or anything - good to know that I still know how to drive this boat!

When we left this morning, I noticed one of the brake lights on Wendy's car was out so she took a few minutes while we were waiting at the marina to take the old bulb out so she could just stop on the home and pick up a new one.

We couldn't figure out though how to get the light itself out! No problem - just do a search on yahoo and there is the answer. I sure do love the internet!!!

Lots of stuff to put away ... cleaning up to do ... and generally get the boat ready to travel again.

I needed to reinstall the GPS as we had taken it to use with Guppy. Wendy was for some reason not impressed with the wiring going on under the flybridge.  I had to admit that getting it hooked back up right was a hit or miss thing. Fortunately, it took only one try :-)

Somebody ought to clean up this mess.

Leaving Wayfarer's Cove Marina was a picture of reflections. This marina is truly a 'hurricane hole' which is why we were felt good about leaving the boat here. Even when Irene hit last year and caused quite a tidal surge up the Neuse River, the boats on the hard at this marina were never in danger.

We'll be back later in the fall when we head to Ohio for 3 weeks.

We crossed paths with the Minnesott Ferry this time instead of being a passenger on it. Funny how accustomed we became to driving to the boat with the ferry schedule in mind. It crossed every half hour for the most part and was really a nice break in driving to the boat.

Traveling the 55 miles to Dowry Creek was crazy calm. We had originally thought to stay an extra day at Wayfarer's Cove but with the great weather decided to travel through much of the really big water area of NC: Neuse River, Palmilco River and Pongo River. So we are now here at Dowry Creek for a couple of days - finishing some of the things that still need to be done: clean the flybridge shade screens, clean the flybridge plastic, clean the bilge, and get the generator working. This is a great place to be though - and a loaner car to boot so we can get to breakfast :-)

Wednesday September 19: Preparing to Leave NC

 Everything needs to be scrubbed down - sitting around is definitely not good for this boat :-) Fenders were high on the list as they hadn't had a good wash down since I'm not sure when.

The fun part of cleaning something this dirty is it is so EASY to see the progress made.

And finally, the boat will be going in the water tomorrow. We've really enjoyed the time with Matt and Wendy but we are ready to get back on the water :-)

Wendy made the trek to the boat with us yesterday. The day started nice but storms were rolling around the area and by the time we left, the Neuse River was getting pretty stirred up.

Note the old viewing 'binoculars' on the ferry. They still work for a quarter. We didn't try it but I remember seeing these things at lots of places we visited when we were kids. Not sure we ever fed quarters into on though.

One of the jobs Wendy agreed to do was to scrub the wallpaper around the dash. I love the wallpaper we ended up putting on the water ruined teak inside the cabin when we first redid the boat but it has these little ridges that need to be scrubbed with a toothbrush. No problem - no whining - just a focused get the job done! We really need to figure out how to ventilate the boat next summer.

Steve in the meantime was outside the boat working on the prop. Lots of little barnacles were growing on the it. The bottom paint (blue) on the hull keeps barnacles from growing on it but paint just doesn't stick to the bronze prop.

Except of course we are going to try something new. A member on one of the boating list serves uses a 93% zinc paint on the prop and claims it works quite well. We'll see.

I had to say it looks really good and hopefully it will do something other than spin right off!

When we sit for 2 or 3 months in Marathon, Steve uses the dive hose and cleans the bottom every once in a while. This keeps the barnacles at bay with a swipe of a plastic scraper. The ones on the prop required a metal scraper, wire brush and steel wool. Definitely not a fun job.

All of the lines are now almost dry. After being washed at the laundromat, the lines were soaked in fabric softener in the bathtub for 24 hours.

A good rinse and then hung to dry on the swing on the patio. There was a good breeze today so by tomorrow morning, they will be good to go.

As long as we don't leave them behind....

Saturday September 15: Too Much Work Around Here

Granted, the work being done needs to be done but somehow I envisioned a nice, relaxed visit here at the Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point with Matt and Wendy.

Not so much.

However, I have never been saluted before so it's really cool coming here! Seems that if I am driving Wendy's car onto the base, the guard at the gate checks my ID and my temporary pass and then gives me a salute! I disregard the fact that the marine is in fact saluting the 'car' as it is marked as belonging to an officer and pretend it's just me he's saluting :-) (not sexist - just haven't encountered any female guards at the gate yet).

We repainted the walkaround deck yesterday - probably the worst job we had on the list. First wash it well, lightly sand and then paint with Brightside paint. Easy to use paint. I trimmed and Steve rolled. The fun part was trying to get the boat closed up and then get off of it without walking on the deck! It requires the skill of walking around on the gunwales and then down the ladder.

After repairs were completed on the flybridge canvas, it was time to apply waterproofing again. We do this about once a year as it helps preserve the canvas - and keeps the drips from coming in on us :-)

Not hard - just mix the concentrate with water and use a paint roller to apply - let it dry and done.

Steve in the meantime continues to put more layers of fiberglass on the lazarette hatch. Being able to do this here at Matt and Wendy's definitely makes this an easier job. Lots of room and big pieces of cardboard!

There was a bit of time for fun - nerf football throwing for Wendy and Steve. Only not really for fun. Still, after 1 year, Steve is recovering from his broken arm. He's seeing a physical therapist while he is here so that is a good thing. The report back: he is doing REALLY great!! Guess that's because he's really worked at getting all of his movements back.

Today was back to the boat. The walkaround deck has had two days to dry which is good as the paint really takes several days to dry completely hard.

The jobs today: wash the outside of the boat down with soapy water. It came off ok but required some extra elbow work on the part of Steve. What seems like should be an easy job is not just because of the height of the boat.

Becky asked why we didn't hire someone to do this job. Good question - maybe next time we will :-)

Meanwhile, I worked inside wiping down the aft cabin with a clorox solution as there was a bit of mildew because the boat was closed up for 2 months in the heat. Need to find a way to get ventilation in next year.

The lazerette hatch is coming along well - just needs some fine tuned fitting and a couple more layers of fiberglass on the top. Otherwise, paint with Tuff Stuff for the anti-skid and then a top coat of Brightside to finish it off.

More laundry to do, more wiping down inside, resupply and we might begin to be on our way ....

Of course, it's really a nice view from the front porch so maybe we shouldn't be in such a rush :-)

Back to NC and Yesterday's Dream

One more change of cars. Wendy met us at the New Bern airport on Sunday – we made it back with one hour to spare. Renting cars one way is the best way for us to get back here but keeping the car longer than 1 day really gets expensive!

So we transferred our stuff for the second time and headed back to Matt and Wendy's to spend a few days while we completed getting Yesterday's Dream ready to travel again.

It's good to be 'home' again :-)

After watching the Browns lose by 1 point in the last 30 seconds of the game yesterday, we made plans for the week ahead. Yesterday was to be a trip to the boat to check a number of things but unfortunately we pulled up to the ferry only to see it pulling away – next one? One hour. Change of plans – head off to Moorehead City instead.

We tried again today and happily made it BEFORE the ferry left as can be seen by the ramp being raised and we are ON the ferry!!

It's a short 15-20 minute ride across the Neuse River. Total time to the boat is about 40 minutes by taking the ferry. Without it, we would need to go north to New Bern and then south to the marina. Total time would be over an hour! Let's hear it for North Carolina's ferry system – and free to boot.

After being on Guppy for 2 months, Yesterday's Dream seem enormous!!! I'm sure it won't take long to get used to the additional space though. For the most part, the boat looks good – quite dirty but then it's no different than anytime we've left a boat this long uncovered. We gathered the lazarette hatch cover which needs to be replaced, canvas that needs attention and all of our tie ropes which we'll wash and soften to get them pliable again.

Once back at Matt/Wendy's, Steve started on the hatch by taking the old one apart. Parts of it will be reused but the wood is pretty soft at this point. The thought is to fiberglass the wood used this time so it won't absorb water. Hopefully it will last longer than the first one (4 years).

My project was the canvas. First scrub the flybridge canvas in preparation for reapplying the waterproofing. Once it was dry, there were a few spots that needed restiched but no problem for my now well seasoned sewing machine!

Tomorrow? More work on the hatch, more sewing projects and who knows what else?

We won't be leaving until AT LEAST next Wednesday as there seems to be a huge boat blocking our boat and the marina doesn't really want to move that big boat twice. I get it so if we have to just hang out at Matt and Wendy's place with the absolutely fabulous view of the Neuse River from their living room, dining room and office, what are we to do?

Saturday September 8: Headed Back to NC

It was a very peaceful night on the lock wall at Bobcaygeon. This place is so different than it was even a couple of weeks ago. The weather is still good but the cottagers have gone back home, kids are back to school and other folks back to work after vacations. For breakfast, the Full Cup lived up to it's expectations with the best peameal bacon anywhere. Peter, Cheryl and Lois all agreed :-)

We left Bobcaygeon about 10:30 or so. Needed to be in Fenelon Falls by 1 pm as that's when our rental car was due in to pick us up (Enterprise: We'll pick you up!! They drove 20 minutes from Lindsay to come and get us.). So we cruised on ahead of Deja Vu and had Guppy tied up at the top of the lock by the time Peter and Cheryl showed up. It was fun taking their picture from the bridge.

The car came about 2:30 and when Steve went back to the main office to complete the paperwork, he and the agent came up with a great plan: just drop this car at Buffalo, pick up another for the trip to North Carolina. Long story but much easier than the convoluted plan I had devised!

It was our last night together – Cheryl had us over for scamp alfredo last night – so the vote was to just go out for Chinese. Nice dinner and TriOminoes afterward. Again no score keeping but this time I was pretty sure that I won …..

It was an early morning. Up at 6:30 to pack up anything in the boat that needed to go back to the trawler. Not a whole lot, really, but it all takes time.

What friends - even in the rain Peter and Cheryl helped us finish up and sent us off – Steve with the car to the marina and me with the boat to the marina. We'll see them in Florida – maybe Lois will come down! We really enjoyed meeting and spending some time with her. She will always have a sleeping bag on Yesterday's Dream :-)

What we didn't realize was how protected the channel by the locks was from the wind. Once I got out on the lake, I'm thinking we sure should have brought this boat over last night. But with Steve and Derek (the marina owner) on the dock we managed to get Guppy tied up nicely even though everything was really bouncing around like crazy. By the time we were done though we were both soaked to the bone. Steve tried to take the canvas down but it was just too windy. Maybe we should have done what Deja Vu did: just stay another day and let the weather clear up! Oh well – hindsight.

The nasty weather persisted through a good part of the day. We made it to Niagara Falls, crossed the boarder with minimal holdups and arrived at Buffalo for the car tradeoff. Enterprise in Ontario make it quite pricey to drive it's car to North Carolina so we swapped it for a National rental. Due in to New Bern by 2 pm tomorrow. Sounds like there will be some Browns watching – yea!!! Thanks to Matt and Wendy getting the dish off of Yeserday's Dream and setting it up at their house :-) Thanks, guys!

The plan is to drive until about 8 pm or so. Stop somewhere and then up at 6 am to finish the drive back. Total of 12 hours from Buffalo + 4 hours from Fenelon Falls to Buffalo. No wonder I'm getting tired ….