pretrip report 1

Pre-Trip Prep:

I arrived at E74 on May 30th to start to get some of the High-High Priority items completed. The two at the top of the list are replacing the steering cables (yes, it would be inconvienant to loose steering on the west coast) and to get an outboard for the dinghy.

In order to ensure we don't have a series of stories with two different boat names( we will be re-christening her) I will continue to refer to "the boat" without using a name..at least until the re-naming is over. I'm not superstitious...but there is no need to temp fate. There were no surprises after getting unpacked, un-stowing all the lockers,etc and getting water system back up and running.

After surveying what was involved with replacing the steering cables, I started to convince myself that they were probably not in bad shape..my usual defer/delay approach. I spoke with the rigger to get his opinion: he said that if the rust is only surface rust and there are no "hooks" or stranding of the cable, they are probably O.K.

In hindsight I'm sure they'd be ok, but it would haunt me every time I turned the wheel; so I went ahead. In simple terms what needs to happen is the cables need to be disconnected from the quadrant ( attachment at top of rudder in aft lazarette) and from the steering pedestal. The problems are: to get at the chain in the pedestal, the compass and shift/fuel linkages must be disconnected.

The hard part is getting access to the quadrant. This is only possible from the aft lazarette, which has a very tiny hatch into a very tiny space. I had to remove the hatch lid in order to get my legs in. It is so tight I cannot rotate once my legs are in. I tried to bend my knees and slip in but there was not enough room. So next step was to remove the autopilot ram linkage to the rudder and to haul out the spare anchor chain. After all this I had to keep one arm in the air and to exhale to collapse my chest enough to slip into the locker.

A short panic period when I twisted to get to the nuts to disconnect the cable and got a muscle cramp in my abs...I couldn't move to stand up (which required twisting back up now impossible due to the cramp!); I had to arch out my stomach and relax; it took a few minutes to dissipate.

I had to then move out of the aft lazarrette to the starboard lazarrette ( which now seems palatial compared to the aft gopher hole) to remove the u-bolt cable clamps and attach messenger wires (i.e. connected to end of wire cables so that when I pull them out, I can use the messenger wires to pull back the new wires ).. If this doesn't work or my rolling hitch gives way, it means I'll have to remove the whole pedestal .... stay tuned.

The old assembly is now at the rigging shop awaiting new cables and the swage fitting to connect them to the chain.

Oh yes; forgot to mention that while emptying out the starboard lazarrette to make room for me to get in, I found that the nifty double shelf put in by previous owner is now completely unattached. This means I'll have to attach some support cleats and epoxy the rest of the shelf to the hull... oh well, I did need to learn how to do some expoxying ( without poisoning my self). This will now be new important job #3!! Typical boating: fix one thing and one new thing gets added to the list..that is why no matter how hard you work, the list never gets any shorter….maybe it is a Zen thing or something.