Some more wire . . .
Some more wire . . .
And still more wire
Then, of course, there is the battery . . .
Another look at the battery . . .
Here's the locker holding (another?) battery . . .
That's it for now. Since it's approaching summer down under, that usually means little progress on the boat. There may be another pause before we have more photos to post.
On Wed, 12 Apr 2006, Leigh Dennis, Geoff’s friend, writes:
As you have probably guessed, nothing much has changed. Geoff hopes to get back to the UHURU in a couple of weeks. Shouldn't be too long before he is sailing the seas again. After last reply Geoff got inundated with visitors from England. One was his skipper’s (the one that died) daughter and granddaughter so nothing was accomplished for the month they were here. Then his cousin, daughter and her family arrived for 6 weeks. After they left the cousin’s sister arrived. Now they have all gone and things started quieting down.
I went along and had a car accident, which kept Geoff here for longer. Due to my injuries he has stayed around in case I needed help. But I am trying to get him up and going, by saying I need a rest away from hospitals and people. The answer to this in my opinion is to take me sailing away from everything. Not so subtle but seems to be working.
Any change and I will be shouting it to the world, with you guys hearing from over there.
Mail
We've received a letter from Geoff along with some photos. They should be edited and ready for posting shortly.
Following up on Leigh's situation, she recently wrote:
I returned home from Brisbane Hospital yesterday, in a lot of pain but thankful to be home. The recovery will be okay, I surprised myself with what I can tolerate, so everything is good. Geoff picked us up and is returning to the boatyard today. He has written letters to everyone, just to catch up, so keep your eyes on the mailbox. Catch up with you later, as part of the recovery I am to stay away from computers.
Leigh
We had a long hot summer - wet, hot and humid. I can't work in that so I had 4 months off just surviving the heat.
Started work on the boat again in April and have made good, solid progress since. The last photos I sent were of the chaos of wiring. That has been tidied up and it’s all systems go. The fridge runs, all instruments work and we got up to six knots in the cradle with my mate under the boat spinning the knot meter’s impeller. The boat feels alive now with the lights blazing at night and traffic on the VHF.
The decks got painted with two coats of epoxy high build paint, and then two coats of an epoxy 2-part gloss paint. The non-skid was then painted with a rubber industrial covering that is used on buildings, but also makes an excellent non-skid surface. Paint it on, wait a few minutes until tacky and then roll over it very lightly with a long nap roller. It stipples up really nice. I used the longest mohair roller I could find. The non-skid was still wet and could not be walked on when I left, but I can now declare the decks "finished?."
It’s a bit of a "dogs breakfast" when you look at the whole painting job and there's lots of tidying up to be done. Looks great if you stand back 30 feet and squintThe first hiccup came when putting on the gloss topcoat. The job ended too late and the dew got it. Needless to say it’s not "gloss" now. There were also problems with the masking tape, both applying and removing. Some places it worked and some places it didn't. As a result, there is the good, the bad and the down right ugly. All I can say is that she has plenty of paint on her and she’s at least waterproof. At least no deck leaks (you can see where they’ve been, tho).
I'm halfway through tying down the batteries. Shelves with an edge molding for the batteries were built into the cockpit lockers. I still need to add a line of "saddles" top and bottom and then lash the batteries into place.
Another task is to get the cockpit shower pipe through a bulkhead and connected. Same with the bilge pump outlet pipe. It goes through a bulkhead and then through the transom. And, I need some sort of "O" ring for the rudder shaft pipe.
The sails are ready to bend on, but not until she is in the water. Then it will be fitting sail track, blocks, etc.
I am restoring an old laminated tiller. It could be the original. I had the tiller head fitting re-engineered to go outward instead of inward. I then put plywood cheeks on the tiller to fit, bogged the shoulders and wrapped it in two layers of glass, epoxy high build as an undercoat and epoxy gloss top coat. I left the handle part bare and varnished it. Feels like a delicate tiller when in the hand, but very strong.
The project really is nearly at an end. I have already discussed launching with the boat yard, so I hope the next set of photos I send are of the launching.
The wiring is finished . . .
Hatches closed . . .
Electrical panel . . .
Close up . . .
Looking aft . . .
Cockpit view . . .
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