This morning, I shuttled everyone back to the boat and went aboard before it was hauled out to gather all the linens and towels to wash. I was only on the boat for a short time and, WOW, it was almost nauseating to me! I don’t know how they stood it for as long as they did yesterday.
Irene and I spent the morning at the laundromat washing, sheets, towels and bedspreads which all stunk of diesel. While we were doing the wash, Ben and the guys were having the boat hauled out and luckily that went very efficiently.
After the wash was done, Ben asked me to take Bill and Ron into Corpus Christi so they could pick up a 12-volt fuel transfer pump that was on hold at Harbor Freight. Yet, when we arrived, the people at Harbor Freight were extremely busy and the person they had talked to was no longer there. So the pump could not be found. Using Google search, we found another pump at Northern Tools.
After leaving the guys with the pump to finish getting the fuel out of the engine compartment, I went to the grocery store nearby. When I was done shopping, I checked in with Ben to see how things were fairing and he said, “Come get us, the pump had failed!” It began smoking 15 seconds after they started using it. I went to pick up the deflated guys and took them back to the house for dinner.
I did not realize until it was almost time to go to sleep, why the guys were so deflated. It was only as I was about to close my eyes to sleep that Ben spilled the beans, that not only was there a hole in the boat and some other fiberglass damage that had been revealed during power washing, the port daggerboard had broken somewhere along the journey to Aransas Pass. Bawawawa……
We were starting to wonder if our boat would be jinxed until we officially changed the name of the boat to Daggers Down. We hope to get the name changed while we are in Aransas Pass and, if possible, have the name changing ceremony prior to heading back to Kemah. We need the karma to change on this boat and quickly!
Git’ er Done!
Deb, Ron’s wife and my childhood friend, drove down on Friday and brought a car full of tools and parts to Rockport for Ben and Ron. Then on Saturday, I took her home to Houston and Bill and Irene to Kemah so they could drive back to Fort Worth.
Meanwhile, Ron, Ben and John went back Corpus and found the original fuel transfer pump at Harbor Freight
and took the other back to Northern Tools and FINALLY got the remaining dirty fuel out of the engine compartment. They said that the starboard engine compartment was probably the cleanest in all of south Texas.
I think they felt very accomplished by the end of the day.
NEW PROPS!!
On Sunday, I drove John to the Corpus Christi airport while Ron and Ben continued to work on the boat. They serviced the saildrives and found that they were not in as bad of shape as Ben had suspected. They took off the old fixed two bladed props and put on the new folding three bladed props. Ben had lamented all the way from Martinique that this was not done prior to our journey to Texas. So getting this done was a huge priority for him.
Monday was a total rainout as far as working on the boat, but Ben spent the day trying to find a new dagger. Then as the rain let up, we went to Seadrift to check out our next accommodations when we leave Rockport on Thursday. A friend of Ron’s is allowing us to stay at his beach house on the canal. While it is further away, the price of “free” is appealing to us. It turned out to be a very comfortable one-bedroom house. We are very fortunate for the kindness of others!
On Tuesday, Ron and Ben gave the engines a good cleaning, ridding them of any rust and corrosion that had developed while it was in charter. They replaced all the fuel lines and found an exhaust hose that needed replacing. Therefore, we ordered one of those along with some air filters.
Wednesday was our last full day in Rockport, so we went to the boat to make sure all the remnants of diesel were out of the bilges and fixed a few other miscellaneous things. I febreezed all the pillows and cushions in the berths. The boat was beginning to smell better, but now it was covered in dust from the hull sanding. Once all the sanding is done, we would definitely need to give the boat a really good cleaning.
Work continues…
Of course, as they sanded the boat all the way down so that hard paint could be applied rather than the sloughing paint on the boat, other blemishes, poorly patched area and defects were discovered. While more problems were not welcomed, we were certainly glad to find them now and get them fixed while she is out of the water.
Ben and I spent the next week working on the boat. I cleaned the inside, even cleaning and polishing the stainless. Ron had recommended using spray hand sanitizer to rid the boat of any lingering diesel smell and that seemed to do the trick.
Ben continued to exam the engine compartments replacing things that looked worn or had any suspicion of being worn. We were very glad to finally have the Daggers Down on the hard in order to spend time examining her.
It turned out that the several of the through hulls were not in as bad of shape as we had thought. This is certainly a blessing as it will save us some much-needed cash. In addition, while looking at the seacocks, we finally found the “baseball” the internal compass, we had been looking for since St. Thomas.
It was in the compartment with the holding tank! YAY! Now all the compasses on the boat will be in sync—liquid, autohelm and chart plotter.
Finally on June 10, Ben and I decided to head for Fort Worth for a week to take care of some business at home while the yard continued the fiberglass and through hull work to get the boat ready to paint.
questions or comments?