Misty Has Another Titanic Moment...

So the boat has been dry now for over a week.  Dave is down there every day to be sure that we're not taking on additional water and we know that the staff at Aurora Harbor will call us if they notice and difference in our list. 

I had been putting off finishing the vaucuming and cleaning of the lazarette due to the stove not being hooked up in the boat yet.  Well, Dave got that hooked back up and we now had heat which makes it much nicer to work in the boat this time of year.  I headed down Wednesday night to get my vacuming done.  It was still quite a mess in there due to having a gaping hole in the stern for a week or so while the sandblasting was going on.  There was also pieces of steel and slag from the welding; all of that needed to come out.

I got down there and squeezed under the exhaust pipe to the port side and started vacuming.  The blasting dust and media was pretty wet, so it was slow going.  The hose clogged several times.  I got most of that sucked up and headed further down to where the hole is plugged; there was still a small amount of water that needed to be taken care of.  I started sucking up the water, no problem.  I pulled the hose through a little farther and must have bumped the plug and knocked it out of the hole.  I started yelling for Dave, I'm pretty sure there were some F-Bombs in there somewhere as I'm trying to get the plug back in the hole and get Dave's attention over the noise of the shop vac.  The water was literally shooting straight up through the hole.  I think it was shooting up about 1-2 feet.  I finally got the hole plugged with my finger and Dave came down and put the plug back in.  I'm still freaking out at this point!  I would like to point out however, at no time were we in serious danger of either sinking or drowning! It did really freak me out being down there while the water was squirting in though!

So after all of that "drama" I had to go over to the starboard side and finish cleaning up the rest of the blasting media and dust.  I kept checking that stupid hole on the other side though. 

I'm happy to report that we've been dry again since Wednesday.  Unfortunately neither the tides or weather are cooperating with us and we're still not up on the grid.

~Misty~

Doesn't It Seem Like We're Leaning A Little?

So on the 7th we were back in our slip, safe and sound.   We were listing pretty good to the port side due to having drained all of the fuel out of the starboard tank, but all was good.  We had some water and coolant in the engine room due to blowing a radiator hose, no biggie we'll get started on that in the morning; we're not taking on water it's all good.

Tuesday, November 8th we head back down to the boat and notice that we're listing considerably more than we were the afternoon before. Hmmm.... not good!  We checked the engine room and found that we had more water than the afternoon before... WHAT?!!!  We started opening the hatches and found more and more water.  Great.  We got to thinking that maybe our freshwater tank blew and had drained into the boat. No such luck.

One of our first major purchases for the boat last March was a new dewatering pump.  We were able to pump almost all of the water out of the hatches in well under an hour.  It's nice to know that in an emergency we'll be able to dewater our boat or anyone elses rapidly!

After dewatering the hatches and getting the engine room mostly drained, I opened the hatch to the lazarette to check on the vacuming I needed to do and saw that there was water in there that hadn't drained to the engine room. Upon closer inspection I saw that there was water coming in through the bottom of the hull.... SERIOUSLY??! 

Thankfully we weren't in immediate danger of sinking, but we needed to get that leak stopped. We picked up a wooden plug and a dowel up at Harri's and headed back to the boat.  Dave and Rosa worked on plugging the hole while I went to get a haircut.  By the time I came back the hole was plugged and almost all of the water was out of the boat.  The hole in the hull isn't quite a big around as a standard wooden pencil.

Dave called the welder to discuss getting the hole permanently fixed and they came up with a quick solution.  We're going to drill out the existing hole and put bolt through it with a lock washer and nylar nut.  This means we won't have to cut steel out and replace it, compromising our skookum paint job!

So, now we wait for the tides and weather to be just right so we can get up on the grid to fix this hole.

~Misty~

SPLASHDOWN!!

Today was the day!  We finally put the SHAD back in the water and made it back to our slip in Aurora Harbor.

We had about an hour and a half this morning to get everything on deck and out of the way before they lifted us.  First they had to cut the boom off of the crane that toppled and lift it out of the water.  Once they had that done they just set it on the barge and moved the barge out of the way.  Next they brought in the barge with the crane that was going to lift us.

After getting the barge settled, they brought the straps in and put them around the hull.

Then the lifting began.  I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who was holding my breath!

They turned us around and swung us over the barge.

  

 

  

  

Heading back to our slip, finally.  And yes, she is listing hard to port due to the empty starboard fuel tank.  We have 6 55 gallon drums of fuel back at the yard that we need to get to the boat.  We'll be dropping those drums down on the deck in the next few days, that will help even us out.

Safe and sound back at the harbor!

Thanks to Paul for taking most of these pictures!

~Misty~



Sad Day At The Boat Yard

I thought long and hard most of the night whether or not to write this post however, it is part of our story and maybe I'll feel better getting it down on paper so to speak. 

There was a horrible accident down at the boat yard yesterday that sadly took the life of one of the crane operators there.  Dave and Rosa were both there and witnessed most if not the whole thing. 

I'm still trying to understand the details, which really aren't necessary here, but the short version is as follows...

Behind the SHAD, in the water, sits a large barge with a crane on it. In the photo in my last post you can clearly see the crane sticking out from behind the SHAD.

Boyd, the crane operator, was lifting something when the crane started to go over.  He attempted to jump clear of the crane, but was unable to do that and was subsequently crushed underneath.

I am sorry that Dave had to witness the accident however, I am thankful he was there to help out; as you can imagine the scene was quite chaotic.  Unfortunately today the crew has the task of removing the crane from their friend and co worker.

Dave, Rosa and Josh will be back at the yard this morning with coffee and food for the crew of Trucano's and the Capital City Fire and Rescue folks.  The task ahead is not going to be easy for anyone.

Dave and I got to know Boyd over the last 5 months while working on the SHAD. We are deeply saddened by yesterday's tragedy and our condolences go out to Boyd's family, friends and co workers. He will be missed by many. 

~Misty~

Looking Good!

Here's a pictures of the SHAD without the cover on.  The whole thing is now down and Dave's sister has started the daunting task of cleaning up the interior.  Dave and I will be down there over the weekend again getting things squared away as well.

~Misty~



Here We Go Again....

Juneau's October weather is notoriously windy, wet and cold.  Tuesday's weather was all of the above.  Again, Dave had to remove all of the plastic from the structure covering the boat.  The wind was shredding the plastic and lifting the large timbers several feet in the air.  Some of those timbers came up and dinged up the paint on the starboard side of the boat below the water line, we'll have to touch that up before we go back in the water.

So, now that all of the plastic is down we had to clean everything up, throw out the garbage and stow everything we're keeping under the boat.  What an overwhelming task that was, the place was a mess!  Thankfully Dave's sister was there to help out!!  We got the whole place cleaned up, a load to the dump and everything else stowed under the boat.

Dave, Shawn and Paul met me down at the boat late in the afternoon and we started taking down the rest of the cover. We took all of the wood and conduit down and finally around 7pm we had to stop as it was just too dark to do any more and I was just too wet and cold.  Unfortunately we left the place in a big mess again.  

I must say though, the boat looks fabulous!!  I'll post better pictures tomorrow.

~Misty~

Port bow...what a mess

Bow

Starboard

Bow, nighttime view



Date Set For The Splashdown!

Earlier this week we were notified that the crane that will put us back in the water will be leaving town for a couple of weeks.  That meant either put the boat in the water tomorrow, Oct 24th, or wait another 2 weeks for the crane to return to Juneau.  Needless to say we are not going to be ready tomorrow. We're tentatively scheduled for either the 7th or 8th of November.  We've still got quite a few things on the list to complete before the splashdown, so this extra 2 weeks will work out for the best after all.

~Misty~



Getting Close To The End!

Yesterday Dave and I went down to the boat to put on the coat of paint that will adhere the sand to the deck.  This will give the deck some traction when it is wet, which will be most of the time here in Juneau. 

Dave's sister met us down there and we were all a little discouraged by the overall dirtiness of the deck considering she had thoroughly mopped just the afternoon before.  Dave and I took some time to figure out how we were going to get the deck cleaned.  Eventually we ended up on hands and knees crawling the whole deck and scrubbing it with towels and water. 

After the deck dried we painted on a layer of bronze paint and spread the quartz sand on the wet paint.  We'll be heading back today to sweep away any loose sand and apply the final layer of deck paint.  Technically this is the last coat of paint.  There are some areas that need touch up where we got some silver paint on the black, but that can even be done after we go back in the water.

~Misty~

Coat of bronze with sand

Close up of the sand in the paint

Walls etc. painted in silver; this color will be on the deck too

Underside of the deck hatch covers.  The topside will get a coat of paint and sand too

Bottom painted in red and black

Dave and Brian checking out the bottom paint

Ding in the paint from a 2x4 that hit the side of the boat; we'll be touching that up before splashdown

Painting Is Almost Done!!

We've been painting and painting over the last couple of weeks and we're almost done!  We'll be painting the deck and inside walls on Thursday, finishing up the bottom paint on Friday, and laying down the sand for traction on Saturday and Sunday.  Once all of that is finished we'll be about a week away from going back in the water.  There will still be a ton of work to do, but we have all Winter to do it!

~Misty~

Making Progress WIth The Paint

We've finally finished the sandblasting and grinding and dare I say it.... we're almost done with the paint. 

We've had some turnover in the last week with the guys who were doing the work for us.  Thankfully Dave's sister was available to jump in and help us for a couple of days.  She was just what we needed!  Josh is back in town now and he's been helping out every day too. 

Here's a quick photo update since I haven't posted in a while.

~Misty~

Most of the sand is gone from under the boat now

Topside with the bronze paint; coat 2

Topside with the black paint; coat 3

Starboard side with the black paint

Starboard side with the bottom paint

Port side with the black paint

Port side with the bottom paint

Josh painting on the bottom paint on the underside of the hull

Stern

Josh painting the gates below the bow

High Tide!!!

Juneau has been having extreme tide swings over the last couple of days.  Yesterday's afternoon high tide was a 20.2.  We've been in the boat yard for about 4 months and haven't seen the tide up this high yet.

~Misty~ 

The tide is creeping up to the edge of the boat cover

Looking down from the boat

It's moving under the boat

Just another 3' and we'd be floating

Water covering the "yard"

Looking towards the channel

The roadway was covered here