A Visit at Home

We have driven home while work is being done on TOM-KAT. We were shocked to see a lush green lawn and a host of weeds in the gardens! July is normally a very dry month and lawns are usually brown by this time and even the weeds struggle for water. The area has received about 10 inches of rain for the month, while normal rainfall is closer to 3 inches.

We returned home right after our visit to Griswold Island and have been busy visiting with family, friends, retired co-workers and neighbors. We were able to catch sailing buddies before they crossed Lake Ontario for a two week vacation. We all gathered at Scuttlebutts Restaurant on the Genesee River for dinner.

Loop boats don’t normally stop in Rochester (most leave Oswego and head straight across the lake), but we saw Skylark and recognized them from Kentucky Dam Marina. We had a nice chat with Ken and Nancy and welcomed them to Rochester. They had completed the Loop in Baltimore and were headed home to Toronto, CN. We offered them a ride to the grocery store, but another kind Rochesterian had already taken them to the nearby market.

I was lucky to be able to attend a Woodside Garden Club meeting, as well as stopping in to say “hello” to one of my bridge groups. It was wonderful to visit with everyone and catch up with some gals that I hadn’t seen in over a year!

Bob enjoyed some “guy time” with another retiree friend, Bernie, when they attended a Thunderbirds Air Show, as well as a Classic Car Show. We saw this Osprey flying down in North Carolina, but here’s a picture of one, up close! GM’s fuel cell car was on display at the Air Show and Bob and Bernie enjoyed examining the car and engine. For several years before Bob retired from GM/Delphi, he worked on the Hybrid vehicles.

A great deal of time at home has been spent working on the outside of the house and in the yard. Bob climbed up on the roof and removed thousands of little maple seedlings growing in our gutters. Our wonderful neighbor, Tom, had already removed all the seedlings from the first story gutters. What a guy!! Thanks again, Tom! The next picture shows one of our whisky barrel planters with a lovely, blooming weed growing very happily in it. I pulled it out and filled the barrels with mulch in hopes that the covering will control the weed growth. We also hired a tree service to come and remove several large locust limbs that were overhanging the roof.

Over the weekend of August 3, our 40^th wedding anniversary, we were fortunate to have Katie, Bob’s Mom and our daughter-in-law, Kelly with grandchildren, Shannon and Connor home for a visit. We were also happy to help Connor celebrate his 5^th birthday with a “Pirate” party. Happy Birthday, Connor! We missed our son, Tom, but we know he was busy keeping all the customers of Frisco Bay Marina happy!

Bob keeps in touch with Essex Boat Works and TOM-KAT’s bottom work is finished and the stuffing box is in, but attaching the shaft and aligning it with the engine will have to wait until the boat goes back in the water. The last item on our list was a thorough washing and waxing of the hull and upper decks. We won’t recognize the boat when we get back!!

Thanks for Visiting With us!

Griswold Island, Connecticut

On Saturday, July 19, Bob and I, plus daughter, Katie hitched a ride (with brother-in-law, Bill) over to Griswold Island for a couple of days. There are nine properties on the island and all are privately owned. My sister and brother-in-law own one property with my niece and nephew right next door, a true family compound!

First order of business was a kayak tour around the island for me, Katie and niece Kathy.

We then walked around the island and met several of the islanders. In the center of the island is the fire bell. Fires are always a concern on an island, but the islanders have fixed up a great system for fighting fires until the fire department can get over in a boat. There is a 1400 gallon water tank buried on top of the island with water lines leading off in three different directions. Good to be prepared!

The kayak beach.

Dinner on the deck.

Katie at low tide on Sunday morning. Our travels to and from the island are all planned around high tide. At low tide, the island boat would be in the mud.

Ed and Doris Jean, my nephew and sister.

Thanks for Visiting!

Time for Sodablasting

Sodablasting Day was Thursday, July 17. Essex Boat Works contracted with Billings Sodablasting (a father & son team) for the job on TOM-KAT. A large plastic sheet was spread under the boat and jack stands, then 2 large sheets were hung from each side of the hull and clipped together at the ends and the bottom. In this picture you can catch a glimpse of the son lying on the stony ground to blast the bottom of the boat.

The plastic sheeting blows up like a balloon during the blasting.

The bag of sodablasting material which was used is made in Cortland, NY, not far from where Bob and I grew up in central New York State.

The sodablasting material looks and feels like salt crystals, but is actually just regular baking soda.

The whole process took about six hours (9am to 3pm). Bob stayed at the boatyard to “supervise” and I spent the day with my sister. All the pictures today were taken by Bob.

The son emerges from the plastic bubble for breaks. Dad would blow the dust off his special suit before the son could remove it.

The plastic along with the paint residue is finally removed and properly disposed and then the boat is hosed off.

A view of the stern of TOM-KAT with all the bottom paint removed. The next step will be for the yard to sand the bottom in preparation for an epoxy barrier coat followed by bottom paint.

A very special Happy Birthday to our son, Tom, out in the mountains of Colorado!!

Our Best to All

Haulout Day For TOM-KAT Arrives!

Monday, July 14, was supposed to be haul-out day for TOM-KAT, but with all things "boating", flexibility is a must!

There were two beautiful “yachts” ahead of us to be launched and the one in the first photo had a few problems that needed fixing before the boatyard could put the yacht in the water. Strainers were missing from the bottom (from an earlier encounter with thin water) that had to be overnighted from NYC, and then the “power mast” wouldn’t go down. With the mast up, the crew couldn’t get the yacht out of the boat shed. They finally changed batteries and the mast came down. It takes us thirty seconds to remove two wing nuts and the mast is down!

While waiting, we had fun watching the well orchestrated crew work together to pull the yacht from the shed. The fellows all worked well together and everyone seemed to know their job.

The yacht riding out of the shed on the 50 ton travel lift that just fits the opening.

The gorgeous yacht in the water. Topsides are all gleaming teak.

Today TOM-KAT is finally hauled out. The crew pulls the boat into the sling.

TOM-KAT is out of the water for the first time in over a year!

Bob and I immediately dove under the boat to check the A/C intake strainer and sure enough, the strainer is full of grass.

Speed/Log wheel with barnacles. This wheel measures speed through the water (as opposed to speed over the ground measured by GPS)) and hasn’t been working for awhile.

Even though the boat was cleaned by a diver in February (Florida), we see barnacles on the rudder and the rest of the gear.

The bow thruster

The shaft and propeller. The shaft normally has a round zinc attached to it. That has worn away and is missing.

The keel is missing paint on the bottom edge, maybe from our touch in New Jersey or way back on the Illinois River or the thin water in the Keys!

TOM-KAT “on the hard” for soda blasting all that black paint off the bottom. Sodablasting is similar to sandblasting , but uses a substance that isn’t as abrasive on the gelcoat.

View of the Connecticut River Museum from the cockpit of the boat

Looking east from the boat over the mooring field and toward the eastern shore of the Connecticut River

We forgot to mention that on Sunday we pulled the Flo-Scan transducers out (fuel flow measuring instrument). We have been getting intermittent flow errors and are going to send it back to the factory for repair. The engine and transmission oil were changed, too.

Thanks for Visiting with Us

Boat Chores Before Haulout

Saturday, July 12, was one of those days we’re glad don’t happen very often. TOM-KAT is scheduled to be hauled out on Monday at Essex Boat Works (our first time since starting on the Loop), so we have several “To Do” lists. About the only item that we crossed off our lists was picking up a rental car, which we did at 9:30am……it was downhill from there!

We made one stop at the Essex Hardware Co. to pick up parts to replace the Flo-Scan, which is being sent back to the company to be rebuilt. When we returned to the boat, Bob noticed that the flow of water from the air conditioner was less than usual. We unloaded the bilge and checked the strainer and it was clogged with grass. We emptied out all the grass, but the flow was still restricted. Bob removed the air conditioner pump and it looked fine, but we replaced it with a new one….yes, Bob had a spare A/C motor and pump onboard. Unfortunately, the new pump produced no better results. Bob was in the bilge and I was running back and forth checking the water flow from the outlets. It was hot (no time to check the thermometer-high 80’s??) and we had no A/C, so it was very frustrating.

The wash down pump is plumbed to prime the A/C pump and it’s also plugged with grass. Bob pulled out 17” of grass. We’re starting to wonder where we’ve picked up all this grass. Up until this morning everything had been running smoothly. We had no early warning signs of any water restrictions. There is lots of grass around us, so we wonder if we’ve picked it up just sitting in our slip.

We cleaned the washdown strainer and resealed it, so we figured that we had solved the problem, but the flow was still diminished. ARRRRGH! What next? It’s 2pm, so I run up to Olive Oyl’s, a take-out Deli on Main St. (the galley and refrigerator are blocked by containers from the bilge) and get us some lunch. Sitting in the cockpit, eating our tuna sandwiches, we try to decide what our next step will be.

The A/C motor and pump work, the strainers are all clean, so we decide to run some water backwards through the outlets to backflush. Bob hooked up a stiff piece of tubing to the end of the garden hose and that fit perfectly into the outlet fitting. I went up to watch the front outlet. As soon as Bob starting pumping water through, this great gush of dirt and brown water came out the front outlet with good flow. SUCCESS?? Afraid not! The flow was still diminished when using the A/C pump, so we do the same thing in reverse. Bob climbs into the dinghy, the hose goes to the front outlet and dirtier, brown water comes out the stern outlet, but again no difference in flow, when using the A/C pump.

The diagnosis, at this point, is that the inlet to the A/C pump at the external end of the thruhull is restricted and we’ll have to wait until the boat is hauled to check. Backflushing the inlet hose and thruhull did not free it up. These centrifugal type A/C pumps are very sensitive to inlet restriction. We’ve exhausted all other options and ourselves!!

Before putting the containers back in the bilge, Bob tops off the 4 golf cart batteries with distilled water. The first set of two batteries look fine, but the second set have corrosion on one negative terminal. We cleaned off the terminals, which is much like cleaning tartar off teeth. Bob used a small screwdriver to scrape away the corrosion. Once the terminals were clean and tight, we put Corrosion Block on all the terminals.

We didn’t sit down to dinner until 8:30pm. We’re trying to use up food in the refrigerator and freezer before hauling the boat, so I used some frozen meatballs and made spaghetti, plus we finished off some fruit salad from Olive Oyl’s.

Friday’s blog went up before I went to bed about 10am. Hopefully tomorrow we can get to the “To Do” lists!

Keep Your fingers Crossed.