The Blue View - Refrigerator Done...Almost

 

A major goal was to complete the galley project by the time Marcie returned to Nine of Cups, and I'm happy to report that it is actually done. Well almost...

The rest of Cups has been converted from a construction zone and back to living quarters. The salon table is no longer my berth mate... Marcie was especially happy about that.

The newly varnished knife rack and tea box are mounted. I put the last coat of varnish on the trim at 10:00 last night and removed the last of the masking tape this morning.

The refrigeration system held pressure all the while I was gone, so I am reasonably confident that there are no leaks. I purged the system and soldered in a new dryer/filter a few days ago, and the freezer temperature is holding nicely at 28 degrees F while the fridge is at 45 degrees F.

I used double gaskets on all the opening hatches. One is a magnetic gasket like the ones used on a standard refrigerator and one is a closed cell foam type gasket. I'm happy with the results and will do a blog on this part of the project soon.

Now just a few things left to do:

A short section of stainless trim that attaches behind the stove no longer fits because of the new teak trim and will have to be shortened.

The refrigeration gases will have to be tweaked once it runs for a few days.

I still need to caulk around the counter top, but this has to wait until the varnish has cured a bit more.

The various brass hooks for hanging colanders, etc. and the brass paper towel holder have to be polished and remounted.

The foam gasket on the lower refrigerator door has to be installed. I wasn't able to find the size I needed here in Adelaide, so Marcie brought some back with her.

The aft cabin sole has to be stripped and re-varnished. The sole in the galley was redone, and since there is no break between it and the aft cabin, the aft cabin now looks pretty shabby.

Then, of course, we have to go buy some food to put into it.

The Blue View - Return to Nine of Cups

 

I've been back aboard Nine of Cups for about two weeks now, and it's time for an update.

I fully expected poor Cups to be in much worse shape than she was after spending an entire winter alone and neglected. There was quite a bit of dirt topsides and a lot of dust and dirt managed to find its way below, but no mold or mildew to speak of. The stainless needs attention, as would be expected, but isn't all that bad. I also expected her to be covered in bird poo, given the large gull population here, but there was hardly any. Half a dozen rather large spiders took up residence in the rigging, but all in all, Cups looked pretty good.

The to-do list is growing daily, but nothing too serious that I know of. The thru-hull for the engine raw water intake is completely clogged, so I cannot run the engine until I clear it out. No worries, I wasn't planning to go anywhere anytime soon. Some sea creature has died in the water intake for the forward head. The flow is restricted when I pump water into the head, and when I do, it smells like low tide at a nutrient rich mud flat. Several of the canvas covers protecting the windscreen and teak were damaged by the winter winds here; our marina neighbors kindly either removed sections or lashed them down to prevent them from blowing away. There is quite a bit of grass growing on the bottom. There is a new leak in the deck above the main saloon which will need to be tracked down. The inflatable is leaking air and needs pumping up every few days. I'm sure I'll find a lot of other problems over the next few weeks, but so far, nothing that can't wait until I get to it.

There was one big disappointment, however. The galley elves didn't finish the big galley project in my absence, and it looked just the way I left it. The galley is still dismantled, there are galley parts, pieces of teak lumber, tools and supplies covering every flat surface, and I still have to share my bed with the saloon table. I guess one positive is that I can't see all the accumulated dust for all the other debris covering everything.

I have made some good progress on it since I've been back, however, and I think I will have it 90% done by the time Marcie joins me on January 6th. After that I can't imagine it will take more than another month or two of concerted effort to finish that last 10%.

On the Ninth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me …

Nine frantic fixes

Eight bulky boat parts

Seven quests for hardware

Six shiny shackles

Five I miss you's

Four galley updates

Three e-mailed errands

Two bigger duffels and a

Christmas morning greeting on Skype

The Blue View - Back on Nine of Cups

 

I am back on Nine of Cups. It was a long trip with bad layovers – 11 hours in LAX and 5 hours in Sydney. The total elapsed time from leaving Lin's house early Monday morning to arriving at Cups late Wednesday afternoon was 44.75 hours, after correcting for timezone changes. I don't sleep on planes, but I did read 1.5 books, watched 7 movies and got a start on converting our new book, Nine of Cups Caribbean Stories, to Kindle format.

Now I find myself upside down in more ways than being on the bottom half of the world. Adelaide is 15.5 hours ahead of Boston. Marcie calls me when she gets up and just before I go to bed. My watch says it's time to go to sleep here, but my biological clock says it's time to get up.

In addition, the temperature in Boston when I left was 25F with a half foot of snow on the ground. When I arrived in Adelaide, it was almost 100F (and not nearly as much snow). I'm sure I will adjust quickly. It's easier to go to a warmer climate than the other way around. A few years ago, we left the warmth of South America to spend Christmas in Boston. That was brutal – this is much less painful.

And now it's time to unpack, clean the boat and get started on the list of things to do.

More to come … but I'm home!