Building Walls

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall...

Robert Frost, “Mending Walls”

There have been lots of walls built throughout history … usually to keep someone or something in or out. The 5,500 mi (8,850 km) Great Wall of China, was purportedly begun in the 7th century BCE, the majority of the existing wall built during the Ming Dynasty(1368–1644). Visiting the wall is on my bucket list. I'd like to stand on it and ponder the feeling that millions of feet have walked this wall over centuries before me. It was built as an elaborate defense system to protect the “civilized” Chinese folks from the nomadic northern invaders.

Hadrian's Wall, a 73-mile barricade, was built c.122AD under the orders of Emperor Hadrian “to protect Roman Britain from the Picts and the other barbarian tribes that inhabited northern England and Scotland.” We stayed in Chester on one of our trips to England, so we could get up close and personal with this wall.

According to Wiki, the Wailing Wall, an ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, is a relatively small segment of a far longer ancient retaining wall, known in its entirety as the "Western Wall". The wall was originally erected as part of the expansion of the Second Jewish Temple by Herod (although some would claim differently). The wall resulted in the encasement of the natural, steep hill known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount, the holiest place where Jews are permitted to pray.

It has also been called the "Wailing Wall", referring to the practice of Jews weeping at the site over the destruction of the Temples. The wall has been a site for Jewish prayer and pilgrimage for centuries; the earliest source mentioning this specific site as a place of worship is from the 16th century.

When we were in Peru, we had the opportunity to visit some the of walls built by the Incas. In Sacsayhuaman on the northern outskirts of Cuzco, the capital of the Inca empire, a citadel was built using huge boulders, cut to fit so tightly and exactly, no mortar was needed. We marveled at the craftsmenship of these masons.

In more modern times, the Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (i.e. East Germany) that completely divided East Berlin and West Berlin (East Germany from West Germany and ostensibly from the rest of the world) from 1961 to 1989. It became symbolic of the “Iron Curtain” that separated the Eastern Bloc countries from Western Europe.

And then, of course, there's Trump's proposed wall along the Mexican border … we won't go there … too politically hot to touch on this blog.

So what has triggered my pondering of walls? David's recent masonry project. He built a 5' high cinder block wall in our new back yard which matches with the wall that encompasses our property. We're walled in or the neighbors are walled out, whichever way you wish to look at it.

It was no easy project. We loaded 72 – 6x8x16 cement blocks weighing 28 lbs each, along with 10 cement caps and 14 half blocks onto three separate trolleys at Home Depot. We rented a truck from Home Depot, loaded the blocks onto the truck, unloaded them in the driveway, then hauled them through the gate to the backyard and stacked them for the wall-building project. Whew! The easy part was actually building the wall. After painting it the same color as the house, it looks great. The result was not to keep anyone or anything in or out, but to enclose the unsightly A/C system and make an enclosure for storing garden tools and supplies.

FAQ: Any weird diseases in your travels?

People are always interested in how we take care of medical problems when we're out of the USA, especially in third world countries and they frequently ask if we've contracted any “weird” diseases on our journey. The answers are … pretty easy and yes. Getting medical care in third world countries is not all that difficult. We've not been in the jungles of Borneo or in remote Antarctica with major illnesses, so we can't comment on those situations. In general, however, we've been able to obtain reasonable medical and dental care wherever we've been. From mammograms in six different countries to an ear infection in the Galapagos, a URI in Ecuador, emergency major surgery in Chile, a sore that wouldn't heal in Vanuatu, and a toothache in Ushuaia, Argentina at the bottom of the world … we've always found adequate care at a fraction of the cost the same treatment would have cost us in the USA.

Quite honestly, none of the medical problems we've experience in foreign countries would fall into the “weird” category. All the weird diseases have occurred in the USA! In Boston one year, I contracted Lyme Disease caused by a tick bite. Lyme Disease was easily recognized … a very noticeable bull's-eye rash on my arm. With the help of the internet, I self-diagnosed, but had to go to a local doc-in-the-box to get verification and an Rx.

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), there are “329,000 new cases [reported] each year in the US. Lyme disease is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the US and Western Europe. In September 2015, the CDC revised their estimates indicating ... an increase of up to 10 times what was previously believed.” I guess it wasn't that unusual to have Lyme Disease based on its current prevalence in the US, but it certainly seemed weird at the time.

A few years later in Las Vegas, I woke in the middle of the night and my head was spinning (no alcohol involved). I could barely walk and was so dizzy, I began vomiting. Even laying flat in bed and not moving kept my head spinning. Believe it or not, we found a “dizzy clinic” in Las Vegas (go figure!). I was diagnosed as having BPPV (Benign Paroxsymal Positional Vertigo) … who could have known? BPPV is caused by “calcium carbonate crystals (otoconia) that are normally embedded in gel in the utricle becoming dislodged and migrating into one or more of the three fluid-filled semicircular canals.” i.e. crystals floating around in the inner ear. They used the simple Epley maneuver on me and the symptoms disappeared quickly. Interestingly enough, while on a road trip in California a couple years later, David had the same symptoms. We reviewed the steps of the Epley maneuver on line, followed the procedure and David was fine within hours.

How prevalent is BPPV? Well, according to my internet research, an epidemiological study reports “Eighty percent of people aged 65 years and older have experienced dizziness, and BPPV, the most common vestibular disorder, is the cause of approximately 50% of dizziness in older people.” So I guess, David and I aren't alone, but it certainly was an unusual occurrence for us.

So, what's latest? A month or so ago when we were in Boston, David noticed a rash on his upper legs. It wasn't itchy and didn't really bother him and he thought it would go away. By the time we had been in Vegas for a week, it had worsened and spread further down his legs. We took a trip to Urgent Care where the on-call physician diagnosed “multiple non-venomous insect bites” and assured us that the rash would disappear in a couple of weeks. We disagreed with the diagnosis, but the doc knew best. Predictably, the rash worsened and spread further down his legs to his feet. We returned to Urgent Care where the on-call physician looked at it and said with a straight face “Geez … I have no idea what that is.” Another physician stopped in to take a look. “Wow … that's interesting. See a dermatologist.”

There are no life-threatening dermatological conditions which require an emergency same-day visit, but after many phone calls, we found a Board Certified Dermatologist on the west side of town that could fit David in immediately. He took one look at David's legs, smiled and said “Schamberg's Disease”, also known as progressive pigmentary dermatosis. The doc brought in a textbook with colored plates and showed David the photos that he could have posed for. There's not much known about Schamberg's. It's rare and the cause is unknown, though there's much speculation. It's benign, non-contagious, eventually goes away and there's not much to be done about it. It looks awful, so David has taken to wearing long pants all the time till the rash disappears – so as to not scare little children.

Just chock it up to another weird disease … in the USA.

The Blue View - Replacing the Fuel Tanks

BVFuelTanks Intro

When we bought Nine of Cups in 2000, we hired a marine surveyor to do a complete survey on our new home. He noted that our fuel tanks were constructed of black iron, and while there were no leaks at the time, this type of tank had a usual lifetime of about 20 years. Since Cups was then 14 years old, we probably had a few more years left in them before we started to see any leaks, but we knew it was something we should be expecting. Sure enough, in 2006 our starboard tank started leaking.

We were in Ecuador at the time, and the local boat repair expert assured us it could be successfully patched. We gave it a try, but the patch only lasted long enough to get us well offshore before the tank started leaking again.

A few months later when we returned to Ecuador, I decided to replace it with an epoxy tank. I cut access panels in the cabin sole, cut the top off the old tank and removed the baffles, then constructed a new epoxy tank. It fit well and has been doing its job with nary a leak ever since, but it was a lot of work and took about 4 times longer to build than I expected – not all that atypical of most of my projects actually.

Then in 2007, the port tanks started leaking. We put the project off until we were in Ecuador again, this time in Puerto Amistad near Manta. There was a steel fabricator not too far away who made tanks for the fishing fleet out of Manta and who came highly recommended. We decided to have them made by him rather than building it out of epoxy.

cutting the sole

I started by removing the saloon table and cutting out sections of the teak and holly sole. I borrowed a Fein tool, making it possible for even me to make reasonably straight, accurate cuts.

dressed

Next, I used a grinder with a cutting blade to cut the top off the old tank. This was a messy job, with sparks flying everywhere. I draped the entire area with old sheets and tarps, wore a respirator, eye protection, and enough clothing to avoid most of the burns. Once the top was cut off, I climbed inside the tank and cut the old baffles out – another messy, unpleasant job. Once I crawled back out of the tank and confirmed that I still had my nose and all ten fingers, I cleaned up the mess and hauled all the debris ashore.

The next task was to measure for the new tanks. It would have been nice to make one big tank that would fit into the old tank, but the size of the tank was limited by what would fit down through the hatch. Apparently, the original tanks were constructed and fitted before the decks were put in place.

In order to maximize fuel capacity, I decided to build three tanks, each of which would fit through the saloon hatch. The plan was to slide the new tanks into the old tank, bolt them in place, then plumb them all together. I spent several hours wiggling around inside the old tank making measurements. Then I sat at the Nav desk and sketched the three tanks.

Once the sketches were done and checked, I had a dilemma. Could I trust my measurements and sketches enough to hand them over to the fabricator or should I build models of the tanks to be sure they actually fit and to check for any mistakes? Given my propensity for mistakes and the possibility that the fabricator would misinterpret some aspect of the sketches, this was a no-brainer – I decided to build plywood mock-ups of the tanks.

making the mock ups

The local lumberyard (almacén de maderas) was happy to deliver a few sheets of 1/4” plywood, I had plenty of epoxy, glue-gun sticks and screws on hand, and Puerto Amistad, the yacht club we were renting a mooring from, was kind enough to let me use some space in a fenced area to work in. I found plastic plumbing fittings at the local hardware store (ferreteria). I transported all my supplies and tools ashore, and began building the mock-ups.

checking the fit

Under different circumstances, I'm sure this phase would have gone quicker, but given the equatorial heat, the ongoing discussions with the other sailors who wondered what the hell I was doing, and who were full of suggestions on how I might do it better, and the close proximity of the cool, air-conditioned bar, it took longer than I planned to build the mock-ups. In total, I spent three days building and checking the fit of the tanks, then another day tweaking them all to correct a few errors and miscalculations. In retrospect, however, making the mock-ups was worth doing since I would have had to send the tanks back for reworking had I not made the models.

As we've said so many times before “Nothing's ever easy on a boat.” I'll talk about testing and installing the new tanks in Part 2 of this blog. Stay tuned.

Go to Part 2 of Replacing Fuel Tanks