The weather in Vancouver has been great the last two weeks and yesterday it was a true spring day. We made it to Akupara shortly after nine, with a full crew plus one and by midday we were working outside in the sun and the solar panels were actually putting a bit of juice into the battery bank.
Graeme, August’s boyfriend, came along after graciously offering his help and my accepting. We have known Graeme for a couple of months now and he is a great kid! It was a very nice change having a young man aboard and I took the opportunity to use his strength to assist with a few things that I had been putting off. I made my way into the engine room and Graeme followed. We tried to trace the water maker plumbing and eventually gave up and just started cutting the hoses. After many contortions and maneuvers we successfully removed the entire system and one of the old starting batteries that was slowly self destructing. Now with me being the farthest into the engine room and Graeme basically blocking the door, there was no way that I would be able to lend a hand to the ladies without having Graeme move, climbing out of the engine room and making my way to wherever the issue was, so Graeme took up the role and did a great job. As we were removing bits and pieces we could of course hear the goings on in the rest of Akupara and the feigned attempts at removing difficult screws and what have you. After what seemed like an eternity, I asked Graeme to go see if he could help and off he went. Within 30 seconds he was back and the issue was resolved. Hmmm, I might need to keep this guy around!! 🙂
I am teasing of course, a lot of times the issues do boil down to strength, however, normally speaking the Admiral and the crew manage to successfully perform any task they take up and perhaps at times they may try a little harder than I would just to make the point. Of course it does help to prod them along with “girl” comments 😉
So anyway back to my story. August is a lot like myself and when she attacks something, she is either 100% or not at all. The last couple of weeks she has been extremely helpful and accomplished a lot of work. As we have been stripping the wiring, this is what the ladies did while Graeme and I were in the engine room.
Before we started yesterday I basically gave everyone a primer that went something to the effect of cut and remove any wire that is not grey (part of the auto pilot), or the larger white ones(GPS antenna wires) the rest are fair game including the AC wires as I specifically had not plugged in the shore power.
Occasionally there would be a call of “Dad, what about the green/blue/black/purple one that goes into/under/over this “thingy”?
Now, I have looked at every wire and every square inch of Akupara so far and I will say that I have a pretty good idea already of what is where, but when I am sitting inside the engine room beside the port fuel tank the only point of reference I have is to listen to where the voice is coming from, and based on that plot a line of position to where the individual is. From that estimated position, I then try to ascertain what said “thingy” is and thereby deduce which wire is currently confusing them. I am pretty good at it after 19 years of marriage and 16 years of having kids, so the majority of the time my answers were a precise yes or no and this system worked very well, or so it seemed. It also helps that there were only 3 different wires that I actually wanted to keep but there is no need to tell anyone that.
At the end of what I thought was a very fruitful day, I was making my rounds through Akupara prior to locking up and identified two little points of miscommunication. The port solar panel wire, which I do admit is black and red had been cleanly severed and to my amusement so had the main shore power cable from the back of the receptacle to the panel. The answer given when the question was asked was, “You said to cut all the black wires!” Damn.
I also recall the exact moment that the shore power line was cut and I also recall giving a firm yes when asked the question as it went something like this. Dad, what about the big black wire that goes through the cupboard. Based on my plotting I ascertained that August was at the starboard dressing table, which may have been a degree or two off. I also recall Graeme going to help with the big wire cutters. I also recall not clearly explaining that I wanted to keep the shore power available so that I could charge the batteries. 🙂
Oh well, it was going to come out sooner or later anyway.
Summary of yesterdays work:
Water maker removed (identified another area of rotten plywood between the engine room and the aft head)
All electrical wiring from fore and aft of engine room removed. Rudder gudgeon removed and cleaned (appears to be okay to reuse, corrosion was isolated to the nuts and bolts)
Navigation station dismantled.
Shore power cut. 😉