Catching up

Hi! Everyone:

No, we haven’t fallen off the face of the Earth. Establishing ourselves in Corpus Christi (CC) has been frighteningly difficult and time consuming.

When Raven was in Clear Lake we dodged Hurricane Dolly that crossed the coast south of CC. We took our small travel trailer home to Canyon Lake, about 100 miles north. The winds shook us about some and it rained like crazy, but it wasn’t too bad.

I went to Clear Lake to work on Raven and was there for Tropical Storm Edouard, which turned out to be a non event.

Finally, Bill arrived from Dallas and we took Raven to CC. The forecast was for unsettled weather, but there were no storms in the offing, so we went. We caught the wind and tide just right for an easy passage through Galveston’s jetties, then turned SW. The port close reach was good sailing, but towards evening the winds dropped and would not keep the sails filled in the considerable chop that is frequently found along the north Gulf coast. The motor fired up fine, we dropped sails and settled in for the night.

Bill made a lovely salad for supper and we both chowed down eagerly. A little later I started to feel ill, then sick. I spent a miserable night and all of the next day with severe headache and nausea. I tried to pull my weight with boat duties but in any position except horizontal I was violently ill.

Just as quickly as it started, around 2200 hours the illness departed and I felt fine. I was ready to work and to eat. It was a miraculous recovery.

Poor Bill dropped into the bunk and caught up on some well-earned sleep. He kept things going when I was out of it and I greatly appreciate his help. Without him I would have had to heave to in a region of water where there are tens, if not hundreds, of oil platforms. This experience has re-framed any ideas I had about single-handing.

By the time I recovered, the wind had piped up and Bill had all sails flying. Raven was tearing along on a close reach. I kept things going through the night and by dawn we were off Port Aransas Pass. Rather than enter in the dark, we killed an hour reaching back and forth close the outer marks.

At first light we headed in and had a long but uneventful chug along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, past the Naval Air Station at Ingleside, to Corpus Christi.

It is impossible to disagree with Bill’s description of this experience as “the trip from Hell”. Still, he is ready to sign up again. The next trip just has to be better …

The trip down the coast loosened the rudder post stuffing box to the point that no further tightening stopped the inflow of water. The bilge pump was going off every five minutes. It was clearly time to properly fix this problem that Robinhood Marine in Maine was paid to fix two years ago. Once hauled out, I discovered that the stuffing material was old and fully compressed. Given this opportunity, I also replaced the obviously original 4” diameter rubber tube between hull and stuffing box. It was not leaking (yet!) but the rubber was perished and flakey.

North Shore Boatworks in Ingleside was a pleasure to deal with. They encouraged me to do the work myself and offered to help if I needed it. While they added new bottom paint, I fixed the stuffing box and serviced three seacocks. I should have done them all but it was extremely hot on the hard.

For some ridiculous reason I had been afraid to service seacocks. That two of them were seized added to my fears. Once the locking nuts were eased, a large hammer helped to free up one seacock and a tube slipped over the handle gave me enough leverage to free up another. Obviously I was careful not to apply too much muscle.

Dunking the parts in a muriatic acid solution cleaned of the scale and grime. I then lapped all valves and lubed them with Lucas “Red and Tacky” grease. I tried to get the recommended grease but NAPA no longer sells it. They recommended this as a replacement.

I quickly discovered that it is easy to over-tighten seacocks. In doing so the grease is squeezed out and lost, leaving metal-on-metal. In the end I abandoned all wrenches and used only my fingers to tighten the seacocks. I expected that they would leak upon re-floating and require tightening. They did not. So far, they are still easy to turn and have not leaked one drop.

The latest repair is to the 30A socket for shore power. The wires had become loose and had been arcing. We were lucky that they didn’t catch fire. This work is in progress. I have bought an extra 30A socket that is for only the heat pump. The 8AWG-3 wire is huge and perhaps overkill for the job. I am considering using #10 instead. More later.

Best regards to you all.

Captain Dave