Tankless in Seattle!

With very careful planning of each cut, and the use of several sawzall blades, the top of the tank was fianlly cut off. The picture shows it after the most difficult section - the one which included the center baffle - had been removed. We thought long and hard about each cut, and used ropes to hold cables and hoses out of harm's way.   I am happy to report that no hoses were nicked, nor were any cable scratched in the process.

After removing the center top section, we had to find a way to provide space at the front to the tank (to the right in the picture) for the saw blade as it passed thru the tank wall.  It was not possible to move the tank away from the wall because it was nearly jammed up against the generator (at the left in the picture).  So the next step meant cutting away a foot or so of the aft portion of the tank so that it could be slid away from the bulkhead.  Doing this was pretty tricky, in that I didn't want the saw blade to cut into the structure of the boat under the tank. 

I won't bore you with any more details.  The job is done, and the pieces of the tank are piled on the dock.  Now, what remains is to do a thorough cleanup of the space.  There is 30 years worth of accumulated guck there, combined with the saw cuttings and just general dirt.

I will need to make a floor board, and following  the cleaning, paint will be needed.  Someday I hope to be able to show you a picture of that.

But for now, we are enjoying the first really warm weekend we've had in Seattle - a wonderful evening on the dock in the (finally!) warm air.

Tankless in Seattle!

Jinx!

I sort of hesitate to say this out loud.  I don't want to jinx it.  So please imagine that I am whispering into your ear (yeah, as if posting "quietly" on the internet could fool the fates - perhaps they're on a dial-up connection?).

Our long, long LONG sentence to months and months of below-normal temperatures has ended.  Summer has come to the dock!  As irrefutable evidence of that, I have a sunburn.  Yes!  An actual sunburn!  In some twisted kind of way, I am enjoying it.

And as inevitable as my sunburn, when the day's labors were completed, folks began to gather on the dock.  Eventually, Scotty and I had our guitars out, and Rich joined us with his ukulele.  The socializing went on past sunset at 9 PM  (yes, way up here near the Canadian border, the sun sets that late in the day).

Welcome back, summer!

Jinx!

Project: Remove the daytank

I'm not sure when it was installed. It doesn't look like a factory job tho.  And yet, it is difficult to see how it could have been gotten in there without the removal of the floor timber.  And how would you do that?

We are talking about our daytank.  It is a 40 gallon steel tank, obviously  designed for some other purpose and adapted to serve here.  Unfortunately, the adaptation process was inadequate.  The tank leaks from an inaccessible fitting on the bottom - we've never used it.

So, out it will come.

But that is far easier said than done...  The first step was to un-plumb it from the fuel system - I got that done last Monday.  Next, the four 1/4" thick stainless straps  needed to be removed - I got all but one of the big lag bolts holding them down out - I need bigger tools for the last one.  The picture shows the tank - a kind of grey-green color; the tan square in the bottom of the image is the front part of the generator.

And finally, I started to cut away at the tank.  See, there is no way the 19" tall tank will fit thru that 18" tall space between the floor timber and the generator.  And even if the measurements were reversed, it still wouldn't fit because it would have to go thru on a diagonal, and there is no way that can happen.

Now there are some logistics involved here.  Cutting the tank is a noisy, difficult operation.  It is wedged in there with little clearance for multiple fuel plumbing runs, the exhaust plumbing for the generator, the cooling water for the generator and the heat pump, and finally, lots of heavy cables connecting the batteries.  (I am really going to appreciate the room we will recover when it is out.)  Getting the sawzall into a position where it can bear on the task without cutting something else is difficult.  All of this says that I should think about the logistics in order to make the fewest cuts possible.

I have decided to take off the top half of the tank.  This will make it possible to pass the remaining bottom half between the floor timber and the generator.  But I cannot do this in a single cut because I can't get at the outside of the tank with the sawzall - I must make the cuts from the *inside* of the tank.  The last thing I got accomplished on Monday was the removal of perhaps the first quarter or so of the tank top half - the picture shows this.

Next Monday:  lots more cutting...

Project: Remove the daytank

'Tis the season

It seems to be that season again.

You know, the one where folks spool out their anchor rode on the dock and, thru various techniques, mark it so that the person who is up front dropping the anchor knows how much rode is paid out.

There is no standard marking method for this.  We have seen:

• colored cable ties
• spray paint
• Fabric strips tied thru the links
• Little colored hard rubber gizmos which get wedged inside the links

And the color schemes used to designate lengths are even more varied than the methods.

But we don't participate in this season's ritual.  Our ancient Simpson Lawrence windlass (which is built like a brick outhouse, by the way) makes it unnecessary.  See that black circle?  It is a footage counter.  As the wildcat revolves, the black dial revolves too - it is geared to the wildcat.  You can see the only problem with the system:  The raised numbers on the dial are a little difficult to read. 

Why don't modern windlasses have a similar system?  It is dirt simple and rock solid.  Too easy I guess.  There are no LED's or LCD, and it is analog instead of digital.  But - there are no batteries to replace, no delicate electronics to fail, and none of the false precision that a digital readout provides.

My only wish?  That I could buy a replacement dial with engraved white letters on a black background, or vice versa.  And since I am wishing already, I'd really like one calibrated in feet instead of meters, please.

'Tis the season