Sunday, October 29

The clear cooler weather has given way to a full blown gale from the west with forecast 100 KPH + winds forecast. Saturday was wet and ugly but this is begining to feel like old man winter is at the door. Today the gusts slam into Defiance's side hard enough to send a shudder throughout the boat accompanied by a Calliope of noise.

My apologies for the lack of updates. Cruising Canada has not had Internet content outside of Public Libary access since September 20. Now my winter plans are finally solidifying This will be the last update before I send the Toshiba back to Future Shop for a new screen and service which will take a month if experience holds true. This winter all update as will be made from a local wireless hot spot bringing this gig ever closer to true guerilla cruising.

The uncertainty about my winter berth has pretty much resolved itself. I will be staying at Waupoos probably in the marina although exact details have not been worked out. AS my winter plans were destroyed on 48 hours notice Defiance has a winter look that is comming close to what I would see the final configuration as for a Arctic adventure. The structure is only 3/8" plywood but the dimensions and lines are nearing the final solution.

The aft deck lines are Coast Guard passenger carrying regulation height and the weather dodger just wide enough to permit a working area on the bridge. In reality the cabin roof now houses the dinghy, a new 12 life jacket storage box. With the addition of a 6 person offshore raft container the stuff carried on the roof is roughly equal to the height of the dodger greatly reducing the sharp angles of the dodger. The aft deck is now insulated with 1 to 3" of rigid insulation that has a plywood deck on top to shed some water and industrial rubber matts for traction. There is a new heavy canvass tarp that will form a boom tent at the final moment.

Defiance is now switched over to winter mode and the next pump out and water fill will be the last until the spring. the fuel filters are all changed and it appears that the primary furnace style filter was the one that was causing the flow fluctuation that gave the Espar a "F52" (safety shut down) fit. I swear that a long term constant fuel fuel filtering system would be desirable on a 365 boat. Whatever the case the Espar is now into day 2 of service on demand for at least several hours duty cycle which is all you can run it when it is this warm outside without cooking yourself completely out.

All being equal next haul period this will turn into steel and fiberglass if work and my health holds out.

The Ben Gill Shop

The shop has taken more time than anticipated to get ready with several days spent on finding and resolving roof leaks and getting the main shop floor dry enough to work on. Now the office has been cleaned and painted and a work area set up in the main shop. The big shop's wood stove brings the temperature of the entire building up once you get it going and the miter saw has found a new use in the heat production process.

The "EBBTIDE" re-core project is crawling along with a number of unforeseen gremlins making every step more challenging. The boats original manufacturer had a passion for foam filling everything which consequently trapped a lot of water and the deterioration is pretty much total from the windscreen back.