M/V MAERIN

Maerin is still at Stansbury, and we’ve gone separate ways in a manner of speaking. Barb is spending the bulk of her time in York looking after her mother who had the misfortune of taking a fall down a flight of stairs at her home. No permanent damage, but she spent some time in the hospital recovering and then in rehab to regain some strength. It has become evident that a three level home is no longer manageable, so their house is for sale and plans are in the works to move her parents into a single level cottage at the Lutheran Home in a month or so.

We spend time alternately at the house or aboard as needs dictate. While Barb focuses on immediate family demands not requiring the both of us, I have been busy aboard with numerous refit, repair, upgrade and maintenance tasks. The list is about 50 items, some of which are detailed below:

COMPLETE	IN PROCESS
Rebuild steering ram cylinder (Hynautic K-2)	Buff/wax hull
Add sense wire from alt. regulator to battery fuse	Replace thruster zincs, confirm spares
R&R/Repair Splendide, clean vent	Replace cooler zincs get spares
Install new inverter/charger, remote, monitor, change wiring	Check/correct wiring at LP monitor panel
Replace Engenius wifi bridge with Bullet 2HP	Re-stitch upper helm cover, winch covers
Add AIS transponder	Have cover made for spare fuel tank
Raymarine S1000 wireless remote	Replace O/B start battery
Add 2nd VHF antenna- port side	Mount spare outboard on boat deck
Add NDS-4 Multiplexer, add terminal blocks, modify NMEA cabling	Stow spare dinghy
Replace O/B clamp plate on Caribe	Strip & refinish cap rails
Rebuild guest head pump	Kahlenberg horns- plating, mounting angle
Repair ship’s computer (RAID RE-4 HDD Array, +1GB ram, OS clean reinstall)	Print additional log pages; create bound archive
Install new HD main battery disconnect, cabling alterations
Replace watermaker pressure vessel
Stabilizer seawater pump- replace
Genset seawater pump repipe, add TD control & relay
Holding tank vent filter rebuild/repl carbon media (X2)
Add PB-150 weather sensor to masthead
Add Furuno RD-30 display
Order VHF-SWR meter
Video display for rear view CCTV
Replace gasket on lazarette hatch
New US ensign
Replace boom block (Harken#308 2″x2 plus #314)
Inspect/Modify masthead lift block & findings
Repair outboard steering friction assy, repl brass zerk ftg

The current focus is refinishing the caprail which has not been looking its best, so time for a refinish job. The varnish has been showing signs that it is due to be “wooded”, or stripped down to bare wood and start fresh. The preferred method of stripping is a heat gun and sharp scraper. It’s tedious work; it’s important to be very careful in removing the old varnish so the underlying wood is not cut or gouged. Four days to strip and prep, two days to apply CPES (Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer) as a sealer/primer, and then as many coats of varnish as I can tolerate. I’m shooting for 12 or so. At this writing, the sealer is complete and if the weather is suitable, the first coat of varnish will be applied in the morning. The objective is to apply the first coat of varnish before the epoxy sealer is completely cured, effectively “gluing” the varnish to the epoxy. In ideal conditions, a coat of varnish can be applied every 24 hours, but as we’ve learned before, the varnish must be nearly cured before sunset or dew can cause the surface to “blush”, requiring the removal of the coat by sanding. Most unpleasant. So another week and the finish should be starting to look good!

That’s the latest from here in Middle River, where it’s been hot, hot, hot! the past few days. Great weather to be dockside and plugged into shore power… (read: A/C ! ) Our cruising plans are for the moment, on hold. We have shelved our earlier plan to return to Nova Scotia this summer so Barb can support her parents. Circumstances in that regard will dictate our movements for the time being.