Day 34, Year 8: Happy Birthday, Jed
Date: Saturday, December 8, 2012
Weather: Mostly Sunny Day, Heavy Fog Late Afternoon, Warm
Location: Lightkeeper’s Marina in Coquina Harbor, Little River, SC
Happy Birthday to our son-in-law Jed. We tried to call this evening to wish
him a happy birthday, but we got no answer. So maybe the whole family was
out celebrating. We will try again in the morning, but we do hope he had a
fantastic day. Our daughter-in-law’s father, Phil, was also born on this
day, so we wish a happy birthday to Phil as well.
Cleaning the anchor chain turned into an all-day affair and will continue
tomorrow. We decided to use muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid) to do the
job, and this required putting 3 gallons of water in a 5 gallon bucket,
adding a measured amount of muriatic acid and then filling the bucket with
rusty anchor chain. About 30 minutes later when the acid stopped working,
we pulled that chain out, rinsed it down, cleaned the bucket, and started
over again. We could soak 50 feet of chain at a time, but that required
repeating the process 6 times since we have 300 feet of chain. While
waiting for the acid to do its job, I worked on cleaning stainless and Mark
made a couple of trips to Home Depot for more acid and then for wire ties to
mark the anchor chain. When we were done with the chain, we pulled out the
anchor line that we also store in the anchor chain locker. We vacuumed the
rust out of the forward lazarette that houses the windlass and the chain
locker in the v-berth. The job seemed to go on and on and tomorrow, we are
going to do it all over again as we think much of the chain needs another
soaking. Then we will have to decide if we want to get the chain galvanized
or just leave it as is for another year. Rico came by today to check the
air conditioner/heater condenser for leaks. The condenser held the charge
for an hour which means it most likely does not have a leak. But he will
come back in a couple of weeks to recheck just to make sure. Now Mark and I
have to decide if we are going to replace the compressor or just go without.
It will cost about $1400 to replace it, so we are going to have to think
long and hard about this one.
As we were finishing up for the afternoon, Mark looked out toward the
waterway and asked me if I thought rain was coming our way. It was not
rain, but fog. It started slow but continued and become very dense. The
daytime temp today was very warm so I am assuming that is the cause of the
fog. We are quickly learning that when the wind here comes from the south,
we have warm days, and when the wind comes from north, the temperature drops
by 10 to 20 degrees. We have another couple of days of south winds and then
by Wednesday, the winds shift to the north and we get cool weather again for
a day or two. Thankfully, it is just for a day or two and not for the rest
of the winter.
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| 121208 Day 34 South Carolina, USA–Cleaning Anchor Chain |
