tom's blog contribution (1)

So we have lived aboard Tadhana for 5.5 years now, always looking forward to the day that we would be casting off our lines and joining the fall migration of southbound cruisers. We have been actively cruising the Chesapeake all the while, so you would think we would be all ready to cast off and go.  But this is different. Once we cast off from Deltaville, it will be three months before we have our car with immediate access to West Marine, the hardware store, and the grocery (and Cristina says I don’t like to shop!) - along the way we can stop and shop one or another other of theses stores, but not all three together. So I have a long list of projects to complete to be sure that all routine maintenance is done, all reasonably foreseeable maintenance is attended to as well as a few new systems are added.

With this long list of items, it is a bother to have to redo a project.  I don’t have time to do these things twice.  So I was perturbed that after removing, disassembling and cleaning the tracks for the pilot house sliding door, a day later it started to bind up. When I took off the upper flashing, the binding stopped???? However, I disassembled the door anyway cleaned the tracks and reassembled it thinking that some old hardened grease in the upper track was the problem. I reassembled it and it slid perfectly.  I left the flashing off all day so that we could use the door and make sure the problem was solved.  The door worked fine all day, so late in the afternoon I reinstalled the flashing. Getting ready to go out for dinner I closed the door…but it didn’t close all the way. It jammed again! What??? I don’t have time to do this again!!! 

Rule #1 of trouble shooting: When something breaks always go back to the last thing you “fixed”. The last thing I had fixed on the door was to install the top flashing.  It does not contact the door at any place.  That could not be the problem!  I did however notice one screw head in the overhead track did not look right.  I tightened it down and the door worked fine.  Weird.  What did the upper flashing have to do with the door track screws? This bothered me all evening and I awoke to take Consuelo out this morning still perplexed.  When I got back to the boat I stood on the finger pier and looked very carefully at the door, the flashing, and the offending screw head. Then I saw it!  One of the screws that attach the flashing hits that track screw and causes the head to tilt. The door slider catches on it! Take out the offending track screw and problem is solved. 4 hours wasted yesterday!

So gradually this list of projects is winding down. I think I will get through most of the list by the time we leave on October 1.  For every two that get checked off, a new one gets added.  For some reason, that one project that sits at the bottom of the list just stays there.  It does not rise up the list to the point of being tackled.  Change the holding tank discharge hoses…. Wonder why that one has not been attended to?