December is here and it snowed!

Well there were a few flurries and a little dusting to the ground but the real change in the
weather was the temperatures. Very cold sub-freezing at night and barely breaking 40 during the days.

So my boat yard has cut off the water for the winter. I had planned to run the diesel a little more but that will have to wait. I will try it with water from the fresh water tanks at least once more in a week or so to suck a little anti-freeze in the raw water side of the cooling system. Then it will be time to drain those tanks.

Most of my work this weekend was removing the final ceiling battens from the V-berth area. They call this "ceiling" but it is not overhead - but on the side walls. The first step is to dig out the wood plugs hiding the screws in the trim - not a hard job but a little tedious. Next is the 100+ unscrewing job for both sides. Most came out easily - but some needed the aid of a screw extractor.

The area behind the battens was a little grungy but nothing too bad.

If you do look at the top of the picture above you can see a white glassy thing. It is a deck prism - something boats used hundreds of years ago to get light below deck. And it works really well.

So my plan is to refinish the batten at home, clean up the area behind them and add some urethane foam insulation to the hull before reinstalling the battens. Now I have about 90 or so battens plus the drawers, doors, floorboards, and other wooden items to keep me busy through the winter.

Let me jump back to one of my earlier successes - the propane stove/oven. It is a nice Shipmate - but not exactly designed to be left underwater for 3 weeks. I did remove it the second weekend after salvage and immediately torn it down. I removed the propane tank, regulator and solenoid from the boat. Assembling everything in my shed - I found the solenoid and regulator worked and the two top burners did as well after cleaning the jets. I didn't even think about trying the oven as it will definitely need a new controller.  I do like the Shipmate construction  - it is well made. Note the nice blue flames.

Ok - enough for now - but I have progressed nicely with wiring of the Vetus Diesel control panel so I will write about that next time.....

Sailor Jim