Mark is on his way to Seward

 Mark caught the early flight to Anchorage.  He is heading to Seward to join the crew of the Fish Hawk for the season.

A New Alternator

 After ripping out our old refrigeration compressor, we had space to move the alternator back to a more accessible place.  The configuration we had when we installed this engine did not allow for much space for both an alternator and a fridge compressor. The alternator had to be taken out to change a belt and the belts could only be slightly adjusted after that so belt changes were more often than normal, and always required a swear word or two.  Unfortunately the old alternator would not fit any normal bracket so we would have to have a special bracket manufactured locally.  After discussing this with the USA's Perkins genius, we decided to order the bracket and a new 120 amp alternator from him.  We have it and now it is installed and working fine.  

Here is a picture to prove it.

Mother Nature's April Fool's Joke

 Today is April Fool's Day.  And this is what we woke up to.

A New Fridge/Freezer

As many of you might know Sari Timur requires a fridge.  We do not drink warm beer!!! 

Many years ago our only fridge was a big box with a couple of holding plates and an engine driven air conditioner to freeze the plates.  When we set sail for Africa it started to act up.  And we limped with it for another couple of years.  Then Mark's parents came for a visit in Africa so we loaded up their luggage with a brand new SeaFrost system.  After returning to Singapore we added a shore power compressor as well. 

Many years later we cut the box in half and added a door type fridge and reused the other equipment to work in the smaller box.  Well after 28 years the African fridge started misbehaving again.  Since the newer DC powered air cooled fridges made for boats have improved so much we decided to go that route.  That meant we could get rid of the shore power system, and the engine driven system, heat exchangers and water pumps.  

We decided on a CoolBlue unit as we had heard good things about them.  So we ordered one and are happy to say it installed nicely.  At the warmest setting we have, it keeps the box below 22 degrees and it only runs every so often.  Probably too cold for beer but we can dial it down to be an actual freezer. We then can convert our Dometic Portable freezer into a fridge for drinks.  Sounds like a plan.  Here are some pics.

The Compressor,Condensor, and Dryer/Filter

Close Up

The New Holding Plate

It's Been A While

Wow we just realised that we have not done a post since Mark left for Dutch Harbor.  He returned at the end of January.  We have been doing fine.  The winter winds have been exceptional in Sitka this year but the shrink wrap is holding up ok.

We both have had our Covid vaccinations so we are good to go in that department.

Mark has been hard at work trying to fix the starboard side of the coach roof, like he did the port before we left Seward.  He is nearly done, a few more days should see it through.  For those who do not remember we developed a leak on the port side where the deck joins the coach roof. We also had a small leak on the starboard side but it was very small.  

The project entails cutting the glass away on the coach roof from the deck to a couple of inches up.  He has to work in 8 inch sections as that is how much the external heater can heat to make the repair epoxies kick off.  He has to dig out all the rotten wood and dig down to below deck level, then fill all that back up with epoxy, glass, and filler.  On the port side there was a fair amount of rot so the job was bigger but the digging was easier.  On the starboard side the wood is pretty much intact so he has to use the grinder, chisels and drills to get the wood out to below deck level.

To save a 1000 words here are a couple of pictures.

This is a hole dug out

that is all the part finished plus around the corner to the mainmast

Mark is on his way to Dutch Harbor

 Mark got the call and had to leave a few hours later to head for Dutch Harbor.  The Reece Eagle picked up a couple of quick jobs and he had to fly out in a hurry to beat the bad weather hitting Dutch on New Year’s Day.  

Our New Heater

 As we said in an earlier post we gave up on our wood burning heater and ordered a new diesel burning heater.  That was in July.  It finally arrived on the 24th of November and Mark did most of the installation while he was recovering from Covid.  He had to wait until he got the all clear sign from the health department before he could finish the installation as he needed some additional parts.   So Sunday was the day that the heater was finally installed.  We test fired it and all looked good for a short while until a large whoosh sound happened and the heater went into superheat.  Luckily, one of the parts Mark was missing was an external valve and we quickly turned off the fuel supply and watched and waited nervously for the fuel to burn out.  Both the chimney and burner turned red hot.  We swear we could see through the metal!  Eventually it stopped and cooled down.  We talked with the technical department and found out what went wrong.  So today we again tried out the heater and are happy to say it has been running all day with no issues.   We have to run it a little lower than we thought to keep the surrounding area from getting too hot but heats the main salon up to 68 degrees on the lowest setting.

Mark Brought the COVID Home

 Well Mark got home on the 29th of November.  As he was passing through Anchorage he took a COVID test so he wouldn't need to quarantine too long.  But little did he know he had been exposed to COVID 19 in Kodiak.  The good news is the results came back quick enough and we were able to back trace and we exposed no one.  Everyone at Pauline's work tested negative and so did the two people Mark met in Seward.  Unfortunately his entire crew tested positive.  Pauline came down with symptoms five days after Mark arrived home and also tested positive.  We are on the mend and just waiting our time out to finish the quarantine period.  We have been told by the health officials that after the symptoms finish 10 days later we will not be contagious.  Mark has passed that stage but as Pauline is still finishing out her symptoms he is not seeing anyone yet.

Mark is on his way to Nome

 Mark received a text from one of his old colleagues that said they needed a mate to take the Fish hawk from Nome back to Seward.  Because it is late in the year.  Urgency was required.  So Monday was a mad rush to put together a travel bag as his work gear is all in Dutch Harbor.  Don’t know if he will get a chance to see the town or not. 

Our New Home

 We got a permanent Berth!  After 13 months on the wait list, we finally have been assigned a new berth.  This means if we leave to go for a day sail or longer, we will still have our berth when we come back. There will also be no issues with the electric company because some one else jumped in our spot.  The view is not as nice but the new neighbors all seem very nice and it is much more protected than where we were before.

Sari Timur Secured In Her New Slip