I'm oncall Polly Pureheart is staying tied in Sealing Cove for another 15 days, then its off to Halibut Point for a 1 week yard period. Plan is to sand and bottom paint, and change the thruhulls and seacocks. The paint is at least 3 years old and the seacocks are Wilcox-Crittenden valves that probably date to the original construction. They will be changed to Marlon valves and tailpieces, with new hoses in the next few weeks.

Originally I'd planned to do them on the tidal grid, but thought better of it when I realized they had never been changed and might be a bit sticky. Just what I would need is an inch and a half hole in the bottom and nothing good to plug it with when the tide came in. Its a chilling thought to say the least. While she is out of the water I am going to explore the idea of repositioning the thruhulls to better locations. The intake and discharge from the head are in the middle of the v-berth locker on the starboard side, and the sink drain is in the center of the locker on the portside.

Bad planning on somebody's part. No possibility of using either locker for much of anything in terms of storage or tankage with the current arrangement. I would like to increase the holding tank from the current 6 gallons to 20 or larger, but because of the position of the seacocks that is not possible. If I can figure out a better arrangement I will get it planned for the next time she is out of the water. I also will look into routing the discharge from the currently nonfunctional shower sump to the sink discharge so that will cut down on the amount of hose connected to that system. Once that is done then I can restore the shower to usefulness.

Currently the compass is out for repair in Lake Stevens, WA. I knew the dome had some crazing, but the latest cold weather resulted in a fairly large bubble in the liquid. I sent it to Island Marine Instruments to be checked out and repaired. I just got the quote back from them. A very reasonable $236.00 to replace the dome, change the illumination to LEDs and alter the damping mechanism to current standards. I should have it back in about 3 weeks. In the mean time I have removed the brass mount and cover and started to polish them. Several years of neglect and California sun have taken their toll. What I thought would be a few hour job looks more like a big pain.

I'd planned to polish by hand but after about 3 hours of work and about 5% of the surface area I am resorting to my Dremel tool and hopefully a large polishing wheel. I have been unable to find any wheels here in Sitka so I'm checking out the internet. I don't mind polishing brass, its good therapy, but there are limits to my tolerance and needs. I figure it will all be together by the time we get out of the yard and back in the water.

Then it will be time to tackle the brightwork. Toerails, hatch boards and trim, along with the mahogany in the cockpit are on the schedule. I'll be dodging the rain to get it done or spending a lot of time under a traveling tarp. I plan to sand and get at least 10 coats of varnish in place. Hopefully, that and the low sun angle here at 57N will give me more than a couple of years before its time to do it again. Several of my slip neighbors, all with aluminum or FRP boats with no wood have commented on the amount of work I'm in for. My next slip neighbor is a former sailor and had a fair amount of brightwork on his circumnavigator. There is no wood on his current charter boat. He says he doesn't miss the brightwork part if sailing.

Whale picture is from last Sunday out on the Sound. We saw humpbacks feeding on a herring school about 1500 yards out. We sailed closer but by the time we got into good photo range the show was over. There is a whale just aft of the shroud, its obvious in the full sized print but not so much here. Oh well, I'll just have to keep trying. Maybe the OM1 with the big telephoto needs to come out with me instead of just taking the digital.