15 th April

Tick tock - summer is on its way.  (I hope)

Port side aft is done.  Welding, bending, cutting, grinding and polishing stainless steel is almost as bad as sanding fiberglass.  My welding skills have deteriorated with old age so required more finishing / patching up .  Fitting the nuts and washers on the very aft corner was a mission.  Had to tape the nut and washer into a ring spanner and hold it with a vice grip to reach.  Mrs Nuts on the outside to screw it in.  All fitted and nice and tight.  (got a long handled socket on the nut once it was threaded on) Also got mounting ladder brackets sealed and bolted on.  All home brew bits.  I added a U bolt on the cockpit edge for using as a tiller fixing point to lash the tiller or add a bungee for self steering as well as main sheet fixing option.  Maybe when running under two jibs I can fix the boom to one side to stop me banging my head when climbing out of the cabin.

Aft compartment refilled with flotation foam and closed off.  Mrs Nuts sewing skills on show.  Had many complaints about the fact there was a frame butting into the cushion but she did an amazing job even though the slot is at an angle.  Lee boards and spray dodger still on the cards (but dont tell her yet - got to keep her happy!!) 

Opened up the Stbd side and removed some of the foam so I can seal and bolt up the Stbd tab holder, outboard mount and the railing.  Tomorrow job and then can refit foam and close up.

Running out of jobs to do.  Cockpit gas storage box (plus space for other goodies) just needs its topcoat.  It might end up pink as I have some pink paint left over.

Been going through navigation stuff.  Printed up a bunch of plotting sheets (only A4) and the almanack for sun Dec and GHA.  Still have my sight reduction tables for air navigation and going to take a plastic sextant.  Hope I dont need it but if the shit hits the fan and GPS goes down Im fine. (or total power failure).  Have to motivate the brain to go back in time but it could be fun.

 4th April

Spring a bit slow in showing its face.  Dodging hail showers today.  Still ticking along here though.

Bolted some hand holds in the cockpit (also inside).   Epoxied two support/sliders for a box to be slid against the transom.  The box is for gas cannisters for the cooker as well as whatever I decide. It will be well secured and also easily removable.  It will be on runners so even if upside down it is not going anywhere.

Box under construction.  8mm ply .  200mm fore and aft and 350mm deep and the width of the cockpit.  Will be able to store plenty of gas canisters as well as other goodies.

In the process of bolting the tab brackets.  So far only the port side finally fixed.  I had to remove all the buoyancy foam through the hatch at the foot of the quarter berth and bolt on extensions to my arms to reach the eyebolts to fit the nuts and washers.  Mrs Nut outside to hold the eyebolts in alignment.  Sikaflex 291i all squished out so should not leak. 

Tab fits very well.  After glassing the mount and even after 2 coats of epoxy primer I was not happy with the fit.  Even though it was snug it was not tight.  I decided to grind off all the primer and glass another 5 layers of 200g/m2 with the trailing edge clamped a bit closed without the tab inside.   After curing for a few days I did a test fit and it was nice and tight.  Then slapped on a couple of coats of epoxy primer and with a 2 day window of nice warm, no wind and low humidity weather gave all the bits a couple of coats of PU paint sprayed on.  Also gave an old aluminium tube I had a couple of coats of epoxy primer after a good sand and it also got the spray treatment.  I will have 2 running poles - one  50mm dia with proper end fittings and one 38mm(od) with homemade delrin end fittings.  Both poles are 2.4m long just because that was the length that I had.  If they are too long it is very easy to shorten.  3m was recommended by a skipper that has already crossed the Atlantic but got to go with what I have. 

This is the hatch Im working through.  So far the first layer of foam as been refitted.  I forgot to number those pieces so it was a bit of a jigsaw.

This is the rest of the foam for the port side aft.  I decided to do each side separately so there is no chance of mixing up the foam pieces.  Still got to finish the boarding ladder mounts and the pushpit so they can be bolted on before closing up the port side and moving over to the stbd side.

 15 th March

Crappy photo but trimtabs got their final epoxy glassing and a coat of peel ply.  Keeping warm next to our fireplace  which is off to sleep for the night.  Down to the last 1/2 m of peel ply from a 100m roll.  My best investment.  Now got to do finishing and painting. Still waiting  for Amazon to deliver the 8mm 316  mounting eyebolts.

Miserable weather here and big storm forecast for Sunday.  Off to marina tomorrow (today) to put extra lines on my little fishing boat.

 13 th March.

Ticking along slowly.

Trim tab mounts in progress.  I used vinyl over the tabs (like used in outdoor furniture cushions) as a friction surface for the tabs.  Good idea?? We shall see.  6 layers of 300 gram roving epoxied over the top as the first stage.  Flat mounting panels started off as polyester sheet which was left over from a CO2 scrubbing system I made for a submarine. (Lula 1000) and epoxy glassed over to thicken it up.  I then epoxy glued the 2 bits together hopefully at 90 degrees with a very small fillet.  Today I glassed over the small fillets on each side with 3 layers of 200 gram glass and then put bigger fillets over the join for a better radius.   It is keeping warm next to our fireplace for the night and will get a bunch more epoxy glass to bring it up to design spec tomorrow.

It is windy and cold here in the Azores at the moment so need heating for epoxy work.  

Going to prepare all the bits that need to be bolted onto the transom so they can all be done at the same time.  It is a mission to remove the foam flotation through the hatches to gain access but at least it is possible.

 7 th March

Weather was good for a few days so went hunting for kitty food.  Spent some hours on the sea but is was not fireworks.  Kitty happy though with some fresh triggerfish treats and a bit for the freezer.

Some goodies arrived from Temu.  

Engine mount came surface mail from China and took 2 months.  Only cost 67 euros and could never make one as good for that price.

Bought a string of 200 country flags and hoped I would get some I could use as courtesy flags.  Useful ones include - Portugal, Poland, France, Spain, Brazil, Morocco,  Bahamas, Aruba, Trinidad, St Vincent, Grenada, St Lucia, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, Bahamas, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.  I am missing Anguilla, Bermuda and Cabo Verde.  Got hundreds of non usefull flags but only cost 9 euros for the lot with free shipping so very happy.  20cm by 15cm.  Pretty small but just fine for a small boat.  Got a good sized Polish flag for the stern. (Polish registered).  I should be well covered if I get blown off course Or change my mind where Im going on the way😊

A small 3m2 kite also arrived.  Going to play with it to see if it could be useful as an emergency sail in case the mast goes swimming.  Very small and light package.

Clear skies so cold temperatures for epoxy etc. 

  

Trim tabs faired and got their tops with handles epoxied on today.  Keeping kitty company while getting some warmth to cure.  Next job is to give them some coats of epoxy primer before making the support brackets.  I was going to make the brackets with polyester resin but only have a little old polyester resin and plenty of epoxy resin.  Just have to leave out chop strand mat.  

 1 st March

Decided to fit the trimtabs before launching.  They were fabricated and epoxy glassed many months ago but not finished.  I was going to trial sail before fitting more stuff on the transom.  After hearing feedback on the Setka Challenge WhatsApp group it seems that trimtabs are very beneficial especially in downwind sailing. (as expected)

Giving the tabs an epoxy and microbaloon skim before sanding smooth and glassing the support mountings.  Going to use polyester resin and glass for the mounting brackets.  Still cold here in the evenings.  Diesel heater warm air duct blowing over freshly mixed epoxy filler to speed up the cure.  

Made up 1 running pole so far.  Only had a pole length of 2.4m (approx the LP of the jib).  I made this up from used bits that I bought in the Netherlands last year on the way home from selling our canal cruiser.  Going to make another one but got to pick my brains and fiddle on the lathe to make end fittings.  Too expensive to buy fancy Selden (or other) parts.  Got some ideas!  I will also make another stainless steel ring to pop rivet on the front of the mast for the second pole or as a spare.

Nice weather arriving here in the Azores in the next days so fixing roof leaks and hope to do some fishing.

Testing DIY dehydrated meals is working out very well so far.  Just got to decide what I like the best.  Youtube is a great tool but be careful.
 

 19th February

Lunch was the rehydration test on leftover dehydrated bits.  Spaghetti with elbow noodles and Chilli con Carne with rice rehydrated for 15 mins with boiling water tasted exactly the same as the freshly cooked meals.  😊

Going to test the same meals vacuum sealed in a few months to see if it really works.  Back to the shops tomorrow to get more ingredients for more experimentation.  

18th February

Vacuum sealed some experimental meals.

Using chamber vacuum sealer.  The dehydrated pasta, rice, spagetti sauce and Chilli con Carne ends up quite crispy and sharp and can pierce the plastic when under a strong vacuum (as I discovered).  Just doing small portions for taste testing and to see which recipes work best.  Going to test taste some soon and save same pacs for testing in a month or two.  Made 2 of each recipe to vacuum seal and going to experiment for lunch tomorrow on the left overs.

Also bought bulk salted peanuts at about 5 euros for a kilo and resealed into 130g packs with sultanas.  100g peanuts and 30g saltanas per pack.  Good for snacks and keep fresh for a long time.  Expensive to buy small packs of snacks and I like my snacks in the evening.

Next test will be chicken and curry recipes.  Also got to try veggies and stews.

 16 th February

Time wizzing by.  Not up to much as weather still crappy.  Been organizing safety equipment though and got my flares (4 hand red, 4 parachute red and 1 orange smoke), lifejackets (2), saftey harness, and fire extinguisher, head torches and tacked on a small power kite in case the mast falls down.    Off to town tomorrow to speak to our insurance company that insures my fishing boat to see what the options are.  Only looking for compulsory 3rd party for marina stays.  Got to have insurance before being allowed in the marina.

Food!!!

I like my food!!

Started this afternoon with experimenting on producing our own dehydrated food for the adventure.  Starting in very basic experiments.  Several types of pasta and some rice. (all precooked).

This is very early stages and looking forward to the results.

Stacked in our new dehydrator which has a much larger capacity (10 trays).  Our old one was great but small capacity.  Got to learn the quirks of this new box of tricks - very quiet compared to our old one but cost almost 4 times the price !

Mrs Nuts also cooked up a Chilli Con Carne and a Spagetti sauce which will be the next victims for the dehydrator.  Going to vacuum seal and do a test eat in a few days as well as a set aside and test eat in a few months.  This keeps us occupied and makes the kitchen smell nice.  

Lots of ideas on the food front thanks to Youtube.  Just got to test and try.

Marty Bates - a fishing partner from many years ago - has offered a welcome to me with a mooring in Sao Nicalao in the Cape Verdes.  He is a top world recognized big game fishing captain and a super nice guy from NZ and now living and operating big game fishing and a BandB out of the Cape Verde.  (maybe he can be convinced to help out several Setka Captains for a jolly 😜  

 12 th January.

Been watching the 5.80 boats leaving the Canaries.  Got me excited to get busy again.  Been chilling and taking life easy over the holiday season and put on too much weight!!  Time to get started on the finishing stages of Nuts and get it ready for launching in Spring.

I did experiment on vacuum sealing the gas canisters.  Bought a small vacuum sealer for this as didnt think it was a good idea to put the cans into my chamber vacuum sealer.  The idea is to stop rusting as well as being able to see if the canister is leaking.

Also time to start experimenting with dehydrating meals.  I hope to update the blog on a more regular basis starting now.  Hope you all had a good festive season and now back to work!