CS34 After LYRA

I have not been updating my blog from after LYRA, so I am going to try an do one update every day for the next little bit.

Rita had three weeks off after LYRA and we were planning on leaving right away to cruise the 1,000 Islands.  I had a lot to do on Still Time to get her ready.

Besides, my daughter Melissa had her engagement party at James' parents place on Sat Aug 6.

I needed to fixed the reefing lines on the main.

When rigging the 34 at the start of the season, I had lost one of the single line reefing lines in the mast (don't ask).  I could see the line about 4 ft from the end of the boom, but could not get it.  I drilled the rivets out of the boom end casting and could not get it.

I finally had to take the main off, the stackpack, lines, vang, and remove the boom.  It was much easier with the boom on a picnic table.

Blue is the 2nd reef
White with the big knots is the outhaul
Red is the 1st reef.

The line with the red trace was the first reefing line that disappeared the boom.  I had to wedge a piece of wood between the knot on the outhaul and the red reefing line, and tug on the outhaul to get the red line out of the boom.

Also discovered that the blue 2nd reef line was wrapped several times around the outhaul.  This was why the 2nd reef had always given me trouble.  Lots of friction putting it in, and it would jam shaking it out.

I had to borrow a heavy duty rivet gun from Dave Sandford to re-attach the boom end fitting:

Don't know WHY I have an ice scraper in this photo

This was almost three days of effort to get fixed.

I also wanted to fix the shower.

The handheld shower hose broke 3 seasons ago, and you could not remove the fixture because of clearance issues behind the fiberglass in the shower stall:

I managed to disconnect the hot/cold water fittings behind:

...but could NOT get the connectors thru the hole in the shower stall.  I ended cutting them out, and buying 2ft long braided flexible stainless with adapters; just like what you would see on your toiler or under your bathroom vanity.

Took several days of frustration to get this done.

After the fact, I can tell you that we used the shower a LOT on our cruise.  Nothing better than having a shower onboard when at anchor for a couple of days.  We also used the shower on Bogart, as we were paranoid about him picking up a tick from walking him on some of the islands.