Things to do

I went to Rhapsody today to take a look at a couple things. The weather folks have been calling for thunderstorms for the past couple weeks and it's been sun shine and clear skies the whole time, until today. Today is overcast so storms might be more likely. I decided to get a tarp to cover the cabin top of Rhapsody as there are a couple things that need to be addressed soon.

Part of the teak hand rail on the cabin top has lifted so it is going to need bedded down and tightened. Two of the portholes will also need to be bedded again as the inside shows they had leaked. So the tarp is to prevent water from getting in until I can do that repair. From the looks of it, it may require light sanding and varnish work.




Before I get to bedding down hardware, I was to clean out down below. There's quite a bit of "stuff" around. Cleaning it out will help see exactly what I have, do cleaning and organize things the way I like. I'll probably spend a day this weekend cleaning things up.




Now here's a real kicker. Bees. While the boat was stored in Arizona, the boat was infested with what looks like honey bees. To get rid of the bees, the previous owner said he used a bug bomb so they are lying around everywhere. There is a bit of a honeycomb that should be cleaned out easily. Part of this issue is that there are areas that are sticky from wax. While looking for info about removing beeswax, I came up on lots of things about cleaning up from beeswax candles. Might be helpful. Some say use heat and wipe off and others say use cold and peel off. Either way, this stuff has got to go. Another reason to do this soon is, from what I was reading, the smell of the wax could attract other bees. So, It needs cleaned out. I was also thinking of water with a little bleach might help. I found a couple cleaners at Home Depot that might work but it might take the varnish work along with it. Depending on how to get the wax out, it might require some varnish but we'll see when I get to that point. Once I clean out all the "stuff" I can get a vacuum and suck up all these little guys.

Here's the honeycomb and small view of all the bees laying around.



Now, lastly, there seems to be another concern I need to look into. While walking around topside, the lifelines seemed to gather a bit of a charge. I got zapped a few times. The electrical systems below were all off. It wasn't a constant charge. I could only think of two other things that might cause this.

1. Static in the air. My area has been calling for storms and now it looks like it might be likely with an overcast day. Personally, I'm not so sure there is enough static in the air to be able to zap me.
2. High voltage power lines. There are some long distance lines running above the boat. I was thinking maybe a reaction to the voltage running through those lines were effecting the boat in some way like a capacitance effect.

The only solution I can think of at the moment is seeing if there is a way I can ground the boat. There is space behind where the boat is parked where I can drive a ground rod into the ground and have a wire going from the boat to the ground rod. The guy running the place probably wouldn't mind it, I just have to ask about it. I can also check with him if he heard anything about the power lines causing anything elsewhere in the storage lot.

As with all boats, it seems, there is always something to do.