The Nina and Pinta

Over the past month, I was away for work. I got back during the weekend and spent some time at the marina on the boat.

I did some cleaning on the boat. I scrubbed the blue strip on the hull and it looks so much better now instead of a chalky look. I also scrubbed the cockpit as that was looking pretty bad too. I hope to do some more of the deck itself but that will come later. I also raised the main sail and evicted a bunch of spiders and wasps. While down below, there was one that flew in and was starting to make a new home and I pulled out the vacuum and after a couple attempts, sucked him in. With the amount of mud clumps I found around the boat, you can be sure I'm going through everything when it gets colder to make sure they're gone. I need to come up with a way to keep them from getting in.

Visiting the marina are two ships, replicas of The Nina and Pinta, the ships Christopher Columbus sailed to find the Indies. The ships are part of The Columbus Foundation. The site about the ships can be found here: http://www.thenina.com/

They were built in Brazil and some pictures of the build can be found on their site. It was interesting to see these ships. I think most of the people working on the ships are volunteers but there was at least one guy who have been a part of these ships for the past 21yrs, at least for one ship, the other was completed in 2005. I told one of the guys that I expected the ships to be much larger and he said many people say the same thing. I guess it's because these were considered merchant ships and not for long ocean voyages.

Anyway, here is a bunch of photos I took with a GoPro.

That thing with holes is the windlass



They say this smaller boat was made by a 14 yr. old

That's a big tiller

MMSI Issued by FCC

Yesterday, I logged onto the FCC ULS website to see if there was an update to the application I submitted on the 10th. I was pleased to see that I now have a callsign and MMSI issued for Rhapsody. It only took 4 days. This is good news in case someone is coming up on a long voyage and needs it quickly.

Since I don't need AIS or DSC functions right now, I have plenty of time to research equipment and add it during the refit period or as funds come available.

How do you get an MMSI from the FCC?

This question is asked by many by those who want to get a DCS capable radio or to be able to transmit AIS position reporting. Some day, I'd like to add both of these capabilities and need to get an MMSI ahead of time.

From my limited research, you file for your MMSI from the FCC if your vessel will be traveling to international waters and foreign countries, even if it's to Canada or Bahamas and beyond. If your vessel is going to be in US waters only, you can apply through BoatUS.

I was looking at the process of how to do this and found a forum post where someone talked about it in a post from 2007. To get started, you need to get on the FCC Universal License System (ULS) website. If you don't already have an FCC Registration Number (FRN), you need to register for one. Being an amateur radio operator, I already had one so I just had to log in and submit a new application in order to get an MMSI.

There's a lot of pictures here, but follow this process with the information needed for yourself and your vessel and you should be good. I'm no expert here but this will give you an idea of what to expect during the process. I just did this process and it didn't take long to do at all. The longest part of this was making the screen shots to share with everyone else. Good luck!

NOTE: The cost for this application is $160.

Sails And Engine Are Ready

At least I hope all is ready. Everything seems to be working so far.

This weekend was busy. I replaced the valve cover gasket on the engine and rigged up the sails.

The area at the base of the valve cover showed some oil that had leaked. At first, I thought the oil came from a failed head gasket but after a closer look, I saw it was actually the valve cover gasket.

Here is my first look after removal of the valve cover. I saw there was some buildup of dirt, possibly of where the oil had leaked.

I removed the old gasket and had to clean up the groove on the cover. This shows some of the residue left in the grove. I had to use a screwdriver and a metal pick to clean it out.

It looks much better now. I also cleaned up the top of the cylinder head where the gasket sits. Compare this picture of the valves with the one above and you can see that it cleaned up pretty nicely.

 The next step, I was trying to put the new gasket into the grove. It didn't want to stay in place. I tried using some of the oil pooled in the corners of the cover to coat on the gasket but it wasn't enough. I also tried setting the gasket on the cylinder head but it kept wanting to curl up. I walked over to the boat shop on the other side of the marina to see if they had any type of sealant that could help keep the gasket in place. Thankfully, they did have this stuff that had an applicator brush on the lid. I brushed the liquid on the groove and waited for a minute or so. It dried with a stickiness that helped keep the gasket in place, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

I attached the valve cover back on the engine. I tightened the bolts and looks like it got a good seal. I started up the engine and looked it over for several minutes and everything looked to be working nicely. No sign of additional oil leaking. The water pump I cleaned up during the last visit turned out to be functioning well too. No water leaked from the pump during the engine testing so I'm happy with that too.

I also setup the jib and main sails up on the boat. I then tied things down and put the cover on the main sail. Everything seems to be ready to go out sailing. If any other setup is needed, it might be to setup the reefing lines. The next time I'm at the boat, I may just let loose the dock lines and head out onto the lake.