Morty Ate Chocolate

Dogs are not supposed to eat chocolate, we know this, and it has never been an issue in the past. Morty is a very lazy dog who spends most of the day sleeping on his side and the entire night sleeping on his back. 

Morty doesn't tear into to boxes or packages on the boat, which lets us be very relaxed about where we store things around him. For the past week, he has been sleeping next to a gift basket we received without bothering them.

We left Morty at Maddie's parents house while we all went out for a few hours. This is a usual occurrence, and Morty simply sleeps on the couch with his toys while we are away. When we return, he is always excited to see us, and then calms down to his usual state of laziness. This is when we noticed something was different about him.

Morty never calmed down. Instead he began bounding around us with a limitless amount of energy. He then began running into other rooms and running back to us, a behavior that he never does. This is when we found the source of his limitless energy, chocolate!

Somehow, he managed to find and retrieve a box of chocolates from inside a larger box set on a chair. Morty is a Corgi, and their most notable feature is their lack of vertical prowess. He didn't knock or damage anything else in the room in the process, but he did manage to shred the packaging and devour the nine chocolate truffles there within. I have no idea how he managed to get into the box, as the chair was sitting alone along a wall. There was nothing in the vicinity that he could have climbed on to get into the box. Either way, Morty used his magical corgi powers to remove the chocolates from the box and reward him with infinite energy.

Based on his weight, type of chocolate, and amount of chocolate that he consumed, we determined that he was not at risk of poisoning. Instead, he was hyped up on sugar and caffeine!

Morty's chocolate goodness occurred at 1PM, so we decided to spend the rest of the day trying to wear him out. At 11PM, we were exhausted and ready for bed while he was still going strong. Morty ran around, jumped on the bed, off the bed, around the floor, back onto the bed, off the bed, and around the floor again. This continued all night long.

We tried to sleep despite his best efforts, but occasionally he would land directly on us as he bounced over the bed. This woke us up at various hours throughout the night, and each time we awoke, he was wide awake with his ears perked and eyes wide open.

When I get up in the morning at 5:30AM, Morty is usually sleeping on his back between our feet and the hull. This morning, he was still running around, powered by his mystical power source. I decided to take him to my parents house for the day and let him run around the yard with their dog, hoping that he would run out of power by the afternoon.

When I left Morty at my parents house, it was 8:30AM. Morty had been awake for the past 27 hours and electric for the past 19 hours! Hopefully, the Morty will crash and we can all get some good sleep tonight. 

Should this ever happen again, I will be very tempted to put Morty in an exercise wheel connected to a generator. This would convert his limitless energy into a full battery bank in a matter of hours!

Bilge Pump Supports: Finishing Touches

The bilge pump supports are glassed in and the resin has fully cured, it is now time to clean up the locker and make it look presentable!

It is amazing what a bit of paint can do! I used Interlux Bilgekote after lightly sanding the layer of blushing off the surface of the glassed in supports. Bilgekote is very forgiving and results in a slick finish with minimal preparation work. There is no need to prime the surfaces with primer, all you need to do is lightly sand the surface and then start painting.

The massive bilge pump hose is 2 inches (inside diameter) which will flow many gallons with while keeping back pressure to a minimum. The only problem with running a hose this size is the hole it needs to pass through a bulkhead. The hose narrowly fits through a 2.5 inch hole, and fitting a 2.5 inch hole saw in some of the areas was tricky. In the end, the bilge hose was run with as few turns as possible to minimize resistance in the passage of water.

The bilge hose was run through the bulkheads and down into the bilge with the excess spilling into the locker while I painted. Once the paint cures, I will trim the hose to size and attach the bilge pump to the supports. At that point, all will be finished with the project; save drilling a giant hole in the side of the hull for the discharge through hull fitting. 

Mornings Aboard

When the sun comes up, some of us are more willing to get up than others. Sammy wakes up when the sun comes up but Morty, our corgi, likes to sleep in.

Port Side Double Planking

After three days of work, the port topside has been fully planked!

The planks in the bow required many bronze screws to hold the planks in place and spring them into their curved form. Nails were attempted, but the curvature kept pulling the nails out of the first planks. Bronze screws were needed to train the planks to curve to the bow of the dinghy. As the work moved aft, nails were able to be used as the topsides were flat and required no force to keep them sprung in place.

While screws do hold much stronger than nails, screws also take considerably longer to install. The four strakes at the bow took nearly 4 hours of work, while the aft half of the dinghy took only 5 hours. There were 32 strakes in total, and the ones installed with nails were installed much faster. 

This came down to two reasons, screws require changing the drill bit to a driver and screws require careful positioning. Nails can be easily banged into place with a hammer while the drill holds the same 1/16" drill bit. The other reason for the speedier installation is that I got efficient at spreading the bedding compound around. 

The dinghy now sits with the port topside curing, awaiting me to trim off the excess planks. The planks will be trimmed to the sheer and the chine. After they are trimmed, the starboard side can be planked in the same fashion.

Once all the planks are installed, the nails will be bent over to lock them in place and make the hull much stronger.

Marina Pilings

If you have ever wondered about the size of the machinery used to service the pilings in a marina, wonder no more!

A massive crane sits atop a large barge that is controlled by two tug boats. One tugboat is attached to the transom of the barge and operates as a push boat to control the fore/aft motion. The other tug boat sits athwartship and serves as a bow thruster, managing direction of the barge.

This massive contraption was able to delicately maneuver through the marina, pulling out the severely warn massive pilings so that they could be replaced.