Odalisque - Spring 2005 Log

Log 2005 – Spring 2005

Spring 2005 – “On the Hard in Glen Cove Again”

The big problem we had last year was the stuffing box leaking which has been addressed by several visits to the boat where the packing material has been replaced with new high tech Teflon impregnated line. The stuffing box is not such a mysterious place to me now that I have been there with wrench in hand under the cockpit. I tightened the bolt as hard as I could despite the awkward position I had to take to get a purchase on the fixtures. Every place I checked on the web and elsewhere said you should use 3 separate strands of packing with the joints staggered but I could only fit 2 strands of 3/16 inch packing. I have subsequently been reassured by someone on tartan27owners.com that this is typical for the Atomic 4 engine. I also epoxied the forward hatch back to its hinge that Nathaniel or one of Noah’s kids had the misfortune of opening one too many times. The head of the engine block was cleaned and painted with Chevy blue engine paint.

I was at the boatyard at another time to take down the tarp that had cosseted Odalisque over the winter and prepping the exterior teak for varnishing. On a subsequent trip I applied one coat of varnish over the teak oil I had put on after light sanding with 220 grit paper. She is looking more like her former self now.

The marina really packed in the boats this year. There were so many boats up on stands that there was only a one lane road left between the boats with no fingers running this way or that. One warm day I was there and watched a traffic jam happen as a guy was trying to back his trailered big motorboat into a narrow space that had opened up. It was such a narrow space that the guy in the SUV had to get one of the yard hands (the engine guy) to do it for him. It took about 10 minutes for this process to complete while about 10 cars were lined up trying to get out of the boatyard. People got out of their cars and watched the action as it occurred before my windshield. I listened to jazz in my car with the engine off. We were in boatyard time now and would not be able to get out of there until the deed was done. Thanks to the acute senses of the engine guy the deed was done and we all drove out single file.

— Caleb Davison