Temporary panel placement
Temporary panel placement
Picture of Arnd

Arnd

2024-04-05 Couldn’t work in the office today

Morning

The day started off with the usual coffee at sunrise and then logging into my Microsoft Teams account and then logging into my remote session at work. This involves entering my authentication in the form of a user-id and password, then the system responds by sending a SMS message to my telephone. Then I enter the unique code and can work securely and remotely. But today the SMS messages were sent, but never arrived. My phone is working, and WhatsApp is also working; but no SMS messages can be sent or received.

I’ve tried switching providers and restarting my phone, all to no avail. This also happened on the first day and sorted itself out hours later. Hopefully it will do automagically again.

Shopping

Since I couldn’t work, I opted to use the remaining few hours in my rental car to go shopping for more groceries and to get some line for the new snubber. I was finished by 11, but since I had some frozen items and wanted to get back aboard as quickly as possible, I dropped the car off early and walked back to the dinghy and returned to Zanshin.

Afternoon
Temporary panel placement
Temporary panel placement

I’d unpacked and provisionally connected the 2 new Renogy solar panels forward on deck along with the 2 big panels. They are really producing a good amount of power and by 08:30 in the morning the net balance was positive. I’m curious to see if I the new solar system can keep up with my fridge, freezer, StarLink, and computer with monitor over the course of the day. 

Wet locker disassembly
Wet locker disassembly

I had purchased a rack with drawers at Ace the previous day, which would just fit into my aft “wet” locker according to the measuring tape. What I’d neglected to measure was the diameter of the door and of course I couldn’t fit it. I spent over an hour trying to disassemble the locker but met with no success.

Engine
After soaking and scrubbing
After soaking and scrubbing

I had the cylinder head block soaking in Simple Green for two days and now returned to it and used an old toothbrush to complete the cleaning. Deep cleaning is always a mix of chemical and mechanical action; and the soaking did seem to have loosened and/or dissolved a lot of the carbon and soot buildup. I’ve dried and oiled the exposed steel and iron components and now have to wait until this coming Thursday to get the new valve stem seals and the gasket kit so that I can put the top back together and free up my main cabin table again.

Ashore

I did go ashore afterwards, as it was really hot and sticky aboard, but neglected to bring my camera. All I saw was the fully Soggy Dollar and then I went to a Gyros/Döner place for some sustenance.