Not as much for this week’s Show & Tell as the Commissioning Phase is now underway which mostly involves setting up and testing all the many systems onboard which doesn’t yield much visual interest.  It is not too much of a stretch to say that the systems on an eXtreme eXploration Passage Maker like XPM78-01 Möbius are similar to what a floating village would require.  Given the eXtremely remote locations we favor we often have no support systems ashore or when on passage and so we need to be completely self sufficient with what we have onboard.  For example we need to be able to do all of the following for an indefinite amount of time and be our own:

• Power Plant to generate all our electrical power; 12 & 24V DC and 120 & 240V AC
• Water Utility able to create and store all our own Domestic Fresh Water and Domestic Hot Water
• Sewage Treatment Plant able to pipe and store all Black Water (sewage)
• Grey Water Treatment Plant able to pipe and store (drainage from all showers & sinks)
• Telecom Utility looking after all our own cellular, WiFi and satellite communications.
• Weather Station maintaining up to date and highly accurate weather at all times is a BIG factor in keeping us safe, knowing where to be and more importantly where NOT to be at any given time and what anchorage is best for any given day’s weather.
• Navigation System allowing us to know in great detail what is all around us both above and below the waterline in order to plot our routes safely.
• Full Repair Shop.  Christine and I are the only two people on board and so if something breaks or needs fixing or maintaining, as we often say “If these four hands don’t or can’t do it; it doesn’t get done.  So we need both all the knowledge, skills and tools to fix every system and every piece of equipment onboard.
• Equipment & Supply Store.  We need to carry any and all parts and supplies that are needed to service and maintain all these systems and again, if it isn’t onboard, it doesn’t exist in our world.

I could go on for some time but you get the idea.  The Commissioning Phase we are now in is all about getting all the components in all those systems up and running and getting them all adjusted so they work correctly and together.  So while there isn’t as much to show and tell you about this week, there is a LOT of things going on in this critical phase.  So without any further delay, come along for this week’s update for the week of March 15-20, 2021.

One important announcement before we begin.

We had an eXtremely eXciting start to this week when Captain Christine began her next circumnavigation of the Sun.  I won’t give away the number of her new circumnavigation, let’s just say that the two digits add up to Lucky 13!  We are sleeping on the boat now so I was able to have her wake up to this little surprise on Monday morning.

Möbius on the Move!

For a boat that is still experiencing a number of “installation issues” that are preventing Möbius from being able to move under her own power, we have sure been doing a lot of moving! 

I’ve grabbed this shot from Google Earth to help show our different locations over the past few weeks.

Position #1 is where we have spent the most time on the End Dock Wall.  #2 is where we were sandwiched between the Green and Red/White boats on the Side Dock Wall and #3 is where we are now on the outside wall of Setur Marina.

As you may recall from last week’s post our first move was to be towed off Position #1 on the end wall of the harbour over to #2 on the side wall between the big Green Monster and the Red/White power cat.
This was our new view looking off our bow to the now empty end wall where we had been at position #1 for the past 2 weeks.

The reason for that move was because the little guy on the Right here was coming in to dock and get loaded up.
As you can see there was barely enough dock space for our two little Red tugs, let alone us or any other boats.
After loading that ship up he left and we were able to move back over to the end wall.
One of the small harbour tugs came and hip tied himself to our Port side and quickly moved us back to the end wall again.
That lasted until late afternoon on Thursday when we suddenly got the call that they needed to move us again because another long cargo ship was on its way in to dock on the end wall.
If you look closely at the photo above (click to enlarge any photo), you will see that a new Coast Guard boat was now in our previous spot #2 between the Green and Red/White boats and so the only option was for them to move us over to Setur Marina which is only a few hundred meters away.
With the help of the marina staff we Med Moored to this new dock #3 at the marina using two of the marina’s lines to our bow and then lines off both stern quarters to the dock.
This is where I am typing this post right now and while our stay is temporary, Christine and I have been enjoying this first sight of Möbius tugging at her dock lines with Mother Ocean just off our bow and calling our name eXtremely loudly!

INTERIOR WORK

Ramazan and I were able to get several of the remaining cabinetry jobs done in the Super Salon this past week.  He pulled out this back wall behind the 43” monitor on the far Right/Stbd side of the Main Helm and cut the slots for the return air to the Stbd Air Handler.
It is a bit of a shame that this beautiful Ro$ewood panel will rarely be seen as it is hidden by the 43” monitor that is mounted here but it makes us smile every time we do.  Simple and effective, these slots allow air to flow through them into the space behind where the Stbd side Air Handler lives and delivers either chilled air on AC or hot air in Heat mode to this side of the Salon.
While Ramazan putting in those slots, I lent a hand to work on mounting the Dinette table which is a job I have been longing to do for months now.

This is the air assist pedestal and the XY slider setup from Zwaardvis that I have shown you below and now it was finally time to mount the table to it.
This ingenious bit of hardware allows us to move the table 200mm/8” fore/aft and side to side enabling us to always have the Goldilocks Just Right position for the table.
To reference the mounting I lowered the pedestal to put the table in “Bed” position and then moved the X and Y sliders underneath to allow movement in all 4 axis.
I marked the slots on the feet of each slider with black pen as you can see here and I laid out two different positions; Passage Mode and Anchor Mode.
To allow me to move between these two modes I installed these threaded metal inserts which gives me metal M6 threads to fasten the table to the XY slider.
Fun Fact:  I have had this set of threaded inserts for almost 40 years as I first used them when I was building bunk beds and other furniture before my 2 children were born!

I used a Forstner drill bit to carefully drill the flat bottom pilot holes and then you just install each metal insert with a hex socket to drive the external threads into the sides of the wooden holes.
Et Voila!  16 metal inserts with M6 threads in them all ready to accept the SS M6 bolts I will use to mount the table to the XY Slider and Pedestal.
You can see how this works now and I have also mounted the Black handle that unlocks the table and allows you to slide it wherever you want it to be.
Here is the final result, this being in Anchor Mode dinning table position. 
From here you can move the table down and out in both directions to be in “Coffee Table” mode or all the way down into Bed mode or anywhere in between.

With so much more Commissioning work to be done I quickly covered it all in protective cardboard and painters tape for now. 
As you can imagine, we can’t wait to remove all of these protective coverings throughout our beloved Möbius and convert from the current construction zone mode to Beautiful Living mode!

Pole Dancing Anyone?

Nihat was back onboard for a bit this week and he installed what should be the last of the aluminium components on the SkyBridge which is this 40mm/1/5” AL pipe that does 2 important jobs; a wire chase to bring some of the cables for GPS and cameras mounted on the Roof down into the Upper Helm Station and …..
……. a hand hold when standing and walking up in the open area of the SkyBridge.

But WAIT!!!

There’s MORE!

This adds a 3rd pole onboard for the Captain to use in her Yoga Pole Dancing routines!
And that’s a wrap for this week and I need to get back to trouble shooting some of the gremlins that have been creeping up with our steering, throttle and CPP Pitch angle controls. 

Thanks for taking the time to join in the journey and hope you’ll be back for more again next week.

-Wayne