Blog update
Well this is really over due, sorry to the loyal readers. Nice to hear from you guys too. There is an easy way to leave comments and we really enjoy hearing about your adventures too.
May 22 to ???
Saturday. We got back to the boat today. Thankfully things started moving Friday night. My digestive system just didn’t want to get going, so after surgery on Monday, and no digestive action by Friday, the doc gave me a bunch more stuff to drink, colonoscopy stuff, and a enema, her the last words were, if nothing happens tonight go to the E.R. asap. Well thats all it took and about an hour later the plumbing was working. No E.R. for me. We were getting really tired of living in the hotel anyway and were glad that this milestone had occurred so we could get on with the boat re-fit.
Got back to the boat in theafternoon on Saturday and got started on my list. Got Patti’s new Galley fluorescent light in, boy what a difference that made. I had order a new LED for the main salon and it was waiting for us when we got back so I installed that. The current lights (incandescent) get too hot and use too many amps. The new light is great, even puts out at least as much light as the old bulbs. I will order more on Monday.
Sunday was new sink faucet day. another struggle with Murphy over the last month. To the point that I gave up for a while. Do you have any idea how many different styles of connections there are for kitchen sink faucets. The other real problem was fitting a household faucet into marine galley plumbing. It works and no leaks yet, knock on wood.
Next thing was to build the mount for the Garmin chart plotter. Got to use my “work bench in box again”. This time it was for the table saw. Yes that right I said table saw. The 5 inch skill saw mounts in the top of the box with just a couple of clicks, hit the switch and NOTHING. what the heck. So OUT came the instructions, ( for those that know me , yes I did say what the heck and yes I did read the instructions, I know that’s hard to believe). The engineers had designed the table saw so that it would not run if the safety shield was not installed. Safety shield, I don’t need no stinking safety shield’. (Sorry for the digression to the movie, “Treasure of the Sierra Madre.) I am very careful with power tools. My Dad instilled a great respect for things with spinning blades. I don’t know how many times I heard about the time he tried to cut off a couple of fingers with his “Shop Smith” after he had just gotten it.
The GPS mount is complete and now I am going to set everything up as a dry run before I start drilling holes in the boat. I kept hearing Grandpa Axel, “measure twice and cut once” who was a great finish carpenter. No…. not from Finland, but 100% Norweigen. It would always amaze me when he would chuckle as I tried to cut a 2x4, I would get out the square, draw lines to follow and then went at it either with the skill saw or the hand saw. Grandpa would smile and chuckle, and the gently take the piece from me, ask me how long it needed to be, get out his tape measure, make one tick mark on a corner. He would then very nonchalantly take the hand saw, put the piece on the stool, and proceed to make a cut, by hand in a 2x4 with one mark, that was square any or how many ways you bothered to measure it. He took carpentry to an art form.
Sunday was really hot, but did cool off for a nice evening by 8 pm., Started on the other navigation stuff Monday morning, Then got a call from Justin Knobel and Jessica Josephs. They are in town, well headed to Jessup Georgia anyway, that’s close right!!!!!!. Any way they took the red eye and had a day to explore Florida and they decided to come and pay us a visit. Had a great time showing off the boat and the work we have been doing, and then went out for lunch. I am sure the Patti was bored to tears with all of the R… talk but it was fun to catch up on the old office.
Back to the GPS and got the chart plotter working, now to wire the AIS and the Satellite weather radio. Everything is just hanging out in the cockpit until I am sure that all the components talk to each other, then I will make the final install. I know where it will all go I think, but Murphy hasn’t approved yet, and we all know he has the final say.
We thought we were so smart. We took all of our CD’s and ripped them to our laptops. Then when we wanted to listen to any of our music on the boat then it was just a matter of plugging into the boat stereo and life would be perfect. RIGHT. We are missing one important component. A stereo on the boat has no mp3 or usb plug. OOOOPPPPPPPPSSSSSSSS.
The solution was simple,. I had to go to West Marine anyway. This has to be the easiest install ever. I was not very optimistic, lots of wires in the wiring harness on radios these days so I was sure that I was in for an interesting evening of ok the yellow strip wire from the old harenss goes to this and that corresponds to the blue wire on the new harness. Wel the old radio slid out the old harness fit right into the new radio, hooked up the antenna dn turned on the power. Amazing, it works, Now that was amazing.
One of the many boats that we looked over the last couple of years was a “Cal Jensen 46” that was moored at Brunswick Ga., 2 slips away from where Dream Ketcher was moored by the Previous owner. (P.O.) We looked at the Cal Jensen and quickly ruled it out. It is a very big boat and really looks like a Motor sailor rather than an offshore sailboat. Well anyway the Cal Jensen showed up next to us in the yard here at Green Cove Springs. The story, A gentlemen from Australia bought the boat and is here with 3 of his Aussie buddies, prepping the boat for the trip home to Australia. Really nice guys, 2 of them are Quantas pilots and the boat owner is now retired and done quite a bit of sailing, Two of the crew have done lots of deliveries around the southern oceans and the fourth crew is an offshore rookie. These guys are a kick in the butt. I wish I could record our conversations, the terminology and the slang terms are so interesting/funny. I can’t think of any at this moment but trust me it is really entertaining. It kind of takes a minute to get the drift sometimes, then you find your self checkling at a joke they made 3 minutes ago, and they look at you like “Your just getting that now”.
We picked the sails up from the sailmaker this week, and we took the spinnaker in to measure. We
don’t have a decent place to drag it out here so I thought the sail loft would be the best place to do that.
That thing is huge and there is no way Patti and I would fly a chute (sailor talk for Spinnaker). We drug
the spinnaker out of the bag and out of the sock only to eventually figure out that it is not a
symmetrical spinnaker, it is a drifter, 1.5 oz cloth. Perfect.!!! And with a sock. The sock needs to be
rigged still but that is relatively easy. A sock is exactly that. A tapered sleeve that has a rigid ring on
the bottom. The ring is rigged with a loop of line that allows you to host the ring that releases the sail.
I can’t wait to fly it. Patti is a little hesitant. I told her that we would take it easy, Drop
everything and the launch the drifter just to see how big it looks on the water. Sails always look way
bigger on the ground. The luff on this thing is 55vor 56 feet. Should be a blast. I think we could
probably carry it 12 to 15 knots of breeze. Probably won’t though. It will be a real tiger by the tail at
15 knots and things always happen at hyperspace speed whenthe wind kicks up and you have way too
much sail up.
We finally got around tp getting the home port on the transom. We got out the ladder and the stuff and then one of our aussie neighbors showed up to chat for a bit. Before we knew it it was getting real dark, so as we started taping the homeport onto the transom one of our other neighbors came by and after looking at how we were going about things, said alright guys let me do this, It is to important to get messed up. Well that’s close to what he said anyway. So “Dave the Welder” took over and now it is done, the finished product. I will post a pick.
Wednesday was working the engine day. Spent all morning with Rick, getting the cutless bearing installed. Well more like pounded in. You see the old cutless was frozen to the shaft and would just turn inside the shaft log. The shaft log was not 2” any more, We tried a 2” cutless bearing but it was way to loose. So the next size up was 2 1/8”. Well that meant using a drill motor and the grinding pads used for boring out engine cylinders. Took a long time but finally got it to the right size. Well almost to the right size. We ended up with an 8 pound sledge and a block of wood and a whole lot of muscle but it finally went in flush. That took until lunch, after lunch it was time to put in the prop shaft and the dripless. Rick had to go work on another boat so I spent the rest of the day trying to get the engine alignment right. That is going to be a real exercise in patience. Ended up cutting off a 15/16 end wrench so it was only 6” long and then grinding off most of the horns so that it would fit into the underside of the engine mount bracket. FUN!!!!!!!!!!. I got the rest of the engine mount bolts in and got the alignment a lot closer, but will work on that some more tomorrow. I can’t wait!!!!!!!! I did get the vertical alignment very close, but anm not having any luck with the horizontal alignment.
Decided to upgrade the Barbecue propane plumbing so that if I needed to change any of the fittings in the propane locker that go to the Barbie, then I wouldn’t have to disconnect everything . Next was mounting the new Barbie on the aft Port railing. Will be interesting to see if the mounting hardware can hold up the Barbie. That ended up being a breeze.
Early on the week Austin and Cindy called and wanted to meet us somewhere between Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Jacksonville. Seems it was time for Cindy to move to Atlanta for her summer intership and it was in Atlanta this time. Well we decided to meet in Charleston S.C. Not in the middle, but certainly an interesting place to explore. Stayed at the Charleston Marriott (courtesy of Austins employee benefit) and had a great time. We had a nice dinner at A.W. Shucks. Mahi Mahi, Shucks famous seafood casserole smothered in 3 cheeses and a bucket of Crabs for the girls. Next morning went exploring and found the market place where we had toasted open face sandwiches for breakfast on the lawn at this cool park. Then it was off for a tour of Fort Sumpter. Boy was that ever fun. A 30 minute boat ride gets you to the Fort. The bummer is that you only get to spend a little over an hour on the island. There is so much Cvil war history here that it would be really nice to have been able to spend more time here. I was really looking forward to the boat ride since the Fort is at the entrance to Charleston Harbor and gave me a chance to look at the harbor entrance from the ocean side.
There was a pretty good breeze blowing so there were lots of sailboats out and about. All sizes and configurations. Some cruisers and lots of familys out for an afternoons sail. It sure seemed to me that the wind was blowing harder then the forecast. We were at lunch at this really great Barbecue place, I checked the NWS forecast for Charleston and found that the official forecast was for 10 to 15 knots fro the SE. Would have been a great day to sail up the coast . We should be back here in Dream Ketcher in a month or so. It’s nearly 300 miles from here to there so it will take a little while.
Still think our splash date will be sometime around the 10th of June. We will then spend a few days working on stuff that we can’t do here “on the Hard”. I have to check out all of the running lights on the main and the mizzen masts. Only one of them works and I get to find out what is wrong with the rest.
The list is actually getting longer but the list of things to do before we splash and the list of things to do before we head north are both slowly getting shorter.
Finally finished finding and servicing all of the seacocks. Had to scrounge around for a cheater pipe, ended up with a piece of thick walled PVC, it worked great as long as there was room to use it. I ended up with the old boiling water trick on one that wouldn’t even come apart when I had the lock nuts off. Well all is done now. Then it was back to the Garmin stuff. Found the home for the AIS and started feeding wires.
Should get the engine stuff finished up tomorrow and then finish up the garmin stuff, then on to the windlass and the new forward head and replace the lid on the seachest.
Well enough for now. Looking forward to reading your comments. Let me know what you would like to read more about.
I will get the admiral, (who is currently napping on the setee) to post something more interesting for the girls.
Captain Kook and the Sleeping Admiral. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Monday, May 31, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Updates, May 17th to the 20th
Blog Entry May 17 to 20 2010
Well things have definitely slowed down on the boat work front. We took a brief reprieve as Dave had minor surgery on Monday the 17th to repair a small hernia that had cropped up sometime in the last couple of months. Don’t know when, there was no dramatic “oh crap, now I did it moment”, just a small lump in my abdomen just below the rib cage. Pretty cool, it would bulge out and I would press it back in, gurgling all the way (the bulge). It was pretty funny. Well the doctors didn’t think it would be a good idea to be possibly 2 days away from a hospital at sea with that. Too many bad things could go wrong if it decided not to retract. Pinched off bowel, the whole nine yards. So with that, we decided to get it fixed asap.
I noticed it in early April, so we tried to plan all the heavy lifting to be done before the surgery, cause believe me, I am not in any shape to lift anything now. Just don’t make me laugh, cough, sneeze or god help me if I get the hiccups. There was an area of weakness in one of my 30 year old incisions that finally had had enough. Well, it is fixed now and I am on the mend. Although right now it doesn’t feel very good, in spite of the percocet #10’s.
I have lots of “Light Duty” projects lined up that will keep me very busy for a while as I heal up. Stuff that has to be done: install the chart plotter/gps, AIS, radar, weather radio, weather fax, antenna switches for the SSB/Weather Fax, and the AIS/VHF radio. Install the new stern light, put a new plug end in the short shore power cord, sand and varnish the new spice rack, mount the new Barbee (ya matey, time for some shrimp eh), install the new smart battery charger, install a ground new buss instead of having 27 ground wires all connecting to the engine mount, it works but it’s kind of messy looking. We are still debating on the permanent location of the TV and the book shelves that will go behind the table on the forward wall of the main salon. And the list goes on.
The only heavy stuff to do is to rebuild the windless. The heavy part there will be taking it off of the deck to get it delivered to the powder coaters. Installing the new toilet in the forward head is another item on that list. Maybe that’s a job for the admiral. I can provide lots of direction from the salon seat with cold beer in hand. UHHHH, I don’t think so.
Speaking of the book shelves, what a rude awakening that was. I thought the teak was expensive in Seattle. I can’t find, or just haven’t found any ½ inch yet, so my current option is to buy 4 quarter and have it milled to ½ inch. The 4 quarter prices is $50/board foot. Well for the dimensions I need (10”wide) that will be $50 per lineal foot, plus the milling charge which is by the hour. I only need about 25 lineal feet. So if you do the math real quick you can see that the book shelves will have to wait until I either find a cheaper source of teak, decide to use a different material (yeah, like that is gonna happen), buy a winning lottery ticket, or I get a real job again. I know, Patti can go back to work for a month or two. Works for me. (Don’t tell her, ok)
We will be replacing some of the inside lights in the boat. I am a huge fan of LED’s, and in fact had added LED lights to our Ranger 33. They are very efficient, some only using 0.1 amps. The current lights on the boat are older Halogen or incandescent that not only put out lots of light, but also get very hot and use 2+ amps. As you boaters and RV-er’s know, amps rule the roost. Anytime you can reduce your amperage consumption, you save on battery charging time. That’s time running the engine, the gen set, the wind generator or the solar panels. The current lights get so hot that you can burn yourself. That’s another concern, eliminate one more source of heat in the cabin. It’s already 90 in there, don’t need any more heat.
We do have a small wind generator now, but with no charge controller and it being a 20 year old unit, it probably does not have a built in voltage controller, I am reluctant to turn off the external limit switch. Don’t want to fry the batteries. The new wind generator will go in about the same place.
I did figure out how to mount the new solar panels. There is a boat here from Virginia, just here for bottom work and then north like us. Burt has his solar panels attached to his lifelines. That’s what I am going to do also, just aft of the mizzen shrouds. The rails there have stainless tubes instead of cable, great for mounting all kinds of stuff and is actually referred to as the push-pit.
The POD is nearing empty, well it’s down to 25% of where it started. To tell you the truth, I have no idea where all the stuff went. We have taken a very slow and methodical approach to our storage plan. A lot of the stuff in the POD was galley stuff and books. Those are the 2 things that there is plenty of room for on the boat. There is actually more book shelf space on the boat (after I get the tools stored that is) then we had used for cruising books at home, good news. The galley storage just goes on forever. No problems there either, at least not yet. ( Patti is at Walmart right now, no telling what galley gadget she will come home with this time) There are 2 places in the galley that you have to check for stow-aways they are so big. Tools may be the biggest challenge, and as my father is fond of saying, I have way too many tools. The truth of the matter is that we haven’t even started to put stuff into the nooks and crannies yet. The V-berth is virtually un-stored except for the stuff from the P.O.’s that needs a home. There is still lots of room in the head storage areas and the areas under the floor boards has yet to be utilized except for the medical kit.
Speaking of medical kits, we are very gratefull to Dr. Edwards in Olympia and Lafferty’s pharmacy in Ballard that did a great job advising us on what to take in the med kits, and what was not necessary. We had compiled a list of med supplies from several different books, and advanced first aid classes. Dr. Edwards, Mike Lafferty, thank you very much!!!!!!
People are wondering about our splash date. Well, I thought it would be much sooner than later, but there are a couple of things in play here. Obviously my surgery will push things back a bit and the big thing is that there is no room on the pier or the floating slips, so If we do go in the water then we would be on a mooring without shore power, using the dinghy to get to and from the dock. Not a very efficient way to get a lot of work done in a short period of time. We will go on the mooring for a week or so as we get close to our departure date, to start up all the systems and check them out before we depart. When, is anybody’s guess at this point but if “I” were “anybody” and “I” took a stab at it I would say that it is looking like the second week of June.
Now for the Admirals $0.02 worth.
This has been a really strange week. With Dave’s surgery, I did not want him climbing in and out of the boat, or being far from a wait your turn bathroom, in case he had bad reactions to the anesthesia. So, we moved into the neighborhood Marriott (God Bless you Austin!!)
The day of his surgery it was pouring down rain. Gully washer rain! It was so cold in the waiting area, that I went to Walmart and bought a light sweatshirt. It was warmer outside, than inside. They felt sorry for us in the post surgery waiting area, and let us stay a little longer than usual. I then proceeded to make the hotel room like a very cushy hospital room. (King size bed, refrigerator, microwave). I even got to enjoy the swimming pool and hot tub. We had pizza delivered one night and Chinese the next.
We went back to the boat today to get some clean clothes, and decided we needed at least one more night in the hotel. The woman at the front desk said that since we weren’t family we were welcome to come back!!
Dave can’t lift anything over 10 lbs. for 6 weeks. Life should be very interesting for awhile! I guess emptying the pod will be up to me. We’ll see what makes it on to the boat, and what gets deep sixed.
It really is amazing how everything is disappearing into the boat. I still have drawers and cubbies that have nothing in them. Dave and I found some great heavy duty acrylic bath caddies, with handles, that stack up in some of our deep storage bins. 3 deep in my food dry storage bin. That way we can pack way more in the space, and just lift out portions of the food to get to the bottom bins. Way cool!! We just bought 4 more of them, and had to visit 3 different Target stores to find them, but it was worth it.
We will use them in the refrigerator also. Would like to use them in the freezer, but it is just a little narrower, and will not accommodate them. I will have to hunt for some that are just a bit smaller. I am really enjoying shopping down here. There are nautical displays in almost every store, or beach, seashore, etc. I have found some nice additions for my galley. I can’t wait to show off our new home. It will be a lot of fun to have our first guest. Who will that be????
Well, tomorrow we go back to the boat. First on my to do list? Laundry! Then I must put our homeport on the stern of the boat. It looks so blank!! Olympia, WA will look very nice there. Actually, the very first thing will be cooling off the boat. When we went in today, it was over 90 in there. We’ll have to get the fans, and the AC unit going, and get new ice into the refrigerator.
We decided that since we have spent almost a month in Florida now, we would compose a top ten list of:
You know you’re in Florida when:
10 – Alligator is an appetizer OR an entree on the menu
9- Six lane divided arterials have a dedicated u-turn lane every 100 yards
8- 8 out of 10 commercials on TV are for personal injury lawyers
7 – Gas is $ 2.73 a gallon
6 – Pawn shops on every other corner
5 – They have never heard of Block ice
4 – Very few Mormons – the temples are the smallest of all church buildings
3 – The churches are HUGE and there is at least 1 every ½ mile
2 – Women quickly lose interest in their brown leather purses and discard them at the side of the highways – OOPS! Those are dead armadillos!
1 – Signs warning motorists that there are poisonous snakes in the ditches
Hope you enjoy our blog postings. Please leave a comment from time to time to let us know that at least someone is reading it.
Thanks
Nufffornow
Captain Kook and the Admiral
Well things have definitely slowed down on the boat work front. We took a brief reprieve as Dave had minor surgery on Monday the 17th to repair a small hernia that had cropped up sometime in the last couple of months. Don’t know when, there was no dramatic “oh crap, now I did it moment”, just a small lump in my abdomen just below the rib cage. Pretty cool, it would bulge out and I would press it back in, gurgling all the way (the bulge). It was pretty funny. Well the doctors didn’t think it would be a good idea to be possibly 2 days away from a hospital at sea with that. Too many bad things could go wrong if it decided not to retract. Pinched off bowel, the whole nine yards. So with that, we decided to get it fixed asap.
I noticed it in early April, so we tried to plan all the heavy lifting to be done before the surgery, cause believe me, I am not in any shape to lift anything now. Just don’t make me laugh, cough, sneeze or god help me if I get the hiccups. There was an area of weakness in one of my 30 year old incisions that finally had had enough. Well, it is fixed now and I am on the mend. Although right now it doesn’t feel very good, in spite of the percocet #10’s.
I have lots of “Light Duty” projects lined up that will keep me very busy for a while as I heal up. Stuff that has to be done: install the chart plotter/gps, AIS, radar, weather radio, weather fax, antenna switches for the SSB/Weather Fax, and the AIS/VHF radio. Install the new stern light, put a new plug end in the short shore power cord, sand and varnish the new spice rack, mount the new Barbee (ya matey, time for some shrimp eh), install the new smart battery charger, install a ground new buss instead of having 27 ground wires all connecting to the engine mount, it works but it’s kind of messy looking. We are still debating on the permanent location of the TV and the book shelves that will go behind the table on the forward wall of the main salon. And the list goes on.
The only heavy stuff to do is to rebuild the windless. The heavy part there will be taking it off of the deck to get it delivered to the powder coaters. Installing the new toilet in the forward head is another item on that list. Maybe that’s a job for the admiral. I can provide lots of direction from the salon seat with cold beer in hand. UHHHH, I don’t think so.
Speaking of the book shelves, what a rude awakening that was. I thought the teak was expensive in Seattle. I can’t find, or just haven’t found any ½ inch yet, so my current option is to buy 4 quarter and have it milled to ½ inch. The 4 quarter prices is $50/board foot. Well for the dimensions I need (10”wide) that will be $50 per lineal foot, plus the milling charge which is by the hour. I only need about 25 lineal feet. So if you do the math real quick you can see that the book shelves will have to wait until I either find a cheaper source of teak, decide to use a different material (yeah, like that is gonna happen), buy a winning lottery ticket, or I get a real job again. I know, Patti can go back to work for a month or two. Works for me. (Don’t tell her, ok)
We will be replacing some of the inside lights in the boat. I am a huge fan of LED’s, and in fact had added LED lights to our Ranger 33. They are very efficient, some only using 0.1 amps. The current lights on the boat are older Halogen or incandescent that not only put out lots of light, but also get very hot and use 2+ amps. As you boaters and RV-er’s know, amps rule the roost. Anytime you can reduce your amperage consumption, you save on battery charging time. That’s time running the engine, the gen set, the wind generator or the solar panels. The current lights get so hot that you can burn yourself. That’s another concern, eliminate one more source of heat in the cabin. It’s already 90 in there, don’t need any more heat.
We do have a small wind generator now, but with no charge controller and it being a 20 year old unit, it probably does not have a built in voltage controller, I am reluctant to turn off the external limit switch. Don’t want to fry the batteries. The new wind generator will go in about the same place.
I did figure out how to mount the new solar panels. There is a boat here from Virginia, just here for bottom work and then north like us. Burt has his solar panels attached to his lifelines. That’s what I am going to do also, just aft of the mizzen shrouds. The rails there have stainless tubes instead of cable, great for mounting all kinds of stuff and is actually referred to as the push-pit.
The POD is nearing empty, well it’s down to 25% of where it started. To tell you the truth, I have no idea where all the stuff went. We have taken a very slow and methodical approach to our storage plan. A lot of the stuff in the POD was galley stuff and books. Those are the 2 things that there is plenty of room for on the boat. There is actually more book shelf space on the boat (after I get the tools stored that is) then we had used for cruising books at home, good news. The galley storage just goes on forever. No problems there either, at least not yet. ( Patti is at Walmart right now, no telling what galley gadget she will come home with this time) There are 2 places in the galley that you have to check for stow-aways they are so big. Tools may be the biggest challenge, and as my father is fond of saying, I have way too many tools. The truth of the matter is that we haven’t even started to put stuff into the nooks and crannies yet. The V-berth is virtually un-stored except for the stuff from the P.O.’s that needs a home. There is still lots of room in the head storage areas and the areas under the floor boards has yet to be utilized except for the medical kit.
Speaking of medical kits, we are very gratefull to Dr. Edwards in Olympia and Lafferty’s pharmacy in Ballard that did a great job advising us on what to take in the med kits, and what was not necessary. We had compiled a list of med supplies from several different books, and advanced first aid classes. Dr. Edwards, Mike Lafferty, thank you very much!!!!!!
People are wondering about our splash date. Well, I thought it would be much sooner than later, but there are a couple of things in play here. Obviously my surgery will push things back a bit and the big thing is that there is no room on the pier or the floating slips, so If we do go in the water then we would be on a mooring without shore power, using the dinghy to get to and from the dock. Not a very efficient way to get a lot of work done in a short period of time. We will go on the mooring for a week or so as we get close to our departure date, to start up all the systems and check them out before we depart. When, is anybody’s guess at this point but if “I” were “anybody” and “I” took a stab at it I would say that it is looking like the second week of June.
Now for the Admirals $0.02 worth.
This has been a really strange week. With Dave’s surgery, I did not want him climbing in and out of the boat, or being far from a wait your turn bathroom, in case he had bad reactions to the anesthesia. So, we moved into the neighborhood Marriott (God Bless you Austin!!)
The day of his surgery it was pouring down rain. Gully washer rain! It was so cold in the waiting area, that I went to Walmart and bought a light sweatshirt. It was warmer outside, than inside. They felt sorry for us in the post surgery waiting area, and let us stay a little longer than usual. I then proceeded to make the hotel room like a very cushy hospital room. (King size bed, refrigerator, microwave). I even got to enjoy the swimming pool and hot tub. We had pizza delivered one night and Chinese the next.
We went back to the boat today to get some clean clothes, and decided we needed at least one more night in the hotel. The woman at the front desk said that since we weren’t family we were welcome to come back!!
Dave can’t lift anything over 10 lbs. for 6 weeks. Life should be very interesting for awhile! I guess emptying the pod will be up to me. We’ll see what makes it on to the boat, and what gets deep sixed.
It really is amazing how everything is disappearing into the boat. I still have drawers and cubbies that have nothing in them. Dave and I found some great heavy duty acrylic bath caddies, with handles, that stack up in some of our deep storage bins. 3 deep in my food dry storage bin. That way we can pack way more in the space, and just lift out portions of the food to get to the bottom bins. Way cool!! We just bought 4 more of them, and had to visit 3 different Target stores to find them, but it was worth it.
We will use them in the refrigerator also. Would like to use them in the freezer, but it is just a little narrower, and will not accommodate them. I will have to hunt for some that are just a bit smaller. I am really enjoying shopping down here. There are nautical displays in almost every store, or beach, seashore, etc. I have found some nice additions for my galley. I can’t wait to show off our new home. It will be a lot of fun to have our first guest. Who will that be????
Well, tomorrow we go back to the boat. First on my to do list? Laundry! Then I must put our homeport on the stern of the boat. It looks so blank!! Olympia, WA will look very nice there. Actually, the very first thing will be cooling off the boat. When we went in today, it was over 90 in there. We’ll have to get the fans, and the AC unit going, and get new ice into the refrigerator.
We decided that since we have spent almost a month in Florida now, we would compose a top ten list of:
You know you’re in Florida when:
10 – Alligator is an appetizer OR an entree on the menu
9- Six lane divided arterials have a dedicated u-turn lane every 100 yards
8- 8 out of 10 commercials on TV are for personal injury lawyers
7 – Gas is $ 2.73 a gallon
6 – Pawn shops on every other corner
5 – They have never heard of Block ice
4 – Very few Mormons – the temples are the smallest of all church buildings
3 – The churches are HUGE and there is at least 1 every ½ mile
2 – Women quickly lose interest in their brown leather purses and discard them at the side of the highways – OOPS! Those are dead armadillos!
1 – Signs warning motorists that there are poisonous snakes in the ditches
Hope you enjoy our blog postings. Please leave a comment from time to time to let us know that at least someone is reading it.
Thanks
Nufffornow
Captain Kook and the Admiral
Saturday, May 15, 2010
May 10 to 15 2010
May 10, 2010
Saturday the 8th was spent standing on a ladder sanding the transom. Why?, well the easy off oven cleaner did not take off all of the paint. We are going to keep the name but need to update the Home port. This is a US Coast Guard registered vessel so the owners Home Port has to be on the boat. It was a hot day too. I finally finished up about 3:30, just in time for Charlie from the yard to buff out the gel coat. Looks great, now all we have to do is find the vinyl name that Patti had made a couple of weeks ago.
Sunday we decided to take the day off and do some exploring for Mother’s Day. I will let Patti talk about that.
Monday started out cool and clear and never really warmed up. In fact it is 10 pm right now and Patti is lying on the settee cold and just had me get her a blanket. I did not think I would see that for several months. Don’t get me wrong, the cool weather is a real blessing. It is so nice to feel cold.
I finally found the engine exhaust gate valve. I had looked everywhere and finally stumbled upon it when I was trying to get the brand info off of the top of one of the battery chargers. The surveyor had identified it as needing replacement so I was happy to find it. As everything else it was pretty tough to remove. Lay on the cockpit sole, half way into the seat locker to reach the valve. It was pretty badly corroded. I replaced it with a 2” ball valve that went in a lot easier than the gate valve came out.
The next project, other than the constant task of storing, packing, and finding room for all of our stuf, is to tune up the heads. I keep looking at the pod and wonder where all the stuff will fit. Slowly but surely we are moving into the boat from the pod. Today was heads and seacocks. A head is a marine toilet for all the non boater types. A seacock is the valve in the hull of the boat that the thru hulls are connected to. You don’t want a hole in the bottom of the boat without a way to close the hole. That is what the seacock does. We have 9 of them and they are all frozen. The boat sat for a number of years with less than ideal maintenance. I finally got two of the seacocks freed up so that they move, but I will have to take the others apart. Not a big deal, just time consuming and really has to be done while the boat is out of the water.
The head maintenance turned out to be an interesting exercise. I got the forward head working yesterday, I think anway. Not being in the water it is hard to check to see if the head valves are working properly. ie pumping water and not leaking. The aft head was not as cooperative. I finally decided that it was better in the long run to replace the aft head with a new one. Patti wasn’t real excited about the very seaworthy looking green bronzed look of the old heads. Great for a guy boat but not so much for the admiral. The head came out a lot easier then it came apart to perform the maintenance items. It would have had to come out anyway to replace the “Y” valve that directs the head output either to the holding tank or to overboard. It is illegal to pump the head overboard unless you are 6 miles offshore. In fact the Florida Fish and Game folks have been boarding boats to check to see that the “Y” valve is locked in the holding tank only position. I had to enlarge the access port in the head where the out flow hoses enter the head from the bilge. So I got to use my new favorite tools again. The multi tool “Don’t leave home without it”, my “Tool Bench in a Box”, also known as the “Power 8”. Check out the video on line, just google “Power 8 tools”. My other new favorite tool is the small cordless screw driver. It is a small pistol grip style just small enough to get into most of the tight spaces.
The old head came out and then what else, off to West Marine for a replacement head. I checked the discount marine place but they did not have the locking style that I wanted. It is pretty important to have a head with a locking main pump. The heads in this boat are mounted below the waterline, so it is possible that they could back siphon water into the boat. Not Good.
A little West systems epoxy from our neighbor, (good trade for a cold beer, eh?) to fill in the old mounting holes and on to installing the new “Y” valve. One of the boats next to us, two of them actually have serious blister problems. If there are any problems with the gel coat while it is mixed or cured during the lay-up of the hull, then it may develop blisters in the the gel coat. Sometimes they go deeper than the gel coat. At any rate the repair is extremely labor intensive. It can involve anything from the spot repair of a few, dig out the blister and fill with epoxy and repaint with anti fouling bottom paint, to removing all of the bottom paint and all of the old gel caot and then adding a barrier coat to the hull. Our neighbors issues are pretty serious. One ended up not only removing all of the bottom paint, but also large areas of gel coat as well, the other took off all of the gel coat..
As you might expect, Murphy is in the house when I was working on the aft head. The new head doesn’t align to the y valve very well so I will look for a right angle exit pipe from the Jabsco web site. The new Y valve is quite a bit longer than the old one, makes fitting the new head in a little more interesting.
Well at any rate, should be able to finish up the aft head installation tomorrow after I get the engine put back together, the new cut-less bearing and dripless shaft packing and shaft in. The prop still isn’t here but that can wait until later. I suspect that when the admiral sees the bright shiny new toilet in the aft head, then she will want a new one in the forward head also.
Once the heads have been replaced, that pretty much finishes up the safety recommendations on the survey. Then it is on to the stuff we want as well as a few of the more critical items on the survey. The windless needs to be re-built and then powder coated, and on it goes.
May 15th
Well, the engine is back together. It now has a new Dry Plate, heat exchangers for the oil and transmission coolers. All of that stuff is on the engine now. The shaft and cutless bearing and dripless packing will wait util the middle of next week when the mechanic is back to work.
Captain Kook
The admirals corner………
While Dave has been slaving away on engine and head projects, I have been trying to find space for all the stuff we think we need. I know I brought way too many clothes! Right now there is room, but we’ll see what happens when all of the boxes have been opened. We are getting close though.
Mother’s Day was fabulous!!! Although I didn’t get to spend it with my boys, Dave made my wish come true, and we went to see the ocean. We drove out to Fernandina Beach, which is on Amelia Island, just off the coast at Jacksonville. Rayoniers headquarters are located there, so I got to see where Dave spent all his time when he was there several times over the last couple years. To get there we took a small ferry (one deck, about 30 cars). The weather was perfect, around 78, and low humidity. We went straight to the public beach and had lunch at a beachside café. Watched the waves crashing into the shore, and the people enjoying their day at the beach. Afterwards, we went for a walk along the shoreline, letting the water wash over our toes.
Next, Dave went back to the café to watch the end of the Sawgrass Player’s Tournament, while I sat on the beach and read a book and people watched. Afterwards, we went into downtown Fernandina and walked the streets. It’s a quaint little town with lots of interesting shops, and a beautiful marina. It will probably be our first stop on the day we set sail from Green Cove Springs. We had a delicious dinner in Dave’s favorite Mexican restaurant while we watched the sun go down (and the bugs come out!).
Both Austin and Matt called, and it was wonderful to catch up on all that is new in their lives. Matt and Jacinda just got back from their delayed honeymoon to Maui. Of course they had a great time and want to go back ASAP. The day after they got back was James’ 7th birthday!! I can’t believe how quickly he is growing. While they were in Hawaii, they got word that the foundation was being poured on their new house. It should be ready by late July.
Austin is still working hard at the Marriott in DC, trying to put up with the stupid demands of the hotel clients. Meanwhile, Cindy is deep into finishing up her finals for the year, then she is meeting her friends in Vegas for a bachelorette party. The bride and groom are tying the knot on Austin’s birthday in July. They will fly to Seattle for the wedding. Shortly after that, we should be arriving in the Chesapeake and hope to spend some time sailing with Austin. Cindy will be in Atlanta on an internship. In August, we hope to have Matt, Jacinda, and James join us in the Chesapeake as well.
So all is well! Except for the relentless assault the mosquitoes are having on my body. Can’t wait to get our boat on the water and away from these pests!!!
Saturday the 8th was spent standing on a ladder sanding the transom. Why?, well the easy off oven cleaner did not take off all of the paint. We are going to keep the name but need to update the Home port. This is a US Coast Guard registered vessel so the owners Home Port has to be on the boat. It was a hot day too. I finally finished up about 3:30, just in time for Charlie from the yard to buff out the gel coat. Looks great, now all we have to do is find the vinyl name that Patti had made a couple of weeks ago.
Sunday we decided to take the day off and do some exploring for Mother’s Day. I will let Patti talk about that.
Monday started out cool and clear and never really warmed up. In fact it is 10 pm right now and Patti is lying on the settee cold and just had me get her a blanket. I did not think I would see that for several months. Don’t get me wrong, the cool weather is a real blessing. It is so nice to feel cold.
I finally found the engine exhaust gate valve. I had looked everywhere and finally stumbled upon it when I was trying to get the brand info off of the top of one of the battery chargers. The surveyor had identified it as needing replacement so I was happy to find it. As everything else it was pretty tough to remove. Lay on the cockpit sole, half way into the seat locker to reach the valve. It was pretty badly corroded. I replaced it with a 2” ball valve that went in a lot easier than the gate valve came out.
The next project, other than the constant task of storing, packing, and finding room for all of our stuf, is to tune up the heads. I keep looking at the pod and wonder where all the stuff will fit. Slowly but surely we are moving into the boat from the pod. Today was heads and seacocks. A head is a marine toilet for all the non boater types. A seacock is the valve in the hull of the boat that the thru hulls are connected to. You don’t want a hole in the bottom of the boat without a way to close the hole. That is what the seacock does. We have 9 of them and they are all frozen. The boat sat for a number of years with less than ideal maintenance. I finally got two of the seacocks freed up so that they move, but I will have to take the others apart. Not a big deal, just time consuming and really has to be done while the boat is out of the water.
The head maintenance turned out to be an interesting exercise. I got the forward head working yesterday, I think anway. Not being in the water it is hard to check to see if the head valves are working properly. ie pumping water and not leaking. The aft head was not as cooperative. I finally decided that it was better in the long run to replace the aft head with a new one. Patti wasn’t real excited about the very seaworthy looking green bronzed look of the old heads. Great for a guy boat but not so much for the admiral. The head came out a lot easier then it came apart to perform the maintenance items. It would have had to come out anyway to replace the “Y” valve that directs the head output either to the holding tank or to overboard. It is illegal to pump the head overboard unless you are 6 miles offshore. In fact the Florida Fish and Game folks have been boarding boats to check to see that the “Y” valve is locked in the holding tank only position. I had to enlarge the access port in the head where the out flow hoses enter the head from the bilge. So I got to use my new favorite tools again. The multi tool “Don’t leave home without it”, my “Tool Bench in a Box”, also known as the “Power 8”. Check out the video on line, just google “Power 8 tools”. My other new favorite tool is the small cordless screw driver. It is a small pistol grip style just small enough to get into most of the tight spaces.
The old head came out and then what else, off to West Marine for a replacement head. I checked the discount marine place but they did not have the locking style that I wanted. It is pretty important to have a head with a locking main pump. The heads in this boat are mounted below the waterline, so it is possible that they could back siphon water into the boat. Not Good.
A little West systems epoxy from our neighbor, (good trade for a cold beer, eh?) to fill in the old mounting holes and on to installing the new “Y” valve. One of the boats next to us, two of them actually have serious blister problems. If there are any problems with the gel coat while it is mixed or cured during the lay-up of the hull, then it may develop blisters in the the gel coat. Sometimes they go deeper than the gel coat. At any rate the repair is extremely labor intensive. It can involve anything from the spot repair of a few, dig out the blister and fill with epoxy and repaint with anti fouling bottom paint, to removing all of the bottom paint and all of the old gel caot and then adding a barrier coat to the hull. Our neighbors issues are pretty serious. One ended up not only removing all of the bottom paint, but also large areas of gel coat as well, the other took off all of the gel coat..
As you might expect, Murphy is in the house when I was working on the aft head. The new head doesn’t align to the y valve very well so I will look for a right angle exit pipe from the Jabsco web site. The new Y valve is quite a bit longer than the old one, makes fitting the new head in a little more interesting.
Well at any rate, should be able to finish up the aft head installation tomorrow after I get the engine put back together, the new cut-less bearing and dripless shaft packing and shaft in. The prop still isn’t here but that can wait until later. I suspect that when the admiral sees the bright shiny new toilet in the aft head, then she will want a new one in the forward head also.
Once the heads have been replaced, that pretty much finishes up the safety recommendations on the survey. Then it is on to the stuff we want as well as a few of the more critical items on the survey. The windless needs to be re-built and then powder coated, and on it goes.
May 15th
Well, the engine is back together. It now has a new Dry Plate, heat exchangers for the oil and transmission coolers. All of that stuff is on the engine now. The shaft and cutless bearing and dripless packing will wait util the middle of next week when the mechanic is back to work.
Captain Kook
The admirals corner………
While Dave has been slaving away on engine and head projects, I have been trying to find space for all the stuff we think we need. I know I brought way too many clothes! Right now there is room, but we’ll see what happens when all of the boxes have been opened. We are getting close though.
Mother’s Day was fabulous!!! Although I didn’t get to spend it with my boys, Dave made my wish come true, and we went to see the ocean. We drove out to Fernandina Beach, which is on Amelia Island, just off the coast at Jacksonville. Rayoniers headquarters are located there, so I got to see where Dave spent all his time when he was there several times over the last couple years. To get there we took a small ferry (one deck, about 30 cars). The weather was perfect, around 78, and low humidity. We went straight to the public beach and had lunch at a beachside café. Watched the waves crashing into the shore, and the people enjoying their day at the beach. Afterwards, we went for a walk along the shoreline, letting the water wash over our toes.
Next, Dave went back to the café to watch the end of the Sawgrass Player’s Tournament, while I sat on the beach and read a book and people watched. Afterwards, we went into downtown Fernandina and walked the streets. It’s a quaint little town with lots of interesting shops, and a beautiful marina. It will probably be our first stop on the day we set sail from Green Cove Springs. We had a delicious dinner in Dave’s favorite Mexican restaurant while we watched the sun go down (and the bugs come out!).
Both Austin and Matt called, and it was wonderful to catch up on all that is new in their lives. Matt and Jacinda just got back from their delayed honeymoon to Maui. Of course they had a great time and want to go back ASAP. The day after they got back was James’ 7th birthday!! I can’t believe how quickly he is growing. While they were in Hawaii, they got word that the foundation was being poured on their new house. It should be ready by late July.
Austin is still working hard at the Marriott in DC, trying to put up with the stupid demands of the hotel clients. Meanwhile, Cindy is deep into finishing up her finals for the year, then she is meeting her friends in Vegas for a bachelorette party. The bride and groom are tying the knot on Austin’s birthday in July. They will fly to Seattle for the wedding. Shortly after that, we should be arriving in the Chesapeake and hope to spend some time sailing with Austin. Cindy will be in Atlanta on an internship. In August, we hope to have Matt, Jacinda, and James join us in the Chesapeake as well.
So all is well! Except for the relentless assault the mosquitoes are having on my body. Can’t wait to get our boat on the water and away from these pests!!!
Friday, May 7, 2010
The Micro Wave is in Finally!!!!!!!
First there is sad news to report from The Marina at Green Cove Springs. Yes the Rabbit has died. The VW rabbit that is. You remember from past posts that one of our neighbors was having a difficult time with the brakes on his VW rabbit convertible. Well it died last week and is now pushing up daiseys at the wrecking yard.
It is Hot down here. We knew that and are determined to tough it out. The temps have been in the mud 90's and the humidity is reasonable. 70% in the morning but as the temps rise the humidity has fallen to the 50% level. The first night on the boat was pretty hot. Thats all it took, and our other Whitby owner friend here in the marina, Dennis asking how we can put up with out AC. Ok so after Survivor we made a speed trip to Walmart and bought a a cheap AC unit that fits in the hatch to the aft cabin. Haven't found a way to get the cold into the main salon yet but that will come. Last night was actually cold. We slept great. Boy we are tough, 2 days and we crumble.
The microwave is finally in. It was a pretty interesting installation. Murphy was definately in the house. I thought the the dremel tool would be the savior. I had to cut the back of the shelf off of the hull. Amazing craftmanship in this boat. They didn't just mount the shelf on brackets on the fore and aft bulkheads. They also layed one layer of heavy glass cloth along the hull and overlapoped on to the shelf and then epoxied the shelf to the hull. This all said it meant have to cut the joint with the dremel tool, except that there a wood dowels tourned to hold glasses that got in the way. See the pic. The space was too small for anything bigger then the dremel. So half of the joint had to be cut with a hacksaw blade by hand. FUN.
Our stuff arrived yesterday, the Relo-Cube is a great way to move stuff. Probably to good since there is no way everything in there will fit in the boat. I think. And it was only half full. Unloading the cube from the truck was an interesting adventure. The guy that showed up had never delivered a relo cube before. So he had never driven the fork lift off of the semi trailer either. He was having trouble so I finally figured out what had to happen and basically gave him step by step instructions (from a safe distance of course) on how to get the fork lift down to the ground. And then the same in reverse. Now I know how they do that. You learn something new every day.
Now that the micro wave is installed and our stuff is here, Patti can get moved into her galley. Our next projects are to finish getting the old home port city and state off of the transom and the new home port put on. That will take some work. The old homeport was on for 8 years, so there is a substantial difference in the gel coat condition under the letters vs the rest of the transom. After that I will take the main off so we can take it to the sailmaker and have some restitching done. We will probably take all of the sails off if we end up pulling the masts.
The prop is still in Everett getting re furbished. It had some pretty serious pitting due to the previous Owners (P.O.) not keeping up with the zink maint. The gears in the prop will all be replaced and the blades will be re-sheathed. This is a maxi prop. The blades rotate so that they are fared when we are sailing, and then rotate to 20% pitch in forward and also in reverse.
Once the prop shows up then we will put the engine back together and do a preliminary shaft alignment. We are replacing the Cutless bearing and installing a dripless shaft packing and drive saver.
Well thats plenty for now
The Admirals Corner:
It is still Hell week! We are still buried in stuff, and we haven't even unloaded the relo cube. It gets unbearably hot during the day. It was 96 outside, and 86 inside the boat today. The AC does a good job of keeping the master stateroom cool, but I've done all the work that I can back there. Can't believe I was complaining about the rain back in Olympia!!!
Today was James' birthday party. He is now 7 years old!! He is doing well in school and plays T-ball. We got to see a few of his games while we were home. We also had our very own birthday party for him. We gave him his very own astronaut orange jumpsuit, that we got when we were at the Kennedy Space Center. It was a big hit!! We hope to have Matt, Jacinda and James visit with us while we are on the Chesapeake in August. That way they can also see where Austin & Cindy are, and see the sights around the DC area.
Matt and Jacinda just got back from their delayed honeymoon to Maui. They had a fabulous time, and even managed to have their picture taken with the parrots! While they were there, the foundation for their new house was being poured. It should be ready by the end of July.
Cindy is in the midst of finals, and is almost 2/3rds a lawyer! She works very hard and is doing excellent. She will be doing an internship this summer with the Southern Poverty Law Assoc. in Atlanta. Meanwhile, Austin is still working hard at the Marriott. Thank goodness! His discount has saved us a bundle of money!! We love you Austin! We hope to see him quite a bit this summer.
Love & Hugs
It is Hot down here. We knew that and are determined to tough it out. The temps have been in the mud 90's and the humidity is reasonable. 70% in the morning but as the temps rise the humidity has fallen to the 50% level. The first night on the boat was pretty hot. Thats all it took, and our other Whitby owner friend here in the marina, Dennis asking how we can put up with out AC. Ok so after Survivor we made a speed trip to Walmart and bought a a cheap AC unit that fits in the hatch to the aft cabin. Haven't found a way to get the cold into the main salon yet but that will come. Last night was actually cold. We slept great. Boy we are tough, 2 days and we crumble.
The microwave is finally in. It was a pretty interesting installation. Murphy was definately in the house. I thought the the dremel tool would be the savior. I had to cut the back of the shelf off of the hull. Amazing craftmanship in this boat. They didn't just mount the shelf on brackets on the fore and aft bulkheads. They also layed one layer of heavy glass cloth along the hull and overlapoped on to the shelf and then epoxied the shelf to the hull. This all said it meant have to cut the joint with the dremel tool, except that there a wood dowels tourned to hold glasses that got in the way. See the pic. The space was too small for anything bigger then the dremel. So half of the joint had to be cut with a hacksaw blade by hand. FUN.
Our stuff arrived yesterday, the Relo-Cube is a great way to move stuff. Probably to good since there is no way everything in there will fit in the boat. I think. And it was only half full. Unloading the cube from the truck was an interesting adventure. The guy that showed up had never delivered a relo cube before. So he had never driven the fork lift off of the semi trailer either. He was having trouble so I finally figured out what had to happen and basically gave him step by step instructions (from a safe distance of course) on how to get the fork lift down to the ground. And then the same in reverse. Now I know how they do that. You learn something new every day.
Now that the micro wave is installed and our stuff is here, Patti can get moved into her galley. Our next projects are to finish getting the old home port city and state off of the transom and the new home port put on. That will take some work. The old homeport was on for 8 years, so there is a substantial difference in the gel coat condition under the letters vs the rest of the transom. After that I will take the main off so we can take it to the sailmaker and have some restitching done. We will probably take all of the sails off if we end up pulling the masts.
The prop is still in Everett getting re furbished. It had some pretty serious pitting due to the previous Owners (P.O.) not keeping up with the zink maint. The gears in the prop will all be replaced and the blades will be re-sheathed. This is a maxi prop. The blades rotate so that they are fared when we are sailing, and then rotate to 20% pitch in forward and also in reverse.
Once the prop shows up then we will put the engine back together and do a preliminary shaft alignment. We are replacing the Cutless bearing and installing a dripless shaft packing and drive saver.
Well thats plenty for now
The Admirals Corner:
It is still Hell week! We are still buried in stuff, and we haven't even unloaded the relo cube. It gets unbearably hot during the day. It was 96 outside, and 86 inside the boat today. The AC does a good job of keeping the master stateroom cool, but I've done all the work that I can back there. Can't believe I was complaining about the rain back in Olympia!!!
Today was James' birthday party. He is now 7 years old!! He is doing well in school and plays T-ball. We got to see a few of his games while we were home. We also had our very own birthday party for him. We gave him his very own astronaut orange jumpsuit, that we got when we were at the Kennedy Space Center. It was a big hit!! We hope to have Matt, Jacinda and James visit with us while we are on the Chesapeake in August. That way they can also see where Austin & Cindy are, and see the sights around the DC area.
Matt and Jacinda just got back from their delayed honeymoon to Maui. They had a fabulous time, and even managed to have their picture taken with the parrots! While they were there, the foundation for their new house was being poured. It should be ready by the end of July.
Cindy is in the midst of finals, and is almost 2/3rds a lawyer! She works very hard and is doing excellent. She will be doing an internship this summer with the Southern Poverty Law Assoc. in Atlanta. Meanwhile, Austin is still working hard at the Marriott. Thank goodness! His discount has saved us a bundle of money!! We love you Austin! We hope to see him quite a bit this summer.
Love & Hugs
Monday, April 19, 2010
The boats work continues
Captain Kooks version
This retirement thing is exhausting. I don’t know how I got things done when I was working. We have been back in Olympia for a week and have 2 more weeks to get the house packed up and ready to rent.
While we were in Florida the first 2 weeks of April we got lots of things done. Patti spent a lot of time cI eaning every surface In the boat. Sitting in the marina in Georgia for 2 plus years it accumulated a pretty good coating of dust and grime. I got to clean out the freezer and the fridge cause she can’t reach the bottom. I posted a video of my adventures into the depths of the freezer.
I Started with the surveyor’s safety recommendations. We have most of those done and even got a good start on several other items. We, pulled the shaft so we could check out the cutless bearing. It will be replaced and will add a dripless packing gland too. The shaft was sent out to a shop to be checked out, just found out that it is ok. That was a relief, a new propeller shaft, well OUCH!!!
After we took the shaft out, then it was on to the transmission and the rear bell housing on the engine. Got help from a local mechanic who has rebuilt a couple of Lehman diesels lately. The dry plate went in just before we came home. Removing the bell housing is not an easy task but we got it done. We tried to get the transmission back on but ran out of gas since we had been at it all day, well that and the fact that it was beer thirty had some influence too.
Everyday at 1630 (that’s mariner, sailor, military type and most of the rest of the world speak for 4:30pm) the live-a-boards at the marina gather on the porch of the marina office, cold beer in hand, to discuss the days projects. It tends to get a little rowdy and somewhat distracting, especially when you’re only two boats away, it’s 80 degrees and in need of some liquid replenishment.
The collection of people here is as eclectic as the cars around the marina. There is an early 80’s VW convertible. The good ole white rag top. For a week the owner had the car parked in the shade working on the brakes. In the nafternoon he would show up at happy hour to share his success for the day. Well we all knew long before he got out of the car since he would slowly coast up to the office beer oin hand looking pretty distraught. Yep guys still no brakes he would say. Ack at it tomorrow.
The first big project of the trip was a bust all for the want of a dremel tool. We wanted to get the micro-wave installed first and spent a lot of time making the rounds to all of the stores in the area, Lowes, Home Depot, Penneys, Kohls, Walmart, Sears, Freds, etc. Taking measurements and trying to visualize what would fit and what wouldn’t. We bought one that we thought would fit and then proceeded to remove the shelf in the galley behind the stove. Easy Peasey, right? Wrong. The shelf appeared to be resting on two blocks at the end of the shelf. Take out 4 screws and the shelf comes right out, right!!!! Well the blocks came out as expected but the shelf wouldn’t budge. OK, it wiggled a little but was not about to relinquish the space it had occupied without a fight. It turns that there is a layer of glass cloth epoxyed over the top of the shelf, securing it to the hull. Tried lots of things but the space is very limited and a dremel tool will do the trick. That’s the first thing I will do when we get back in a couple of weeks.
Other boat projects. Engine stuff, replace the raw water pump, oil and transmission oil heat exchangers/coolers, replace a couple of sections of exhaust hose. I also replaced the ship side plug for the shore power cord and replaced a couple of outlets with GFIC outlets. The propane system was really corroded, so out it came and was replaced and upgraded with a dual regulator and all new hose. I also added a disconnect switch and breaker to the inverter circuit.
Buying a car ended up taking a lot more time than I thought. We ended up buying a 1998 Nissan Sentra from the used car guy in Green Cove Springs, just 3 miles from where the boat is parked. We were looking for a cheap car and so where else would you look then a business called, yep you got it, “Cheap Cars”.
Now that we are home for 3 weeks the focus is completely different. First priority was to pack the stuff to take to the boat in May. Next is packing up the rest of the house and take it to our storage unit. Get the drapes and rugs cleaned and a whole bunch on other stuff.
From the Admiral:
It seems as though we are living in two different worlds right now. Our new one in Florida, and our old one in Olympia. It was really strange coming back home and not having to go back to work. I guess I really am retired!
Our life in Olympia is getting packed up and put into storage, waiting for us to come back and start anew. When we get back to Florida, we’ll unpack and move our things into our new home, our new life. Just need to meld some of the old with the new. We definitely want to keep in touch with all of our friends and family, and keep them informed of all of our exploits, so we will try to do that here, and through email, skype, facebook, phone, etc. All kinds of communication available to us. Not only will you be in our hearts, but you will be at the tip of our finger, only a moment away.
Friday, April 9, 2010
The Adventure resumes
Well after a long absence from the blog it is time to get back to it. We have been really busy the last couple of years as Patti and I undertook a serious educational endeavor.
We decide a couple of years ago, actually more like 3 that we would really like to buy a bigger boat and go cruising. We started reading Lin and Larry Pardeys books, and found that the most interesting parts of the books were learning about the people they befriended and the cultures they encountered in their many travels. Additionally It soon became apparent that there is a tremendous kinship within the cruising community. It is almost as if it is a huge traveling commune where the members are constantly changing, forever replenishing with new faces of similar motivation. Lots of expertise from nearly every walk of life, all with the same dream, sail the oceans in quest of adventure. To see life at a different pace and a different perspective. And for me, to be a little more self sufficient /reliant. Yes we will need diesel for the auxillary, and gasoline for the outboard on the inflatable, propane for the stove/oven. But with the help of a wind generator, a couple of solar panels and the ever blowing trade winds, our main energy demand, 12v DC electricity will be replenished by the elements, sun and wind.
Our education continued as we took many class at the boat show in Seattle, and attended offshore cruising seminars and a very intense first aid class. Patti now knows how to give me a shot of lidacane before she sutures up the cut I am sure to get. Our library grew to fill the book case with books on everything from anchoring to first aid to advanced weather forecasting. Patti took classes put on for women, by women. These were all day sessions where she learned about diesel engine maintenance, sail repair and sail trim, anchoring, docking etc.
On the practical front, we raced our Ranger 33 in the Wednesday night bouy races in 2007, 2008 and 2009. This was a great time for us to work on our communications and boat maneuvering in tight quarters. Patti drove and I would trim, teach and strategize. We did really well in 2009, but not so well the other years. Patti’s confidence really soared as she was solely responsible for driving the boat. She did everything, from leaving the dock to coming back to the dock, and everything in-between . She did great. She even raced without me a couple of times when I was in Florida on business. She called friends and off they went.
We started looking at boats in 06. Yachtworld is a really cool web site. (www.yachtworld.com) We spent hours upon hours researching boats, equipment, places to go, places not to go and how to get there. We went to an offshore cruising seminar, one of those all day and dinner kind of deals that makes you brain hurt. It was actually a lot of fun, but ended up being really an outline of where to go to get the real good info. One of the best tips that we got was the name of a very respected broker, Michael Locatell, Discovery Yachts in Seattle, who we sat next to both during the class and at dinner. This friendship became invaluable as we were constantly asking him for advice on different boats and cruising areas. One of the resources that we got at the seminar was a cruising handbook, which along with discussion of what gear to take and which brand works best, was a description of the criteria for a blue water cruising boat. This couple, John and Amanda Neal, have spent over 20 years sailing the seven seas. They hold classes in 1, 2, and 3 week sessions along theroute that they take between New Zealand and the Swedish Artic circle region. Their boat recommendations come after years of cruising the most popular areas in the world, and interviewing sailors about their experiences with their boats. This really helped us refine our own criteria. In the end we really only had a few criteria that “The Boat” had to meet.
Center Cockpit; these designs usually have a nice aft cabin living quarters and good access to the engine..
Double head sail or cutter rig; Best configuration for shortening sail when the wind picks up.
Skeg Hung Rudder; good safety feature at sea.
¾ cruising keel; better mobility and speed than a full keel boat.
5 foot draft; This was not much of a criteria for west coast boats but it was really important for east cost boats.
We bought a Whitby 42 in Florida named “Dream Ketcher”. I have started a new album, labeled S/V Dream Ketcher.
When our boat search started were were not concerned about where the boat was. We figured that we would just deal with it. East coast or west coast we didn’t really care, initially.
One of the many blogs that we followed was of a young couple with little or no money who bought a Ranger 33 (Just like our old boat). Their boat was in Massachusets and needed a lot of work. They eventually finished up and started down the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway. I had no idea that such a thing existed. It stretches from Main to Brownsville Texas. Suddenly I wanted to cruise the AICW. So now you know why we bought a boat in Florida.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
12-1-07 log entry
12-1-07 log entry
Up early to get stuff packed.
We got to the airport in time to have some breakfast. We decided to check 3 bags going home, in spite of the fact that the only bag we checked on the way down got lost and took 24 hours to catch up to us. We filed a lost bag report with the airlines, but got little satisfaction from the ticket agent, that we would get it back. I kept checking for it at the Moorings customer service desk. One gentleman commented that the airline was very good at baggage recovery, because they lost a lot of bags. Now I really felt a lot better (:>")
Went thru security. The security guy was pretty owly. He insisted that there was a bottle in my carry on. I was confused, I had made sure that everything with fluids were in the checked bags. Well they had to search the bag only to find a plastic bottle with a puzzle in it that Patti had gotten for a x-mas gift.
Then the security guy’s attitude changed completely. He suddenly was an investment advisor, looking for some venture capital for real estate development.
The flight to San Juan was uneventful. The connection to the flight to Dallas-Fort Worth was anything but.
We had to run to the gate. Luckily it was in the same end of the airport and we got there as the last folks were boarding. That was close!!!
The real fun was still to come.
The 4.5 hour flight to DFW seemed to go a lot faster than the flight from DFW to Seatac. It must have been the movie. "Hairspray" with John Travolta in drag as a horribly overweight mom. It was moderately entertaining, probably only because Michelle Pfiffer was in it too.
The flight to Seattle seemed to take forever. When we finally got there we could see the snow on the roads from the plane.
All the bags showed up in Seattle so we were off to Olympia. Matt had come to pick us up and had parked the car right in front of us. Still in my flip flops, shorts and aloha shirt I made it to the car and jumped inside.
It was 32 degrees Fahrenheit in Seattle, 12 hours before it was 32 degrees centigrade in Road Town, Tortola. No way I was going to change yet, I was going to wait until we got home. Besides, the Huskies were about to kick-off in Honolulu, weren't they? I had to keep the faith, didn't I?
As we headed south from the airport the snow got deeper and deeper. By the time we got to Tacoma there was a lot of slush on the highway. By Olympia there were a couple of inches of slush that was keeping the water from running off the road. We were hungry so we decided to stop for a take and bake pizza and get a few groceries. Patti and Matt went in for the pizza and I went for the groceries. I got lots of looks as I walked through 3 inches of snow in the parking lot. Yep, still in "Flip-flops, shorts and an aloha shirt". Got the groceries, jumped back into the car and on home. Well almost. It was really snowing now and as we went west the snow got deeper and deeper. Went by a Dominos delivery guy stuck in the ditch. Made a turn and suddenly the car just decided to do a doughnut in the middle of the road. Matt was driving and doing an excellent job. He had been going really slow so the doughnut was unavoidable. Luckily we successfully avoided hitting anything. We got straightened out and found a police car right behind us. Matt got out and told the policeman about the pizza guy. Turns out he only pulled behind us because he was going to turn around. We headed for home again, and found another car in the ditch, upside down, just around the next corner!! Got to the little hill within a half mile of the house and yep, you guessed it, stuck. Well, Matt and I got out, Patti drove and Matt and I pushed. Well, Matt pushed and I just laid on the hood. Worked great as we just motored slowly up the hill right past a couple of other cars that were stuck there too.
Home, finally. Got up Sunday morning to 5 inches of snow, jumped in the shower only to have the power go out.
It’s good to be home anyway, but would go back in a heartbeat.
nufffornow
Capt Kook
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