Yippee! We are back in the water finally!

Well almost a year later and we are finally back in the water. It has been along and frustrating process and we are still not finished (are you ever finished with boat work?) but we are floating again. The trip from land to water looked like something out of a scifi movie and was pretty nerve wrecking for me but went without a hitch. Below are pictures of the process.

UGH Sometimes Things Just Stink!

Bad News. The rebuilt engine will not start! After multiple attempts still no joy. Now the engine has been taken apart and some new part is on order but will not be here until after the New Year. This pretty much puts the last nail in the coffin for this season's trip to the Bahamas. Grrrrrrrr Sometimes you just have to suck it up and accept the bad and move on to concentrate on the good. I choose to focus on Christmas with the family right now and tackle my project boat after next week!

Boatyard Blues!

We are stuck in the land of perpetual boat repairs! The bottom paint was completed and looking good..... then I noticed a small droplet  on the forward starboard bow. Picking revealed a paint enclosed water droplet. Not good. This is the same side that had the most damage especially in the bow. So looks like there was water still in the hull that did not drain past the forward bulkhead.

Removed new paint, drilled hole, struck water.

Opened her up, removed wet core and let dry

Dried out, filled in and ready to sand and lay up new glass.

The motor rebuild is complete but won't start. Got the mechanic scratching his head on that one. No Idea what will happen next or when we will get out of here. Guess that is what boatyard blues is all about!

The water is within site!

Putting on the hard antifouling

Lots of progress and it finally looks like we are going to get this boat floating again! The inside is still a huge mess but it is getting better. The outside is really coming along.The barrier coat is finished and the hard anti-foul is on, next is the ablative. The boots are being resealed and the engines are almost ready to fire up. I finished an extension for the bimini that will shade the helm. The new holding tank is installed. I have almost cleaned all the bright work ( that really made me feel better! at least something is clean.) Looks like we should get splashed sometime this week! We will need to test out all the repairs and then its a weather window and head south!

Drying between coats. the plastic is to protect it from the painting on the boat next to us.
We raised the water line about 3 inches. The ablative antifouling will be blue.



There are over 30 boats in the harbor for the annual Thanksgiving feast. Since we have family here and always have a big get together, we have never attended but plan to go to the cruisers exchange being held tomorrow morning. We have the vhs antenna that we took off the boat when we put up the new SSB antenna that we will take and see if anyone is interested in it.

OK, So we are still on land and the boat looks like it's been through a tornado. We are making progress but are finding out first hand the truth in the saying that "everything takes longer and cost more on a boat!" We kept finding damage as we sanded the hull to prep the bottom for painting. Thankfully hulls are finally repaired and ready for paint.

We put new leather on the spreaders to help with chafe.

While the mast was on the ground we took the opportunity to recover the old brittle leather on the spreaders  with new ( well sort of new. We got a leather coat from Goodwill when we couldn't find any leather at a reasonable price.) We did get the mast back on and started putting on the stack pack and lazy jacks on but it started pouring so we went back inside to work on the holding tank. If we can catch a break on the weather they will do a barrier coat and then paint the bottom. Pictures and updates soon since I finally got the bugs worked out of my blog.

Well I know everyone will be happy when there is something else on this blog other than repair and refit but I can't help but get excited when I see my SSB and AIS installed, Stray cat is still a mess but I can see progress. I am set to take my Ham operator test in 3 weeks and then hopefully we will be back in the water and waiting for appropriate weather to head south. Getting really excited!

Icom SSB

Pactor 4 Modem

Base repaired and almost ready for new Mast Step

The clock is ticking!

Time seems to be moving at warp speed but the boat is still a mess. I keep having to remind myself that we are actually making progress. The SSB, modem, tuner and AIS are being installed. Our FCC License has been granted and we now have a call sign and a MMSI Number. We needed the MMSI Number for the AIS before it could be shipped. Our friend who is doing the installation recommended that since Freddie usually takes the lead at the helm that I should take the lead at communications. All of this was new to me but I have found that if I just slow down and take it one step at a time it is really not so complicated. Studying for the Ham Radio license is a little more involved (including learning how to utilize a scientific calculator) but it is beginning to make sense. We also got our emergency beacon's battery changed and registered to us.  It will make sure that if needed our specific information will be sent to the coast guard along with our exact location. Our 2013 cruising decal has arrived. Freddie has been busy re-making the interior doors damaged by Beryl and overseeing the new holding tanks, and engine repairs. It seems incredible that we are looking at just weeks before we will be back in the water and Bahamas bound! Here are a couple of pics of the fiberglass repair.

Looks much better than this before picture.