Happy Holidays Everyone

Hard to believe its been two weeks since my last post. Time is flying by once again, but I don't seem to be accomplishing much. My Mom and Dad were here for a visit for a few days, I made a few Christmas presents, took lots of time to help heal some of my aching body parts, and had some badly needed down time. But, I am starting to feel a little guilty, and there is no way this boat is ever going to get finished if I don't get er' done.

I managed to get the new boom sanded, primed and painted. She looks good. That Interlux Brightside paint is nice stuff to work with. It turns out that despite the information I got on line, the mast from the Bayliner was not painted. Short of a grinder, there was no way to remove the black. So I just went over top of it with the primer. I put the first coat on too thick and it ran badly, so I had to sand it off almost completely, then apply 2 more coats of primer, and two coats of paint. They recommend that the primer be sanded until you can see through it. At least the first coat. I guess we'll find out in our travels whether or not the finish is tough enough, but it seems pretty bulletproof right now.

 Look at that shine. The mast is going to look bad now. Although, by the time it gets installed on the boat it will have its share of scrapes, rubs, and general de-glazing. Hopefully I'll get it cut to shape here in the next couple of days, and design the new gooseneck attachment. Then I'll put it away until its time to install and rig it.

 I did manage to get down to the boat for a couple of days to get some work done. I needed to get some work completed to a certain point so that I could take measurements and complete the shop work this winter.

I shaved 1/4" off the Nav station extension so that it would fold down properly, then re-installed it.

 I spent most of the two days installing the last bulkhead in the galley, getting it epoxied in place and doing a general framing out of the galley. The days are getting really short, more than 3 hours at the boat and I am all but frozen solid. Sure is was +4 out, but with the wind it felt more like -20. At least my ears and hands thought so.

 At this point I took all the measurements, designed the galley, and now can build the face frames and cabinet doors in the shop. We also made some decisions about the shelves and use of space, but that will get done in the spring when I put the whole thing together.

 I even dropped the new sink in for a photo op. This is a bar sink, about twice the size of the original sink, which was just way too small for a liveaboard galley. I would have liked something a little deeper, but this isn't too bad. Serena would have really liked a double sink, but in a 29' boat, there just isn't the space. Especially with this much insulation around the fridge.

That's about it. Pretty exciting eh... Winters start slow. I'll have more interesting things going on once we get over the holiday season. We are already making lists and plans for the Toronto boat show. This year we will be there for 3 days. My sister works for the Marriot Hotel chain, so we got a family discount. Two nights for $80.00, sweet. Our tickets are bought and paid for, and the list begins. We signed up for the all day cruising seminar with John and Amanda (Swan) Neal, and I want to catch some of Wally Moran's seminars about the ICW. There is also the shopping list which probably won't be overly large this year. On top of that list though is a Rochna 15 anchor. West Marine is the cheapest at $345, but they usually have a boat show special giving 10% off. So we'll see. Maybe someone will have it cheaper. There will be a few more odds and sods too, but that list is yet to be compiled. I am not a die hard Rochna fan or anything, and if I can get a Manson Supreme or a spade for less money, I may go that way. We have two Kingston plows on the bow now. One 25lb and one 45lb, but I don't have a lot of faith in the 45, and none in the 25. We'll keep the 45 for a backup anchor for now, but it may eventually get replaced if the right deal pops up on a 35 lb Delta or something like that. What do they say about ground tackle, "cheap insurance", "don't cheap out on it."

Have a great holiday everyone.... Dreams of sailing.....