Good Bye Trailer Trash, Hello Boat People

Well, almost. Tomorrow morning we pull out of the trailer park headed for my parents for a few days, then as soon as we are back, its onto the boat. Its been a crazy few weeks heading up to this point. Noticeable by the lack of blog entries as much as anything else. I can't guarantee that the posts will get any more frequent, but they should look a little different.

The most important thing though is that the boat is ready to move onto. Not ready to leave the dock, since there is no mast, no running engine, no lights, no ground tackle installed, and a big list of other things. But we have refrigeration. WooHoo. I rewired the high current electrical this morning, as I was not happy with the original installation. I had missed that the ACR circuit needed a 100 amp  fuse on either side to protect it, so when I installed it, I used up the spare fuse, plus the one for the main house line. Its all better now, and safe. So I ran the wire for the compressor, cut out the bulkhead so that I could get max air flow, hooked up the lines and flipped the switch. In 2 hours it had cooled the fridge from 17 deg to 7 deg C. Success!!! Interesting to note though, that the interior of the fridge was only 17 deg when I turned it on, and it was 27 deg in the boat. That has to say something about the quality of the insulation.

Here are a bunch of pictures of the boat in her current state. Serena has started nesting, and I can't believe the number of things she has crammed in there already.

 I spent 2 days sewing, among other things, but here is the new cockpit cushions. It would have cost an extra $50 to put piping around the seams, so I didn't bother, as its only cosmetic anyway. Besides that, if the cushions get a little water on them with piping, it causes the water to pool at the seam, which is bad. This way might not be as pretty, but it still works, and may even prevent wet foam.

 The nav station. Notice all the nicely finished wood.

 I got the stainless steel pan from my welder yesterday, and after the fridge was installed I put the pan in place. It looks good, and the finished galley is really nice. Most importantly, Serena likes it, "happy wife, happy life".

 And the couch is in place. Now that all the painting and staining is done, we can move in the goodies. The shelf to the right in the picture above goes around the mast, provides storage, and supports the fold down table.

 The cushions for the pull out bed are done, and they are the nicest ones yet. I figured out the key to nice fitting cushion covers, take out the seam allowance. It seems to have worked.

 A cushion in the head. My first attempt, not really happy with it, and I may do it again.

 I built a shelf around the anchor locker to hold the rode off of the primary anchor, and both the chain and the rode for the secondary anchor. Just keeping the locker organized.

 Its hard to tell with this photo, but it shows the new bulkhead that I epoxied into the anchor locker to provide some height to the well, and an attachment for the bitter end of each anchor.

 Stove pan. Next week stove, hopefully!

 Nesting, the area in behind the drawers under the nav station provide a good place for dry storage, and man does it fit a lot of it.

 Under the sink.

Little storage for little things.

And lastly, the compressor installation for the fridge. Its down in a lazarette, so I will have to make some fancy covers, but its not going anywhere, and it works fantabulous.

There is so much more that it isn't funny, but to document everything would be nightmare.

So next blog will be from living on the boat. Fair winds and following seas.

T - 5 Days

Hard to believe a month has gone by since we sold the house. We have been so consumed by the refit, that we haven't had time to do anything. We were going to have friends over to the campground, we were going to have fires, we were going to go for walks. We were...... (they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions!) At some point we are going to have to apologize to our friends and family for dropping off the end of the world, and we haven't even left the dock yet. But really, 4 weeks in a campground, and the only fire we had was to burn the mounting receipts from the refit, and the beer store.

I am getting to the point now that if we don't slow down a little soon, I am going to explode. However, Friday we lose the camp site, and as of yet, there is no refrigeration, no lights, no water, and only a few cushions have covers. I guess that means I am going to have to hold off the explosion until next week, too busy this week.

Serena spent 10 hours on Saturday cleaning the boat. Forward of the head didn't get done, as I was still epoxying, and I cleaned everything from the companion way back. So ten hours to clean the head, the salon, the nav station, and the galley. Give you an idea of how bad it was? I am happy to report that Vita looks much better now. Yesterday I managed to get all the painting and staining done in five hours, Today I will get the second coat done. Then one day for some drying and off-gassing. That leaves Wed and Thur to start moving aboard, and getting the fridge working. Lights and water we can live without, but cold beer is a necessity!

Then, since I had so much extra time in the afternoon, we went to the storage area and did a 3 hour sorting marathon. We didn't make anymore space, but the truck is packed with different stuff now. Hopefully once we start unloading some of the stuff into the boat, and get the wing-back chairs to my Mom, that we will start to have a little space to play with. Now its trying to figure out whether to just give all the extra stuff away, or try and sell it. But I don't have time to figure out what we need and what we don't need.

The 6 to 6 Slog

At some point the body just quits and says that's enough. After dinner on Tuesday I laid down, and that's pretty much where I stayed all night. I have been pushing myself pretty hard to get the boat to the point where we can live on it, and I still have another 7 days. Wednesday was a little relaxed, laundry, shopping, and an oil change for the truck, but I still got some work in too. Yesterday we had to make a run to Marine Outfitters in Kingston. Our new alternator was in, and our new lifelines were ready. Still got lots of work done. Today I finish the interior, and tomorrow is spring clean the boat ready for paint and cetol.

We have decided to sell our travel trailer. Sad really, since we just bought it new 10 months ago. We'll take a big loss on it, but we would take a bigger loss if we held onto it. Our thought was to hold onto it in case the whole cruising thing didn't work out, but the truth is that neither Serena or I have any plans of moving back to land anytime soon. We know there will come a day when we will want to settle down somewhere, but at 43 years old, that could be a while yet. We both are really looking forward to having the time to spend on the things we enjoy, walking, reading, maybe socializing a little, for a change.

So the boat! I have managed to finish all of the woodwork. The divider is back in the lazarette, seperating the engine from that big storage area. I built in the shelf for the fridge compressor. All the shelves in the galley have been installed, and I built up the anchor locker with a tougher bulkhead and a 9" shelf around it for mounting the second anchor. I still have to finish the epoxy work in the anchor locker, plug all the screw holes, and sand down a few areas, but after a good cleaning I should be able to carry on with paint and varnish. Then its finishes, carpet, curtains, cushions, all before next Thursday. Oh boy.....

While we were building the shelf dividers for the galley, we figured we had better install the water lines before we made it more difficult to do it. Then come to find that the original lines were punctured by a screw, when the boat was built. Amazing that it didn't leak for the last 30 years. Anyway, you know it would leak now, since I pulled it off the screw. So I said to hell with it and replaced all of the lines. Would have been nice to just decide to do that a long time ago. But now I have a mish-mash of different sizes, running everywhere. No conformity, no control, no military precision!!! My old military friends will pick up on that oxymoron.

I have taken some pictures lately, but they are lame and don't really show anything. Hopefully soon, when the finishing touches are done, I'll have some pictures of the final product.

Anyway, its off to the boat after breakfast for another long day. I can't wait to start slowing down. Of course there is the old adage, you'll get plenty of rest when your dead. A little bit before then would be nice though.

More Progress, 16 days.

I said I would take pictures of the fridge, so here goes.

 Doors in place, new countertop.

 Remove door number one, and you can see down into the fridge, with a small sliding crisper. Notice the double seals. I hope this will help keep the cold in, and the hot out.

 Remove door number two, and you can see the freezer box and the temperature control.

and door number three, which is the freezer lid. With all the insulation, the double seals, the small size of the box, and the apparent quality of the Nova Kool system, I feel pretty confident that we'll be able to keep beer cold, and make ice in the tropics. Guess time will tell. One thing I would recommend to anyone doing something similar, use a different paint. I used Interlux Perfection, two part polyurethane, and after the better part of a year it is still off-gassing. I really hope it stops soon. I honestly don't know what to use as an alternative, all of the recommendations I read online were for a two part paint.

Other than that, I have managed to start the electrical. I installed the batteries and ran the high current electrical.

 Above the house bank and the major positive and negative bus terminals. Each battery is fused to 100 Amp.  The copper bar ensures the batteries stay in the box, no matter what. Below is the distribution in the locker next to the batteries. This contains the Blue Sea ACR which maintains charging between the house bank and the starting battery. One of two fuse blocks, a couple of distribution bars and ground bus. The original design has started to morph into what makes sense. Design on the fly. Guess it doesn't matter as long as everything works, everything gets labelled, and I can keep track so that a complete schematic can be made afterwards.

As you can see here, the new battery switch next to where the old switch was. I have drilled out a two inch hole that I will cover with a vent cover. This is to allow air into the battery compartment so that I can build a ventilation system that vents the gas given off by the batteries.

 I also put up our calendar. Our son Stein and his girlfriend Kristen made this up for Serena for Xmas. I put together the picture and the calendar pages for the frame. It replaces a large calendar that Stein had made up for his mother many Xmases ago, that now hangs in his apartment.

Here you can see where I mounted the batter charger, the stereo, and the inverter. Interestingly, when I finally had the electrical all hooked up, I flipped the switch and smoke started piling out of the inverter, a lot of smoke. I quickly shut off the battery switch, took out the screws, and disconnected the terminals, ready to chuck the thing over the side if needs be. The unit was cold, the battery voltage was good. It didn't make sense. So I monitored the battery voltage, watching for a drop as I connected the terminals for the inverter. Nothing, no drop, no smoke. So I hooked the terminals back up, turned on the battery switch. No drop in voltage, no smoke. Ok..... I turned on the inverter, I could see it go through its self test and finish with a green light. What the @#$%??? Plugged in my dremel tool, and it worked like a charm. Only thing I can figure is that the unit was not tested at the factory, and there was some kind of oil or paint that burnt off during the initial power up. Who knows, it works good now.

I don't have any pictures of the sewing that I spent all day today doing. They wouldn't do the job justice anyway. But Vita's dodger has new windows, and they look sharp. Plus I restitched the dodger and add-a-room with Tenura lifetime thread. Going to the tropics, I didn't want to have to worry about restitching all the time.

Other than the above, I managed to order more stuff. I am getting some things fabricated, and I actually cleaned up the boat, believe it or not. Tomorrow Kingston to pick up more stuff, and start some of the wood work that needs to be done before we move aboard. Running out of time........

Ahhh, I work better under stress..... Mommy.....

18 Days Til Liveaboard

We're screwed!

How the hell I ever thought that we would be ready to liveaboard by the end of May is beyond me. Now mind you, if the engine was still working fine, and the weather had been even close to reasonable this spring, then maybe, but neither of those happened. Now it has turned cold again for a few days, too cold to even paint. I will still be working at it, with mittens and toque. Who knows, we might even have bunks by May 30th. And Serena has requested refrigeration, although at these temperatures, beer left in the cockpit would likely be cold enough.

I have managed to get some fibreglass and gelcoat work done in the cockpit. But I am not terribly happy with it. I am mixing the gelcoat in 2 oz batches, and I can't add the colour in small enough increments to get a good colour match, so I will have to mix the colours first, then add to the gelcoat. I'll go through half a can of gelcoat just trying to figure out the right mix. Now I have to sand off what I put there, and start again. Oh, that's right, when I went to apply the mold release, which helps the gelcoat fully cure, the spray bottle would no longer spray, so I had to brush it on. WARNING, don't ever do that!!! Unless you are looking for the wood grain look.

I starting mounting equipment. Battery charger, inverter, stereo, the important stuff. Yes Honey, I'll get fridge done soon. Actually did manage to get the freezer installed and the refrigerant lines runs. I can't install the compressor until I get the shelf built in the lazarette. I also put both seals around the lids, 1/8" closed cell foam, but I think I may have to go to 3/16". I'll try and take a picture for the next post.

We played with the dinghy yesterday, in high winds, bad idea...... But found a few problems with the setup. The davits don't reach out far enough, especially now that the dinghy has almost a six foot beam. So I will have to build a special bridal with offsets in order to lift it without too much trouble. Then have some way to tilt it into position. It doesn't look bad, but man does it make Vita look big, mega yacht, she spreads out to a 37' boat end to end. Also talked to Wade, who has the same Walker Bay 8' with the hypalon tubes. He has had it for 13 years and loves it. His has gotten a couple of small pin holes that need to be patched, but otherwise still sound. Good news....

Still more work parties, and helping others. Some days there seems to be no reprieve from the endless requests. Normally I am really quite happy to help out, but being on such a tight deadline, I feel the stress that each moment away puts on me. Its not the task so much as the loss of focus. Once pulled from a project to help someone, then I am looking at 3 or 4 times that amount of time to settle back into my own groove, sometimes losing half a day for a little 30 min job. Productivity is down. I even blew up at one of the boys at the club who always seems to need help with this or that, deserved, probably not, sorry Pat. Focus, must maintain focus young grasshopper.

Today is the last lift in day and work party. Everything should be done and cleaned up today. There will always be people needing help with this or that, but all the official stuff should be over. Plus, once everyone gets there boat in the water, they'll all disappear. Should be the other way around to my mind, but that's what happens. Once the mad rush of pre-launch preparations are done, people settle down, go cut their lawns and carry on with the task of daily living.

I put another order into Sailrite yesterday. We need to get some sunbrella for a a few projects. Dinghy cover, bimini, cockpit side curtains, etc.... I can't see getting to those projects until June...ish.

Last little bit. Serena and I were trying to figure out how to handle our day to day money while cruising. We have read a lot of things online, and talked to a few people who have done it, and there really seems to be no consensus. Some are afraid of credit card fraud, so are willing to pay the international debit card fees. Some carry crazy amounts of cash on hand, hidden all over the boat, and some use their credit cards primarily. One thing for sure is that the Canadian dollar is not going to stay at par with the American dollar for long, so that needs to be considered too. I think we may follow the route of most, and use cash as much as possible, taking out $1000.00 at a time or so. Use our credit cards when we feel it is safe to do so, and keep a good store of american dollars in the bank to offset fluctuations in currency. In the new electronic age, money is so easy to move around, not always cheap to move around, but definitely easy.

Keep your stick on the ice.....
Go Leafs Go

Engine Spares and Navigation stuff, er Shopping

Self sufficiency, a continuous rant of all the famous sailors out there. Its the reason I have part of my engine torn apart right now, trying to figure out why fuel is not making it to the cylinders. And a week ago, I didn't have a clue about diesel engines. Thank you Nigel Calder!

During this whole learning process, I tried to come up with an idea of what spares I might need for our trip. I came to the conclusion that aside from a major rebuild, I wanted all the little things that could stop our trusty Yanmar from operating. That means fuel, and air. Plus I wanted to cover all the simple maintenance procedures that keep a marine diesel in a good mood.

Oil changes, Yanmar recommends every 100 hours. That is a lot of oil changes down the east coast. The previous owner was using a Fram oil filter from Canadian Tire. I continued to do the same, but I ordered 6 original equipment oil filters. They are surprisingly small compared to the ones I have been using. The price was a little bit more, but to me it makes sense to use the one recommended by the manufacturer. I'll keep the Fram number handy, just in case.

 Secondary fuel filters, these are the ones that go in the engine mounted fuel filter. Cheap insurance, every 250 hours.

 Spare air filter. I have a spare from the previous owner, now I have two. They are quite inexpensive, and clean air is really important to a diesel. A little dust can do a lot of damage, apparently.

 Starting at the top going clockwise. Water pump gasket. I have two of these, and 3 spare impellers. Important to keep the diesel cool. Incidentally, I am also installing a water strainer to try and keep debris out of the water pump. Next is an O-ring for the fuel filter, in case I accidentally break one while changing the filter. Zincs, 3 sets, the Yanmar has 2 on the engine, both the same type. Cheap insurance against engine rot. And lastly, a package of gaskets for the zincs

 A new set of belts. Although, the larger alternator belt may be obsolete when I install the Balmar 70 Amp alternator I just ordered. I will however keep the original 35 Amp Hitachi alternator as a backup.

Add to this the new Racor 500MA with 4 spare filters, and we should have a fairly good set of spares that will keep our little 13 Hp diesel in good shape. Assuming I can get the thing running.....

Yes, we went to Toronto to pick these up, and while we were there we stopped into The Nautical Mind. I decided to go ahead and get the one Waterway guide I was missing that covered New York, The Hudson, and the rest of the North East US. Its only money right.....

I also decided to pickup the Intracoastal chartbook by John Kettlewell. We already have the guide book, and this new addition of the charts was just released, so made sense to us. I am glad I picked this up, after looking at it, I had no idea how specific the route was. Its a big area with a lot of places to get lost.

We also picked up the last of the three Bahamas chart books. If for some reason we decide to travel down to Georgetown, or jump over to Cuba, we are going to need this. We were told that buying them down there is expensive, so we took the plunge.

Lastly, I caved and picked up the chart for New York Harbour. I am really looking forward to this part of the trip, and although I already have this chart on the computer and the chart plotter, nothing makes things so clear as a full size chart. Did I need it, no, or at least probably not, but it makes me feel a little more confident about sailing around one of the busiest areas we are likely to go through.

It was a nice trip to the city. Hot and sunny, we got a little too much sun, but worth it. We stopped and had fish and chips at an Irish Pub down on the waterfront, washing it down with a cold pint. Walked around the harbour, went to the candy store, aka West Marine, which incidentally is getting more and more expensive. We picked up a couple of small items we hadn't found elsewhere, but other than that Marine Outfitters in Kingston is way cheaper, even before the frequent shopper discount.

I think that I might like to take a berth down there for a month some time, just to soak up the atmosphere. Maybe next year....

Introducing; The Family Car

Yes I know the obvious, its not a car. But apparently in the cruising world, this is the equivalent. Cheaper than the car, better gas mileage, but not so protective of the elements. Just imagine the shape the groceries would be in after driving home in a rain storm. Though it should get us from the mother ship to the grocery store, the cafe, or the pub, as required. Yes, I said mother ship, but please don't tell Serena that I know she is an alien........

All kidding aside; area 51; Serena and I pulled the add-a-tube kit out of the box yesterday and managed to get the dinghy put together. What a difference these tubes make. Serena stepped on the gunnel today, and up onto the dock. If she had of tried that before the tubes, we would have been swimming with the fishes. This set up is really amazing; better than I could have imagined. Stable, more load carrying capacity, but still easy to motor, row, and carry. I am not sure about the lifespan of the hypalon tubes, but if we get 5 years out of them, it will be a big kudos to Walker Bay. Now if I can only talk her into letting me get the sail kit...

The unfortunate part is that the motor is acting up. It was in storage for 2 years, so some buildup is expected. But, according to my online research, Suzuki reduced the size of the fuel jets in order to meet the EPA restrictions, and because of that the jets get gummed up fast. Looks like I might have to pull the jets and clean them, then run either high test gas, or regular gas with an additive like Sea Foam. The motor also has a bad track record with ethanol, like most engines, thanks Mr. Bush; ethanol, great idea!!!! We own 3 engines, the truck, the boat, and the dinghy, and all of them are acting up. I think its a conspiracy, maybe Gremlins.

I took a good look at the engine on Thursday. And Friday, finally figured out that the fuel pickup from the tank is allowing air in. I sent an email to Marine Outfitters to get a new one. Hopefully this week. Then I will try once again to bleed the engine. Although I bypassed everything with a hose, and still could not get fuel from the injectors. I guess this is what you would call a crash course in diesel engines. But it is good experience for me.

There are a bunch of other things we got done in the last few days. Installed the 110V system permanently. cleared a lot of things from the storage unit, and sorted through it all. Work parties, helping people with their masts, cutting holes in other peoples boats, etc..... Tomorrow we go to Toronto for charts, guide books, engine parts, and whatever West Marine has to offer. The deadline is getting closer. I would hate to actually be homeless for real.

Life should be an adventure, but even that should have limits at my age.

New Home

This is it, our newest home. And although it kind of feels more like a vacation, we know this is it, and its slowly starting to sink in. When two people live in a space that's only 140 sqft, you have to be able to tolerate how the other smells.

Today was supposed to be the day where we took a good look at Vita, revised our lists, set down some priorities, and made some new shopping lists. However when I woke Serena up at 7:30, she wasn't feeling so well. Because we are close to the boat, we'll probably still get it done today, but its going to be a little delayed. It was hot yesterday, and the sun was beating down on us while set up the trailer. I think we got a little too much sun.

I ordered a bunch of spare parts for the engine, from Eastmar in Toronto yesterday. They wanted $734.00 for an original replacement alternator. That was enough to convince me to go for the upgraded Balmar 70 with external regulator. For an extra $30, I won't have to worry about charging our batteries. Especially since we have decided not to take the Honda generator. 

After all the work I went through making the box for the generator, we just figured that it weighed too much for the expected benefit. That also means that I will be leaving some of my plug-in tools behind, which will also save weight and storage complications. I guess I'll have to enjoy the trip instead of working the whole time, ahh, darn-it. Beer me!

I also found out yesterday that the primary fuel filter the previous owner had installed, was for gasoline engines only, and NOT for mounting in the engine room. Guess where it is. So I decided to bite the bullet and get the Racor 500MA. It is way over kill for our little diesel, but that just means a filter will last longer. Besides that, the filters are $13.00 vice $29.00 for the little Racor that is currently there. One bad batch of fuel will pretty much pay for the new fuel filter, just in discarded elements.

And that is our excitement. We are officially homeless. The money is in the bank, so there is no going back now. Like every new adventure, we pray that it comes out well, all the time fearing that it won't. But to be honest, I'm not sure I even care. We have little to no responsibility in this new life, and as weird as it feels to not be needed, it is some nice to be exempted from all of life's normal stress.