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.....

Trip Planning Begins

Monday I drove to Toronto to drop off my transmission. I know that it would probably have been cheaper to ship it, but I find that when you are getting someone to do work for you then a face to face meeting usually makes the work more personal, and usually a little better. Plus, I had some Mason's chandlery bucks left over that were about to expire. Although in hind sight, I should have just went to West Marine and paid full price rather than drive to the other end of the city; note for next time. I also wanted to go to the Nautical Mind Book Store. I have been ordering from them for years but never was able to get to the store. I tried a few times as an after-thought while we were in the city, but was never able to find it, this time I took a map.

The transmission was a good deal, because the wholesale dealer messed up not correcting their database to show the transmission discontinued the lady at Eastmar Marine guilted them into doing the rebuild themselves for a 4 hour charge plus parts. So apparently this is something special and I have lucked out. Guess we'll know after going to the Bahamas and back.

The Nautical Mind,,,, if your a book junkie, and a sailing junkie, don't ever go there. If you do, you will while away hours of you life, drive whoever is with you crazy, and go home much poorer than you came. I went with a list, and the store isn't any bigger than my bedroom. I put $2 in the meter which gave me 40 mins. I ran out later, 15 min after my ticket expired, and put in another $1 for an additional 20 min, then when I left that ticket was 15 mins overdue, and I was really rushing it; with a list.

 After much deliberation, these are the books I decided to get. Guides and charts are expensive, and as much as I would like to have them all, its just not in the budget. We have several copies of the Canadian and American charts that we need. Mostly electronically, in several formats, but some in paper. However we need the ones for the Bahamas. The Explorer Chartbooks seem to be the most often recommended, so I went for the them. There are 3 for the Bahamas, but I figure that we will not likely make it that far down until the next year. We'll only have three of four months, and we are taking our time. For guides I chose the Waterway guides, the Chesapeake, the ICW, and the Bahamas. The Northern one would have been nice, but it covers a small area of where we will be, and I didn't think the extra $50 was worth it. I also picked up Nigel Calder's Diesel Engines book, it will soon be time to become intimate with the grey beast under the companionway. I don't particularly like the Waterway guides, being spoiled by the Ports guides up here in Canada; the format is lacking. However, they did seem to have the most information, and the most pertinent information. Now all I have to do is rip out all the adds so the books can be as small a possible.

 I also picked up Scott and Wendy Bannerot's Handbook of Fishing. I have been a pretty avid fisherman for many years, making my own lures, and being fairly successful on the water. However moving over to saltwater and bigger fish needs a little schooling. And, this is about the only book in the game. My intention is to enjoy the bounty of the sea, and this book is going to help me prepare. Guess I'll be making some new lures this winter.

 Lastly I threw in some pictures of my latest project. It was recommended by one of our old salts down at the club that I replace the boom before I go, with something a little heftier. After spending time and money extending the original, it seems kind of sad, but I think he is right. I bought a mast off of a Bayliner Bucanneer 28. The guy uses it for a cottage/motorboat and has no use for the mast.

 The new boom works out to be almost twice as strong as the original. And it has more room on the sides for mounting blocks, cleats, and a small winch for the clew reef points.

I'll have to build a new piece for the gooseneck, and set up where the lines will go. Then I have to sand off the black paint, prime and paint it before the spring. Its black, and Vita's spars are white. I am also reengineering the whole system with a shorter boom and moving the mainsheet in front of the binnacle. That way we have room for a bimini, and we get that damn mainsheet off my back, literally.

That's all. I am in the woods this week trying to get enough firewood for next winter, in case we are stuck here for another year. I am hopeful, if not confident that we will be gone, but I also need to prudent and responsible. Sometimes being an adult is hard work.

Winter is coming......

Sewing is done. Well, almost. I have a couple of small jobs I am going to do for people over the winter, and a bunch of jobs for us. But other than that, its all finished, whole pile of happy customers and a tired out Tailor or seamster, or sewer, or outdoor products specialist, uhhhh....... I tried to find out what to call a man who sews, but there seems to be no consensus on the matter. Tailor doesn't quite fit, masochist comes close, but not really appropriate or particularly relevant. Oh well, have to stick with Rob I guess. Maybe Rob the guy who sews, kind of like Bob the Builder, oops that's me too. Too many names, maybe Rob the omnipotent, ha ha, yeah right. Serena reminds me that its more like Rob the pain in the ass. So Rob it is.....Sewing is just something else I do, like laundry, dishes, and changing the oil in the truck.

If you got this far into the post, there is actually boat stuff....

I finished sewing on Wednesday, so Thursday I went down to work on the boat, clean up the club house from the mess I made, and meet with the last few customers so they could pick up their stuff and pay me. I only charged for the materials that I used to complete their specific jobs, plus a tiny bit to go toward the shipping and handling and my gas to get there, that's it, so it was pretty cheap for these guys. I did get that much more experience, and I had fun, so it was well worth it to me. The last customer to see me yesterday, and in fact the only one, owed me $50 for restitching his mainsail cover and putting in a new zipper; restitching his bimini top and putting in two new zippers; patching and stitching some bad spots in his mainsail, and restitching the UV protection strip on his genoa. He paid me $100 cash and gave me a 40 oz bottle of 12 yr old single malt scotch to boot. I felt guilty taking it, offered him change, but he would not accept it. It was a very nice gesture, especially the scotch. But I felt like I owed him, maybe my fist born, but she's 23, and that's illegal in this country. Oh well, guess I can be bought cheap, cause now I feel like I owe him.

Regardless... This is supposed to be about the boat.

Cleaned everything out of the boat. And emptied all the areas of any water, stuffing box, bilge, anchor locker, etc.... So the boat is ready for winter. I did leave food in the fridge, but didn't realize it until I got home, so I'll have to go back soon. But otherwise, she is ready for -30 deg and snow. Boo hoo hoo....

Had lunch and a little nap, then got to work putting in the supports and face frame for the drawers under the nav table.

 The only thing I don't really like is the catch. Like most marine drawers, they slip over the frame when they are closed, so they can't slide out on their own, but it takes extra effort to lift the drawer before pulling out. Plus, due to the nature of the beast, roller glides are a bad idea, making the whole system kind of archaic. But they are functional, and they don't look too bad. I still have to plug the screw holes and put a couple coats of Cetol on the face frame, but that will have to wait until warmer weather.

And here is a little pick of my sewing loft. I am actually in the picture, hiding behind the sewing machine.

And I also got a chance to make up our boat cards. The blogger won't let me put the picture right side up, I tried loading it several times with different orientations, but it always came back 90 degrees out of whack. Beats me, I'm either too stupid, or too impatient to figure it out, so here it is. Boat, us, our email and blog address. Apparently these are nice to hand out to fellow cruisers when you meet them. They are especially good for us, because we can't remember peoples names for the life of us, boat names, types, etc..., but people names, not for love nor money. A gentleman in my club once told me many years ago that the reason I can't remember peoples names is because I don't care enough. Thanks Ken..... I never forgot his name. There maybe some truth to that, but it could also be that there is just not enough room in my head for all those names. 15 Johns, 42 Marys, 12 Devons, you get it........ That's why the military always wears name tags.

And lastly...... Our transmission, what a cluster F**k. Pardon my french. I covered it in an earlier blog, the removal. We were planning on having it rebuilt, but we were having trouble getting info on companies that did this, whether it was a good idea or not, etc, etc, etc.....

After a lot of thought, and discussion with other sailors, from the internet, to the club, to those who have done it, we decided to go with a new one. The company quoted me, and I sent back an email requesting information on the shipping costs. That's when they found out that they are no longer available new, I have no choice but to rebuild. Oh well, into everyone's life a little rain must fall. I just hope the rebuild is a good one. So Monday we are off to Toronto to drop it off, hit Mason's Chandlery, and the Nautical Mind Book Store. Serena might even take me out to lunch if I am good. Road trip........................

Later kids.

A Week of Sewing

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions! And, although I can't draw a direct correlation, I might be getting close.

Long story short, I had offered to do some sewing for our club members, repairs only, as fabrication just takes too much time. I figured it was something I could do for them, save them a little bit of money, and work on my textile confidence that much more. Plus, lets face it, I just like doing this kind of work. I am not charging for my services, just the cost of materials to do the jobs. However, I had intended to get some work done on the boat, since I was staying onboard for the week, and, well, you probably no where this went. Yep, that's right, sleeping and making coffee, that's all that happened on the boat, to the chagrin of my better half of course.

The sewing took far more time than I had envisioned, starting at 5 o'clock in the morning and going until 6 at night, or so. I barely had the energy to have a shower and eat let alone get any work done. I will be there all week again this week, and I have no aspirations of getting any further work done on the boat. So that also means the blog will suffer of lack of updates.

The good news is that I have been having fun making that which is borderline useless, usable once again. There is something to be said about the satisfaction of a job well done, and the appreciation of ones peers, or elders in some cases, right Jack....

Oh, by the way, I also changed the name of the "Camera in the Bathroom" post to "Misplaced camera". I was mildly confused when I noticed it was the most visited post on the blog. I know that it is the main post for the davit installation, but that didn't explain the traffic, until it hit me. People going there weren't looking for information on mounting davits, and I don't think that needs further explanation. So the rename. Damn perverts!!!

Cheers, and fair winds.

Transmission Removed

Down to the boat on Friday for a few hours. I needed to get the transmission out so that I could take it to Toronto to get refurbished. The tranny on the little Yamars use a cone clutch; the cone slides into one of two cups, and the friction locks them together to drive the shaft. Well, when these get a little older the cups tend to get a little shiny and some slipping occurs. Ours likes to slip when its warmed up and we take it out of gear, then it takes some time and RPMs to engage, making a clunk sound when it finally does. And for the record, "clunk" sounds in engines are bad.

It wasn't too rough a job. A little blood, a little dirt, and a lot of cursing deities names, but she finally came.

First disconnect the shaft coupling. I had to remove the coupling itself to get that little 1/8" extra room to fit in the socket driver. I had a 3", 6", and 8" extension, what I really needed was a 7", but I don't think they make such a creature.

 Disconnected the shifter linkage. And took this picture just to remind myself that this is where the ground connection is for the battery. I do not want to forget to put that back on. Bad ju-ju.

 All removed. Ta da. 8 bolts, everyone of them needed a different extension or ratchet setup. One on the top was loose, really bad, so I think maybe the threads are stripped. If so, I'll have to tap and put a helicoil in. Or go to a bigger bolt. Have to wait until I put it back on.

 Tiny little thing. Heavy, but tiny.

 The shop I have been talking to in Toronto, East Marine Inc, had a new one in stock, but not the right gear ratio. Oh well.

In a couple of weeks I'll get it down to Toronto so they can have a look at it. I tried to get them to give me an idea of the cost to rough up the cones, but they wouldn't bite. They just said the mechanic will have to look at it first. I wish I knew someone who knew them. It is a small market, I have asked around, and no one had a name for me to contact, not even the Yanmar newsgroup. And, these guys were the only ones I could find on the internet. Good news is they sell brand new Yanmars, $7k for a new 2YM15. Not too bad, but not this year.

I installed the lids on the port side quaterberth. The deck still needs paint, and fiddles, but its looking better.

 Then I mounted the seat. Its one of those fishing boat folding seats, but fits the space well, and I got it for $10 at a neighbors yard sale. It has an aluminum frame, and I used stainless bolts to mount it, but I have a feeling that there are some non-stainless fastners that will need attention after we hit salt water.

 I also installed the new electrical panel. This one is a lot nicer than the first one. All that is left now is to start wiring the boat. Soon....

Thats it. Today we are planning on putting up a wooden frame and covering the boat. I was going to leave it uncovered, but there are just too many leaks at the moment, a couple of windows, and some holes in the fore deck.

Later....

Nov 08, Update

I wish I could say that I've got a lot done in the past two weeks, but the truth is, that I have been rather slothful. We managed to get our Xmas shopping all but done, the tree is up, and the camper is winterized. Actually went out for an evening with friends, something we haven't done in months, and got a little boat work done. It has turned cold here, well below freezing in the morning, and just peaking its head above for the afternoon. We have been putting back too much beer in the evenings snuggled up in our little house. And all of this has led to a rather slower pace than usual. Its time though, we have a few days of nice weather coming, so we'll get all the loose ends tied up for the winter. I have a weeks worth of sewing to do for club members, or so, and then Vita will be pretty much on her own until spring. I will try and get some things done while its cold, as epoxy doesn't mind the cold weather.

Below is a picture of the drawer fronts and face frame for under the Nav station. I will make the drawers today, and hopefully get a chance to install them tomorrow. Its been a long time since I have made cabinets but its nice to see that I can still figure it out.

 I also made and finished a new electrical control panel. The first one was really crappy. Its one of the problems with working on a boat, nothing is square, nothing is straight, and everything usually ends of getting done twice. Plus, the second time around I usually fix my mistakes. Besides that, Serena said I had to fix it, it was ugly.

 And, here are the port side quarterberth compartment lids. Two coats of paint on either side. I did them at home in the shop because its easier and warmer. Plus there isn't a lot of extra room to lay things out in the boat. It'll be nice to get them in the boat and mount the seat for the Nav station permanently. I'll try and get that done this weekend too. The quarterberth itself is still lacking a coat of paint, but its way past the temperature that allows that kind of work.

That's it, told you I have been slothful. I have managed to keep up my guitar practice, mostly. Its my retirement hobby, learn the guitar. I found Eileen Quinn's ( http://www.eileenquinn.com/ ) sheet music on line, and will order it soon. Those of you who have never heard of Eileen are missing one of the cruising greats. She is a singer/songwriter that writes humorous songs about the cruising life. Her and her husband traveled around the eastern seaboard and the Carribean for 12 years or so in Vita's sister a Bayfield 36 named Little Gidding. A few years ago they swallowed the anchor and headed back to Canada to settle down. I had lost track of them and was searching the internet to find out where they had gotten to. Eventually I found an old blog entry that mentioned they were rebuilding an old cottage. Turns out they are 6 kms from our house. What a small world. Perhaps I'll talk them into a Timmy's coffee one day, and I can bend their ear.

That's it for now, off to the shop to get some work done.

My Favorite Cruising Books

If I had my own website, I could post all the lists I want, but a blog can be a little bit more restrictive. I would have a website, but a good one costs money, and they take that much more time, time I don't really have to put into a web site. So I thought I would put a list of my favorite boat related books in a post, just for kicks and giggles. Maybe someone else will find the list useful.

Lin and Larry Pardey - They have written a pile of books, some are narratives, some how to's. Small boat, and engine-less, this couple are my generations gods of the sea, and they're writing is addictive. They have also made 4 DVDs that are a nice change from reading.

Herb Payson - Blown Away, and You Can't Blow Home Again. I love the way this guy writes(funny), its too bad he only wrote 3 books, the third being an advice book about cruising, called Advice to the Sealorn.

Don Casey - His finest work is of course, This Old Boat, and has a place in my tool bag. Any work done to the boat needs to be read about in this book first, during, and afterwards. Beyond this though, he co-wrote Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach, with Lew Hackler, another how to do it simple, but do it right book. I had to hunt down this book through used sources because it has been long out of print, but it was well worth it.

John Vigor - Twenty Sailboats to Take You Anywhere and Small Boat to freedom. The first book I've read so many times I almost have it memorized. I was in lust with the Alberg 30 for many years, and this book is the bluewater cruiser list for small boats, including the Alberg. The second is a wonderful story about John leaving South Africa on a 31' sloop that is a must read. However, probably his most influential book for me is The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat, this is a guide for my refit, it might as well be the preparation bible for offshore cruising. This one has a home on our boat, always.

Jim Moore - By Way of the Wind and Swan the Second Voyage. Cruising narratives, and if you like cruising stories, you'll love these.

Gregg Nestor - Twenty Affordable Sailboats to Take You Anywhere. A John Vigor sanctioned extension to his similarly titled book, but this book deals with small boats the next size up. In fact some of them are not all that small, but it does cover Vita's sistership, the Bayfield 32, and there is more in common with the two boats than there are differences.

Ann Vanderhoof - An Embarrassment of Mangoes. Just one of those stories I need to read once in awhile. I met Ann at the Toronto International Boat Show peddling her book, but I had already read it more times than I could remember, so didn't have an excuse for an autograph.

Beth Leonard - The Voyager's Handbook. How she got so much information about the cruising life crammed into less than a whole library is beyond me. This book stays with the boat too.

Peter Nichols - A Voyage for Madmen. My Mom gave me this book for Xmas one year, and it sat on the book shelf for probably another year before I finally decided I should read it; in case she asked. It turned out to be one of the most amazing books I had ever read. It is a story about the first non-stop round the world race, the Golden Globe, and not usually something I would be interested in, but Peter wrote it so well that I couldn't put the book down. If you appreciate good writing, and a sailing story to boot, this is the cats meow.

Paul and Sheryl Shard - Sail Away. The book is getting a little dated, but for us Canadians its nice to have a home grown couple give us the what for of outfitting. They also produce the Distant Shores TV show that has them tracking all over the place in their boat, movies, etc.... Ontario, Canada's own sailing Royal Couple.

Ann Hammick - Ocean Cruising on a Budget. Title says it all, and together with Annie Hill's - Voyaging on a Small Income, are the guidelines for the thrifty and cheap.

Dave and Jaja Martin - Into the Light. A wonderful narrative about a young couple and their 3 children who just don't fit societies idea of a normal lifestyle. They also have a video that is worth whatever the cost is.

Reese Palley - There Be No Dragons, Unlikely People, and Unlikely Passages. I think Reese will live forever, he is old, and he writes like he is old. His words are very proper, almost old school if you will, but his stories are addictive, enlightening, funny, and an absolute must read for anyone who has been bitten by the sailing/cruising bug. You won't learn what food to pack, or how to trim your sails, but you'll be a better cruiser for having read them, I guarantee it.

Dan Spurr - Guide to Upgrading Your Cruising Sailboat. If your doing something crazy like I am, refitting a 30 year old sailboat, then this book needs to be sitting right beside Don Casey's This Old Boat.

Nigel Calder-Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual. I said it before, if you own a boat, you should have a copy of this on board, or are on the way to the bookstore to pick it up. Its the first thing I bought after I bought Vita. Unless of course you are omnipotent, and even then you should have it just in case. You might also want to get Nigel's Marine Diesel Engines book as well. If you have a diesel of course.

Emiliano Marino - The Sailmaker's Apprentice. If you have sails, you should have a good book on taking care of them. This book might be overkill for some, but it is right on the money for those of us who do our own canvass work.

There are a few others of course, but this is the big list. Some of these books I have had for years. Don Casey's This Old Boat, I bought almost 20 years ago, and its as relevant today as it was back then. Its been updated, but my old copy is still a godsend.

I hope you find some of this list entertaining at the least. I have a large library of cruising/sailing books that I have been collecting over the years, but the ones above are the highlights. If your looking for information on cruising sailboats, or just a good story, these will serve you well. If you know of one that isn't on the list that should be, let me know, I would love to have an excuse to get another book.

Finances

Everyone is always so tight lipped about their finances. And I usually don't say much about them other to complain about how much things cost, but I think it is about time I offer up the goods, so-to-speak. The title of the blog "Sailing; Freedom of Simplicity" probably seems confusing when I start complaining about the $56,000.00 we have into the boat already. Refit not finished. When realistically, a simple boat would be much cheaper. And, if we end up cruising for more than a couple of years, I can see that number growing. But, that's not what this post is about, this is about, how much do we have, how did we get there, how much we plan to spend, and what kind of shape are we going to be in when we finally decide to swallow the anchor and head home.

How did we get here?

That one is easy, Serena is cheap. So cheap that she could squeeze a penny and get two nickels. Okay, that's part of it, but there is a long story here, with the most important thing being that we learned to "live below our means", and put the rest away. We retired at age 40, I from the Military, and Serena actually a couple of years earlier from the minimum wage slog. We had saved up about $120,000 in investments, and about $180,000 in real estate equity plus my small pension. Then we built a house with our own hands, earning us some needed sweat equity. Add to that a small check from Veteran's affairs; compensation for broken body parts due to service related injuries. And we end up with a net worth close to $400,000.00 and $1919.00 per month. To some this probably sounds like a lot, to others they are probably scratching their heads trying to figure out how we eat. We bought the boat, have been refitting it, and plan to leave Aug 2013, assuming the house sells.

Ready to go?

Assuming a certain value for the house, our reserves look like this.

$200,000.00 in stocks, hopefully making us about 6% per year or better, between dividends and capital appreciation. This is not to be touched if we can help it. Some of this money will be in a non-registered investment account, and we may use some of the dividends if needed, for unexpected expenses; like beer.

$60,000.00 in a high interest savings account. Not to be touched. This money is so we are guaranteed that we will be able to start building a house when we eventually move back home. Just in case the stock market is not doing well and we can't get at the rest of the money.

$20,000.00 in a US account just to hedge against fluctuations in the dollar. But a lot of this will be spent while we travel, in lieu of using Canadian funds from our chequing account. Plus, when you exchange more than $10,000.00 you get a much better exchange rate.

Then we will have some money in our chequing account, plus my pension of $1919.00 per month. This will be our cruising budget. Minus storage for the Truck and our camper. Insurance for the truck and the boat, and yacht club fees. So maybe a cruising budget of $1600.00 per month. And, unfortunately my pension does not get indexed for cost of living increases until I turn 60, so in ten years it will not be enough to live on for sure. Hopefully the investments will be able to offset the increases when they are required.

We purchased the travel trailer so that we would have somewhere to stay when we were home visiting, to provide somewhere to live when we build our next house, and maybe allow us to do something a little different once in awhile. We own two building lots, 1.75 and 2 acres respectfully where we can park our trailer for a bit, or to build a house on when we return. And we are keeping the truck for a a couple of years just because we like to have access to a vehicle when we come home to visit. As you can probably tell, we are selling out. When we leave our assets will be limited to the boat, the 9 year old Dodge, a new 21' travel trailer, 2 building lots in a rural subdivision, about $300,000.00 in cash, and $1919.00 per month.

We are pretty sure that we can cruise on this indefinitely, if we are very careful, and still come home if/when we want and settle down.

I have spent a lot of time surfing the web looking for budget information for cruisers. And although there is lots to read, the truth is that there is no way any of it is going to do us any good, other than letting us know that it is possible for others to live within our means. It still may not be possible for us personally, we won't know until we are out there doing it. I intend to publish our results, and we'll get to see whether or not our original thinking/planning is anywhere close to what it actually costs us.

Eventually I'll do a cost breakdown of the refit as well, but since it is still underway, it will have to wait.

I think the key though in making all of this work and maintaining our "freedom" to do as we wish, is sticking to a small boat, and of course, living below our means, or a "simpler" lifestyle. Hence the name of the blog.

Nav Station Installed

My last post I ranted about the poor service I got from a West Marine store. Well, I decided to email the company and let them know what happened. Not something I normally do, but I consistently get poor service from that store and I needed to tell somebody. Anyway, I received an email back from the store operations manager. I was surprised to hear from them at all, but he was very apologetic, and insisted that they would look into the matter. Acting on a single complaint would be odd for a company this large, but the gesture was nice. Like I told him, it was too late for me, but perhaps this along with whatever others have written will eventually effect some change.

But on to more important things. I have a new nav station. It's nothing super special. I didn't take pictures during the construction, because really all it is, is some plywood with a laminate top and a couple of fiddles. However, being installed is big for us, one less thing to make.

 I threw together the little support under the lift up portion of the table. It is a far better solution than what was originally there. It provides a surprising amount of sturdiness, and doesn't get in the way at all. I did make a couple of boo boos though. The drop down portion is there to allow the end of the table to hide away when someone is sleeping in the quarter berth. However, I didn't quite compensate enough for the thickness of the fiddle, and the end portion does not hang straight down when the support is swung out of the way. It's easy to fix, I just have to run it through the tablesaw and knock off a 1/4". But still, poor engineering. Also, while mounting I accidentally put two of the screws underneath in the wrong spot and put them up through the laminate. They are tiny holes, and difficult to even find unless you know where to look, but it sucked when I looked up and saw them for the first time. Ughhh....

 And below is the hatch pulled out. There will be a storage compartment in behind the set of drawers that are going in, and this will be the access point. It worked out well, but the handle was a pain to put in.

The only thing that is really bugging me now is the back splash. It is covered with the old laminate, and I don't really want to put new laminate on it. I think I will probably slide in a piece of 1/4" ply and stain it up with a couple of coats of cetol. However, I think Serena will get the last say on that one.

I also permanently screwed in the slide down panel from the other side of the wall. I'll have to plug the holes later. Having the panels down, makes for better airflow, and makes the boat seem bigger, but it cuts down on privacy, so tomato/tomatoe, to each their own.

And lastly, I picked up some $7 led 12V replacement bulbs at Princess Auto on Thursday. They weren't an exact match for the bulbs in the boat, but they were the same socket. After some testing I found out that they were reverse polarity to the existing ones, so when I rewire everything I'll just change that and have inexpensive low power lighting. That takes care of three of the interior lights. The other three are different and I have had no luck locating cheap replacements yet.

They are calling for 7 days of rain here, so I will be in the shop for the week. Hopefully I'll get some cabinetry done, ready for install next weekend.

Cheers, and fair winds.

West Marine Kaput....

The one nice thing about writing a blog, is that I get to rant about things that bug me. Well, today its West Marine, but not the company itself, just one store in particular. Every time I walk in there I get the feeling that I am expected to steal something, and most of the time I end up feeling so uncomfortable that I just leave. You wonder why I would even go in there, but they have boat stuff, nuff said. Anyway, yesterday after getting the, if you need anything, just ask speech, (which never makes me uncomfortable anywhere else), I approached the manager about a thru hull step wrench. Pretty simple request, they had a bunch of thru hulls and seacocks on the shelf, having the wrench to install and removed them seemed logical to me. One of the other employees, a man, got involved when I was trying to explain to the manager what it was, and he spent a few minutes trying to explain to me that the thru hull is put on with a nut and the seacock is screwed onto that. I tried to tell him that he was incorrect, and that the seacock was bolted to the hull, and then the thru hull is screwed in from the outside, but the concept didn't seem to make sense to him, he got mad at me and walked away. The manager then tried to tell me that that is how "they" did it on her boat, and I explained to her that no, if they used the nut on the thru hull then "they" put on a ball valve, which really is the wrong way to do it. Eventually the manager looked it up on the computer and found the item, not in stock. However, it was more expensive than Marine Outfitters. Not that it matters, after getting treated like that, there wasn't a chance in hot pucky land that I was going to buy it from them, further more, I don't imagine I will ever set foot in that particular store again. I feel better now. In contrast, I have dealt with the West Marine in Scarborough, Ontario, and the manager and staff are top notch.

Anyway, I spent another $1600.00 yesterday on electrical connectors, grab bars, seacocks, thru hulls, epoxy, and misc other boat stuff. This boat will be brand new and bullet proof by the time I'm done. If I don't keep it for 20 years, someone is going to get a nice cruiser when I sell it. So that's now a total of just over $56,000.00 on a 30k boat(if I'm lucky). It will be over $60k by the time we leave to go south. Doesn't sound so simple anymore, does it. Then on top of that, if cruising becomes a way of life, there will likely be a watermaker added, a new autopilot, a wind vane, and lord only knows how much more stuff. I'll end up like my buddy Jack, $100k in a 30k boat. And to think, someone got upset with me once because I said that a boat was a hole in the water you throw money into.

I did manage to get the top on the nav table, and the fiddles around it. I'll install it today and take a picture. I have never used contact cement to attach a laminate before, so that was kind of fun. I used a flush trim bit in my router to clean up the edges, and sanded the sharp edge off by hand. I just realized how many new things I am doing on the boat. Things that I have never done before. I have a lot of experience doing a lot different things, more than most, and now I am adding to those skills exponentially. I usually joke that I am a jack of all trades, master of none, and now I think that is starting to come true.

I also managed to make myself sick doing the laminate. After playing with the contact cement, then doing some painting, and cetol, there was so much fumes in the shop that I spent the rest of the day a little dizzy with an upset stomach. I know I am not expecting to live forever, but I should know better than that.

Anyway, the truck is loaded to the top of the cap. Its time to start adding all the nitty gritty stuff to the boat, on the downhill slide to completion. That is still months away, but I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Plumbing, electrical, fit and finish. There is still a lot of work to do.

Galley Bulkheads/Progress Update

Well, there goes two nice days I'll never get back. Its a phenomenon that I have been attempting to define since I retired. If there is no set deadline, its hard to get motivated on those days you just don't want to get out of bed. I guess that is what retirement is really about, making up your own schedule. Needless to say, I blew away the last couple of days. Sunday I didn't get much done, Serena came to the boat with me and tried to do some sanding, her heart wasn't into it, the dust bothered her, and the motion of sanding was hard on her aching body parts. So it was a short day. I did manage to winterize the engine and head, plus replace the pump out hose for the black water tank, as well as epoxy in the first two galley bulkheads.

I have been pretty good about not slamming the previous owners so far, and just one in particular, because I don't know which of the three is to blame, but holy crap people, its not that hard to look after a boat. For all the effort that gets put into a shoddy job, it could have been done right in the first place. The pump out hose for the black water tank had a bunch of 4200 wrapped around it where it entered the tank. I wasn't sure if it was an attempted leak fix, or somebody afraid it might leak. Anyway, I wan't to get rid of the stinky original hose and put in some good quality head hose. When I started cutting it off, I found out that the 4200 was covering a thick layer of silicone tape over a completely loose connector. As far as I can tell, the plastic connector, screwed into the plastic tank had started to pull out over the years, because everything was still in good shape, and instead of pulling it apart and putting it back together properly, someone previously just wrapped it and prayed.

I cleaned the connector up, digging all of the sealant out of the threads, put on a good coating of proper PVC to PVC thread sealant, and screwed it back into the tank. It is as strong now as it was when it came from the factory. Better maybe, because it looks like they didn't use anything to seal the joint. But I got the new hose installed and everything seems fine. Perhaps I will find out that the connection is actually flawed, eventually, and I will have to decide whether to replace the tank, or use some really nasty sealant on the connector. I don't like doing that though, because that means that if the connector goes, the tank goes.

Prior to that I spent a day getting the first two bulkheads installed in the galley.

 It was a lot of tinkering to get the bulkheads to fit just right, very time consuming, but it seems to have worked out pretty good so far. I did something a little different with these ones over other panels I have attached to the hull. Because these will be carrying the weight of the stove and fridge compressor, I want some strength at the hull to bulkhead joint. So I put the 1/2 foam along the edge between the bulkhead and hull as before, but this time I epoxied filleted and taped it to the hull with over lapping layers of tape. Then I screwed some stringers to the liner above and screwed the bulkhead to them. What that effectively does is give me the strength at the bottom of the panel, while eliminating the hard point at the hull, and allows some flex where it attaches to the liner. The premise being that everything on a boat will flex to some degree, and if you don't give it a little room, it will eventually make its own. One of the guys at the club told me of a gentleman who gutted and rebuilt a boat on the inside, but when the boat was put into the water all the bulkheads and cabinets let go, because the natural shape of the hull in the water was not the shape the hull took on land. An extreme case perhaps, but even though Bayfields are built like tanks, they are not immune to these effects. In fact I noticed the door to the head does not close well when the boat is on the cradle, but works great when its in the water.

Also notice that there is a space behind the bulkheads where the plywood does not go to the hull. There are a couple reasons for this, but mainly it is to provide a plenum along the hull to allow the fridge compressor unit to draw air from the cabin for cooling. The vent will go into the galley above and behind the fridge doors. This space is extremely hard to access, and provides a good place to run the propane and refrigerant lines.

There is one more bulkhead to go in between these two, to support the other side of the stove. It leaves a small 5" wide cabinet space at the aft end of the galley which will be pretty much useless, but we'll fill it with something, I've no doubt. Next will be to frame out the galley, add the final bulkhead, then build a face frame and doors. Most of that is cold weather work in the workshop.

 I also took the opportunity during a warm day last week to get the new foredeck glassed in. I ground out the gelcoat around the original anchor locker, and used some long hair bondo to set the new hatch into. I will tape and glass the rest of it in later, sand it all smooth, and gelcoat it again. I think it is going to work good. I have decided to use cloth and epoxy inside of the locker to add strength to the whole assembly, and then paint the inside. However those are intentions, and lord only knows what I will end up doing. I was hoping to get this part done before winter, but I don't think the weather gods and I are on good terms.

That's all. Tomorrow we are back to Kingston to pick up more parts, Friday I have to sew up a buddies winter cover, Saturday is a work party at the club, and then the weather god plans to rain on us for 5 days. So shop work. I need to get some of that done. I can install the cabinets in pretty cold weather, so hopefully I will be able to talk myself into doing that this winter, regardless of the temperature.

Cheers.

Building a Proper Marine Refrigerator and Freezer

Just kidding, what did you think I knew about refrigeration? I'll tell you what I do know, marine fridges are expensive, and they use a lot of power, which is expensive, they take up an incredible amount of space, and you can't put much in them, did I mention they were expensive!

I was going to wait until it was installed and working, but there are so many photos that I though I would update the progress, then do a part 18 later on down the road.

Back in April I made some posts that had the beginnings of the fridge, April 15 being the big one. Since then the project has changed so many times that I can't even remember why all the changes happened. One thing I noticed in that original post was that I intended to gelcoat the inside of the box over an epoxy layup. Back then I believed that that was possible, and now I know that theoretically it works, but in practice its better to paint epoxy. Some of the theory from that post is still valid, no matter how many times it re-engineered itself in my head. So the following is more or less a chronological update.

This was the original box. Designed to give me 4 1/2" of insulation all around and to make maximum use of the space available in the boat. Made from 1/4" plywood, and at this stage it only had thickened epoxy fillets in the inside corners.

Then the entire inside of the box got cover in a layer of glass and epoxy after I epoxy taped the corners.

Then I used thickened epoxy to smooth out all of the rough spots.

Then I cut the bottom off of the box and made it flat across the bottom. Although the original design would fit in the space, and it was maximized to utilize that space, Serena noted that no one was ever going to be able to get at anything in the very bottom of the box. That's when I remembered that humans have a limited reach,  and modified the box accordingly. Unfortunately that means I also lost cold beer room. Ughhh. That will be where her cold beer goes, in theory at least.

The lids. In an effort to keep the box from being too deep, for reasons mentioned above, I only used 3" of insulation in the lids instead of the intended 4 1/2". Also, because of the limited access, and the weight of the lid, I decided to split it in two. The primary lid over the fridge, and the secondary lid over the freezer. The lids interlock and allow for a double seal between one another, just like the fridge box, which I'll show further down. The lids have 3/4" plywood on the top to match the counter height, 1/2" plywood on the sides, and 1/2" on the bottom. Pretty tough for fridge lids, but the theory is that a little weight will help the lids seal better.

The two lids all put together, seams, holes, screws, all filled with thickened epoxy and sanded smooth.

And here is the build of the box interior. There are two sealing lips, one down low and one on the top to help prevent air flow. I put a plexiglass divider between the fridge and freezer. I want to have the freezer cold enough to make ice cubes, but not freeze the beer next door. Theoretically the Nova Kool RT6 unit that I bought is designed to do that, but in a box so small, I was worried that the unit may think I intended to use the whole space as freezer and ruin good beer, so I added the divider, and have enough space that I could insulate the freezer side with 1/2" of foiled insulation. Alternately I could cut holes in the bottom of the plexiglass to allow more cold air to flow if that was required. And just in case, I can remove the divider, if that's what I need to do to make the fridge work the way I want it. However, the secondary excuse for the divider is to hold the slider for the sliding/removable crisper. For putting food in, or something silly like that.

I didn't take any pictures of the painting process, because it was kind of like watching paint dry. But I used Iinterlux's Perfection two part polyurethane. This stuff is nasty. The smell alone will strip paint, it is thin and does not respond well to the brush, or to being put on a vertical surface. But, it you can manage to get enough coats on to cover up the substrate, then you get a finish that is as good as rolled steel. Its impressive stuff, but I will use if very sparingly in the future, just because of how hard it is to work with.

Also here you can see I cut the pieces of insulation at home before going to the boat. The box barely fit down the companionway, so all 16 of the insulation panels had to be glued and tape onto the box while it was in the boat.

The first couple of layers. There is not a lot of space to work with when dealing with something this size in a boat this size. I used PL300 Foam Panel adhesive. I am not really sure how well that is going to hold, but the panels are taped on with tuck tape, and all the seams are taped up as well. I used the PL300 because I didn't want any chance of the glue eating the foam, but also because it has little to no smell. And the tuck tape, designed for house vapor barriers keeps the airflow in check, plus the stuff just doesn't come off. It states right on the roll that this tape is permanent, and it means it. I had some on my garage floor, and I have tried everything short of a sand blaster to get it off, and its still there.

All put together. Jigsaw puzzle, yes, but I numbered the pieces which took some of the guess work out of it.

And here it is mocked up in place. It takes the whole corner of the gallery, with just enough room for the sink on one side and the stove on the other. Also notice I raised the counter top 4" from the original. I don't know what sadist decided that boat counters should be so low, but the way it was, it was a back breaker for anyone over 5' tall.

I may or may not have mentioned it in an earlier post, but somewhere along the way I decided that I had to have 6" of insulation all the way around, or four layers of 1 1/2 code board. However, I ran out of code board after doing only three layers, plus one extra layer on the side where the stove is. I figured that I would try that first, and if there was room left, I would consider buying another sheet. Good call, because there wasn't a 1/4" to spare with the 3 layers. I even had to trim the insulation at the hull and where some plumbing went through. That means there are some weak points in my design, but it'll have to do. On average the box is probably encapsulated with 4 1/2" of insulation, which gives me R27. I could foam in the back, but I think there would be little benefit.

According to the manufacture, with 4" of insulation, I should be able to have fridge of 14 cu.ft., a freezer of 7 cu.ft, or a combo (fridge 8 cu.ft. and freezer 4 cu.ft, at 32 deg C.

Well, I have slightly more insulation, but to err on the side of amateur installation, we'll call it 4", however my entire box is only 2.52 cu.ft.. .6 for the freezer, probably .3 for unusable space, leaving about 1.62 for the fridge. So that's 45L for the fridge, or 63L of total usable space. Compare that to the cooler in your garage and you'll probably notice your cooler is bigger. But I don't have to put ice in there, I hope.

Someone in my yacht club told me that you can't make ice in the tropics on a small boat. Well, I'm sure as hell am going to try.

I built a plywood base for the fridge. There will be bulkheads all around to hold everything in place. Notice the little gap between the front edge of the plywood and the corner of the liner. I poured some water down there, and sure enough, right into the bilge. So this is how water that manages to get into aft starboard quarter, makes it too the bilge. Important to leave that open. Also, its hard to tell, but as before I put a layer of 1/2" foam between the plywood edge and the hull. This piece will not be glassed in, but the bulkhead on the aft side of it will hold the stove, and that will be. Still, I want to make sure there is some room for the hull to flex if it needs to. Hard spots are apparently bad.

And the fridge is in place.

I couldn't go any further because I forgot the drawings for the galley at home, or so I thought. On the way home I realized that they were in the passenger seat beside me.

I was tired....