Love Odyssey

 Yesterday we finally got to splash Dragon Lady.  She is now sitting pretty in a dock at the boat yard.  I’m not wild about the view and the finger pier is pretty puny, making for gymnastics while boarding and disembarking, but at least we don’t have to climb a ladder and we have air conditioning and hot water again.  We have to stay here for another week while the mechanics at the boat yard check out her belts and hoses and other things mechanical in both the main engine and the generator.  We are counting on taking her back to our marina next weekend.

 Meanwhile Bryce has been trying to put a spring on our generator to facilitate starting.  You would think that was a pretty easy job, but he has made about six trips to the hardware store to find just the right kind of spring.  The last trip to the store the owner suggested that he just bring a sleeping bag and camp there.  As if that job wasn’t challenging enough for Bryce, our aft head (toilet) decided to die this weekend.  Now Bryce is not Mr. Tooltime.  In fact, he laments that he is probably the only student in his high school who nearly failed shop class.  But after three boats, he has learned how to fix the joker valve in the head, a job that needs to be done about every two years—yuck! 

 But I guess things could be worse, much worse.  As far as I can tell everything is basically working okay today—and that in itself is a big accomplishment on a boat this size with loads of complex systems.  Yes, I think this calls for a small celebration tonight.  We are in the water and functional—Hallelujah!

Helen—04/24/10

We’re getting tired of life in the boatyard.  And it is starting to get hot, which makes working in the sun on deck an exhausting and sweaty experience.  This weekend we worked extensively on our aging teak deck.  We had to pull up a good bit of mastic (the black material between the teak strips) that was cracking and coming loose.  The more we worked, the more areas that needed work became apparent.  It is a never-ending job.  You repair one area, and then see other spots that also need attention.  We had to prioritize the worst areas and say we would get back to the others another day. 

We also replaced missing and cracked bungs (these are the small round teak pegs that cover the screws which hold down the teak deck strips).  It seems that as soon as we put new bungs in, other old ones fall out or crack.  We should probably replace bungs more often, but other boat needs always seem to yell louder for our attention.

My job this weekend was to stain the deck with Tropical Teak Sealer.  We do this chore annually in the hopes of getting ten more years out of our badly worn teak deck.  The staining is not that difficult; the part I hate is putting green masking tape around all the edges to prevent stain from inadvertently getting smudged on the white fiberglass, the stainless steel, and the lines.  It probably takes longer to do the masking than the staining.  Yesterday in the 80 degree heat I stained about three quarters of the deck, just leaving us a path to come and go without walking on wet stain.  Then this morning I completed the remainder.  Yeah!  The worst is over!

Now if all goes well we will splash the boat next Friday—I can’t wait.  Climbing a twelve foot ladder several times a day is getting old, not to mention that we have limited electricity while on the hard.  That means that no matter how hot it gets, we can’t run air conditioning; we have no hot water to wash dishes (hot water heaters take a lot of juice); and occasionally when you plug in a small appliance, the breaker trips and you have to un-plug and reset the power.  Yes, we had better be in the water and at a dock with full hook-up by next Friday evening or this galley wench is going to mutiny.  

Helen- 04/18/10

For the past two day we have been scraping and sanding the bottom of our boat. While engaged in this chore, I seem to be bouyed on by my enthusiasm to get the job done, but as soon as I stop the shoulders and back begin to ache. Same for Bryce although he seems to have more stamina than me. Yes, we are really feeling our ages as we work. I keep wondering if I would hurt as much if I had to do this kind of work every day. I suspect muscles would strengthen with daily use; however, I don’t think I am going to find out in this lifetime.

I have to admit that my compulsive nature helps me to stay on task and get the job done. I even get into the Zen of just scraping and letting my mind rest. This certainly has its pluses. I also enjoy seeing the fruits of my physical labor- I can stand back and see how much I accomplished. This is so different than what I do as a therapist during the week. I may work with a child for several weeks or even months before a real change is noticeable. 

Tomorrow we will begin to re-paint our boat’s bottom.  I know I will let the Zen of painting take over and I will periodically stand back and admire our handiwork.  Not until we finish will I feel the aches and pains that my muscles and joints are sending out.

Helen–04/10/10

Friday we put our boat “on the hard”. We do this every spring–it’s the boater’s rite of passage. Just when the spring fever hits and you are dying to get out on the water with your craft, you take her to the boat yard and get her hauled out for about a month. You ask, “why do you do that?” Because by the time ole man winter has left town, your boat is looking pretty shabby. The white fiberglass has turned gray with numerous streaks running down the sides from rusted screws and God knows what else, your bottom is covered with a coat of slime and the odd barnacle, the deck is dirty and faded, and your sacrificial zincs have been totally sacrificed.

So on Friday we took her about two miles from our marina to Deaton’s Boat Yard and had her hauled and placed on the hard. It’s called “on the hard” for a reason. Not only is the boat sitting on hard ground but her owners are doing hard work while she enjoys her yearly spa. First of all, our boat is propped up on jack stands. She has a six foot keel, so to enter the boat you have to climb up a twelve foot ladder, and of course, you never go up empty-handed. No, you are always going up or down that ladder carrying bags of heavy things like tools, sanders, waxers, etc. or the dog. Yes, by the end of the day you know that your calves got quite a workout!

So Friday we got the boat put on the hard and then we surveyed her dirty top sides. We started by washing down the white fiberglass hull with Hull Cleaner. She was still pretty grimey and had quite a few stains, so out came the heavier duty cleaners–quite an arsonal of products that required hours of back-breaking scrubbing. We have a navy blue stripe that is about a foot wide and runs the length of the boat. It seemed no amount of scrubbing was going to get that clean and free from chalky build-up. Then we moved on to the heavy duty compound which after two applications finally restored the color. By this time it was nightfall and we dutifully fell into bed.

Saturday we tacked the big job of waxing our hull. Now you have to understand that we do this while perched up on a scaffold that is five feet off the ground and about two by six feet long. Bryce, having larger biceps than me, weilded the waxer while I went behind him and took off the wax with old towels saved for just this purpose. After the first half hour we had the dance perfected–he would apply the wax, then move gingerly behind me while I stepped forward and removed it with my towels. One mis-step and one of us could fall and break an arm or leg. We continued this dance, moving the scaffold about every fifteen minutes. It took a good part of the day to wax a forty foot boat. By the end of Saturday we were both feeling muscles we didn’t even know we had. A Gold’s Gym exercise instructor could not have given us a more thorough workout!

Today Bryce, glutton for punishment that he is, decided to apply another coat of wax. He said the second coat always goes faster, but I declined to dance an encore again. Instead, I used a paint scraper and began the tedious task of scrapping off peeling bottom paint. Why, you ask, do we paint the bottom when no one will see it when the boat is in the water. Well, boats in sea water and brackish water will soon become homes for barnacles without a coat of ablative paint. So each year we add a coat of bottom paint which does a good job of discouraging encrustration; however, after several layers of paint, it begins to check and peel. So we scrape and sand before adding more paint.

As you can see, life “on the hard” is hard work! Next weekend we will continue to scrape and sand–probably for a couple of days. Then if we are lucky weather-wise, on the third weekend we will paint our boat’s bottom–which is another exercise in bending and stretching muscles we haven’t used much in awhile. Of course, the plus side is that we will have nice defined biceps, calve muscles, and be as flexible as any yoga student by the time May and bathing suit season begins!

Tune in next weekend for our latest up-date on our boat’s spa month! And by the way, are there any people out there reading this blog? I would love to hear your comments or questions.

Helen 04/04/10