Over the spring we both worked a lot and saved enough money to fund the new list of boat mods to do and goodies to buy. We finished our contracts at the end of May, cleaned out our hotel room that we had been living in for several weeks, and headed to the boat. The weather was warming up quickly so we were motivated to get as much done before the heat really kicked in for the summer.
While we were already hauled out, we decided to do any and every modification we could think of to do so we wouldn’t have to pull out again for a while. Replacing the thru-hulls was our top priority. Rather than replacing them all with bronze fittings- a dissimilar metal- we instead welded in carbon steel nipples that are threaded on the inboard side for the valves to go on. Why didn’t we think of this to begin with, you ask? Good question, but the idea worked great, and we were really happy with the results this time.
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| THRU-HULLS TACKED IN |
Next priority was the deck mods. We made two 10 foot handholds out of carbon steel pipe, and welded them on to both sides of the deck. This has been the most awesome modification we’ve made to the deck in my opinion- the handholds have proved themselves to be super convenient for many different things.
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| NEW HANDHOLDS |
After we finished the handholds, he made our two midship cleats out of pipe. All of our mooring cleats are now welded onto our deck, which gives us some peace of mind about their strength.
The next deck mod was the bow roller. He built us a kick-ass bow roller out of steel, and welded it to the bow. The whole get-up looks fantastic, plus its purpose is really well met by keeping the anchors off of the deck and it is super tough.
Our last big deck addition was our hatch frames. He made and welded on frames to bolt the hatches onto in order to lift the hatches off of the deck. This serves the purpose of creating a flat surface for the hatches to set down on to avoid leaks, as well as to keep the hatches raised to prevent any water from potentially rolling in from the deck through the hatches.
We bought a new big hatch, which we are super stoked about because we can actually see through it now. It looks SO much better than the old one, lets in a lot more light, and actually stays open without having to shove something in it to keep it open.
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| BRAND NEW HATCH |
We got all of our welding done, and finished grinding the welds down flush, and next was our painting routine- ospho, sand, and prime the new steel, and finished up with a few coats of fresh topcoat paint for the whole deck. We touched up the bottom paint with another coat, and painted the inside of the toe rail and around the hatch frames red to match our hull stripes. We were happy with the final touches, and feeling good; motivated and confident about the boat’s progress.
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| PRIMER |
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| PRIMER |
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| PRIMER |
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| INSIDE TOE RAIL PAINTED |
Before we went in, we had to install our tri-ducer, which measures our speed through the water, the water’s temperature, and the water’s depth. Once we got this set up and installed, we scheduled a splash day with Rick, and made a smooth transition from land to water.
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| BACK IN THE WATER |
We spent a couple days relaxing and enjoying being back on the water, and afterward went back to work on the plan. The summer was very hot and very humid- even more so than years past, so we were really glad that most of the remainder of our work was going to be below deck.
We put our deck hardware back on- our new Harkin winches (which rock!), our new Harkin T-track genny cars, cleats, anchor rollers, anchors, etc. We got a grill and set it up on the aft rail, and we hooked up our new Garmin chart plotter/GPS system.
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| NEW GPS/CHART PLOTTER |
At this point, we were ready to get away from the yard- Almost two years in the boatyard scene is WAY too long for any boater, and even being in a wet slip in a yard doesn’t seem to make it too much better. So we were able, with the help of our friends Jim and Tim and their super sweet dinghies, to get the boat to the closest marina. We moved to a dock with several live-aboard neighbors, who quickly became our good friends.
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| GOOD LUCK |
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| NAME PUT ON! |
We decided to put off our trip start for one more season so we could safely finish the interior and the engine work. So for the rest of the summer we worked on the interior, and tinkered with the motor. We decided to do a lot of our wood work in teak and oak. He had already built our galley and chart table out of oak, but we made the trim work for the galley out of oak, and the trim work for the chart table in teak.
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| RUNNING WATER! |
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| GALLEY GETTING CLOSER TO BEING FINISHED |
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| HELLO DOWN THERE, WHAT ARE YOU COOKING? |
He built a gorgeous saloon table out of teak, and trimmed it with oak. We finished building the floor boards in the galley/companionway/chart table area, and built a step-up floor under the saloon table. We finished the bookshelves behind the settees, and loaded them up with our book collection.
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| BEGINNINGS OF THE TABLE |
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| FINISHED TABLE |
From the forward berth back to the galley/companion way/chart table area from the water line up was now insulated, and once that was done we began working on our paneling templates. We traced and cut our paneling for the bulkheads, and put it up.
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| INSULATION. . . A VERY TEDIOUS TASK |
Once again, it is time to go make some money- the boat kitty is about depleted at this point! We already have our list made for the late fall/winter months, including things like finishing the trim work, putting our overhead up, putting our oak flooring down over the floor boards, building the head, building the quarter-berth, painting, finishing hooking up the engine, and the other odds and ins that make their way to the list along the way.
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| MY TWO FAVORITE BOYS |
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| THAT DOG LOVES BEER |
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| COOKING ON OUR NEW GRILL |
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| MY FIRST TIME UP THE MAST |
The overall plan is to get these priorities taken care of when we get back in November and hit the Islands sometime in December with our newest crew member, the doggie. Any aesthetic loose ends we will work on along the way as long as she functions safely; we are both itching like crazy to finally take her sailing. We are planning on getting married in June in the islands when we return from our spring contracts, and afterward moving further onward with our travels.
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| HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY |
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| Our engagement photo... thanks to Marley :) |
~ C
