Things you forget

There are some things you forget or try not to remember about living on a boat.  How most of your clothes are dampish.  You need to pick up your feet when walking inside the boat because the doorways are not flush to the floor.  Another is the boat is always moving slightly so you are aware of climbing onto and off the boat even at the dock.  Halyards are tapping against the mast, lines are creaking, other boats are noisy and the waves make more noise than you think.  These things become even more noticeable when the 25 to 30 mph winds are coming through the area and you are trying to sleep.  The remains of Zeta passing through has reminded me of all this.

We did not get the rain but the wind has been active most of the night and into the morning.  So it is 4:30am and the winds are supposed to be under 20 knots by noon, but it has been a  long night.  Yea that is another thing you forget about -  the staying up and checking lines or anchors during windier conditions.  Kris usually is the one that gets up and double/triple checks everything and I tend to sleep like a babe. Not this time, oh well the naps today will feel good.

Probably should not complain too much about it.  As Kris is still at work, while I am here :)

Window Project II

I am glad the last window was not the first one I removed.  The first three took about an hour to remove each of them and each came out as a full window. That allowed for a good template for the outline and hole location.  So why was the last one not behaving like the others, not sure but it sure made up for it.  I ended taking pieces of it out, 10 of them, and then taping everything back together to make the pattern.  The cut out was ok and the holes weren't too bad, it could have been worse.

Now we have 4 clear windows in the boat and it sure lets more light in.  Now work continues on getting the visors fixed and reinstalled.

Window project

We noticed that our salon windows had a couple of cracks and were in need of being replaced.    If we can get this done prior to the colder weather then the majority of the rest of projects are inside.  So today I started by removing the sun visor and stored it on the jib for now. The fun starts with getting the acrylic, cut, drill and install, for now just the port side.  Figured I would keep the project small in case, or when, I make a mistake.

Cruising to Morehead City

It was time to move the boat south from Severn Yachting Center and we found a liveaboard spot at Morehead City Yacht Basin.  To get the boat south a mighty crew of Kris and Dean's brother and wife, Lee and Edie, flew from Boise Idaho to Virginia. 

We left on 10/11 Severn and while dodging an air craft carrier made it to Deep Locks the first night.  

Rigging are us, or not

Today was planned for mast work like rigging, take off the 15 year old stuff and put the new supplied from Mack Sails.   So up bright and early, it was even cold enough I had to wear jeans and a jacket, well at least until 10 ish.  The first project was replacing the old mast head light with a new and improved model.  Of course it isn't that easy, the old light only needed 2 wires and the new needs 3.  No problem just pull the new wire using the old and voila you are ready to wire in the new light.  1 project down  The old black light is just sitting on top of the new one.

On to the rigging; we had measured them on our last trip to the boat and then ordered from Mack Sails.  Two boxes arrived and boy they look nice and shiny, new left, old right.

Mast, boom, 1 sail on

The morning started a bit foggy but no wind so why complain.  

Moving the boat over to the haul out area went easy and the crane showed up on time.  The crew from Severn Yachting Center rigged the mast for the lift and getting it onto the boat.  

Cross County via the Northern Route

Dean needed to go back to the boat and get it ready for it to be put in the water.  So a trip back but this time gave an excuse to visit some old friends thus the trip involved a different route.  Dean left on a Thursday morning from Boise to Billings MT. Had to go through Bozeman and that required a quick stop at the "Pickle Barrel" for a sandwich.  When Dean went to college in Bozeman the Pickle Barrel was a go to place if the cafeteria didn't have "great" food that night.  Made it to Billings and spent time with Scott and Kymm, old college friends that had recently moved from Milwaukee back to Billings.

Up the next day and drove from Billings to Minneapolis to spend the night with Dean's brother Terry and his wife Mary.  Long day but they had dinner and good conversation.  On the drive kept seeing this semi loaded with onions, well maybe it wasn't the same semi but Dean saw a few of them on the trip.

Up early the next day to travel from Minneapolis to outside Chicago where Dean reconnected with a former co-worker Tony and his wife Christina.  They severed a great lunch and  spent time talking about past and future plans.  Left there around 3pm and made it to outside Toledo Ohio and spent the night at a rest stop.  

Up sometime in the morning and headed the rest of the way to Severn Yachting Center where "Charm" is stored on the hard.  Had fog for some of this trip.  She looked good and is wanting to get back into the water.  Will spend the next few days finishing up some projects and on Friday 9/2 its back into the water.

Splash Down

It has been 10 months since "Charm" has been out of the water and it is about time to get her back in.  On 10/2, Friday, she went back in and is loving it.   

Where's the boat

Oh moving to the water

Look it still floats :)

So right now she looks more like a power boat, no mast, it will only be a matter of days until the mast and boom are back on and she will look like a normal sailing catamaran. 

September back to the boat

We had planned on taking a trip in September to make sure the boat had survived the summer and it also gave a good excuse to be at the boat.  We left Boise Friday around noon on the 4th and headed east, well south and then east.  The trip coincided with the start of Labor Day weekend and we saw the affect of that between Ogden Utah and Evanston Wyoming.  The amount of traffic and how slow everyone moved was a worry but after Evanston things thinned and we made good time.  It was a nice day/evening for a drive

Looking good

When Kris, Lee, and Norm went to bring What If from Charleston SC to Bridgeport CT it wasn't a vacation cruise.  There were several incidents with the septic system, finding the bottom of the waterway with the boat bottom, and seeing floating things in the middle of the night were just a few of the travel adventures.  So while they were traveling Dean and Derek created awesome looking shirts so when the boat arrived in New York the shirts were presented.  The crew looked good and from that moment on they and the boat did not any more issues.  Now that is one mighty fine looking captain and crew, you figure out who the captain is.

So thinking ahead the idea of a good looking shirt/logo only seems to make sense to avoid boat issues in the future.  Working on the site Custom Ink we have been trying out different designs and options.  So far we are thinking:

The front has Sailing Vessel Charm identified by name and it's marine number plus we have the nice manta ray cartoon the front and the back has the outline drawing of the manta catamaran.  So if having the shirts do not fix all the potential problems on Charm at least we should look good.  Dean is pushing that all overnight visitors would receive a complementary shirt but we haven't agreed on that.