If at first you don't succeed, try and try again

When we bought the boat  there had been a long term water leak that affected the salon floor and we traced it to the mast support post.  Water does get into the mast at a few of the openings and most of it drains out at the base of the mast.  Some water happens to follow the electrical lines into the inside the salon through the mast support post.  There is a drain at the bottom of the post to allow any water a path to get out of the boat but somewhere the water found a new path.  That path was along the seam lines of the teak and holly plywood floor which resulted in the wood joint becoming soft and rotten.  So cutting the seams out replacing the wood with new wood and fixing the leak was the project.  The covering of the salon floor with new teak and holly plywood is another project that will be talked about later.   

Dry rot in old plywood

Salon Window Visors

On our Manta 38 "What If" we did not have the visors on the boat so we had shades on the outside to keep the sun from heating up the boat.  When we started to look for the new boat we decided that the visors were something we wanted.  So Charm has them but we didn't really want them painted blue, which is how they came.  Since we had to remove the visors to replace the salon windows it is a good time to swap out that blue.  Looking from the inside of the boat the visors were painted black and we wanted to change that as well, since we did not go with tinted windows, and used clear to allow more light in.

Ladder, Generator, Grill

In an effort to clean up unused items and free up space went ahead and listed our Generator, Magma Catalina 2 grill, and our 6 foot ladder on Craigslist.  Sold the ladder in the first couple of days.

The generator only had 70 hours on it, per the hour meter.  It ran but we did not think we wanted to deal with issues and didn't think we needed the power from it.  Would rather go with more solar panels, lithium batteries and possible higher alternator on one engine.  Had a person, Sam, come by and he wanted/needed a small generator so on Saturday we disconnected it, raised is out of the port locker, moved it to the starboard side and lowered onto the dock and onto a cart.  It was only 250 lbs. but the only way to move it was using the jib halyard and then the main halyard.  The electric winch made it nice as well.  Getting out of the cart into his vehicle was another story.

Generator ad photo

Reuse, Renew, Recycle

So some people, even myself, will tell you I am cheap.  Actually Kris and I are both cheap in different ways - that work well together.  We rarely buy new, if used is available. W have saved some items from being thrown away and have repurposed items as well.   Today when I happened to find something floating by the boat I thought lucky me.  I did inquire at the office if someone had lost the gas jug they could have it back but they said "If it is in the water it is yours".  I had already taken two  2x6 pieces of wood out of the water and set them by the garbage in case someone else could use them.  So this time I have saved the 5 gallon gas jug for us, or I could sell it if someone wants to offer me a good deal :).  I know it is only $10 to $15 but we are cheap.

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.