Caramel Corn

For Christmas and special times I will make up a batch of caramel corn.  When we cruised last time the caramel corn was a special treat, and  sometimes we even shared it with others.  The recipe is easy to follow and at home the proportions are good for the stove.  The first time on the boat I had to make smaller batches because the stove can only take a 11 x 14 pan.  So today it was try and figure out how much to make a smaller batch.  Started with popping the pop corn on the stove, no microwave here, how much oil to pop corn and how full do you fill the pot, trial and error.  When I made the caramel sauce I had too much heat so burnt the first batch.  Oh well start again and the 2nd batch went ok so now onto the 3rd.  Will have to package up the product and ship it back to Kris and to another boater who kind of likes it as well.

Popping the corn.

We are Officially Documented

Most long term cruisers, including us use U.S. documentation for the boat versus licensing in a state, as it doesn't make sense to license your boat in one state, since you don't live in just one state.  Our boat is documented, and we have official numbers.   

What Is The USCG Documentation Number?

The USCG documentation number is the official number (ON) of a documented vessel. It stays with the boat for its lifetime.

When we boat the boat, we register with the Coast Guard, and put our names with the official number.

How to place the USCG documentation number?

It must be permanently attached to your vessel. But, unlike state registration number, the ON of federal documentation is affixed to the interior part of the ship. But it has to be in a clearly visible area.  It has to be at least three inches in height.

Want to make sure these guys are happy

 

Closet Shelving

I admit it, I am a stacker.  I tend to put things in piles, I might move things from pile to pile but I tend to keep things in groups or stacks.  My wife tells me to just put things away but sometimes the stack is just short term storage and eventually everything does find a home.

New floor step 3

With the floor glued down it is time for putting on a seal coat, we went with the Bona Mega product vs other water based polyurethanes.  Bona is a waterborne hardwood floor finish that gets great reviews for home and commercial floors.  We started with Bona sealer, 3 coats, and then moved on to the Mega.  Between each coat took 600 grit wet/dry sand paper to remove any of the imperfections that we had.  It doesn't look much different in the pictures but it sure looks good in person.

sanded floor bare wood

New Floor step 2

We found the teak and holly plywood at World Panel Products, their office is in Florida but they happen to have a warehouse 2 hours away at Windsor, NC.  I needed three sheets of 4 x 8, that I would cut to pattern for the floor.   The marina here was concerned on me cutting wood and creating a lot of sawdust on the boat, so an alternative needed to be found.   I asked World Panel Products in NC if  they had space where I could cut to my template.   They said yes so off I went with my patterns, having a large flat area to work in sure beat working in the cockpit.

1st cut on the new teak and holly plywood

New Floor step 1

With the water leak "taken care of" it is time to move onto replacing the floor.  The old rotten wood has been replaced with new plywood and the low spots have been filled with leveling compound.  It looked like I would have to make 5 seams to work around the island and the cabinet overhang.  Several people suggested trying to bend the new plywood length wise to get it under the cabinet overhang.  Figured it was worth a shot so bought some 1/4" birch plywood at Lowes to try.

Made a paper template, transferred it the plywood and then cut out the shape.  I had to do some sanding and adjusting but the plywood did go in with it bent length wise, :).  I did not get all the layout perfect so with the plywood now on the floor I can use it to make new and improved templates.  Once I am happy with the templates I can get the 6mm teak and holly plywood, transfer the layout and cut for the finished product. 

1st paper template for the kitchen area.

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