Author Archives: Melissa

Making Friends

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I have a feeling there will be a lot of blogging as we begin working S/V Andromeda into our lives. There is so much to do, and we are excited to get some things accomplished. But the only project that is creating a sense of time pressure is the big one: the engine. The new baby Beta Marine 60 HP is already ordered and will be delivered to the Port of Astoria in about three weeks. So that means Mike needs to have that engine room ready to receive the engine by then. It also means we have to find a way to get the boat towed over to the boatyard and hauled out. That’s the only piece we have to pay someone else to do that hasn’t yet been contracted.

We told Shawn about the blog, hoping he’d be glad of the publicity, but I think he already has enough business to suit him.

This weekend we had only one day free to go to Astoria to meet with our new best friend in the world, Shawn The Diesel Mechanic. He wanted to lay eyes on the engine room and take some measurements and Mike wanted his advice about how to get things prepared. We are satisfied that Shawn has years of experience and that he will do the professional ‘hand holding’ Mike wants in terms of being our main support for this project. He comes well recommended and it will be worth it to have someone looking over Mike’s shoulder. He has already recommended that we go ahead and replace the shaft now rather than wait until later. Okay. We can do that.

In the engine room, Mike has his learning hat on. Oh Shawn, we’re not worthy! Note the bell housing for the transmission between Mike and Shawn; the scene of a later crime.

So Mike was stoked to start pulling the transmission out so we could commence with the cleaning. And now this is where the true ‘boat work’ begins, folks. Because you know very well that boat work is never, ever straight forward work.  Those bolts on the shaft coupling would not come off. No movement. I heard groaning, cursing, and the clank of a wrench at the bottom of the bilge. There was a trip to Home Depot for something stronger. But still, no movement of the offending nuts.

Four little brown, rusty nuts. So stubborn.

Helpless, as usual when faced with a man working in an engine room, I cleaned cabinets that were, frankly, already clean. I threw out things we had no use for. I offered to start on the work bench since there is a ton of stuff there that needs sorting, but Mike gave me a stern warning about that one. “Mine!” he said, a glint of steel in his eye. I sighed and handed him a wrench, distracting him with a recommendation that he remove the bell housing for the transmission so that he would have more room to access the recalcitrant nuts on that coupling.

Mike thought that might work and those bolts did come off easier. But as he pulled the housing toward him, water began to pour in around the shaft. Pulling the housing forward moved the seal out of place. Nope. We are not even going there with a boat that has been ours for only about 24 hours. So he pushed that back in place, stopped the gushing of water into the bilge,  and went for one more go at the shaft coupling. Meanwhile I made my fourth trip to the dumpster with an armload of very old and worn out life vests.  We had to leave with those bolts still on, winning the day against Mike’s attempts to budge them. But we’ll be back and Mike doesn’t give up that easy.

So I’d like to pause here and give a little product endorsement for something called Zout, which is a stain remover/enzyme presoak/miracle worker product. Had I been thinking, I would have photographed Mike’s clothing as he climbed out of the engine room. Grease stains everywhere, rust stains everywhere. He was one filthy human.  Yuck. I had to drive home with that man. I told him to simply hand me his clothing when we got home and I would handle things from there. Zout is, in a word, amazing. I sprayed the heck out of his clothes, really soaked them with the stuff,  let them sit in the washer for 15 minutes, then washed them on hot. They are like new! No kidding.

Next weekend we plan to go down on Friday night so we will have all day Saturday and Sunday to get stuff done. We had a trip to Home Depot and to Harbor Freight today to get blades for tools and hand cleaner, and various other small things for that engine room. Like a steam punk squirrel, Mike is gathering his arsenal of tools to wield against the stubborn nuts. They WILL come off. And I will find a project to keep me busy and will generally stay out of the engine room area of the boat.

Mike, loving on Moonrise.

Today we had an afternoon at the marina in Tacoma so Mike could climb Moonrise’s mast. Why would he do such a thing? Well, blog readers, get this: On the day we signed paperwork for Andromeda, the very day she legally became our boat, things starting picking up in terms of interest for Moonrise. There is a nice couple who is very interested in her, and another person waiting next in line should that sale not work out. Someone who looked at her while she was listed at the broker in Olympia called to see if she was still listed and was given our contact information. I tell you, it was positively uncanny.

So Mike wanted to climb the mast to check the spreaders since he hasn’t been up there in awhile and you know how he loves to wear that climbing harness.  The spreaders actually looked great and climbing the mast gave him an opportunity to clean them off. What we thought looked like a need for a paint job turned out to just be algae that came off with a quick wipe of a cloth. They look really good now and he’s satisfied that they pass muster.

So Moonrise is totally ready for new owners, and we’re totally ready to get back down to Astoria and address that engine room! Bring it on!

 

The Chosen One

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Let it be written, let it be done! We are now legally the owners of S/V Andromeda, so she’s ours in all her glory! ‘Excited’ does not begin to describe how that feels. The emotions move along a taut wire strung between giddy and terrified, with all the stops in between. I can only say that I am glad someone ‘up there’ knew that I needed to be firmly on this side of the dreadful ‘menopause’ before making this happen because had we done this last year, my body would have simply exploded from the impact of all the emotional-ity.

Have you seen this view yet?

I hope of our readers will clear their in boxes because the blogging is going to be intense around here as we gear up to do the critical jobs on this vessel. As she sits now, she is engine-less. Just this morning Mike pulled the trigger on a 60 HP Beta Marine engine for our new baby. The order is placed. Tomorrow we travel back to Astoria to do a meet and greet with our new best friend, Shawn, the diesel mechanic. He comes well recommended so we’re looking forward to working with him. Shawn will do the professional hand-holding on the engine refit. It takes about 3 weeks for a new engine to arrive, so we have about that long to get this engine room ready to receive the new heart of this boat.

Let the work begin.

This engine room is really more of a ‘systems’ room for Andromeda and the engine refit is only the beginning of what needs to happen here. There are other things that need attending to right away, not the least of which is there is no working head on the boat. Well, that is, the heads work fine but the plumbing is going to need changing. The heads themselves were rebuilt this year and look like they are built like tanks.

Mike thinks this might be bronze. If so, we probably should just remove the paint and let the metal get pretty. Then we will have industrial art toilets.

For example, in the aft head there is about 63 feet of hose running from the head, into the engine room, and then back across the boat to the huge holding tank under the quarter berth. Yes, that is a lot of hose and we are not happy about that. Also, there is an additional vent in the hose that sprays water into the engine room whenever the head is flushed. Not. Good. Fortunately no one has used the head for a long time. It was cleaned out, and there it sits. Opening the lid to where the tank is stored shows a tank that looks brand new, and has absolutely no smell. The previous owner did not use the head in the boat because the really nice, clean rest room at the marina is conveniently located just at the top of the ramp where the boat is docked.

The forward head. I think that may be an exhaust fan above and to the left. I have no idea if it works or whether it is necessary.

The forward head is plumbed overboard so we will have to find Coast Guard requirements in terms of putting this head out of commission for awhile. We prefer to have a head that is plumbed overboard for the times we are at sea, but in the future we may end up adding an additional holding tank up front as well. That’s way down on the list of priorities at this point and that extra head makes a great storage room.

The offending hoses and the leaky vent on the right. Those are tape labels on the wires.

So you can see that the systems are going to need a thorough going-through and updating. It would be nice to think we could just rip all of this out and start over, but I fear it will need to be more piecemeal than that.  It’s going to be awhile before Andromeda leaves her dock. But by the time that happens, we will know her insides like we know those of Moonrise.

I’ve started a working list of tasks that will need doing and will create a new page where we can keep track of these accomplishments. Now that we own ‘The Chosen One’ we can do things like set dates. Everything begins to feel much more like an actual Plan and much less like simply a dream. I cannot wait to get her up and running and bring her to her home waters of Washington State. Here comes that giddiness again!

These are the things that must be done before we can move onto the boat, at least that I can think of right this minute. I know it’s a short list and will only get longer.  A page will be created where updates can be posted regularly. Let the money-throwing begin. (And with it that feeling of terror.)

1. Engine refit
2. Replumb aft head
3. Rebed deck hardware
4. Repair leaking aft hatch
5. Replace refrigeration
6. Insulate interior stowage spaces that still need it
7. Buy a gps/chartplotter

John Wanamaker of Emerald Lady turned us on to some yacht management software that he recommends in terms of keeping track of all the things we need to do. We will look into that and may use it.

Tomorrow we begin the real implementation of our Little Cunning Plan. Woo hoo!! And now, back to the giddiness!

 

 

 

 

Introducing S/V Andromeda!

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I feel like we’ve just given birth, such has been the waiting, watching and anticipating and anxiety-ridden stress of the last two weeks. And the eating! Lord, can you say ‘stress eating’? But the gestation period, which took about the same amount of time as gestating an elephant, is over. The new ‘baby’, a big blue girl named Andromeda, is finally here. Or, rather, she is in Astoria, Oregon. There are some loose ends to tie up with the financing and paperwork, but that is going smoothly after a day of difficulty when we feared the contractions had stopped, causing a day of major ‘freak out’ and frantic Facebook posting. Unless something catastrophic happens now, things should be pretty straight forward from now on, and we can soon call her our own. And because we have a backup plan in case the bank does a 180 on us, it’s just going to happen.

S/V Andromeda. Love. That. Color!

Just Her Statistics

1975 47 foot Olympic Adventure ketch, major refit in 1987

Designer: Ted Brewer

Builder: Olympic Marine, Greece

In the recent past when I was scouring Yachtworld on an almost-daily basis, I came across the listing for this boat and was immediately smitten by the turquoise color of her hull and by name of the boat, which was listed as ‘Aquarius’ (This was the wrong name because, FYI, lots of Yachtworld listings are just copy/paste jobs of previous listings for the same vessel. Grrr.). I liked that name and our boat, Moonrise, has the astrological symbol for ‘Aquarius’ on either side of the moon on her hull, something I thought was a nice synchronicity. Alas, in those days we did not think we were in the position to buy, and she was out of our price range, anyhow. We could look, but we could not touch. Still, her layout and sail plan were perfect so I bookmarked her page and checked back occasionally to see if the price had been lowered. Very soon there was a ‘sale pending’ on the listing. So I just moved on.

Months passed and we languished in our attempts to sell Moonrise. Discouraged, we pretty much stopped looking at boats. We were convinced we had to sell Moonrise first.  Personally, I was pretty tired of the whole thing; tired of being on the roller coaster, and actually tired of looking at boats that we couldn’t buy. If you have been reading our blog for awhile, you’ll know that we considered just taking our Cal 34 to Mexico and calling it good. We didn’t want to do that, we really did not.  But I was coming to terms with it because it seemed like the only way. We were not looking outside the box, to coin a phrase.

After our surveyor climbed the mast, Mike couldn’t wait to try out the mast steps. Yes, he is tied off for safety.

Then, two weeks ago, Andromeda’s owner, John,  saw our ad and emailed me that he had a boat he thought might work for us. Would we be interested? I looked at the photos and realized it was the same boat that had been listed as S/V Aquarius; the very one that had been sold before. The sale had fallen through when the engine was found to have water in the oil. John had removed the listing from the brokerage and was selling it himself. He said this would be a good opportunity for us to get the boat at a lower price because he was going to have to pull the engine. When, exactly, do owners actually say that? We agreed and made an appointment to go see it the following weekend.

All four of us piled into the car to make the trip to Astoria. I felt amazingly calm because I was at the point where I knew it would either be the right boat or it wouldn’t and besides, we couldn’t afford moorage for another boat so we were probably wasting our time.  Mike was fully prepared to dislike the boat, for it to be too big, for it to feel ungainly. But even as our thoughts kept coming up with reasons why it was silly to even look at this boat, it was already uncanny how things were coming together. Moorage in Astoria is cheaper than dirt. We could afford to pay for an entire year of moorage at a time, making that payment a non-issue and giving us more time to sell Moonrise if necessary. Moonrise is fully paid for, so other than moorage, we won’t have any expenses for her for awhile. Our ‘in the box’ thinking began to unravel.

You can turn this table over and put a cushion in the middle to have a berth-type settee. We love the little table! So useful. Owl not included.

When we first saw Andromeda, I was so relieved that she actually looked just like her photographs. She is the same color of turquoise blue and I love it! We stepped on board and went over every inch of the deck and cockpit. I put off going below until I had a good feel for what was up top. Able to see the bow from a seated position at the wheel? Check! Cockpit fully nap-able? Check! Great winches, excellent sails with easy reefing systems? Check! Windlass that works? Check! Then I went below and checked out the interior. My decision was made.

Meanwhile Mike was doing his own tour of the boat and having fascinating conversations with boat owner, John.  It took almost no time at all for us to be of one mind that this was definitely our boat and we would simply find a way for it to work. Andrew and Claire both gave it the ‘thumbs up’ and all of us really liked the owner of the boat, John. He’s just a great, honorable guy, an avid sailor, and has taken really good care of this boat. We hope to remain friends with him. Bonus!

We love the views from the marina in Astoria.

So what is it about this boat that made us decide right away to buy it? Only this: it pretty much has every single thing we said we wanted, with only a minor exception or two; easily remedied. Let’s make this easy. Here’s a partial equipment list.

Center cockpit, with bottom sider cushions with covers
Hard dodger, with viewing window and windshield wipers
Full cockpit enclosure
Ketch rig with removable inner forestay
9.5 oz main and mizzen sails in excellent shape
Lofran electric windlass with remote
Muir stern anchor windlass with wash down
65 lb Bruce anchor w/300′ of high tensile 3/8″ chain
23 lb Fortress with 40′ chain and 250′ 1/2″ rode
Stainless steel swim grid with fixed swim ladder
Custom stainless heavy duty davits with self tailing winches
24 mile Furuno radar, older, but it works
Kenwood SSB radio and tuner with insulated back stay
New Raymarine below decks autopilot
Two solar panels with new charger/controller
Excellent non-skid on deck with intuitive hand holds
Stanchions are hip height and sturdy
Mast pulpits
Lazy jacks and sail covers on main and mizzen
Mast steps. Mike has already been up the mast.
Liferaft. This needs inspection and repacking. Don’t know if it’s good.

And then, you know how I feel about comfort below:

Amazing head room. The current owner is 6’4″ and he stands tall in the boat.
Plenty of opening ports and hatches, including one right above the galley.
Three staterooms. THREE! One triple, one double, one single.
Large marine fridge/freezer space. (We have to replace the unit on this.)
Fresh and salt water pumps
Hot water (14 gallons)
Diesel cabin heater
Two heads (Actually, I did not care about this, but I’ll take it.)
A full stand up shower (Again, who cares? But I’ll take it.)
An engine ROOM. That’s right! Mike is so happy it’s kind of pitiful.
A WORKSHOP! Right outside the engine room doors. OMG!
A comfortable salon
Good storage pretty much everywhere
Beauty!

Salon on S/V Andromeda

Is there work to be done? Of course! Much has already been done on this boat, but there are enough projects to keep us busy for awhile. The hull, deck, masts, and other expensive things are in sound condition. John has already removed the old engine (by himself!) and the engine room is ready to be cleaned, prepped and painted. Mike will be rewiring much of the boat because he’s kind of a wiring geek and a little persnickity that way. He wants it done to his standards. The boat had a serious refit in 1987, including that pretty blue color,  but that’s still long ago, so systems need to be updated.

There is months worth of work in this engine room, where all the systems come together.

And, of course, there will be a new engine. We’ve been putting money aside in the boat kitty and have been able to save enough to buy the engine. Right now we are researching the best deal on an engine because we need a signed ‘intent to purchase’ contract in order for our bank financing to work. We’ll hire someone down in Astoria to help us put it in, but Mike still has to choose his poison: Beta Marine or Yanmar? He’s researching the heck out of it.

I thought this table dropped down to make a big berth, but it doesn’t 🙁

Literally the only thing I was disappointed about in this boat has to do with the settee in the salon. I have a vision of a seating area that includes a deep settee and comfortable pillows. I want the equivalent of a comfy sofa in a boat we will live on. When we first saw the boat, I assumed the table dropped down and that you could create a large double berth in the main cabin, but such is not the case. This disappointed me, but I am going to work with it. I have some ideas about how I can keep this table, which is really beautiful and versatile, and create a wider settee with the comfortable pillows I envision. Oh, I will eventually have my cake and eat it, too. That’s way down on the list, however, about the time I replace cushions.

So, one giant leap forward with the plan. We are excited and also have moments of being overwhelmed with the thought of owning this kind of boat. She is just so very different from our little Cal 34; so much boat! But we absolutely love Astoria and are going to completely enjoy spending weekends down there at the mouth of the Columbia River. I foresee us doing everything we can to spend longer weekends down there. Change is in the air!

If you want to see more photos of the boat, go to the Picasa Album I made just for our readers.

We hope she will take us on many adventures! (It’s an older photo. Rear solar panels are gone, as is wind generator.)