We are truly checking things off the list aboard S/V Galapagos. It’s almost like we plan to go cruising again or something. I remember this part of preparing to go last time. It did not feel real then, and somehow, it doesn’t feel real now. There are always so many things that can delay leaving the dock, and the attachments we form to life on land are many and deep. It’s just not easy to let go of the dock.  And that’s on every level: physical, emotional, psychological, financial.

Preparing to move back aboard and leave my garden. Again. Transitions between lives: not my forte’.

But we’re doing it anyhow because the good years we have left to live and will be physically able to do things like cross oceans are passing. Fast. Here’s a short list of what we’ve done in the last couple of weeks:

1 Dropped sails off at Ballard Sails in Seattle to be looked over, and have a new ATN Spinnaker Sleeve installed so we can reduce the number of shit shows on the foredeck when we deploy that sail.
2. Dropped the Viking life raft off for servicing at the Viking facility in Auburn.

Get a load of all those life rafts!

3. Made a running start on installing the new radar pole on the aft deck. This pole is complete with a davit for lifting our new-to-us dinghy engine. Photos another day on this.  This involved leaving the slip, docking the boat in a tight space with only a few feet to spare front and back, and getting back into our slip…all with zero drama. Zero. Drama. My favorite kind of drama.
4. After much perseveration, Michael has ordered new blocks for the mainsheet, choosing to go with the Garhauer 50 series, which is a step up from what we had. We’re excited to play with the angles of the sheet in relation to our hard dodger once we have the deck block in hand.
5. We’ve brought home all the lines and washed them so we can examine them closely to see which ones we’ll want to replace.
6. Continued reorganizing stowage, getting rid of excess stuff we don’t need, creating a manual spreadsheet (otherwise known as a notebook) noting where everything is stored. Note: old line, stored in a plastic bag, makes a dandy filler for oddly shaped bilge areas, creating a flat platform that allows things to be stowed in those areas safely. Why didn’t I know that before?

My manual ‘spreadsheet’. Sometimes I just need to be old school. And these lists, divided by cabin, have already come in handy.

7. Replaced the leaky, albeit brand new, Lewmar hatch in the salon. They sent us a new lid. It does not leak. Finally.
8. Removed the clear polycarbonate window inside the cockpit, looking down into the galley. Bought replacement. Refinished teak under that, filled old screw holes with epoxy, sanded, then painted that part of the cockpit with Total Boat paint. It works great and has held up in other areas, including the sole of the cockpit. Replaced window with new, clear version. We are pleased with it.
9. Painted the ceilings and around all the ports. I’m using Dutchboy Cabinet and Trim latex gloss paint in Nantucket Grey. I painted some of our fiberglass with this stuff years ago and it has held up really well under hard use. Impressed. Working on replacing the dated and worn-out curtains. It’s time for a fresh look.
10. Michael climbed the mast and installed the vane for the anemometer. Now we are a yacht. Both wind speed AND direction? Wow. It’s so fancy.
11. Begun bringing stuff back to the boat from the storage unit. Only the important things first. Like books. And Patrick the starfish. But where is our stack pack for the mainsail? We truly are flummoxed. It’s not like this is a small item that can be stuffed in a corner somewhere. Did we get rid of it, because we were never really happy with it? Unlikely. We are generally loathe to get rid of canvas. But searching the basement, the garage, and the storage unit has revealed nothing so far. The search continues.

We know what’s important. Patrick and our snorkel gear.

The big task checked off the list: put the woodwork back around the chainplates. We are dead pleased with how this came together, and with how we’ve showcased our new boat bling. When you pay this much for stainless steel, you kind of want to show it off. So here’s the end result.

The wood we chose was due to a combination of expediency, availability, and cost. A quick stop at our local hardwood shop for woodworkers brought into sharp focus what we’d be up against if we decided to go with something like Brazilian mahogany or, gods forbid, teak. Not only would our costs absolutely be knocked out of the park, but we’d also be faced with needing to have the wood milled, adding time and costs to an already tight budget and timeline. We decided to go the expedient route and get milled poplar, available in a number of different sizes from the local big box store. Although it’s a soft wood, not my preference for this project, the areas where it’s used are protected and these new chainplates are unlikely to leak. I’ve sealed the wood against swelling due to moisture. However,  if this wood, for any reason, doesn’t hold up over time, it will be very easy to replace it.

I apologized to the gods of Teak as I chose all the sizes I needed to do the job, and then stopped by the paint counter to look at wood stains. We wanted something that would contrast well with the blond wood already there, and also be different from the teak trim we have. To try to match that would have been difficult, if not ridiculous. So instead I went with making it look different by design. In the end, I had stain mixed to my own specifications, having the paint counter worker add brown colorant drop by drop until I got the warm shade of almost-redwood I was after.

Re-purposing some extra teak trim at the bottom to give a nod to the rest of the wood trim in the boat.

Back at the boat, the project came together much more quickly than I anticipated and soon our chainplates were the star of the salon, surrounded by painted fiberglass that matches the paint I used years ago to cover the dated almond colored fiberglass used throughout the boat. That paint job has held up really well. I managed to recycle some teak trim we had from other remodeling projects to accent the new frames above and below, tying the new wood to the old. I call this interior look “Nautical Industrial Chic” (TM).

This weekend we are dog sitting with Emmett, who is definitely an adolescent Aussie. We are forced to sit around and do nothing for a couple of days, which is not our style but I guess we need the break. I imagine we will move back aboard sometime in May.

He’s thinks he’s so grown up.

But, wait! There’s more! As though we didn’t have enough going on, turns out we will be losing the tenant in our little apartment early in May.  I look forward to a fast and furious, but seriously long overdue,  re-do of that space before we say goodbye to the dock.

S/V Galapagos, standing by on channel 16.

If you are averse to reading about large sums spent on boats, better skip this post.

If you’re feeling brave, here’s an update to the blog to report that we have touchdown. The mast has finally stopped costing us money sitting in the yard and is back aboard Galapagos. The re-stepping of the mast went off without any troubles at all and we now have a shiny new  standing rig, enchanting new chainplates, and our mast has received about the right amount of attention to see us through another voyage. When we leave the dock this time, we will be resting easy that we have the safest rig money can buy. Well, at least, we’ve done everything we can do to make it so.

In the past, we have been hesitant to talk about how much boat projects cost because everyone’s boat is different. Also our boat is big and some of the numbers are really scary. This was a big project, however, and this blog serves as our historical record of important things like buying a new rig. I may go blind typing all these dollar signs, but it’s not like we didn’t have an idea of how much this would cost. Our lives, however, are worth way more than we have spent on this boat. And after losing our backstay on the wild Pacific, and reading recent reports of a Westsail 42 being dismasted between Mexico and the South Pacific (thank goodness for our keel-stepped mast), well, let’s just say we’d rather pay with money than risk that. We consider these to be cautionary tales. I mean, what else would we spend our hard earned cash on? Just. Keep. Working. A. Bit. Longer.

$20,000, give or take a quarter. That’s how much this re-rig cost us.

Good luck coins under the mast. We have a Greek Drachma from under the mizzen mast from when the boat was originally built in Greece. We have the Loony from Canada that Derek Denny, a previous owner who really loved this boat, put under the main mast, and we’ve added a Washington State quarter for our part. May we never see these coins again.

What does that number include? Yard/crane fees for removing, storing, and replacing the mast. Time and materials for the standing rigging ($3800) and rigger,  8 new chainplates and backing plates from Garhauer for the main mast (3100$ by themselves). New sheaves at the top of the mast.  It includes time and materials for the fiberglass work to ready the boat for the new backing and chainplates, and then to install the chainplates ($7,735).  It also includes the cost ($1400) of two new hatches for the main salon, and their installation (about $1100) because we have whole new fiberglass surfaces for them to rest on. So much grinding and dust.

It was worth every penny. In fact, I am feeling a little chuffed about having guessed that this is how much it would cost to have it done right. (Read: super stoked that it wasn’t actually more than 20K)  But we’re ahead of the game because I did not include in my calculations the buying and installing of two new hatches for the salon. So it’s almost like those were free!

Here she comes! I got to play the roll of ‘person who guides the mast into place’. I was so honored.

A word about Lewmar hatches: they sure are pretty. But our main hatch in the salon, the brand new one, leaks. It leaks at the hinge and yes, we have taken that apart and checked to be sure the seal is set correctly. It is. And the damn thing still leaks. I mean, the hatch leaked before! And that is why we spent the money on a new one. So now that we have a new one, I feel like it should not leak. Am I wrong? We have made a warranty claim but, naturally, to replace the lid of the hatch is to order something that is ‘out of stock’ and is back ordered. I am not happy. Mike is not happy. I want them to send me an entire new hatch and I’ll just take the lid off myself and replace the one that leaks into my salon!

In addition to the cost of the new rig, our extensive refit includes the following new necessities:

Radar 1500$
Anemometer with displays and depth sounder $1348
Radio antenna $180,
AIS transceiver $600
New cable for the radio antenna $100
Antenna splitter for the AIS and VHF $200
New headsail furler $2934
New deck and steaming lights $250
New expensive bulbs for the navigation light $100
Rebuilt hydraulic steering $4749, and we got gouged. Honestly I think the guy charged us for thinking about our steering while showering. It’s the only time in 20 years of boat ownership we feel like we were taken for a ride. I guess we’ve been lucky.)
Folding steering wheel $1000, but it was my birthday. Do I still have to count it?
new dinghy $2000 and used two stroke engine $1100.

We are grateful to a friend who let us order things using her pro account at the local boat supply shop. That saved us a ton of money, if you can believe it. These are the costs AFTER her discount.

Sitting pretty with her wires all labeled, in case you wondered. As I write this, all those wires are connected up and working great. Go, Michael!

But wait! There’s more! In addition, we bought a used aluminum radar pole with an engine lift for 250$ at the marine surplus store in Poulsbo. Our new outboard is too heavy for us to safely handle without using the laws of physics in our favor. This unit will solve that problem. We’ll have that installed by our fiberglass guy sometime in April. He’s probably tired of seeing us at this point and we for sure are tired of paying him, even though he’s worth it. I think this will be his last gig on our boat for awhile, or maybe forever.   I dropped the headsail and the spinnaker off at Ballard Sails this week to be looked at and repaired as needed. We decided to spring for a new 600$ ATN spinnaker sock to make our lives easier because the one we have causes what we generally refer to as a shit show on the foredeck when we try to raise the sail. “What? It’s STILL TANGLED ON THAT DAMN LINE? LOWER THE SAIL AGAIN, YOU SAY?? *&#^$&@*!!!” Hopefully those days are over because we fly that sail a lot.  And then it will be about $2000 to have the Viking life raft repacked and have a new soft-sided valise for that. But with the recent sinking of S/V Raindancer, we won’t go without one.  Is that all? Surely I’ve forgotten something.

Oh, yes. I did forget something. We’ll have all new running rigging as well, and we need to buy at least one, possibly two blocks for the mainsheet. We are problem solving that right now.

All in, that’s close to another 20k in kit, more or less because who’s counting at this point? We haven’t even bought anything fun yet. If anyone thinks they can do this on the cheap with a boat our size, and still be safe, good luck. I wish them all the best. This is our last hurrah before we slide into old age and get back to gardening. We’re going to do it right.

Finally, many readers (if they are still alert after the shock of all those numbers) will recall that Galapagos is a ketch. So what about the mizzen mast? In recent posts I have made reference to changes we are making that will make this boat easier for us to handle with only the two of us as we get older. (Because time sure is passing fast.) One of those changes is removing the mizzen mast. Having owned and sailed this boat for 10 years and thousands of miles, we have decided we do not use the mizzen sail the way we thought we would. We literally took years to come to this conclusion, so it wasn’t easy.  Yes, we know other people love a ketch rig, and that’s fine. We understand what we are giving up.

But at the end of the day, we would rather have the open real estate on the aft deck than to carry that other mast and all the accompanying wire, etc. Not having that mast on the boat really makes a difference in being able to move freely on the aft deck, an area of the boat we use so much (hello: fishing!). and the boat sails very well without it. In fact, during our three ocean passages, two of them of 3 weeks or more duration, we flew that sail less than a handful of times.  So for now, it’s stored at our house. We are not yet sure if we will get rid of it altogether because some day we might sell the boat and a new owner might want it. It’s deck stepped, so pretty easy to put back on.  But I bet they don’t. (For those who are mast-curious, no, we will absolutely not be moving the primary mast in this change to the rig. Absolutely not.) We may eventually opt for a longer boom, but not before we are ready to replace the mainsail. And it has a lot of years left. We’ll go with what we have for now and just enjoy the roominess of that aft deck. .

Our focus now is putting Galapagos back together. The boom is on and she is starting to look like a sailboat again! Mike is working on getting the woodwork back together in the salon, a project that I just could not wrap my brain around. We were thinking of having some cabinets made for the salon, but reviewing those numbers above made us rethink that. Woodworking 101 it is! Just put everything back the best we can and get some nice trim to cover the mistakes. Maybe later we can do cabinets, but we’ve gone a long way without them already so…

I removed every single thing from every single cabinet and cubby in the salon and we’ve got rid of a ton of stuff we thought we would need but never did. We are reorganizing from top to bottom and it’s refreshing to see all the dead weight leaving the boat. Makes me feel like we might actually go somewhere sometime, somehow.

That’s a lot of epoxy supplies and fiberglass resin and supplies. And now they have their very own cabinet to call home. And we can find what we need quickly. Yay, me.

So when do we leave Olympia? Honestly, we thought we would already be gone. We are not nearly ready to go by any stretch of the imagination, so our plans to sail to Alaska this season have been put off, yet again. That’s a hard loss because we truly thought we could pull that off and there are a few people there we would like to see.  At this point, we are aiming for June and doing a shake down in the Salish Sea again, possibly a circumnavigation of Vancouver Island, another thing we still have not done. We feel like we need to cut our cruising teeth again, having been land locked for so long. But as always, we understand that plans are never written in anything but sand. If we get the boat to Mexico again this year, we’ll be satisfied. Actually, if we just get off the dock at all and go literally anywhere, we’ll be satisfied.

Also congratulations to Michael who recently passed his license to talk over an SSB radio! That’s right. I forgot about that, too. SSB, coming to the boat before we leave for the South Pacific. We don’t need to worry about that right now because the South Pacific isn’t until next spring at the earliest.  Also Starlink. Because I will need to keep working for awhile and that’s going to make it easy for me. Someone has to pay for the SSB radio.

S/V Galapagos, standing by on channel 68 because who has a working VHF radio again? We do!