Category Archives: Preparing to cruise

How Do You Spell Relief?

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If you’re old enough to remember that little slogan, welcome, fellow middle-aged-TV-watcher-of-yore.  The updated spelling is a little bit longer than the slogan would imply. The new, 2016 year of Galapagos-boat-work way to spell ‘relief’  is ALOFT MARINE.  Boaters know that it is really hard to find anyone who is qualified, knowledgeable, and willing to do work on boats; especially when you are not a billionaire with a huge mega yacht. It can be really hard to find someone you can trust with your vessel. Personal recommendations are the only way to go because the best folks don’t need to advertise. Word gets out and they have plenty of business.

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Thus I was over the moon excited to have attended the South Sound Women in Boating conference back in the spring and to come away with a coveted prize of three hours of boat systems and rigging consultation by Jason at Aloft Marine in Olympia. How did I accomplish this feat? I bought 30$ worth of lottery tickets, put them all in the basket for this prize, crossed my fingers, spit three times, spun in place, sacrificed the nearest virgin, then won. That’s how it’s done, folks. It’s complicated, but I’m kind of amazed at how many things I’ve won since we started this little adventure. Kind of makes me think we’re on the right track when stuff like that happens. Hey, maybe I should buy a lottery ticket!

When I won the certificate, a friend of mine who is a racing sailor in Olympia told me how lucky  I was. She and her husband have had Jason work on their boat and he was really excellent, she said. She assured me I would not be disappointed. A personal reference from someone I trust! Yay! Plus, he is a racing sailor himself and has been on sailboats for many years.  Bonus!

So last Thursday Jason showed up exactly on time at Galapagos’ slip and brought his rigging tools and all his other accoutrements with him. He began with the rigging inspection, which has weighed heavily on me since we bought the boat. I waited anxiously for his report about whether we would need to replace our standing rigging before heading offshore because this would be a financial burden we’d have to meet at a time when we have many other things to purchase. The answer was no. It’s in good shape, with a few minor things we need to either check more thoroughly, or need to correct. He climbed the mast and took a look up top, noting a few things that need changing or fixing, writing them down in his little notebook. He said we can do all of them ourselves.  The rig seriously needs tuning, which we already knew. But no replacement? One sigh of relief.

On to the mizzen mast. This rigging might be original to the boat, so he suggested replacing it. We were not surprised at that, and the expense for this mast will be much less because there is simply less material to replace.

The only major concern, which we’ve been aware of since last summer, is that there is some kind of leak underneath the mizzen mast, in the step. We spent time at a lovely anchorage last year, off Tzartus Island, isolating this leak and confirming that the leak is, indeed, under the mast. Oy.

See the water leaking out where the hatch is held open? That’s been going on for a LONG time. Jason says this design is asking for trouble. I can see his point.

This is a long time problem, as is evidenced by the amount of water damage to the bulkhead in the aft cabin and in the aft section of the engine room. Every time it rains, water leaks into the aft cabin through the attachment point for the lid to the hatch in that area. At least the water comes out rather than just sitting there soaking the wood.  That’s probably what has allowed that area to still be basically sound over this extended period of time. When we bought the boat we, of course, noted that, but the price of the boat was so good, we took the gamble.

You can see water dripping inside, and see there the water has damaged the teak veneer.

The bad news, although it’s not really ‘news’, is that we will need to pull the mast to fix this. Jason’s idea is to redesign this mast step to avoid this problem in the future. All of us will be surprised if we do not find some deck rot in that area. And we will have to check this bulkhead carefully, but tapping around on it doesn’t give you that hollow sound you’d expect with rot.  So that’s a project that will need attention during the big haul out next spring. The good news is that when Jason started giving me an idea of the costs involved in doing that work, they did not feel daunting, especially since Mike and I can do much of the work ourselves if we need to. We recently cut our teeth on fixing wood rot in the anchor/windlass locker. So the idea that this project is actually doable mostly by us is really a relief. Big boats can cost a lot, and we want to do right by ours.

Onward to the engine room, Mike finally got to consult with a marine engine professional about the engine mounts, confirm his plan to keep parts for an extra exhaust elbow on board, and in general, get someone with more experience than he has to lay eyes on the engine room and its systems. All to the good and another big sigh of relief all around. 14237499_902686499835969_5984000133208390165_n

By the end of our consult, we were so impressed with Jason’s professionalism, his communication skills (SO important!), and how down to earth he is. I really appreciated that he understood that keeping costs under control and telling us how to do things ourselves were primary concerns for us.  I also loved it that he has other resources in people he works with who do different things well, like finish work. This is what happens when people are secure with themselves and their business. You can have a real working relationship and not be afraid you are getting gouged in the wallet.  I asked him why he didn’t advertise more, and his response was that he actually didn’t need to. So there it is.

We feel so confident in turning some work over to Jason that we’ve decided to haul out next year at Swantown, down in Olympia, before we leave. That way he will be able to work Galapagos into his busy schedule without having to travel to Tacoma. We feel a big sense of relief in having found found someone we can trust to work on our girl for us and help us prepare her for the big trip.  In the boating world, finding a professional like Jason is the real prize. Thanks, Universe!

 

 

The Measure of the Day

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This morning I’m sitting in my window seat at home, my land-life equivalent to the cockpit on Galapagos, nursing my one and only ‘latte’ of the day. I call it a latte, but it’s really my addictive Taster’s Choice House Blend (yeah, thanks, Scotland) and nicely frothed milk. Delicious. It’s my morning ritual. I sit here, observe the early falling leaves, and check my email.

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I open the email from Bookbub, a website I subscribe to that showcases really cheap books for my Kindle. Most of the time I glance through the list and am not impressed. I hit ‘delete’ and move on. Today I find three books that grab my attention and I end up buying all three. And that’s when it hits me: this is the measure of the day ahead. Getting three Kindle books for a total of 5$.  I guess if you are going to measure the success of a day in advance, this is as good a way as any. I wonder what other wonders this day will reveal?

This Kindle-stock-piling is one of the many small things I do to prepare for all those long hours of web-less forced inactivity that I’m sure must be awaiting me when we cut the dock lines late next spring.   I just know I will have hours and hours to lie around when the weather is too hot to do anything else; protecting my delicate skin from the sun’s bitter rays, Kindle in hand and absorbed in stories. It’s a good dream, and I’m holding fast to it and as I buy-with-one-click. Amazon, you make it so easy.  At this point, I can’t even find all the books I’ve bought because I haven’t yet discovered the secret to keeping them organized. It’s the story of my life.

More fall bloomers. Japanese Wind Flowers

I feel like a squirrel, gathering nuts and storing them away in hidden places, preparing for the lean times. I’ve canned gallons of figs and huckleberries from the yard, hoarding them away under the settee. We’ll never buy jam again. I look at the crab apple tree and begin planning another round of canning. Maybe it’s my mother’s and grandmother’s depression era heritage that keeps me from wanting to see good fruit go to waste.

I’m hunting and gathering dvds we’d like to watch, saving them for that rainy day at an anchorage somewhere. End of the season deals on hot weather clothing find their way into my shopping cart and then into the pillow cover storage on the boat. During the cold and wet winter, I’ll find myself fingering the cloth like prayer beads, counting the days to the warmth and sun.

Even as fall has not actually begun, our late spring departure bears down on us, gathering speed.  It’s hard to believe there is less than a year to go in this plan.  There are countless things to accomplish before then. The big ones are scheduled in our heads for a haul out next year. That leak under the mizzen mast. That old mainsail. All the deck systems. The rigging inspection. All that and more. It will stretch us to prioritize these things into what actually needs to be done before we go, and what can wait until another day, another place.

I am working on a few small but important things such as the medical kit. I’ve made great progress ordering things from Amazon, such as these Quik Clot sponges for stopping bleeding, and this Israeli Bandage Battle Dressing compression bandage, and even this skin staple kit. It’s amazing how much you can spend on things you hope never to actually use. I purchased first aid for the mind in an entire season of Big Bang Theory, waiting for a nice binge watch session in the Rumpus Room on board.P1100422

With the aft cabin creative endeavor complete and Mike having almost completed the install of the new hydraulic steering lines, our next big interior project is going to be the galley and the water system on board. My little grey cells are working overtime experimenting with materials, doing research, coming up with a cunning plan to increase accessible storage, get rid of the old countertops, and replace the tired sink before the drain snaps off and falls into the cabinet below. Of course this is all while saving money and coming up with new Cheap Boat Tricks. I have ideas, plans forming in my brain. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, here are the three books you may want to consider for your own Kindle. Hurry before the prices go back up:

Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories by Ben Fountain $1.99

Coop by Michael Perry $1.99

Escape on the Pearl: Passage to Freedom From Washington, D.C.  by Mary Kay Ricks $.99

 

 

Shit’s About to Get Real

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Remember that time when I said that I never wanted to live aboard a sailboat during a Pacific Northwest winter? You know, that time I said that people would have to be a certain kind of crazy to live on a boat during the winter; especially an uninsulated sailboat in the Pacific Northwest during what is our rainy season? Yeah, all the minor gods and goddesses remember that too. And they’ve decided to thwart me good. Be careful what you say out loud. That’s right. We’re getting ready to move aboard. And it might be 90F now, but the rain is just around the corner.

Soon, this will be ‘home’.

This weekend marks the beginning of the final transition from full time land house dwellers to full time liveaboards. Do you notice how we rarely do anything really fast? There is none of this ‘today I live here tomorrow I live there’ nonsense. Instead we have multiple divisions of time that describe the excruciatingly slow process that is unfolding. First there is the transition into the liminal space, then there is the liminal space itself; a time of pupating, almost gestating as it were. Then there is the beginning of the end of the liminal space and now it’s the beginning of the transition into the ending. We are literally beginning to end our land life. It’s bloody exhausting even to write about it, much less to live it. It makes me think that people who just throw everything away, buy a boat down someplace warm without even seeing it, and then go to that place and never look back know something we don’t know.

Regardless of tortuous divisions of time today is the day our son, Andrew and Jill are coming to live in the family home. They will get jobs and start their post-graduation life here in Tacoma. (Blatant advertising for Andrew, who finished up his GIS certification this summer and is looking for a job, hopefully in Tacoma or Olympia. Know anyone who knows anyone? He’s smart, plays well with others, and eager to get started in the world.)

This will free us up to spend most of our time aboard Galapagos while still having access to the house and the dog and other important things like the washer and dryer and the occasional land sleepover. If this works out for everyone it will allow our Skippy dog to live his life in his yard with his family, and will allow us to keep the house until we are sure we want to sell it. We are seriously crossing our fingers.

We won’t be full time liveaboards right away. There is another young couple moving in with Andrew and Jill in November. That’s what makes this place affordable for people just starting out. Until then we’ll be going back and forth from the house to the boat, but spending most of the weekends at the marina. So yeah, we will be moving aboard right as winter is upon us. We must be out of our minds.

I’m not going to lie; it’s a wierd and unsettling time. It’s hard to be excited and sad at the same time. One minute I’m looking forward to the adventure, the next minute I’m wanting the familiar comfort of our home of 16 years. Even though I’m long past wanting to work in that yard, some days I just go a bit numb so I don’t have to feel anything much at all. What a strange and wild time this is.

But onward! This last year of our plan is flying by. We have a very long list of things to accomplish between now and next spring. But this time next year we should be on our way to Mexico!