While we were at Warderick Wells, we took some time to do a little cleaning. Salt and sun are a boat's worst enemies. After crossing the Tongue of the Ocean, we had enough salt aboard to to fill a sea salt shaker. No, we didn't really fill the shaker, but we did spend about 5 hours washing the salt off. Check out the back cap rail. We stripped it and redid it while we were in Stuart. It was much easier than I thought.
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Provisioning a boat with pretty much everything you need for 3 months isn't easy and certainly can't be completed in just one trip to the grocery store. I use a chart created in Word to help me keep track of what I have and what I need to buy. I found it on the internet last year and made a few changes. Sorry I can't give credit where due because I couldn't find it again. I certainly don't get every item on this list. But it does give me a good starting point and makes me think about things I might have forgotten otherwise. We started working on provisioning every early this year. We bought and vacuum sealed most of our meat back in September when we were in Virginia. Then finished up in Florida buying most of the nonperishable items before Christmas and the perishable items after we returned. All that is left is to get a few fresh veggies and we will be ready to go!
Creak, thud, groan, swish, squeak....These are the sounds boaters listen to at night when the wind is howling. At first you worry about every little unnatural noise. But after all these years aboard, our ears are trained to drown out the unimportant noises. Okay, maybe we are getting old and our hearing is going. Either way, we have an awesome anchor and sleep well most nights even in the wind. For the last four days it has been blowing hard!. Most of that time it was 30+ knots. There was A LOT of creaking and groaning going on outside. This morning we woke up and walked around the boat checking things out as usual. This is what we saw. Then we walked to the bow and looked up....way up. Notice what is different??? If you said the antennae on the right is shorter, you win. They are supposed to be the same height. The top half fell/blew off!!! It is supposed to be attached with a locking washer and loctite. Not sure where the locking washer went. But it definitely wasn't there. You would think that shear gravity would have kept the washer on at least. This antennae is for our single side band radio. We had trouble with it last year in the Bahamas. We were outputting a strong signal, but receiving a weak, garbled one. Don checked the ground and all the other wiring. I read the manual and tried various settings. Nothing seemed to make it any better. Now we wonder if the problem was a loose antennae. Guess we will find out when we get the replacement installed. It has to be ordered and trucked in. Now to the hardware store to buy a super large bottle of loctite!
Whether you live on a boat or in a house, the pantry gets messy. From time to time you just have to dig in and straighten things up. Today was my day for getting organized. Okay, I confess. I don't see that big a difference either. But I got rid of a few boxes and put like items together. At least I know what is there and where to find it. :)
What do you do when the wind is blowing 30 knots and you can’t get the dinghy off the deck? Well, first I cleaned up a bit. Not so much that the boat is spotless by any means. I wasn’t that motivated. Then we caught up on a few of our favorite tv shows. The internet is great in Wrightsville Beach. Then I posted pictures to Facebook. But what now??? Ahhh….I checked that list of projects I have been putting off and found one. This piece of wood trim was obviously designed for a headboard, but the boat did not come with one. It has been this way since the boat was new in 2005. I finally got tired of leaning against it while watching tv. It was begging for foam. While we were at a marina in September, I googled boat canvas, found someone with closed cell foam and bought a piece to fit. Don used an electric knife (Yes, the one we use to carve the turkey at Thanksgiving.) and cut it to fit. He has a great eye for things being straight and could trim the sides and corners without measuring. We put the foam in place and that was as far as we got…raw foam for a headboard. It wasn’t attractive, but it did make things more comfortable. Today I was….bored. I dug out some fabric that I have had for a looong time. I bought it because it was on the remnant table at Printer’s Alley. It was less than two yards, neutral, and nautical. I knew I would find a use for it sometime. I had planned on using muslin. When I laid this scrap over the foam, it was a perfect fit! I figured it was meant to be. Two small cuts to trim the curved corners and a few quick seams down the sides gave me the perfect headboard slipcover. All in under an hour! Now what do I do?
When your boat is pulled for a bottom job, there is always a lot of work to be done. You’re gonna be TIRED and sore! Yep, it’s a given. No sense whining about it. The first thing that happens is pressure washing. Here is Valkyrie before pressure washing: Here is Valkyrie after pressure washing: Almost makes you wonder if the bottom needs painting! While they were moving Valkyrie to a spot further back on the yard for the week, I got this shot of Don’s toys. Next the main propeller was pulled off so we could take it to Wildcat Props to be repaired. Notice how close the truck is parked to the boat. It took four guys to carry the prop over to it. Don worked on rebuilding the wing engine propeller. That means he took it apart, cleaned it, greased it and put it all back together. He patched the hole in the stabilizer fin. I scraped off all the barnacles on the keel cooler and the many other places they grow on the boat. We also prepped and painted all the metal, changed all the zincs, compounded and waxed the blue stripe. We left sanding and painting the bottom to the yard since we didn’t have respirators and disposable body suits. Here is what the bow thruster looks like. There is another one just like it in the stern. Here I am looking ultra sexy! Ha Ha!!! Anyone wanna come help next time???
Haul Her Out Boys! from Debbie Via on Vimeo. Time to paint the bottom means heading down the bay to Cobb's Marina in Little Creek next to the Navy amphibious base. Pulling a boat this heavy out of the water is no easy task. We went down the day before and stayed on the travel lift dock. This video shows Valkyrie being hauled out of the water. |