Back Aboard The Boat

After packing and loading the car, the truck and the neighbors' basement with all the things (food, clothing, electonic gadgets, house wares, books, boat parts, etc.) that one gathers in three and one half years of dirt dwelling, we then headed out for the boat.

When we arrived, the thermometer in the car said the outside temperature was 106-F, and we found one air conditioner not working and the other not working very well. With the help of a very nice and knowledgeable air conditioner tech from a local electrical contractor's shop both air conditioners will now freeze you! In order to get to the two air conditioners, we had to empty the vee-birth and everything we had on the aft cabin bed and put it on deck ...... meanwhile, Bill was unloading the food, clothing, electronic gadgets, house wares, books, boat parts, etc. from the car and truck. Of course, all that stuff ended up on the deck while the air conditioner man did his thing. Mobetah looked a lot like the Bevery Hill Billies old truck for a day or two. It all is now being put away, and things are beginning to look normal again. Of course, we are sorting again ..... you know, this pile stays on the boat, this pile goes to Good Will, and this pile goes back to the neighbor's basement and later moved to storage (Curtis, thanks for that space above your garage ..... We Love Ya!).

We are cleaning as we put stuff away. Bill had not been able to get over to the boat for the last two or three months, and the deck was filthy and beginning to turn green (not to mention about a million May Flies who decided die on our boat)! Inside, the boat was very dusty (where does all that dust come from?)

After we get things organized, in a week or two, we'll go up the river and anchor for a day or two (something we have not been able to do for almost three years) just to unwind and to see what still works and what doesn't). Then we'll drive to North Padre Island, Texas to check on the condo and visit with friends for a few weeks.

Updating the Interior

After installing the new fuel tank and water tank the interior was in deplorable conditon. We decided it would be best to update the interior while we were not living onboard. So, for almost a year now Bill has been cleaning, sanding and varnishing the interior.

In addition, each time he went to the boat (about one week a month), he brought back a pickup truck load of stuff (tools, spare parts, linens, dishes, pots & pans,books, rugs, lamps, etc.) home to be sorted into one of four piles: 1. throw away, 2. store, 3. donate to good will or 4. take back to the boat. Everything taken back to the boat was cleaned and/or refinished as required.

Brass clocks, barameters and lamps were cleaned and sprayed with an acrilic coating, rugs were cleaned or replaced.

Most woodwork was refinished with satin varnish (the original finish by Endeavour) however some of the trim, the companionway stairs and the Navagation table top were finished in either gloss Epifanes varnish or glossy polyeurthane.

A New Entertainment Center for Christmas

Well, Santa brought the boat a new entertainment center for Christmas. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to install it so Bill went over to the boat and did that last week.

He replaced the old cassette player radio with a new JVC (200 watt) cd player/receiver. The new radio is sirius radio ready, plays MP3s and has an aux input on the front of the unit for I-pods etc., we got a pass-through adapter so we now have an external input (which connects to our new JVC Sirius radio tuner which connects to the back of the JVC reciever - both are out of site in a cabinet under the entertainment center) so we can now play music, on our computer, through the stereo without all those wires and cables showing.

We replaced our old 13"analog tv with a 19" LCD-HD which Santa purchased at 5:00am on Black Friday. We ended up mounting it with a swivil arm mount from WalMart (worked out really well and at a very reasonable price)

We also replaced the old VCR with a Magnavox DVD recorder/player.

In order to install the various pieces of electronic gear Bill had to move the clock and barometer (to make room for the tv), relocate the air conditioner thermostat (to make room for the tv mount) and fabricate and install a new panel for the JVC radio and a new panel for the tv mount to be mounted to (it also covers the hole left by the relocated air conditioner thermostat).

Everything is now complete on our new entertainment center including permanently mounting the sirius radio antenna. We decide to mount it on the davits, so we had to order a antenna cable extension.

An Inexpensive Grill

We have noticed several threads on the sailing forums asking about bar-b-que grills. So we thought we would add a post to our blog about our grill. It's stainless steel, works like a charm and only cost $92.00 at Lowes. Actually, Acadamy Sports sells an identical grill for $69.99 (private labeled under a different name). http://www.academy.com/index.php?page=content&target=products/outdoors/grills/gas_grills&start=6&selectedSKU=0261-02367-0124

We used a heavy piece of aluminum angle, stainless steel u-bolts and the front brace from our old Force-10 grill to mount the grill. This give a much more rigid mount than those offered by the typical Marine grill manufacturers.

All in all, this is the best, and least expensive, grill we've ever had on the boat and we've had several manufactured by Magma and Force-10.

We also purchased a heavy guage stainless steel fish/vegetable grilling tray from Home Depot for about $12.00 that fits perfeclty inside our grill.

Rebuilding The Watermaker

When we first built the watermaker, several years ago, we used a 1 1/2hp electric motor, a 2 gpm high pressure pump and a 21" membrane. The system worked well and produced about 10 gph of pure fresh water. Had we used a 40" membrane the system probably could have produced about 16gph or had we used a smaller motor and smaller high pressure pump the system would have produced less water however, it could have operated using our inverter. We had to remove the watermaker while replacing the leaking fuel tank so we decided to rebuild it using a smaller motor and high pressure pump while it was out.

While the fuel tank was being replaced, we have managed to purchase a new Baldar 1/3hp motor (explosion proof) for $109.00 and a stainless steel Cat pump (SF05SEEL) for $125.50 (both were purchased off ebay). The specifications for the new system (motor, high pressure pump and membrane) should be very similar to HRO's Seafari mini 170 system and produce about 7 gph.

We had new high pressure hoses fabricated by the local Motion Industries and have now reinstalled the watermaker into the boat.

In addition, we will install a new 21" filmtec membrane just before we leave on our next cruise.