Livin' The Dream

It doesn't get any better than this. Ready to attack the barnacles.

At our last haulout, we had nothing growing on the bottom, so a pressure wash and scotch-brite scrub was all that was necessary to prep for the anti-fouling paint.

This time, we had barnacles on the bottom that had been scraped off by the yard guys when we got here last March..

The place where the barnacles grew to the boat had the remains of it's shell and glue, or whatever makes them stick so well. I was hoping that 10 months of dry Sonoran desert climate or searing summer heat would have loosened them up.  Wrong.  The entire bottom had to be sanded.

In Grenada I dry sanded and the dust was atrocious.  It went everywhere.  This year the plan was to wet sand so I made a dust shroud out of fiberglass, mounted a hose to one of the handles, and used wet sandpaper.  It was still a mess but at least I wasn't breathing the toxic dust.  After two full days of water spraying, paint flinging sanding and it was ready to paint.  I had two gallons left over from Honduras and we brought 3 new gallons when we drove here in May.
That gave 2 full coats and plenty of extra coverage at the waterline and other turbulent areas.

Booker's Birthday

We planned and had a bonfire down by the water for Booker's birthday. It was a Mexican Night Potluck. Go figure.

A boat recently came in with a family from Austria. The 2 boys, Noah and Jan, are 6 & 8 but the 8 year old's birthday is Feb 4 so we also made the birthday party for him.

 They left Austria 2 years ago.  They sailed the Northwest_Passage over the top of Canada and then spent last winter in Seward, Alaska.  They were the only boat in the marina.  The water was frozen around them and the snow was level with the deck.

They will be going to the South Pacific this year so we look forward to seeing much more of them.

The Lid

The freezer has been working like a charm.  The big problem is that the lid that came with the unit was only an inch thick and not so well insulated.

I started with 1/8" G10 Epoxy Board.  Basically circuit board material.  I used Ted's table saw and started cutting and epoxying. 

Once I made the lid piece, I used it as the form for the surround.  7 days, start to finish.  If I was charging myself US yard rates, this would be about a $2000 lid.  Good thing I work for free.

Return to the post-Sandy Shore

This is our driveway, the sand does not belong here

We flew back to Philly December 16th.
The mess from Hurricane Sandy was about as we expected.  Lots of sand everywhere.  All the boardwalks floated and were either moved, washed away, of ended up with debris under them.  After 3 days of digging out and the help of Davey Gdzinski's back-hoe, we are ready to start filling and leveling.  Then reconstruct/repair the boardwalks and bring in landscape stones to finish it up.

Our Christmas Tree

It's not really possible to have a Christmas tree on our boat but we did put lights around the cockpit and we do actually carry around this tree with us to use once a  year.  At least it doesn't weigh that much.

Thanksgiving

We organized a Thanksgiving dinner here in the boatyard in Guaymas. There are about 38 of us working and living on our boats trying to get in the water soon. Several people offered to cook 2 turkeys and 1 ham. We also had lots of side dishes and desserts. With that said...yes, we all over ate.

Electric Boat

We finally have new batteries. 

In the cockpit, originally, there was an 8kw diesel generator.  We used it once in 3 years since we left NJ.  We have enough charging capability from the solar panels, wind generator, and engine alternators, that we just haven't used it.  So instead of hauling 500 pounds of steel around, we pulled it out last May.

Now we have our 6 X 2 volt batteries and a 2kw Honda generator in the same space.  Hopefully we will not have to use the Honda either, but it never hurts to be prepared.  There is enough extra room in this compartment for gallons of distilled battery water, the shore power cord, etc.

Moving 700 pounds of batteries from the starboard engine room to the boat center line should also get us more in balance.