Nirvana's New Home!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post, especially since I've been having some exiting news for about 3 weeks.  On March 10th, we FINALLY put Nirvana in a lift and got her back in the water!  After being in the boatyard since December, 2014 ... this day couldn't come soon enough, and it was a day full of excitement and a bit of anxiety.  Would we find any leaks from the thru-hulls or the last minute strut repair that kept us in the boatyard another two months?  Would the engine start after sitting for over a year?  Would Ken be able to easily align our new prop shaft once back in the water, or would that be another typical boat project that turns into a nightmare?  Did Ken install our new shaft packing properly?  Would we run aground when moving Nirvana to her new slip and look like total idiots?  If we ran aground would we bend our brand new prop shaft?  All of these questions would be answered once in the water ... and "out there" in the lake.  Ya know what Capt'n Ron says!

Seeing our prized possession slowly lift off the stands and into the air always makes us a little nervous.  But, the straps were in the right position and Nirvana was slowly carried near the water without incident.  Nirvana sat in her slings for a bit while Ken painted the areas of the bottom that the stands had prevented from being painted while on the hard.  After drying, Nirvana was lowered into the water then guided to the dock for aligning the new prop shaft and checking everything one more time.  

Everything looked good, and nothing leaked.  Whew, now on to aligning the shaft.  While this didn't turn into the nightmare we feared, it did take a lot of time.  As the afternoon slipped away, we decided to finish up in the morning and enjoy the next day motoring to Nirvana's new home.

We arrived early the next morning, Ken finished aligning the shaft, and we were finally ready to start the engine and get into Lake Pontchartrain.  The engine took a minute to start, but it sounded great ... music to our ears!  We untied the lines and headed out of the canal and into the lake.  We were anxious to see how the new shaft packing was working, so we weren't ready to celebrate and relax just yet.  As we entered the lake, Ken checked the packing and made a few small adjustments.  I kept watch and steered the boat while he was down below.  Ken came up just as we'd floated into the center of the lake ... perfect timing.

The days was gorgeous and as we motored along the lake we began to relax.  The new packing was working well, the shaft seemed to be aligned properly and was running smooth, and the engine wasn't overheating,  We were back on our boat ... on the water!  We felt like we were getting reacquainted with an old friend, and it felt great.  Our confidence began to come back, and our love for Nirvana was quickly rekindled.  What a perfect day it turned out to be!

We slowly made our way across Lake Pontchartrain and into Bayou Bonfouca.  The marsh is beautiful.

On such a beautiful day after a lot of rain, we saw lots of turtles sunning themselves and about five alligators doing the same thing!  We've grown up on the bayous and swamps, yet we rarely see an alligator.  It was fun to scan the marshy areas and actually see an alligator every now and then.  As we motored past beautiful homes, we knew we were getting close to Nirvana's new slip.

We had two bridges to pass through.  The first bridge was on the lake and the second was just before our slip.  As we waited for the old bridge to open, we started running our docking procedure through our heads.  After going back n forth, we decided that I'd jump on the dock and Ken would steer us into the slip bow first ... very slowly.  We placed the fenders and slid right into our slip ... much easier than we'd hoped!  

Nirvana looks great in her new slip, and the deck paint job that was such a PITA doesn't look too bad.  We do have a section that we're unhappy with, and Ken will try to fix it this Summer.  How do ya like our floating lawn?! (first photo above)

That following Friday night, we sat in Nirvana's cockpit and enjoyed the sunset and water views with a few beers.  Aaaah ... we've been away too long.

The guy next to us, Octo, just moved onto his sailboat, and has been working on the interior for the past 3 years.  Octo has the same plan as us ... to travel on his sailboat.  He's about to start working on the outside, while we're about to start working on our inside.  Octo is a real nice guy, and he said he'd be glad to adjust our fenders and keep an eye on Nirvana since he's living right next door.  We exchanged numbers, and it's good to know that Nirvana is being watched.  We live about 5 minutes away from Nirvana, so we're able to stop by often.  I can even stop by and board Nirvana by myself ... no more dreaded ladder!

We also have Noah's Ark across from us!

So, why have I taken so long to share this exiting news?!  Well, it seems that the past month has flown by with work and now TWO vacant rentals.  We've been working on getting these rentals back on the market in our spare time.  We've got one rental ready and advertised, and the other should be ready in the next 4-6 weeks.  We've spent quite a bit of time showing the one rental and interviewing potential tenants, but we're being picky this time so ... it's still on the market.  I can't tell ya how hard it is these days to find a decent tenant!  One showed up reeking of pot and in his pajamas, another used to live there and had trashed the place (the nerve!), and others had terrible credit and no proof of income ... ugh!

Anyway, we're getting a handle on things and we've ordered the non-skid for Nirvana's deck.  We hope to start this project real soon ... before the Louisiana heat & humidity becomes too uncomfortable.

Also, I've been escaping to New Orleans every now and then for a beginner's sailing course!  I'll have more about this later and have only sailed once so far, but it's been fun.

This past Sunday we took a break from everything and participated in a friend's annual Crawfish Boiling Competition.  Our team consisted of Ken & I, our daughter and our son-in-law.  We've won in the past, but didn't this year.  That's alright, we enjoyed the friends & crawfish and lots of folks still thought Ken's was the best.  It was another gorgeous day!

 Ken shared his family secret with our son-in-law ...

Now that Nirvana is back in a slip without incident, I can tell ya that there were many times during the past year that we felt defeated.  From the difficulties with spraying the deck, to the unexpected new shaft & coupling and strut repair, to Nirvana's new bottom job being out of the water too long, to low water levels keeping stuck at the boatyard ... it was a long road. We were starting to think that Nirvana was never getting outta the boatyard!  When we started to feel down, we'd tell ourselves that we would get through this, and we'd feel much better once we did.  A weight has been lifted and it feels so good ... we're moving forward!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Boatyard California!

If you read our last post, you know that we've been having some delays in getting Nirvana out of the boatyard.  Well, it's happened again!  Last Saturday morning, Ken and I grabbed the dock lines, fenders and other gear that we needed to put Nirvana back in the water.  We'd already set up the lift with Gary, the owner of the boatyard, and we were scheduled to go in around 11 am. The skies were blue and the weather was gorgeous.  It was going to be a great weekend to motor Nirvana to her new location ... until it wasn't.

As we drove into the boatyard, we scanned the waterway to see how the water level looked.  It appeared a bit low, but we weren't sure and remained optimistic.  As soon as we stepped out of our truck, Gary approached us and said, "You wanna go through all that mud?!".  We immediately knew what that meant ... Nirvana wasn't going in.  Our hearts sank.  I guess Gary saw the disappointment in my face, because he gave me a hug and tried to make things better by saying, "You're gonna be here another year"!  Actually, he did make things better by immediately saying that the "clock has stopped" and Nirvana is now staying at the boatyard for free until she goes into the water.  The little canal that leads to the yard really needs to be dredged and that's why it's so hard to get outta here.  No wonder we haven't seen too many sailboats during our stay the past year. Gary knows the situation makes things tough for us, so he's being fair by not charging us.  

Since we live about 20 minutes away and Gary lives right next door to the yard, he assured us he'd give us a call as soon as the water level was high enough to put Nirvana in the lift.  Ken and I have already decided that when we get that call from Gary, we're dropping everything and heading to the yard.  We may just have to play hookie from work, but it's about priorities right?!

As we left the boatyard disappointed, we started to laugh about our situation.  We now refer to the boatyard as "Boatyard California".  We can never leave!

Since we were suddenly free on a beautiful weekend, we spent it doing what folks do on beautiful weekends ... fixed a leaky tire on Ken's truck, replaced two tires on my car, caught up on paperwork and invoices, went grocery shopping ... all those fun things!  Actually, I'm not complaining.  We now can breathe a little easier since we've caught up on these things that we just couldn't seem to get to.  Heck, at least we avoided going to our vacant rental to start the repairs that need to be done before finding a new tenant.  It's been sitting for a month, but no worries.  We've decided that we'll get to it when we can, and that's all we can do.  Sometime this month we'll fix the rental and have Nirvana back in the water ... it will be good.

With making plans to move Nirvana, we recently stopped by Oak Harbor Marina to talk to Courtney, the dock master, and pick out a slip.  We're very familiar with this marina, as it's right next to the subdivision that we lived in until recently.  It's pretty nice, and it's right at the mouth of Lake Pontchartrain.  However, after talking with Courtney we decided to put off Oak Harbor for a few months and instead move Nirvana to a nearby place that would allow us to back our truck up to the slip and unload tools.  We still have quite a few projects to do on Nirvana, including painting the non-skid, bedding all the deck hardware, replacing some bulkheads, etc.  Oak Harbor requires that we park at the back of their parking lot (they also have condos), which would make things difficult.  Also, they frown on too many projects on the boats and we don't want any problems.  So, Nirvana will be back where she was in 2010 when we did our first haul-out.  But this time she'll be in the water!  I don't know what to call this place ... it was a boatyard, but it was poorly managed and went out of business.  The owner of the land is now renting out the few slips he has, so it's not quite a boatyard but not quite a marina either.  We like this, as it will be easy to get things done and is only five minutes away.

So, how long does it take to leave "Boatyard California"?  Will we ever leave?!  Stay tuned!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Bottom Paint And Dry Land

I hate to admit it, but since our Miami getaway we haven't done much with Nirvana.  The plan was to have her back in the water before going to Miami, but with the unexpected strut issue that didn't happen.  We then expected to finish up the strut repair and say goodbye to the boatyard shortly after our return from Miami, but we needed to prime and paint the strut area before doing so.  Priming & painting meant several trips to the boatyard in between work when the weather wasn't too cold ... which meant that another 2 weeks went by before all the coats were complete.  They say that a good part of cruising is learning to write your plans in sand ... I guess we're getting lots of practice!

On February 10th we made our second attempt to splash Nirvana, only to find a very low water level .. I'm talking about the lowest the boatyard had seen in years!  Was this some sort of sick joke from Mother Nature?! The wind was quickly knocked out of our sails as we realized that once again we wouldn't be getting Nirvana to a new location.

To add salt to the wound, we were fighting the clock with our Pettit Trinidad 75 bottom paint.  The company recommends that the boat be back in the water within 60 days of painting the bottom.  When we painted the bottom back in December, we figured we had plenty of time to get Nirvana back in the water.  Who would have thought that we'd sail right through those 60 days with the strut repair, escaping to Miami (how dare us!), and juggling work with the weather and tides.   

On February 10th, we were just over 70 days.  Ken and I had a dilemma .. we could either dish out another $200 for a gallon of Trinidad 75 paint, wait for it to come in the mail, then paint another coat on the bottom and spend at least another $100 bucks to the boatyard or ... take our chances and just put Nirvana back in the water?  We sure don't want the paint to fail and Nirvana's bottom to start looking like the photo above! After doing some research on the internet, I found an article on "Anti-Fouling Paints and Haul-Outs" by Practical Sailor.  The article mentioned Trinidad 75 and said that just scrubbing the bottom of the boat with a Scotch Brite pad would remove the oxidation and be sufficient for boats left on the hard for up to a year after being painted. This is what I wanted to see!  I showed the article to Ken and made a call to Pettit Paint to get their opinion.  I was pleasantly surprised at how fast I was able to speak to a representative on the phone, but after the conversation I was even more confused.  The rep said that Pettit recommended scrubbing the bottom with a red Scotch Brite pad from 60-70 days.  When I mentioned the article and asked his opinion of 80-90 days, he said that some folks have had "great success" with the pads after being on the hard for several months, but Pettit recommends painting another coat on the bottom after 70 days.  The good thing was that he said the bottom wouldn't have to be sanded before applying another coat.

With conflicting information, Ken and I went back and forth on what to do.  We finally decided that we didn't want to waste the time or money on ordering paint and we'd just take our chances and scrub the bottom with the pad.  After all, Pettit was probably being overly cautious.  However ... Ken found himself swamped with work and hasn't had a day off since the 10th.  (Yes, he needs to slow down, but that's another post for another day).  It's now the 23rd and Ken has to work all of this week so ... we decided that since we have to wait anyway, we may as well order the paint and play it safe.

We're hoping that the paint will be in by this weekend and we can coordinate Ken's schedule with the boatyard's and make this happen real soon.  I've said it before but ... fingers crossed that the weather and tides cooperate with our schedule, and that there's no more unexpected repairs.

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

We Almost Splashed ...

We started 2016 with high hopes to put Nirvana back in the water the first week of January.  At just over a year in the boatyard, we were past the point of being ready for a slip in the marina.  Boats and boat work seem to have their own schedule, however.  

Ken and I were excited to be at the boatyard that first week of January, giving the owner notice that we'd need him to put Nirvana in the sling later that afternoon.  Ken added a few cleats to the deck for docking, changed a valve and made all the last minute preparations for splashing.  We were just about ready to put Nirvana in the sling ... until Ken noticed something.  A small trickle of water was coming from the strut, which is located underneath the boat and holds the propeller shaft.  This was not good.  If water can find its way out of the boat, it can probably find its way inside.

The strut and bolts were tightened the last time Nirvana was on the hard, and although the strut was still tight this required attention.  Getting to the bolts is not an easy task, and just getting to the bolts from inside the boat is a royal PITA.  The bolts are located underneath a layer of fiberglass, which is located underneath the fuel tank in the quarter berth.  This means emptying the fuel tank, removing the tank, then chipping away at the fiberglass over the bolts.  It also means removing one of the galley cabinets.  Then there's the exterior ... the filler needs to be removed to get to the bolts.  Didn't we already do this?!

Anyway, Ken handled the situation surprisingly well and we didn't splash that day.  In one way we were lucky, as there was a small leak into the boat that caused us to notice the trickle of water.  If the boat hadn't leaked and held water where it did ... we wouldn't have known that the strut and bolts needed attention.

Since then, Ken has done all of the above steps in fixing the situation ... removing the cabinet and fuel tank was the first step.  See that piece of wood with that mound of fiberglass that Ken had to chip away at?  He then removed and replaced the bolts.

The bolts were bedded with 5200, then the exterior was filled with a mix of marine filler and fiberglass.  Once that was complete, Ken sanded the area (first picture) then added epoxy and a couple layers of fiberglass cloth.

All of this had to be coordinated with the weather, as epoxy doesn't like the cold.  This past weekend we were able to finish the project and the next step will be skimming the area with filler then priming and painting the area.  Ken will also add fiberglass back over the interior side of the bolts, install the fuel tank ... and try to find the source of that dang leak!

 As I mentioned earlier, we had high hopes that Nirvana would be sitting in a slip at the local marina by now.  In fact, we were so confident that our days at the boatyard were over that we made other arrangements for the rest of this week.  We have some fun things planned (details in next post) through the weekend, but if we'd known that we would STILL be in the boatyard ... we wouldn't have made such plans. Oh well, we might as well make the best of things and have a good time.  Hopefully, next week we'll find ourselves back at the boatyard ... and finally splashing.

We're hoping that once Nirvana is in the marina, we won't feel as pressured with repairs.  Paying the monthly storage fee for over a year can get pretty old .. and expensive.

Maybe we need some fun anyways ... yesterday I received a call from one of our long-time tenants stating that she hospitalized her husband for drug addiction and that she was moving ASAP because she didn't want the drug dealers to be looking for them ... nice!  Looks like we'll be once again cleaning a rental and interviewing tenants.  I swear it feels like we've been on an uphill battle for way too many years.  Anybody have a pile of money they don't know what to do with?!  I'm starting to think that "Money Doesn't Buy Happiness" stuff is a bunch of crap.  If we were rich, we'd walk away from our rentals .. and buy a brand new boat!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Giving Nirvana The Shaft!

Ken took advantage of one of the few dry days between Christmas and New Year's to install Nirvana's new shaft.  This meant also installing a new coupling, stuffing box with packing and hose kit with clamps.  Once installed, new zincs and our 3-blade prop were attached.  I took the picture below after the installation to show how much of a PITA it is to get to our stuffing box.  We love our Catalina, but placing the cabinet wall directly over the stuffing box had to be a cruel joke.  Needless to say, Ken wasn't laughing.  

We both can't wait to get out of the yard, and remember our deck painting project?  Well, Ken has repainted the one side section that we don't like TWO more times (with a brush instead of spray) and it's not looking any better ... so many brush strokes!  Of course, this "bad" area is in view from the cockpit and it's gonna drive us nuts until we fix it.  The yard can be a frustrating place, so we decided to move on and address the one "bad" section in the marina at a later date.  

Our new coupling came from a local place that also has a web site, Alario Brothers, and it was brought to the local machinist to make the new shaft.  The new shaft is composed of Aqualoy 17, and you can read more about it on the link that I found here.

We ordered the stuffing box with packing (for 1" shaft) #Z2000 and the stuffing box hose kit #Z3058 from Catalina Direct.  It was tough trying to find the right hose locally, and even after ordering the hose kit from Catalina Direct, Ken still had to cut about a half inch off the hose to make it work.  As I mentioned in a previous post, the new packing is a composite fiber packing material that we hope will be as good as it sounds.

We purchased this 3-blade prop during our first haul-out in 2010.  Yep, we gave up "speed" and the 2-blade folding prop that came with the boat.  Does a sailboat really go fast anyway?  A castle nut on the prop with a couple of cotter pins and two new zincs on the shaft ...

Ken gave the boat a good washing with Starbrite Boat Wash before calling it a day.  The rain came back afterwards, and then the New Year.  This week has been spent catching up on work and hopefully next week I'll be writing about bringing Nirvana to the marina.  Wish us luck!

Hasta luego ... Mid-Life Cruising!

A Fresh Bottom!

Since getting the shaft and other boat parts, we decided to break away from that project and give Nirvana's bottom some attention.  It's been "exposed" for almost a year now and we were finally ready to wash, sand, prime and paint it.  This past weekend we finished painting Nirvana's bottom black, which was exciting for us because it means we should be getting Nirvana back in the water pretty soon.

We used Petit Protect for the primer and Petit Trinidad 75 for the anti-fouling paint.  This stuff isn't cheap, but we used it when painting Nirvana's bottom in 2010 and we were very happy with it.  Painting the bottom was a breeze compared to painting Nirvana's top!  Ken made a couple of touch-ups on the deck with Interlux Perfection and we've avoided walking around on top to take any pictures.  We've checked out Ken's touch-ups from a ladder and overall they look pretty good.  However, there is one section that Ken will probably touch-up one more time.  It's just too flat and painting with a brush isn't all that difficult when done on the hard.

Ken plans on installing the new shaft, stuffing box and coupling this week if he can break away from work.  The marina awaits, ole man winter is on its way and we're getting anxious.

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Getting The Shaft!

Well, we got the shaft!  Luckily, in this case ... it's a good thing!

I mentioned in a previous post that Ken had to cut out our old shaft after taking a look at it when removing the packing from the stuffing box.  Ken ordered a new shaft from a local machinist, who seemed really knowledgeable ... saying that he makes shafts all the time.  In order for the machinist to make the new shaft, Ken brought him the old shaft and a new coupling that he bought from a nearby marine supply store, Alario Brothers.  Since we were at the mercy of the machinist and his schedule, Ken opted to buy the one-part coupling that was in stock instead of the two-piece coupling that would have to be ordered .. and cause us to put off the machinist.  

Ken picked up the new shaft the week before Thanksgiving, and the machinist said he tried to remove the old cut-off shaft from the old coupling with over 3000 lbs. of pressure .. didn't work.  We definitely did the right thing in cutting the shaft!

Since we were buying a new shaft and coupling, we decided to go ahead and buy a new stuffing box with the packing already in it and a new stuffing box hose kit from Catalina Direct.  We could have also ordered the shaft from them, but we didn't want to take the chance on getting the measurements wrong.  It was nice to be able to bring the old shaft and new coupling to a person for just a few bucks more than ordering online!

The new stuffing box is pre-packed with a composite fiber packing material instead of the traditional flax packing.  It's described as "a high-tech non-asbestos replacement that is impregnated with virgin PTFE in-suspension and internally saturated with a proprietary lubricant.  Sounds good, right?  Anyway, it's supposed to leak only once every 3 minutes instead of two-three times a minute and we're ready to give it a try.

The items from Catalina Direct came in last night, so we're anxious to install our new shaft, stuffing box, hose and coupling.  Fingers crossed that this goes without a hitch .. and maybe we'll be back in the water in a week or two?!

Ken and I spent our "Black Friday" and post-Thanksgiving weekend washing Nirvana and sanding the areas of the deck that needed re-painting after our monumental deck painting project.  With a small brush, Ken touched up the one side of Nirvana that needed extra paint on Saturday.  Sunday morning we paid a visit to Nirvana to see how the touch-ups looked.  We were nervous to see the results, but we were actually happy with what we saw ... what a relief!  The boat still had a lot of morning dew on it, and we didn't want to touch the deck since the paint hadn't fully cured.  We're anxious to get back to the boatyard to see the deck once again and get Nirvana ready to motor soon.  After the shaft, stuffing box and coupling are installed, we just need to wax the hull and give the bottom a quick paint job .. a breeze compared to what we've already done!  Luckily, the thru-hulls and cutlass bearing still look good since being replaced during our last haul-out in 2010.

Speaking of "Black Friday", we stayed out of the stores and in the boatyard but ... I did order a Wonderbag Non-Electric Cooker during a "pre-Black Friday" sale on Amazon.  I'm excited to try this "slow cooker" out on the boat, and I got it for a great price too!  Ken & I got an even better deal during "Black Friday" from West Marine.  We each ordered an Offshore Inflatable PFD that was $100 off ... times two makes a pretty good savings.  Hopefully we won't have to try these out any time soon, but better safe than sorry!  

Hasta luego .. until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

The Expanding Stuffing Box Project!

About two weeks ago, Ken removed the packing from the stuffing box.  It was no surprise when replacing the packing in Nirvana's stuffing box turned out to be another big project ... that's a boat for ya, right?!  Since we'd never replaced the packing on our boat, we figured it was in bad shape and should be replaced while on the hard.  The first challenge of the project is getting to the stuffing box ... who decided to place it directly under the galley cabinet?!  This would have been a lot easier if placed a little further up or down.

After a few cuts & scrapes on Ken's hands, he was able to separate the stuffing box with some PB Blaster and two wrenches ... each turning in the opposite direction.  Ken was then able to pick away the old packing with a tiny tool that reminded me of the dentist.  The packing came apart in pieces (first pic above) ... it was definitely overdue for a replacement.  

We were hoping that we'd find a smooth shaft after removing the packing, as we'd like to use the GFO dripless packing.  While we half-expected the brass shaft to have grooves, we didn't expect to see what can only be described as some sort of delamination?  I didn't wanna risk my life by asking Ken to move over so I could take a picture, but I was able to take a quick pic ...

We quickly decided that the shaft needed to be removed, so Ken tried to separate the shaft from the transmission coupling ... not so easy.  PB Blaster and some tools weren't gonna do it.  After doing some research, Ken went back to the boatyard the next day with some bolts to try and pry the shaft free ... nope, that didn't work either.  After more research, Ken ordered a coupler puller from Catalina Direct.  Between moving out of our condo and stressing about the paint job on Nirvana's deck, we were really hoping that the $50 tool would do the trick.  About a week later, we had the tool and Ken was back at the boatyard ... still no luck!  Would you believe that the part sold by Catalina Direct for the Catalina 30's didn't fit?!  

Luckily, all hope had not been lost.  We still had one option that we probably should have done from the beginning ... cut that thing off!  We'd already decided that we were going to bring the shaft to a local machinist to have a new one made, and a new coupling isn't as expensive as we had feared (less than $100) .. so why waste any more time trying to fight this old shaft and coupling?

After spending Halloween weekend getting settled in our new place, Ken went back to the boatyard last week .. with a grinder.  In no time he had the shaft cut and removed .. Hallelujah!  Ken was able to speak with a local machinist, who came highly recommended and sounded like he knew exactly what we needed.  Unfortunately, he was out of town for the week but at least we have a plan ... and plenty of things to keep us busy in the meantime.  We needed to catch up on our jobs, and we ordered some more Interlux paint.  The paint just arrived, so hopefully we can meet with the machinist this week and do some touch-ups on Nirvana's deck soon.

Looking at the coupling and shaft confirmed that we made the right choice in deciding to cut the shaft and replace them both.  The shaft is bent and pretty beat up.

Ken was able to remove the propeller with a prop puller pretty easily, and the stuffing box can be cleaned instead of buying a new one ... about $100 saved.

Look at the shaft in the coupling ... nothing was gonna get that out!  It looks like it's molded in there.

Things like shafts and stuffing boxes aren't where you wanna take a shortcut.  After all, if it's gonna happen ... it's gonna happen out there!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

A Monumental Task!

Now that we're settled into our tiny condo, I wanted to write about last month's painting project on Nirvana's deck.  Between removing the hardware, removing/cleaning the adhesive from the hardware, filling all the holes with silicone to prevent leaks, making repairs to the deck with filler, injecting a soft portion of the deck with epoxy, and then prepping the entire deck by taping, covering, cleaning, sanding, priming, then sanding & cleaning again before painting ... this was a monumental task!  Oh, and then there's the weather to contend with ... no painting if there's wind, rain or high humidity.  It was really hard to work all of this into our schedule that also included downsizing, moving and trying to make a paycheck.  Never again!

Removing hardware and making repairs ...

Lots of taping ... BTW, 3M Blue Tape sucks!

We spent most of the first week of October getting the final prep done on Nirvana's deck. We washed the boat, then sanded the non-skid areas with maroon Scotch Brite pads & the smooth areas with regular sandpaper, and then wiped everything down with Acetone after hitting it with a blower. Afterwards, we washed the boat again.  We then covered the ports & hatches with paper & taped them up, as well as taped other areas that we didn't want painted.  We used 3M Blue Tape, and it was crap.  While it stuck to areas of the boat, it wouldn't stick to itself.  This made covering the ports & other areas difficult, and also caused us to be in a race against time with the tape. We didn't want to have to re-tape everything again ... a lot of work.

By the end of the first week were arrived to the yard with plans of spraying, only to find a large boat on either side of us!  With nobody in the boatyard to talk to, we had to postpone our plans to spray.  We needed permission to board both boats and cover them with plastic, which we needed to buy.  By the weekend, we got permission and $80 bucks worth of heavy plastic. 

The second week of October started with a very windy Monday ... way too windy to start spraying.  Wednesday was low winds & humidity ... we were going for it!  We arrived to a dry boat with no condensation on it, which was a nice surprise.  We gave the boat a quick wipe down then started removing the large hatch on the bow, the companionway hatches, the cockpit lazarette covers, and the hatch near the mast.  We covered those areas with tape & plastic, covered the hull with plastic (found some great stuff with tape already attached at car detailing store) and then covered each of the boats next to us with plastic.  We were finally ready to spray primer by around 1:00.  I was already exhausted and felt bad for Ken having to spray two coats of Interlux Primekote, which turned out to take almost four hours. Yep, ten hours in the boatyard that day!  

Boat primed!

The following morning we were back for another eight hours.  The first thing we did was get some yellow tape from a guy in the yard working on his boat. The blue tape was coming off around the ports & other areas and the nearest store was over 20 minutes away. We got lucky that he had several rolls of yellow tape, and he was happy to give it to us.  I don't know what kinda tape we borrowed, but it worked much better.  We then gave the primer a light sanding (didn't bother with the non-skid areas this time since we're going to paint those later), wiped down the boat & then sprayed Interlux Perfection on the smooth areas of the boat.  During the last two hours of spraying, the winds picked up but Ken had no choice but to keep spraying.

 After another long day in the boatyard spraying the smooth finish, we picked up the keys to our "new" condo that night ... never a dull moment!  Luckily, we had until October 31st (two weeks) to move out of the condo.  Early Friday morning we went to the boatyard to see how things were looking ... not so sure.  This morning was not so dry and the dew caused the paint to dull, which we expected and were fine with .. we kinda like it.  What concerned us was a few inconsistencies in the paint.  We figured we'd give the paint some more time to cure before deciding if the paint job was doomed, so Ken went to work at his regular job that day and I brought a few loads of clothes and personal items to our new condo. 

After a weekend of downsizing, Ken made a quick trip to the boatyard that Monday to put some of the boat pieces that were sprayed separately back on Nirvana ... and still wasn't happy with the paint job.  He worked so hard on this project ... ugh!  Not only are there some inconsistencies, but the boat picked up Ken's shoe print easily and it wouldn't wipe off.  We can only figure that the high winds during the last couple of hours of spraying messed things up with the paint application. The good news is that most of the boat is non-skid, which we already planned on painting with a roller once we're back in the marina.  The cockpit (a real PITA to paint) and the majority of the smooth areas seem okay, so we're hoping that we can touch up a few areas with a roller soon.  It won't be perfect, but we're alright with that.  Heck, we'll be living on this boat and scuffing her up anyways .. we just want a good, protective finish.  I don't have any pictures of the paint job yet since we'd been busy, but hopefully I'll have some decent pictures after doing a few touch-ups soon.

A couple of weeks ago, Ken also started another project ... the stuffing box.  After removing the old packing in pieces (we'd never done this since owning the boat), Ken noticed that the shaft seemed to be in bad shape.  Of course, this lead to the decision to remove the shaft which lead to ... geez, that's another project .. and another post!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Boatyards and U-Hauls!

It's been three weeks since we decided to downsize again and give our landlords notice that we were moving at the end of October ... luckily there's 31 days in this month!  Since giving notice and finding a smaller, furnished condo to rent we've been slightly busy.

During the pasts three weeks we finished the final preparations for getting Nirvana sprayed with primer (the prep is a PITA!), sprayed the deck with Interlux Primekote, and then sprayed Interlux Perfection on the smooth areas of the deck.  I'll have a separate post about this process soon.  Ken also started messing with the stuffing box, removing some very old packing.  This has now lead to him trying to remove the transmission coupling (no luck yet) in order to remove the peeling shaft (does brass peel?!) ... the projects continue!

We also posted our bedroom set, dining room set and several other pieces of furniture on Craigslist to sell.  We had a couple of U-Hauls in front of our condo this past weekend ... taking our possessions away.  We gave our daughter & son-in-law our wedding china & crystal, assorted kitchen items, and several lawn items. I've gotten rid of two car loads of clothes (just mine, Ken is next), and will probably have a garage sale if time permits.  If not, I'll be making another trip to Goodwill.  The only large items left to sell in our condo are the sofa & love seat loaned to us by our daughter & son-in-law.

In between all of this, we've been working our regular jobs and even found time to attend the annual picnic at our "old" condo this past Saturday evening.  We wound up meeting a man that cruised for 15 years on a Hunter 31 ... imagine that!  He said "go while you can", as he stopped about 10 years ago when his (now deceased) wife got cancer and passed away after a five-year battle.  We really enjoyed talking with him, and only wished that we had met him when we first moved in a year ago instead of right before moving again.

Yesterday and today, Ken and I are both back at our regular jobs ... along with a quick visit to the boatyard by Ken this morning.  He hoped to remove the transmission coupling with a new trick he heard about ... no such luck.  While at the boatyard, he's determined that he's not happy with the paint job!  We're about over this boatyard, so spray painting again is not an option .. sounds like we may be rolling some smooth areas along with the non-skid areas in the marina soon. First, we have to address this stuffing box issue before going back in the water .. ugh!  We want to hit the lottery and buy a new boat!

With moving, selling stuff and working on Nirvana while holding down a job, I haven't had much time to panic about getting rid of a lifetime of possessions.  I think the transition has been more difficult for Ken, but it's about closing his business more than getting rid of stuff.  It's probably also about the constant stress of boat projects!

We've been sleeping on the sofas since our bedroom set was sold this past Saturday, and we plan to start spending the night in our new condo this Thursday.  Our little bit of kitchen and bathroom stuff has to be transferred first ... and the cable gets installed Thursday morning.  Gotta have the important stuff before living there!  I know, I know .. cable sucks.  It's a terrible habit that we're sure not to miss.  I think we just like the noise and the picture on the tv.

After living at the new place on Thursday, we'll have one week left (and one weekend) to remove whatever's left that can't fit in the "new" place.  Between my dad's huge shed and a garage sale and/or Goodwill, we'll get it emptied.   We'll have just enough time to clean the "old" condo really good so we get our deposit back.  Time flies when you're having fun.

Hasta luego .. until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Six Weeks ...

Taking an afternoon break at the New Orlean's lakefront

Six weeks since we've returned from the Dominican Republic ... time has been flying.  If you've been following our Facebook page you know that we're FINALLY spending some time at the boatyard between work.  I still have one more post to write about our white-water rafting experience in the Dominican Republic, but lately I haven't had the time to get my thoughts and pictures together .. it's coming soon.  So, what have we been up to the past six weeks?

Ken gave our green boot stripe a fresh coat of paint, and we're now busy trying to get Nirvana prepped for painting her deck ... smooth and non-skid areas.  We want to do this right, so just about everything has been removed from the deck.  Ken's been filling the hardware holes we need to keep with silicone, filling the holes left by hardware we don't need with filler, and making repairs to the fiberglass.  A soft spot was found on the deck, which Ken is repairing by injecting epoxy into. While Ken was doing his thing, I wiped down the interior of the boat and cleaned the bilge.  Our newer ports (and everything else on the boat) were covered with over-spray thanks to the boatyard (guys ... how about some plastic?!), so we tackled that project as well.  After several calls to the company that sold us the lexan ports ... "Cruising Concepts" (yes, that's our "Nirvana" on their site!) and all sorts of advice from the hardware stores, we were able to remove the paint.  This wasn't easy, as two-part paint is hard to remove from lexan.  Mike at "Cruising Concepts" was extremely helpful and his advice got the job done!  I'll have more about all of these projects in future posts.

New boot stripe ...

The smooth parts of the deck have been sanded, and we'll scrub the non-skid areas next.  After a good cleaning on the entire deck, we'll be ready to start taping up the ports, hatches, and all the other stuff we don't want painted.  Then, it's time for Ken to spray the primer and then spray the smooth areas of the deck.

The six weeks since we've gotten back from our trip have flown .. and we only have six weeks before the lease on our condo is up!  We figured that by this time we'd be ready to move on our sailboat, but with all the other projects we've tackled this past year ... not even close!  Signing another year's lease is out of the question for us, so we'll just go month-to-month until Nirvana is ready to be our home.  We really miss living on the water, so I've been checking out waterfront condos in hopes of finding a short-term lease, but so far I haven't found anything.  If we don't find any major repairs on the boat (fingers crossed), we hope to become liveaboards this Spring.

Before Nirvana hits the water again, we plan on replacing the stuffing box packing and giving her bottom a quick paint job.  We're anxious to stop paying boatyard fees, so we'll wait until Nirvana is back in the water before painting the non-skid areas of the deck with a roller.  We'll then re-bed the hardware with gray butyl tape and add aluminum backing plates where needed.  The chainplates will be checked to see if they need to be reinforced, the hoses & clamps will be replaced, the electrical and rigging will be checked out, lights replaced with LED, interior teak cleaned, new Plasteak handrails installed, custom companionway sliding hatch parts created (by Ken) to replace the rotten teak ones ... and that's all before getting Nirvana ready to cruise by adding solar panels, batteries, etc.  Yeah ... I think we need a little more time at the condo! 

All of this work and thought requires a break every now and then, which we often find by the water.  The picture above is from one of our afternoon escapes to the lakefront.  Another favorite escape is our hometown of New Orleans.  This past weekend we spent a gorgeous day roaming the French Quarter, and accidentally came upon a festival with one of our favorite local bands playing ... the "Honey Island Swamp" band.  The day was the kinda therapy we needed since we can't get it from sailing yet.

We normally don't see a "beach along the Mississippi River!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!