Bolts, Riggers and Pancakes!

Well, it has turned into an amazing sunny warm sunny day here in Dania Beach...did I say sunny and warm?  Near 80 degrees at 3pm. Woohoo!

Today the riggers finally arrived in the afternoon, Dustin and Travis.  Their job is to tell us about all the lines that we should replace (Mark knows those already) as well as the rigging that is good, bad, ugly (the stuff we really want to know).  Let's hope for very little of the latter!  Now Dustin did step on one of our new windows but luckily Jon was out there to make sure he didn't go through it!  Travis was also quite easy on the eyes...if you know what I mean, wink wink nudge nudge.  Seriously though, they seemed like really straight forward, no BS and no funny business guys.  So we'll get the verdict from the captain since I know inquiring minds want to know:  Other than one item that Mark found in his own inspection--there was nothing else new they found except a broken wire on the seagull striker.  They recommend replacing the two lower shrouds (side wires that help hold the mast in place--they are basically guy wires with a fancy boat name) and the seagull striker cable (that cable across the front that has my holiday lights on it now).  He also found the head sail furler is missing a pin and that should be replaced or changed out for one that does not fall out...that seems logical.  They will also replace the main halyard (that is a fatty that we had talked about replacing before ourselves).  So all in all, great report and we are super pleased at how our girl came through!  Now we have to cross fingers and hold thumbs that we can get the cables made in a reasonable amount of time...I have a feeling we'll be here for a bit longer.  Tomorrow Mark and Jon are biking to the rigger's facility to sit there and make sure we are on the cable schedule and everything gets ordered properly.

This is where we learn some of our lines are worn and our main halyard it too big, aka, what we already know

You can probably see how terribly impressed his is with the polish job I did where those cables connect to the boat.

Up goes Dustin...they used some kind of drill tool to crank the winch...must be nice

Looking at something terribly important

Dee, aka our favorite Just Catamarans employee, saved the day and found us the bolts needed for the new port lights.  We love Dee, Dee gets extra cookies or at least an entire candy bar as a show of our gratitude!  That means all is in order for Kenny's return tomorrow and the final touches on all the windows.  Yay!  That means we won't be playing the fun game of "which bolt fits".  Awww darn.

Plenty of bolts to choose from but Dee hooked us up with the right ones!

I also understand that Mark and Jon stopped at Grandpa's Bakery (featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives) and regailed me with the tale of the blueberry short stack with eggs and sausage.  Good eatin' for sure and I may have to negotiate for a trip there myself.

And under the heading of "nice stuff that happens", the lady who owns the 56' catamaran a couple slips down from us, Pan Dai, was sweet enough to compliment my holdiay lights.  That was before she herself was hoisted up to help string line for a new sail they were having installed.  She only had to go about half way up but that was as high as our entire mast...eeek!  We have been very impressed with her and all the work she is doing while they wrap up here--she had that boat looking clean as a whistle.  They hope to be leaving tomrrow because their 8-10 week stay here has taken 6 months. Whoa! She said she's in better shape now than six months ago (and she is in aaamazing shape) and working on the boat keeps her frustration level down but she is very much looking forward to leaving...I should say so.

Other exciting and exotic projects completed today included cleaning the dinghy and installing a replacement oar lock from an unfortunately oaring mishap this summer in the middle of Back Creek when our outboard pooped out on us.  That's long fixed and now the oar lock is too.  Actually there are only about four or five items left on the infamous Task List but if I know our captain, he'll start a new list for us soon enough LOL! 

My exciting plans for tomorrow include not coughing, going for a jog or at least a good walk, visiting the beach (if possible) and generally having a positive and grateful attitude because I get to be in the Florida sun on a sailboat with my sweetie and Jon, the awesome first mate.  XO Suzanne

Even more projects while we wait

Disclaimer:  I am writing this under the influence of a variety of forms of NyQuil, antihistamines and 'allergy' remedies as well as general malaise and an utter lack of any sense of humor.

It's Wednesday morning and Mark and Jon are preparing to go to a local hardware store in search of a unique bolt needed to finish the install of new port lights in the new front windows.  After a delay due to a ordering error I think, the port lights arrived yesterday, complete with hardware we didn't need but without a bolt that we absolutely do need.  That is pretty typical.

After a week here with Just Catamarans, the windows are close to done but the rigging person has been non-existent.  I will claim the theory that it is because they didn't actually call him to get us on the schedule until Mark brought it up again.  But it now appears we are on the mysterious schedule so we've got that going for us.  The results of that inspection will decide our fate for the next couple of weeks.  The delay in getting here has put us up against the Christmas/New Years week and, like everyone else, the folks here want to be able to take time off for the holidays.  Who can blame them?

Something really nice that happened was that Bob and Bev, our dock neighbors on Icaros, had us over for cocktails Monday night and that stretched into dinner.  We also got a fantastic batch of cookies and rum balls from them...I'd show you a picture but they are pretty much all gone.  Yum!  What a treat and what a couple of really fun and super nice people.  Icaros is a lovely Catana and she is here for a new mast and rigging.  We've (the men folk that is) been watching the fiberglass work with much respect and admiration. 

We also took a bike ride back to the Quarterdeck last night but with a working freezer that is now up and running--and freezing, dinners out need to be cut back and a shopping trip is in order to fill it.  Dinners ou need to be a fun treat, not the norm because they are very expensive and we are eventually going to get a bill from this place too, ugh. Considering what the market did this week, we are even less thrilled about settling up.  You can't take it with you but that doesn't mean we want to give it all to Just Catamarans either - haha!

We are eager and anxious to get things wrapped up but also to make sure the work is done well and properly of course.  Kenny does take pride in his work and the windows are looking great.  Rigging is not the kind of thing you play games with as you can imagine but at the same time, I could do with leaving this "working" marina as soon as it is reasonable to do so.  So as much as we get the impression they would like to get us out of here, I assure you that we are three times as eager to be gone.  We will for sure be looking into the services available close to home in Deltaville next year.

The good news is that all the tasks on the Task List are being addressed and that would not have happened otherwise, all the provisioning items I ordered have arrived, there is a perfectly nice beach less than two miles away and the weather has been just lovely. Plus this is where we are so that is the "is" of it.  Where are you. "here". what time is it. "now" who are you. "this moment".

 Our most recent project scrapbook...

My cork project underway

Getting close

Yay, done...not bad, if I do say so myself

Finally did my 'craft' project

I do have a strange love of baskets ;-)

Jon organizing all the sockets

Mark cleaning the sealant off one port light

Jon indulging my paparazzi tendencies while he cleans the other port light

Jon installed a 12v charger in his cabin!  Very nice addition.

The seemingly simplest tasks always take the longest...installing tie downs to keep the diesel jerry cans in place.  This took Mark most of the day but Jon also crossed "clean cockpit storage hatch drains" off this list for us so win!

I didn't get a shot of him with only his legs sticking out because the rest of him was under the floor.

Tidy and secure -- and clean!

Jon also installed anti-slip along the side of the catwalk between the tramps...I for one am very grateful because I have slipped on that bare aluminum many many times!

The all important sealant! He then smoothed it down by hand to get a good and clean looking seal.

Shiny!

Waiting for the sealant to cure and plan to have the front two finished up with new port lights tomorrow.

And because I need a little Christmas...I put up these; a little hard to see but at night, it's a sweet remembrance that it's the holidays.  What matters is faith love kindness hope joy and being an active participant in the gift of life that we are given (while hopefully leaving a trail of 'good' along the way).  XO Suzanne

And the beat goes on...well at least the projects do anyway

For the past few days, projects and tasks have continued on the boat and as things get crossed off the Task List, others get added on.  I suppose it's our Stray Cat's version of the circle of life.   With boats, there is always something to do, always.

One more project getting crossed off the list!

Today the boys started the day with a trip to West Marine, courtesy of our dock neighbor Bob who is having his rigging and mast replaced after an unfortunate incident in the Chesapeake.  He was kind enough to give them a ride to order a new spinnaker halyard.  Turns out West Marine did not have enough of the proper size line and the rigging expert there was pretty irritated at them and arranged for Mark to get a more expensive line at the cost of the original line.  Now that is how to treat customers!  We don't have a spinnaker yet but still don't want frayed lines on the boat regardless.  Jon also got some new fins--now the three of us have our own new fins.

Update:  the new halyard installed

Splicing old and new together for feeding through

Crisscross Apple Sauce?

Up it goes

And out it goes-yay

Our new spinnaker halyard

I chose to stay behind and tackle a little "allergy" that has attempted to take me down the last couple of days.  That gave me time to clean up and start to put some things back in place that we had to move for the window work.  I like a tidy boat, that's for sure.  I also got sucked into the first season of The Americans but doing this blog post is much more important.  I have some of my own projects as well. 

Meanwhile, I've compiled a pictorial for you and so we can remember all the work that we have put into our 'home'.  It's a lot and sometimes it's interesting, sometimes tedious, sometimes frustrating, sometimes minute but always moves us one step close to a truly customized boat that we love more every day.

Jon wrote our most successful blog post to date and here is the man, the myth, the legend in action blogging away for you!  Go Jon!

Reaching out to his people via the Interwebs

I suppose it's best to start with why we are here in Dania Beach...the new windows as you know.  Jon gave you a super play by play of the removal and clean up process.  Man, it's a big job and it's important that it's done right.  The difference between the old and new windows is astounding and not easily captured on film.

They're heeeeere!

Kenny is the window expert who has been doing our 'make over'

Prepping the exterior

So much prep work but it matters.  Next he will meticulously install weather stripping for, well, weather stripping, and spacing.  He did a great job of lining it up exactly along the edge of the openings.

This is getting exciting!

Fit test success

Two perfect fits!  The paper around the edges has to be trimmed away so they can be sanded and primered; this protects the glue used during final installation.  We want to avoid another adhesive fail like we saw with our previous windows.

Perfect fit again, next step to prime around the edges on this one too then glue in place.

Before. Drum roll please.....

Taaaa Daaaa!!!!  After - Wow!

Crystal clear - simply amazing difference

Mark continued on his electronics and electrical projects as well.  We now have 12v run to the desk in the starboard hull.  This has been on the wish list for a while and a welcome addition to the desk.  We also ran GSP to the Single Side Band radio which would be vitally important in the even of a mayday.  And a charging cord created and installed on the battery banks for the dive hooka.  (aka Snuba Rig) This was a big deal clearly since without charged batteries, no one is staying under water very long.  It will plug into the new 12v outlet quite nicely.  The visit from the HVAC specialist was a huge win and our newly insulated freezer with fully functioning switches is now also charged and actually freezes things!  This is a very very big deal since having a real/working freezer allows us to store food frozen as well as store any fish we catch.  It also allows us the 'luxury' of ice now and then!  We would have 'made do' but this is a big relief.  Oh and somewhere in there Mark also found the time to hang up his guitar.

Looking good (and out of our cabin haha)

Mark in his element - electronics and wiring

Say hello to our little 12v friend!

Two more wiring jobs done - now we can charge these babies and put the snuba to good use

Ice Ice Baby! Mark is responsible for the insulation and the functioning control unit--HVAC guy only had to charge the system.  Ready to fill this with food, especially vegetables and back ups of Egg Beaters and butter.

Jon accepted the glorious job of finishing the removal of non-skid tape from the catwalk between the trampolines.  Mark and I had given up on this.  Jon succeeded where we failed and even painted on the non-skid grip.  This is going to be so much nicer than that tape ever was.

After getting all the sun degraded tape off...not a fun job

Fresh coat of non-skid; such a big improvement

I had put together a pretty significant Amazon provisioning list and on Friday the multitude of boxes arrived.  This included the solar LED holiday lights I ordered :-) I also took the opportunity on Friday to walk to the local Dollar Store and Publix for some organization and other random food stuffs.  After a few hours, the provisions were put away and my reorganization and tidying project was complete.  I do like tidiness...clutter in your surroundings makes clutter in your mind (well mine at least but I'm weird). 

Dollar Store spoils...part of my organization and tidying plan.

Everything tucked away here and under/behind the other seats...yep, already forgotten what I have where. JK, I basically know where it all is...even the beer, wine and cookie mix.

Gallon water jugs from the store only last so long, it was time to get real.  Fresh water is sorta a priority for me.  Soon we'll be running the water maker to get our own water.

A craft project I've been mulling over; I keep moving the parts around but haven't started yet.  Also sent Christmas cards to show support for a couple of individuals through Amnesty International.  We are also very proudly sponsoring wreaths for Arlington cemetery and today is the day that Wreaths Across America is laying them.  We sponsored wreaths in respectful memory of Douglas J. Green and in honor of Jim Herald, Shane Barnaby, John Woolley and all of our brave soldiers (Jon's and my fathers included).  God bless.

I like a tidy Nav station for my Captain and am committed to keeping this clear of clutter for Mark's use...need some more baskets for underneath though.

We have also created and ordered 'boat cards' finally...when you have a boat, you have boat cards--it's a thing.  After six years, we have them now too--like the big kids do.

 All work and no play makes the Stray Cat crew dull boys (and girl) so Thursday night we treated ourselves to a bike outing to the beach and the Dania Beach Quarterdeck.  We were running from no see'ums so decided inside eating was in order.  We also got to see the remnants of a lovely sunset from the pier.  Maybe a trip to the beach is in our future or bike ride to Jimbos or Dania Beach Grill, projects and "allergies" notwithstanding.

While I was jogging and walking these past few days, I've had time to form some impressions of Dania Beach.  It's a little old and a little run down (what song is that from?) and you can see where they have hit a rough patch but it's a real place, unlike Fort Lauderdale, with real people who drive real cars and live in real houses.  They may not be rich but they are nice and do things like wait for you to cross the street and don't try to run over you in their cars.  I'll take nice and real over rich and fake any day.  I also had a pretty amazing personal experience yesterday while tidying up...we were taking post it notes down from past 'to do' lists and I turned over one of them to find notes that my mother had written to herself.  I have no idea how it ended up that we used that particular sheet for boat lists or how it got to the boat, but suffice it to say that it was a pretty emotional discovery.  That note had to have been over 7 years old.  Should have known my mom would figure out a way to come on the trip with us; thanks for reaching out to me and for being here.  XO Suzanne