Where's Rover?

So, when I came back to the boat in November, the goal was to again make her ready for a trip to the Bahamas. There were two big-ticket items I wanted to get done in a boatyard: new bottom paint and finally getting the new standing rigging I had purchased just before the pandemic installed. There were also a few other items that needed to be ticked off the repair list. 

 I tried, and failed, to get boatyards near Southport to haul out the boat and get the work done. Eventually I was able to schedule an appointment with Wilmington Marine Center on Jan 9th. So I went back home for the holidays, expecting I would return to take the boat to the yard at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, that boatyard went radio silent and I was unable to confirm the appointment after the holidays. So, figuring that Wilmington Marine apparently didn't want my business, I then scheduled with another yard in New Bern NC. 

It was a 3 day trip to relocate the boat there with the help of some friends in Southport. Unfortunately, the trip was during some of the coldest weather of the season, but the new 3/4 enclosure made the trip far better than our trip down from Virginia in January a few years back after building the hardtop. 

A calm but cool evening...

The boat was hauled two weeks ago last Tuesday after a one day delay due to high winds. It was on the hard for 2 weeks. The bottom fortunately didn't look as bad as I had feared, thanks to a trustworthy diver I found in Southport that took a great deal of time to remove the marine sanctuary that grew there during my absence caused by the pandemic. The bottom was cleaned and new bottom paint was applied. 

Rover out of the water

 I was also able to find a good rigger in New Bern that was willing to install the standing rigging I had purchased just prior to the beginning of the pandemic. On the hard, and using a man-lift, it took about a day and a half to replace the rigging without un-stepping the mast. Other than one set of fittings that were supplied required modification, the rigging kit from Sparcraft contained everything we needed.  The rigger reported during the rigging replacement that the threads in one of the old turnbuckles all but crumbled during disassembly...so it was definitely good that I didn't try to squeeze in one more sail. Finally, after almost 3 years, Rover now has brand new standing rigging. 

New rigging and bottom paint

During the trip up to New Bern, I found that one of the shaft seals was leaking a bit. I also found some wear of the cutlass bearings during my out-of-water inspection. So, I pulled both props, bearings, seals, and prop shafts. The shafts were cleaned, inspected, polished, and reinstalled with new shaft seals and bearings. Both props were cleaned and painted with cold galvanizing compound (the same stuff Petit sells as prop coat...only at 1/3 the price) and reinstalled with new zincs. The motors were then re-aligned with the prop shafts.

While at the yard, I also had the chance to replace the last of the fluorescent fixtures in the cabin with new dimmable LED fixtures. Unfortunately the puck lights I ordered to replace the main cabin lights were a little too large so I donated them to my friends at The Retirement Project. At least the bulbs in the existing fixtures are already LED. The raw water strainers for the air conditioning units that were failing (the baskets were breaking apart and replacements were impossible to find in the US) were also replaced with brand new strainers. 

The boat was splashed last Monday, and after spinning up the motors and checking for leaks, the boat left the yard in much better mechanical condition than when it arrived.  

With all the problems getting reliable marine services and parts in Southport, and the fact that my slip rental was doubling in price with an expected 50% additional increase in a year, I have decided to change the home base for Rover. I was able to find a marina near the boatyard where we were hauled out at the same rate we were initially paying at the old marina before the price increase. The marina doesn't have a pool, but it also doesn't have a ferry blowing its horn at 5:30am or rocking the boat every half hour. Being a bigger town, it is also much easier to find any needed parts and supplies.  The facility is simple but nice with several showers, a boaters lounge, and laundry. The docks are floating with large steel pilings and a wave attenuator that seems to do a really good job of keeping the water inside the marina calm.  The harbormaster and his assistant are really nice folks, are happy to help with anything you need, and they seem to keep up with maintenance.  I'm looking forward to having my boat here. 

And a new home.

How's The Boat?

That is probably the big question on your minds regarding us right now. And the truth is, that is the big question on our minds as well. It has been about 3 weeks since Rover was hauled at the boatyard and so I figured I'd better bring everyone up to speed. We are still in Colorado and haven't seen the boat in person for a little while.

The primary goal of this time at the boatyard was to get the bottom paint done. Not just a simple bottom paint, but a stripping of all the old and flaking paint followed by a new barrier coat and new anti-fouling paint. Not a fun task and one I'm OK with farming out to a yard...as long as they do a good job at a reasonable price.

Soda blasted bottom.

That wasn't the only task though. Another larger task was to have the aluminum fuel tank replaced. With a reported average lifespan of under 10 years, we figured we were living on borrowed time and had better replace it before we awoke to a bilge full of diesel. There are several other potential tasks that we could have the yard perform, but those will depend on the estimates they provide as well as the my feel for how they are doing with the current projects.

The new fuel tank.

Initially, the boatyard was doing well with communication on the projects. Pictures were sent from the soda blasting process and barrier coat and looked good. They seemed to be making good progress and staying on budget. Communications seem to have slowed some, but my hope is that they are doing a good job.

So, they are hopefully finishing up the bottom paint and fuel tank install. They should also be preparing another estimate for another potential job. I guess I will soon see and we are keeping our fingers crossed for good results. It would be nice to know that not all boatyard are crooks.

In the meantime, we are visiting with family and friends and eating out too much...but it has been a nice visit.

Education and Expectations

"You learn something everyday, if you pay attention". -Ray LeBlond

How about "If you want to properly maintain a boat you must learn something new everyday"...I think that is my version for it as it seems like I'm constantly searching for information on how to do something the right way on this boat.  How to properly wire a windlass, how to install a Plexiglass port light, how to build a hardtop bimini...it is a never ending list.

The past couple days I've been researching and soliciting opinions on what I need to do in order to strip all the bottom paint off the boat and start over.  The theory behind ablative or self-polishing paints is that they slowly wear off, keeping their anti-fouling properties going until the paint is gone.  Of course, they don't wear evenly and you don't want to wait until all the paint is gone before applying new paint, so the result is that over the years layers build up.  Eventually, or so I'm told anyway, the thickness of the layers and age of the older paints result in increasingly larger chips of paint coming off.  Thus the need to remove the paint.

What happens when bottom paint fails
(from a previous boat we surveyed, not ours now)

But, how to remove the paint.  That was the question. I wasn't 100% sure what was under the flaking paint on my boat, all I know is I don't want to screw up the hull because that would be very bad. Sanding off all the old paint is one way to remove it.  That would be a long and tedious approach and could potentially do damage if not very careful of how far to sand.  At the other end of the spectrum seem to be chemical strippers.  Paint the stripper on, wait a while, scrape off the softened paint.  Repeat until you are down to the gelcoat.  No damage to the underlying structure, but tedious and sanding the gelcoat to get another layer of paint to stick would still be required. Sandblasting the paint off would make quick work of the bottom paint, but would also make quick work of the gelcoat and underlying fiberglass.  The best solution seems to be soda-blasting.  Similar to sandblasting but with a media that is far less aggressive than sand.

Then the question is what to apply to the boat. While Leopards don't typically have much problem with blistering, application of a barrier coat seems to be the recommended way to go. A proper barrier coat seals the hull and prevents water intrusion...as long as the hull is dry (don't want to seal in water). Apparently cured barrier coats are, ironically, not the best surface to which to apply anti-fouling paint. So the first layer of anti-fouling paint needs to be applied before the barrier coat is cured. Of course, what anti-fouling paint to use is also a question.  Some paints are better than others, and their effectiveness seems to vary depending on where you are. Some have suggested paints such as Jotun SeaQuantum Static that are used on commercial ships.  We still haven't decided on what paint to use but hope to find a reasonable balance between cost and performance.

That is my recent education.  Of course, I also need to apply something I've learned from previous experiences with boatyards.  I wrote a letter to the yard where I would like to have the work done, explaining in detail what I expect in the business relationship.  I explained how I expect to come up with a detailed estimate before I leave the boat in their care.  I continue on to explain that I understand that unforeseen complications can arise, but I expect to be consulted if costs are going to exceed the estimate by more than a small percentage.

I hope that this is the yard's standard operating procedure, as it should be and is the standard in most industries.  Unfortunately, my experience with boatyards seems to indicate that this is somewhat foreign and running up a bill of twice the estimate without any consultation seems normal. I feel bad, and even apologized several times, that I had to write out basic business expectations.  If I ran a business, I'm not sure how I would feel if a customer was trying to tell me how I already know I should run my business...but again, my history in dealing with yards seems to indicate that this process is a rather foreign concept. So I felt I had to set expectations and make sure we are all on the same page.

Hopefully I've learned enough to do a good job in my choices on our anti-fouling bottom job and to ensure the boatyard we choose does a good job for me.

Landlocked Again

Three days ago...wow, it seems both a very long and very short time frame right now...we left Salt Ponds Marina in Hampton, VA for Severn Yachting Center, the boatyard we selected to do our through-hull work and hopefully build my new hard top bimini.  We originally wanted to leave on Monday, but the yard couldn't haul us until Tuesday so we spent the extra day at Salt Ponds and then departed on Tuesday.

When we set up the Tuesday arrival, the girl at the desk really wanted to pin us down to an arrival time.  I told her that I would need to check the weather and, as a sailboat, probably couldn't give her a reasonably firm time until the evening before or morning we were to leave.  She insisted she needed some time to put in the book, so my wife said 1 PM and I reiterated this was just a wild guess at the time. Well, as you might expect, when I checked the weather (specifically the winds) and the expected time of departure I determined that 1 PM was optimistic and 3 PM was more likely.  I called the yard in the morning as we departed (they were already closed for the evening when I determined this) and was told they wouldn't be able to haul me until the following day but, after the receptionist checked with someone else at the yard, called us back and said they would put me on a T-head for the night.  Seems reasonable so we continued on.

Without time pressures (we now only had to get there before they closed at 5 PM or so), we were able to sail most of the way.  A warm day for sure, but reasonable winds most of the day kept us moving along. It wasn't until our speed dropped below 3 knots and we were going to need to make a turn directly into the wind that we pressed the engines into service once again.  We dropped the sails and motored our way up the Severn river, arriving at the marina about 4 PM.

During our approach, we tried calling them on the radio several times (they indicated they always monitor it during business hours) and finally had to call the on a cell phone to get a hold of them. They confirmed that we would be on the first face dock as we approached, and they would send someone down to help with lines and guide us. Here was where we were given another surprise.  The T-head was a fixed dock and had large pilings in the water about 28 ft off the face of the dock and spaced about 25 foot apart (remember, my boat is 38 foot long and over 21 foot wide).  There were crab pot buoys scattered about and some white PVC pipes stuck in random locations around the dock too. To complicate matters further, that headwind we had coming in had picked up and was blowing straight across the face of the T-head.

T-head left, piling right, pipe and crab pots behind.

Best we could tell, the employees on the dock were trying to tell us to pull into the dock directly over one of the crab pot buoys and one of the PVC pipes. Not wanting to wrap a propeller around the line holding the crab pot to the buoy and not knowing if I could run over the plastic pipe or if it marked something to be avoided, I tried contacting the marina on the radio to discuss the situation. But the marina employees didn't have a handheld radio (or a cell phone) with them.  They tried shouting from the dock, but sitting at the helm all I can really hear is...wait for it...the rumble of the engines.  I decided my best approach was to go past the dock, across the mouth of one of their fairways, and back in between the dock and the pilings. After my wife got a couple extra fenders and lines out and ready, I was able to maneuver the boat sideways into the fairway channel and back into the dock. With a little help from the dock we got the boat tied up and safe for the night.

While walking the boat sideways into the fairway I noticed that a motor boat on the T-head across from us was a boat we saw at Salt Ponds.  They were on their boat and gave us a thumbs up while I was maneuvering onto the dock, and since we had recognized the boat, we decided we should go over and say hi. Tim and Debbie were a nice couple and, like us, have two dogs on board as well.  We chatted for a bit before heading back to the boat.

Did I mention that when I checked my email just before we departed Salt Ponds I was contacted by someone we met at our going away party in Colorado?  They were in town for just a day or so and wanted to see if we could connect before they hopped on a plane back to Colorado. While we were introducing ourselves to Tim and Debbie, they stopped by and were greeted by our dogs. Unfortunately, they left before we could get back to our boat.  Sorry Jim and Judy, hopefully we can get together when our paths cross next.

Driving through the forest

The next day we hauled the boat.  The marina didn't want to haul it until high tide, so it was scheduled at 1 PM. I didn't understand why, since my boat only draws 3' 7", they wanted to wait until high tide. They said it had something to do with the width of the boat and the lifts straps and it was easier at high tide.  So, a little before 1 PM we made our way over to the haul-out slip and Rover once again took flight.

While they were pulling the boat, I reiterated that the boat has sacrificial keels and it cannot just be blocked on its keels.  This seemed like a surprise to them and they questioned how they were going to block it.  The yard manager told me how the ABYC "standard way of blocking" was to set a boat on its keels and then use stands to keep it from tipping over.  That may be great for the average monohull where most of the weight and structure are related to the keel, but a number of catamarans, including mine, have sacrificial keels and are not designed to take the full weight of the boat. He ended up calling someone at Leopard and was told that some weight could be placed on the keels, but it definitely should not take the whole weight.  We eventually devised a blocking option using both the keels and blocks at the adjacent bulkheads to support the boat.  This should meet the needs of the boat according to the guy at Leopard...hope he was right.

Blocked, with tarps up for shade.

By the time we got the boat blocked, it was already after 4 PM, so it didn't look like we would get any work done that day.  It was also very hot.  You don't know how nice a breeze on a boat feels until you are sitting on your boat, over a bunch of crushed granite, with trees around you blocking the breeze. In order to survive the next few days, we ended up buying a new centerpiece for our salon table...a 12000 BTU portable air conditioner. If you are living on a boat on the hard during the summer, I think one of these is pretty much a necessity to prevent your boat from becoming an experiment as a large scale solar oven.

Yesterday we were finally able to start working...almost.  After finding where we had stored all the brass through hulls and valves and other bits we had purchased last year, we went through and verified that we had all the parts we needed.  Unfortunately we found that the 1" Marelon fittings would not thread into the valves.  The 3/4" and 1 1/2" ones worked fine, but that left us with 5 elbow fittings that would not work.  With the boatyard's help we called around and ended up talking with the manufacturer.  Unfortunately, the manufacturer could only really give us excuses.  "The fitting is NPS threaded and not NPT, and the valve we have is NPT" was one of the excuses.  When we told him that it didn't thread onto two different NPS threaded fittings we had here either, his only suggestion was that we buy one of their valves and it would work.  Um...no.  I already have a very expensive bronze valve, so I'm not going to replace it with their expensive plastic one.  Thanks Forespar...with your customer service I don't think I'll be buying any more of your products if I can at all avoid it.

Two Through-hulls out.

We never did find a replacement part and will have to see if the current ones will work.  After all the running around, we only ended up removing two of the through hulls so far.  So today we will continue to remove more through hulls as well as see if we can get some replacement parts ordered from the marina.

Bridges, Tunnels and Yards

Finding a boatyard that can haul a 21+ foot wide catamaran, is reasonably priced, and allows you to do your own work in the Chesapeake is more difficult than I had anticipated.  Maybe, after my previous experiences, I'm now a bit pickier about yards.  Of course, my need for both a short haul-out and time in the water while I work on the hardtop (don't want to be living on the hard while building the top) has played a role too.  In any case, the hunt for a yard has been interesting.

We were able to locate three yards that, at least on paper or via phone conversations, seemed to fit the bill.  So, the last couple days we ended up making short road trips to see these yards and meet the people before we decide.  And this segues into the other subject of this post.

Most people, at least that don't live around here, might agree that a bridge and a tunnel are mutually exclusive things.  One, the bridge, usually spans a gap or crosses over something like a river, gorge, or canyon. On the other hand a tunnel usually burrows it's way underground.  These seem like two mutually exclusive tasks...but not here in Hampton Roads.  Here they have highway structures called "bridge-tunnels" that are a combination of the two.

One of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel segments.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, and Monitor Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel all allow motorists in the area to cross the big rivers and the bays of the Chesapeake watershed.  They are bridges that cross over the water until they reach a shipping channel, then like a gopher, burrow beneath the channel so big boats (and us smaller sailboats) can pass overhead.  The 23 mile long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is actually a combination of several trestles, two tunnels, and one span of bridge that goes over a channel.  And we used two of these to check out a boatyard in Cape Charles, saving us a very long land-only-based drive to the peninsula

The trip was productive and we were able to put the three "finalist" boatyards in order of preference. So, if we are able to get something setup with our first choice today, we should have a place to go to get work done next week.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

And here were a couple funny signs we found during the trip (previously posted on my Facebook page)...

Nonsense you say?

Do lots of people want to live here?

Rover's Time at the Boatyard

If you remember all the way back in June, I took our boat to a boat yard near Deltaville, VA, to get some work done while I went back to Colorado to help my wife wrap up some of the details of our estate.  Despite my past experiences with "having work done" on the boat, it made sense to try to have the boatyard do some work while I was gone.  When will I learn.

I met with Lee, the guy that runs Stingray Point Boat Works, walked through the boat and went over a reasonably long list of items that needed to be done and asked for an estimate before I flew back to Colorado.  It took a few days and I didn't receive the estimate until after I had left.  I reviewed the estimate and gave the yard the OK to start on a subset of items including replacement of a couple through hull valves, replacement of the black water hoses and a failing diverter valve, inspection of the standing rigging, investigation of the cause of a bit of stiffness in the steering system linkage, and remounting/rebedding a few bits of deck hardware (and gave the sail loft the go-ahead on the new stack pack and sail work).

A few weeks after I leave, I get a bill from the boatyard.  This bill doesn't include any work, only storage for the boat.  Of course, the storage rate was higher than I was quoted.  I also appeared to be charged for a half hour of labor for the generation of the estimate. When I contacted them, they adjusted the bill for the storage price and told me they had a rate increase but I would get this quarter's storage at the quoted rate.  Fair enough.  I decided I would just let the labor charge for an estimate slide even though I've never heard of such a practice.

I inquire about the rigging inspection and received an estimate for the replacement of the standing rigging.  When I ask if the inspection indicated that replacement was needed, the staff at the yard gave me the direct number for the rigger.  I give him a call and he explains the cost of replacement and how some of the parts are expensive.  When I ask if the inspection indicated it was needed, he told me he assumed the rigging was over 10 years old and he didn't actually inspect the rigging as doing that would cost extra.  Funny, the inspection was what I had asked for...not just a quote for replacing the rigging (which, by the way, I could have done elsewhere for about $2000 less). Fine, I'll check what I can when I get back and take it somewhere else to have them check and possibly replace the rigging.

Several more weeks go by and I don't hear anything else from the boatyard but I'm busy with things at the house and don't have much time to check on anything so I assume things are moving along. About 6 weeks after I left, I receive another bill from the boatyard.  It has a list of parts and some labor that hinted that they may have done the waste line replacement, but the bill for the labor was twice the amount of the estimate for the waste lines alone.  I check back with them to inquire what work was done assuming that more had been accomplished. I don't hear back from them for several days. I finally get another bill and they reduced the total by about 25% and confirmed that they replaced the black water lines.  So, now it is only 50% over the estimate and still with no explanation of the overage. I tell them to stop work as I cannot afford to have all the other work go over the estimate by 50 to 100%.

Since it will still be a little while before I can get back to the boat, I write up a letter explaining that I would like to have them do more work, but it can't continue the way it was.  I chose one item on my list, the replacement of the two through hull valves and told them I would authorize that work as long as it didn't go over the original quoted price.  If it looked like it might go over, they were to contact me so we could discuss options before any additional cost was incurred.  I specifically chose this task because I had a feeling that they would run into issues and I wanted to make sure they could communicate those to me before continuing.  In the note I asked them to let me know either way if this was acceptable.

After not hearing back from them for over a couple weeks, my wife and I made plans to return to the boat and complete the work ourselves.  It was shortly after I wrote them to tell them of our intentions to come complete the work, and reiterated that all work on their part was to stop, that I received another bill from the yard.  This time, the bill showed parts for the replacement of one through hull and valve but all the labor was zeroed out.  The parts alone were in excess of the original quoted price because the original quote didn't include the through hull itself.

I just had to laugh. Had they told me they agreed to do the work and had they told me that they would have to replace the through hull as well as the valve (which I expected would be the case), I would have OK'd the task.  But, since they did not, they ended up replacing the one through hull at a loss. They also proved that communication with their customer seems to be their biggest problem.

When we returned to the boat, we found that the waste lines had been replaced, as were some of the raw water lines for the heads (which was not part of the scope of work).  We also found that they had somehow ripped the toilet seat off of one of the heads and broke one of the lines attached to the manual bilge pump, presumably while replacing the waste lines.  And, as we discovered during the trip south, the holding system was leaking (found to be a fitting on the holding tank that was loosened during the install of the hose and not re-tightened).  So, the work they did was rather sloppy and incomplete.

While I can say that Stingray Point Boat Works is an OK place to haul your boat and do your own work, and that their fiberglass guy seems to do a good job, I cannot recommend them if you are looking for people to perform general work on your boat.  To be fair, I didn't need the services of their mechanic so I don't know about his abilities.

In general, my opinion is that the lax attitude of leadership at the yard leads to a less than professional work atmosphere and may be the underlying cause of the poor communications and workmanship.  If you need to haul your boat, intend to do the work yourself, and will be staying at the yard or visiting daily (and don't mind the very limited access to internet and lack of potable water), then it may work for you.  But I cannot recommend them based on my experiences there.

Lessons Learned - A Day of Living in a Boatyard

I haven't done a lessons learned post in a while and, after seeing a post from my friends over at ZeroToCruising doing a play-by-play post from a recent passage, I figured I'd give you a typical day in my life at the boatyard so you can draw your own lessons from it...so here goes.

Woke up at 6:00am to a cabin that is about 60 degrees.  It would have been 45 if I hadn't had the small electric space heater running in the cabin.  With the boat on the hard, there is no good way to run systems that require raw water...such as the reverse cycle AC (heater).  After about 30 minutes hiding in the warmth of the bed, I decide I need to make the trek to the bathhouse.  I get dressed, move the space heater from the cabin to the salon, and head off for the morning ritual.  At least they seem to have turned on the heat in the bathhouse now, the past weekend it was pretty cold in there.

Returning to the boat, I decide I need my morning coffee.  I turn off the heater so I can use the electric kettle to boil some water.  The boatyard only has 15 amp service (normal wall socket) so I can't run multiple high-load electric items at the same time (I bought an adapter so I could plug my 30 amp cord into a standard 15 amp extension cord).  After the water boils, turn off the kettle and turn the space heater back on.  A check of the weather and it says the high today may make 60 degrees F...much better than the rainy 50's the past couple days.

I turn on the propane and make a ham, egg, and cheese bagel sandwich on the stove.  Using the stove top helps impart a little heat in the boat, at least temporarily.  While eating breakfast, I check my email and do the drawing for the book giveaway.  I write a quick post for the blog announcing the winner using the boatyard WiFi.  I then open up my list of tasks so see what I have in store today.  I check off installing the new fresh water pump head that I completed yesterday (after verifying there are still no leaks this morning) and figure out what I can do today.  I'm almost half way through the list.

Since it is still cold outside, and a little damp from the rain during the night, I spend some time cleaning up and organizing the boat (a task that seems to always be desperately needed). It finally starts warming up some, so I go outside and check on the dinghy to see if the sealant helped (more on this in another post).  I decide to clean it as well as take care of some rust streaks on the boat hull.  I go get the long hose attached to the spigot across the yard, attach my sprayer, and drag it back over to the boat.  I also dig through the boat looking for my rubber gloves and the cleaners for the dinghy and hull.  About this time the clouds start moving back in and the temperature drops, so I go back inside.

I look at options for my destination heading south, trying to find a big enough city I can find parts and supplies, but small enough that the marina dockage fees aren't too expensive.  While I'd love to be on the hook more, when I'm doing lots of work on the boat it makes sense to be at a dock (as well as to have an address where  I can ship stuff). I also need to figure out options to get me and my help back to Deltaville (my victim volunteer deckhand has a boat here in Deltaville and while I'm doing work on the boat I keep dragging my car along).

After making a chicken salad sandwich for lunch, I notice the sun is once again out and go back and continue my work outside.  I clean the oxidation and bottom paint dust stains (the dust is insidious in how it can stain things) off of the dinghy.  I apply the On and Off gel to the rust stains on the boat, wait a few minutes, then wash off...making sure not to get any on my new bottom paint (it will apparently remove that as well).  It does an OK job, the streaks are no longer rust color, but just a dull black ghost of the previous stains.

I check my email and get some good news.  The sheave kits for my genoa car rollers have made it off the slow boat from England and are in.  The anchor roller I had a local machine shop make is also ready. Yay.  I drive to the store and machine shop and gladly drop about $250 (U.S.) so I can get the last parts I've been waiting on.  I get back to the boat and look at the parts (basically plastic rollers).  The anchor roller should be perfect, but the sheave kits are different than the original so I go try and install one to see if it will fit.  The instructions are useless as they don't depict the exact model I have, but I figure out how to make them work using a subset of the parts they supplied (the kit apparently fits several different genoa car models now).  Of course, while I'm putting the sheave in, a gust of wind comes out of nowhere, grabs the plastic bag of parts and flings them off the boat.  At least I'm in the yard and not on the water...so I can climb down and retrieve them.

Now that it is "standard time" it is starting to get dark at 4:30pm and the wind is increasing and getting colder so the other sheave and the roller will wait until tomorrow.  I take a walk around the yard and chat with the other guy crazy enough to be living on a boat in a boat yard.  He tells me it might go below freezing tonight.  Yuck.  I go back to the boat and turn the space heater back on to try and increase the heat before the space heater can't keep up with the temperatures.

With it getting colder, I decide I had better take my shower early and so grab my towel and shaving kit (soap, shampoo, etc.) and head to the bath house.  The bath house seems to have plenty of hot water, which is really nice when it is cold outside.  The water in the yard isn't the best as it seems a bit salty, but works fine for a shower.  Guess I should mention that I do NOT fill my boat tanks with the water from the yard as I don't want questionable quality water in my tanks.  It is now dark outside, the moon is not yet up, and the lighting in the boatyard is not very good.  The result is that I step in a deep puddle of water on my walk back to the boat.  On the boat I clean up my shoe, and debate what the gray substance is that has stained my now wet sock...probably mud combined with all the colors of bottom paint and other chemicals that have been used in the yard over the years.

I make a shopping list and head to the store (one of the advantages of still having the car, this isn't a whole-day ordeal).  I come back with several bags of groceries and carefully place them on the transom, climb the swim ladder to get on the boat, and then shuffle the bags inside.  After a brief fight with the top loading refrigerator (one of these days I'll learn the secret to organizing it) and hiding other items in various storage locations about the boat, everything is stowed.

I then get the spaghetti casserole (basically lasagna made with spaghetti noodles) that I made a few nights prior (when it was really cold and I figured using the oven would be a good source of heat as well as food) out of the fridge, temporarily turn off the space heater so I can microwave a slice along with some canned corn for dinner.

I have my usual evening call with my wife and she tells me of some weather phenomenon that may bring very cold temperatures and snow to the east coast in the next week.  I guess it is the result of an unusual typhoon that is now heading toward Canada or Alaska and will shift the jet stream south.  The scientist they were interviewing suggested that the unusual weather activity may be the result of global warming...resulting in local cooling.  In any case, it sounds miserable and just gives me more motivation to head south.  The Caribbean is looking pretty good right now.

I spend a little more time looking around on the internet, researching my next stop, and figuring out if there is anything special I need to pay attention to when we splash the boat, and then take a break and watch a movie.  I move the space heater down to my cabin and note the thermostat says it is a balmy 56 degrees in there.  I come back up and type up most of this from my notes while my cabin warms up...at least a little.  While working on the post, the salon temperature drops (boat hulls are just not well insulated) so I decide I'll finish the post the next day.  I make one more trek to the bath house in the cold evening air and then climb into bed around 10:30pm.

Lest you think it is all pina colladas and sunsets, there is a price to pay for this lifestyle.  Actually, this is one of the better days as I was able to get the parts I needed and may be able to launch the boat soon.  The day before I spent a fair amount of time chasing a phantom problem with my fresh water system after replacing the head of one of the fresh water pumps.  And today, the boatyard water pump has failed and so there is no water, hot or cold, in the bathhouse.

So, there you have it.  A brief look at a random day in my life at the boatyard.