Controlled Chaos

Today was another rainy day. Its been like that for about a week, which means no progress was made on Lucy Maru, the new boat, other then moving more stuff. Today, the little cart we bought to roll our stuff, was filled with books. It was all I could do to pull it up the dock. Travis has a "real job" now and so its up to me to move what I can when I'm not working, which is just fine with me. I'd rather be furthering the cause in ways other then a regular 9-5.

Working on Lucy Maru is completely different from Me Voy. For one, we can isolate the work areas, and still have a comfortable and clean living space. This is the galley space, that is also my computer station. I'm working on the upholstery, just learned how to "welt" and am liking the effect.

Billy and Chopper are awesome! They adjust to whatever we do, and seem to be as happy as ever. Especially Billy. He really seems to dig the quiet of the marina. No train whistles, no trucks thundering down the alley, and no Death Metal band living next door. Just ducks and seagulls here.. oh and the occasional belt sander, drill, and miter saw coming to life. 

 

Keep going

Today we get internet! We went with the broadband connection, since  my quest for the right adapter, for our new kick ass WiFi antenna, turned up nothing, except to point out, that I need the internet to order the right one. So here we are.

Today Travis was going to remove the shear clamp and scarf it in  place, after which I can come in and put down the flooring which attaches to the beams. We had ripped out a large section of the floor because it was rotten, and  have thus thrown ourselves into this project with both feet. Now we have to lay the floor down, replace several rotten, outer planks, and, only then, can we move on to building our master berth, which was the reason for all of this in the first place. I know I'm missing some steps, as the rebuilding of our port door, and scupper, also have to happen at some point.  The thing that keeps me going, is that building new things is less time consuming and more fun then taking out the old. And we really are almost to that point. 

I did say was going to because, it rained all day and we chose to move more stuff instead. We got a small storage building where we will keep all of Me Voy's stuff, and some other materials. I never though I'd be the kind of person who rents a storage space. But, I never thought I'd have two big beautiful boats either, so much for thinking!

Me Voy meanwhile has not been totally forgotten. I went  last week and epoxied the last of the bilge; now it needs another coat and then paint.  Then its  the engine room and thru hulls, steering  and bottom paint, mast and rigging, and after that we are in the water, getting towed to Baltimore, where we can work some more.  The thing that keeps me going here, is that we can, potentially, be sailing this fall! After two and a half years of nothing but grunt work, that would be such a joy!

Go away Winter

Today it snowed. Yup that big snow storm hitting the Northeast, that's us. Not good, for two people, working on two boats. That's one boat each!  I will be the first to admit, though, I couldn't do it alone, and Travis kicks ass! 

It is a bit terrifying right now though, as Me Voy is almost ready to go in the water, with only the engine room left to be re-built (just ribs left as far as the bilge stuff) and the bulkheads, and now Lucy Maru in a state of "progress". That means we had to rip off a section of her stern  to get to some rot, that had to be dealt with before we could build our master state room. Phew, that is even long to say, much less to do! So anyway now there's snow covering our plastic job that covers the port quarter of Lucy.  Stupid, stupid winter! 

Boats That Talk

Me Voy always tells us what to do. We went thru a phase recently where we were dreaming of buying this little property, with a pier, and taking Me Voy there. She totally disapproved and we abandoned the idea. I was nervous therefore to tell her about Lucy Maru, our new live aboard. How would Me Voy take the news?

Well, it was as if she already knew, and confirmed our decision by allowing us to find more rot.

One may think to take something like that as a sign that she was really pissed off, but I don't think that's the case. I think it was more like, "Hey guys, you were right. I won't be ready to live on for some time. See these ribs, yup they're rotten too. So get yourselves settled and dig in, there's a lot more work left."

Maggie: Here are a few pics of the new boat, Lucy Maru. We'll post more as time allows. Now with two boats there's only boat work! No we have not forgotten Me Voy! 

                This is the aft deck, plenty of ball playing space!
                                             Billy, loves it!  This way to the salon
                                              love the light!
               dining booth, and our friend scrubbing bubbles

galley

                                                guest state room
                                                           guest head
                                      view from master state room

I can't believe this boat. spent the weekend floating, now back on land and it feels like things are moving still. 

I am NOT surpesticious

Maggie:

It was Friday the 13th and everything was going as scheduled. I was to pick up the cash at the bank, and meet John to get the title and sign all the paperwork. Travis was working, so it was up to me and Chopper to carry out the mission. I gave myself ample time between the bank and going to John's because I knew I wanted to build a little money house. I envisioned money stacks, crisp and bound, pilled three, four, five stories high perhaps? As it turned out, my money house was barely a split level, with the whole of the stash measuring about an inch 1/2". Its amazing that anyone would want to trade a whole boat for that!

"Are you going to be all right carrying all this cash?" asked the bank teller, who was a bit annoyed that we walked up to her window before she could sneak off to lunch. 

"Sure. I got the dog"

We both look down at Chopper, who by this time knows the meaning of "dog", and is looking at us with a bit of an ironic look, like he understands sarcasm too.

The bank teller doesn't smile, while she tucks our hundies into a sweet money bag that was given to us by the neighbors. I was prepared to take a suitcase, but Joey insisted an envelope sized bag would be roomy enough. 

Anyway I made a few more little jokes, mostly because I was so nervous. Paranoia had gripped me while standing at the little window. I was sure that big guy next to me was counting the money, and he didn't look to be afraid of Chopper. I was looking to see if he was making eye contact with anyone else at the bank, and was prepared to abandon plan if I saw anything suspicious. 

Everything, however, turned out alright. I met with John, he signed the title, I handed him the cash, and that was it. We shook hands, and I drove off with an empty money bag and Jimmy Buffet singing on the ipod... "mother, mother, ocean.."

The Day Before Tomorrow

Maggie:

So its really going to happen, we are going to live on a boat, soon. Much sooner then either of us expected. We concocted this "two-boat plan" about two months ago and were looking around for some cheap houseboats. The cheapest we found was a Holiday Mansion, that was pulled from the bottom of the inner harbor in Baltimore, and they wanted 3 grand for that! So, we said that we were really open to anything, including getting something nicer, and perhaps not even a house boat.

That call went out about a month ago and lo and behold, during one of my craigslist surfings, I find an ad that we had completely missed. I recognized the boat at once, because its the same one that Travis and I drooled over everytime we went to sail our little Grampian three years ago. Only now, with peeling paint, and a badly needed bottom job, she was for sale, and actually within our budget, which is not that big! To buy or not to buy? Buy, buy, buy! All the bloggers thoughts so anyway. OK that's not totally fair since you didn't know the details, and I'm still scared to say them out loud. But here goes... we will be welcoming to our family a 1961 55' Chris Craft Constellation.

She's a double planked mohagany on white oak construction. Solid for the most part, with some rot in the bulkheads. Nice wiring, two running Detroit diesels, and set up for living aboard, as her previous owners lived aboard for 12 years.

So what do you think now? Please be gentle with your comments, I'm in a very fragile state.

Totally lost it or Yeah you got it!

So here's the skinny. You know we're refitting the cutter,  that's our first priority. Reality hit, however, when we realized, it will be another year until we can move aboard, and not have cat hair in the varnish or little doggie tracks in the paint. So, another year at the warehouse throwing money at the landlord? That doesn't sound right. A smaller apartment, to lower expenses, maybe. Buy a house since the market sucks right now, uh scary. How about a live aboard that we can move into right away? Hmm that's intriguing. It would be an investment, that we could potentially profit on in the future, while lowering our expenses right now. It would mean using our savings to buy it, which means being broke again, but we do have jobs this time. So, is this a crazy idea, or a savvy approach? Please let us know your thoughts buy participating in our survey! We always do what we're told, ha!

Moving on/out

Maggie:

It has begun. We starting to slim down, get boat-sized. I have been looking forward to this time, and dreading it also.  Now with the warehouse empty of "the big tools" it is starting to feel real.  The chapter on living in a shop and making stuff is over now. The timing seems to be in our favor as no one wants to come off of any money for things like furniture or small boats or sculpture. That's fine with me coz I seriously lost interest in making stuff, or big stuff at least. I will have a studio set up on board, but I'm keeping it simple, minimal: oil paints,watercolors, colored pencils and the computer. Maybe the Airbrush. 

Deep Freeze

Maggie:

Working on  the boat has become impossible with the temperature in the lower teens at night and barely reaching 20 during the day. We did brave the cold a couple of weeks ago, but it was a miserable experience.  I cut out wood for a section of keel to be put in. That's usually Travis' job

 but we're really behind now in the wood replacement, with the engine room still needing ribs, so I decided to take over that seemingly simple job. It turned out to be hellish work,with each little piece needing to be shaped individually and then leveled into place. That was actually kinda fun. It was the epoxy that screwed me, always either too little or too much. Soon I was sticky, pissed off, ... and defeated. Yup, there's a lot of grinding to do on that spot to make it look good.

Meanwhile Travis ground down the new planking in the engine room, and got himself set up to put in ribs next weekend. He's doing an awesome job! Just look at the little "stairs" he's cutting out in the old ribs to join the new ones. And this spot was NOT easy to get to either! This boat is going to be so freakin awesome!