Just a few more... sore muscles

Port side bow getting new planks

We are nearing completion with the work on the port (left) side of Lucy Maru. This weekend, I helped Travis put in the planks at the bow. The curve up in the front was pretty wicked, but no one got slapped with a springy board, phew! We used a lot of clamps to hold everything place, and now she's good as new. Well almost.

Lucy Maru port side undergoing a refit

That's a picture I took from the water that shows the entire port side. The areas that are not white are the new planks, you can't really see how many there were from this pic, but take my word for it, there was a LOT of them. I'm soooooo glad that part is behind us. Now, a bit more prepping before we primer, and then, finally, PAINT!

In the meantime we found a great deal on a little sailboat to practice our ( ok my) sailing skills. Its a sailfish, kinda like the sunfish but smaller. I go out during my lunch break, and it has already answered all kinds of questions I had about sailing. You see, unlike Travis, I can't call myself a natural sailor.

Me, heading out to play in the harbor

Everything about it confused me, starting with being able to tell which way the wind is coming from. I know that sound ridiculous, but for some reason, once I got out in the open water, I totally lost all sense of direction. (You know I once drove 4 hours in the wrong direction, thinking that west was to my right! That sucked!) Add to that a tiller (the thing that controls your direction) and of course the sails, and its all over, I'm lost. So being able to directly handle the sheets (the lines that the sails are attached to) and the tiller, is seriously groundbreaking. I'm now able to pick a course, tack and sail in a circle. And I can tell without a problem which way the wind is blowing!

The dream begins!

The Zen of Boat Repair

This is the bow section waiting for new wood.

This has been a great week. All week I stayed at home working on new illustrations, and making good progress on the boat . We still haven't got hauled, as the rail that we are waiting for has a wheel that needs to be replaced. This has really has worked in our favor, because in addition to having a huge whole in the side of the boat, we are behind schedule on our hull paint job, which we hope to have done before our haulout. I've learned a lesson here, make plans in pencil, because things change.

So, we're doing the best we can in keeping our progress moving along on Lucy Maru. I'm working on fairing and sanding the hull, getting it ready for paint. Its a very tedious process, of layering the filling compound, sanding, feeling for dips, and filling and sanding some more. When I really get into it, its quite pleasurable and meditative work. I have now done almost 2/3 of one side of the boat. By the time I'm done, I will have touched every inch of the hull.

I can see in hind sight, how we deceived ourselves into thinking that Lucy Maru won't interfere with our work on Me Voy. We should have known better, and I know we both did, but the force pushing us aboard this Chris Craft was irresistable. I don't know what the outcome of this will be, but it feels like there's a current that is carrying us along to some unknown destination and all we need to do is not get in our own the way.

Striking a Balance

Sailing by cargo ships in Baltimore's Inner Harbor

All work and no play makes for a very dull day. That's why its important for us to keep a good balance between working on the boats and having fun on boats. I think this Memorial Day weekend was a great example of just that.  We worked removing the rot from the bow section of the hull on Lucy Maru, as well as primered and faired the new deck and widow section on the port side.

Travis inspecting and removing rotten planks

Digging rot out of some planks in the bow

 

Then we went sailing, twice! Once on T's racing boats the E33's which you would have gotten to know in the previous blog, and then on Russels's boat Lady Bug. 

Check out Chopper, he is loving it!

Russel fighting the wheel, Travis woo- whoooing, Baltimore skyline in background

sailing and smiling go hand in hand

Baltimore Inner Harbor 

Sailing is so much fun, I love it! I can't wait to get better at it, as I get all messed up in steering with the tiller. Everything is backwards when steering with a tiller, so if you want to go right you move the tiller to the left, and so on. Then of course there's keeping to a course, and knowing where you are, and knowing where other boats are, that add to my confusion. So I can't say that I'm a natural sailor, but I really want to learn all there is to know about it. And it looks like, living in the marina, we will get plenty of opportunity to do just that.

                                                  

 Us fishing off our back deck during a work break

Sailing the e33

Travis:

I haven't had a chance to write a blog in quite a while, being extremely busy building boats and of course working on our boats. Fortunately Maggie has kept it up to date. I have been working with e yacht builders building the e33, a super fast 33 foot daysailer, which we are nearly finished with. We were able to finally go sailing this Memorial day week-end. We couldn't have had better wind and the boat performed better than anyone expected. I want one!



Maggie at the tiller

Maggie jibes toward the inner harbor

Glen with refreshing beverage. Beating into the wind with me at the tiller

Hard aground

The builders sailing fast

Why It's All Worth It

We got an unpleasant surprise while sanding the hull, more rot. Looks like some planks and ribs up at the bow are in dire need of replacing. That means our haulout  has to be moved back, which of course moves our return to Me Voy even further back. Big bummer there.  

But rather then dwelling on this unfortunate turn of events I decided to remind myself why this madness called working on boats is all worth it. 

First, living on the water we can easily slip into our canoe and kayak

 and take a little paddle whenever we want. We have already been out four times, which is three times more then last year.

Travis and Chopper enjoy a morning paddle

Another bonus to living on the water is all the wildlife around us.  Now that its getting warmer we have seen baby geese and ducks, water snakes, turtles, and all kinds of birds. This provides simple and fulfilling entertainment for both us and Billy and Chopper.  In fact I'm not sure what's more fun, watching the ducks or watching Billy and Chopper watching the ducks.

              Billy and Chopper watch the ducks 

Another plus to this boating life style is the marina. Not only are the "neighbors" really cool, but the simple pleasure of  coming home to the gently splashing water against the dock is awesome.  

         Billy enjoys the sunset on his perch

The last thing I will mention here is the light. Light everywhere! Coming from the warehouse, , where you couldn't tell if it was morning or evening outside, versus living on the boat  where we are surrounded by windows, is spectacular! We can grow plants, and see what we look like in the daylight!

           This is what I look like in the light

 

Are You Gonna Fiberglass That?

Its been nothing but work work work, both in the boats and in the job. I'm glad to be working now as to afford all the upcoming big expenditures. Someone once said that BOAT stands for Break Out Another Thousand. That's about right. Check out the beautiful mohagany wood that goes into the planks.

and white oak for the new frames. 

and marine plywood for the new deck.

I told you we've been busy. We have in fact replaced all rotten wood on the port side, from the fore deck to the aft deck. And that includes removing the nasty carpet that made up what we call the fiberglass sandwich. More about that shortly.

We went back to Me Voy on Easter, and it was a happy reunion, both with the her, and with our boatyard friend, Richard. Or, should I say with the great Captain Richard Griffiths, who had Soundings magazine just write up a story about him and Rosylin, his vessel, a turn of the century British fishing boat, converted into a yacht that Richard has lived on for the past 50 years.

Anyway, during our stay in Me Voy, we spent one evening telling Richard our wooden boat woes. He listened with beaming amusement, and only after Travis ended the tirade by saying "I'd like to kick that guy in the nuts!" (the guy who fiberglassed the entire deck of the boat), did Richard get real serious, and said "Well, well...you can't be too mad at him because at one point in time everyone thought that fiberglass was the solution to all wooden boat problems, and went around asking ,"Are you going to fiberlgass that?"Well turns out its not a good solution at all. This is what you find 10 years later under the laid glass. Ugh.

The wood anfd fiberglass removal went relatively quickly, as the fiberglass peeled off in large sheets. That's me removing the fiberglass, what a nasty job that was!

and once again Chopper was caught sleeping on the job.

So our repairs to Lucy Maru are going well. Our haulout is scheduled for May 28, which means we will be motoring to another marina, get put on a rail, get hauled out, and spend three days replacing screws, bungs, sanding, caulking and painting the bottom of our huge wooden boat. Is that really gonna happen?

Things That Go Splash

Pictured above are three things that were successfully rescued after falling overboard. 

 Ball, successfully rescued by net, was one.  

Bottom of vacuum, successfully rescued by Maggie with the help of a borrowed dingy and kayak paddle, that's two. 

 And, Chopper, successfully rescued by Travis and his long arms, that makes three.

Time aboard: three weeks

  

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!