National Lampoon's Florida Vacation.

Well let's hope this vacation doesn't resemble the movies too much, but taking into account our history, there is bound to be some National Lampoon-isms. 

Mark has arrived here in sunny Orlando...

Can't you tell he's ecstatic? 

That's about as happy an expression Mark can make, of course the first three days he's been here it has been rainy, cold, windy, tornado warnings, so we haven't been able to do too much yet, but the next week is looking up.

We managed to try out another pool area in the Reunion resort complex, just a quick walk through the golf course and under the highway, unfortunately that water was freezing, the kids lasted about ten minutes before we headed back to our heated pool.

Trying to get some sun in the partially cloudy, windy day.

Back through the tunnel to home.

We found some living statues in Downtown Disney after seeing he movie "Noah", which was the most ludicrous thing I have ever seen.

We have 27 more days here in Florida, only 10 of those are with Mark here, so we have a busy week planned. 4 days at Disney, 3 days at Universal Studios and a day trip to Cocoa Beach where we got married 9 years ago. The weather is forecasting sun and warmth so here's hoping it's true. Mark is off to golf with my great uncle who is down visiting, while the ladies and I are off to the Outlets.

Back home Sweets stays sitting in the marina, still so much more work to be done but Mark got such a good jag on it this past month we can start to see a small light at the end of the tunnel. We have started planning our first big trip for when we get back. If we can get the rest of the work done in time we plan on leaving in June, if not, it'll be pushed to August. July has a lot going on back home that we don't want to miss, Race week for one, held at our Marina, hundreds of sailors and new boats come for it.

Planning and charting for Alaska is fun, but there truly is a lot more work that needs to be accomplished, finishing the plumbing so we have running water, painting the inside and outside of the boat, installing the anchor system, radar, wind and depth systems, propane locker and galley stove, mattresses, and the list goes on. As I've stated before, we aren't the type of people who need everyone perfect, but there are something's you definitely need for a longer trip.

Also, we have some repair work to do on the trailer, some of the floorboards had rotted out so that needs to be replaced before the summer and Marks motorbike, needs some time in the shop, it seems the work is piling up, but as Scarlett from "Gone With The Wind" says, "I'll think about that tomorrow." 

For today we are all together as a family, in the sun. Work can wait a bit.

Water, Water, Everywhere.

Plumbing is coming along on Sweets, being back at work now, mark has the morning to work before he goes in for the evening shift and currently he has all the water lines run and the water filter set up, everything hooked up to the pump and city water intake. 

Bathroom sink water

lines.

Lines running through the bilges in the main salon.

I told Mark he should paint the bilges before running the lines, but whatever...

Here is the pump, looks kind of wonky to me. Those angles seem sharp but the Manuel suggested the water loop into the pump and loop out, but our hoses are rigid and couldn't bend without compromising the integrity of the line (fancy way to say kink in the line) so mark cut it and put an elbow in it. 

The water filter, that came with the boat, all cleaned and sanitized and a new filter of course.

Water lines going to the thru hulls to the water heater and the water intake.

So far so good, but of case we haven't actually run water through it all yet. We still need drains in the sinks and the piping for the grey water tank, which we do have, the boat came with two 50 gallon bladders, didn't feel comfortable using them for fresh water but grey is fine. And we still need a holding tank for the fresh water and the accumulator tank was delivered today.

Here's hoping it all works. Fingers crossed.

Mark is on his last week of work before he flies down here to join us in Florida for three weeks, so he doesn't have much time to wrap up his work. We are still having a dickens of a time with our windows and hatches, when we first bought the boat we spent days take out all the hatches and windows and cleaning them up and re sealing them and all this succeeded in doing was causing a slightly lesser leak through them all. The starboard side cabin window leaks even worse somehow. Now I know boats are never going to be water tight, they will always have some leaking but if this is going to be our home, it's small and cramp, I have to duck to get into the bathroom, fine, but I want it as dry as possible.

So off Mark goes again, searching the web for solutions and he has ordered the type of tape and glue/silicone that is used to fuse fishtanks and skyscrapers together, if that doesn't work, nothing will.

When we are finished with all the plumbing I'll have mark write a post about how it all technically works.

Nap time.

Delving into the Depths of Plumbing.

Schematics. Scary.

 

Building the big things on the boat (closets, pantries, etc...) is now done, now on to plumbing. Plumbing is something that seems so out of my realm of comprehension. Electrical is kind of scary too, but somewhere in my mind I figure I could learn it without too, too much trouble if I had to (and I assume the time is coming when I will have to.) But plumbing seems so much more complicated, a stopped up toilet has succeeded to confound me many times where as Mark unplugs it the second he comes home, plumbing and I do not get along. So considering our boat doesn't have a stitch of any plumbing in it, that is a major project we need to learn to DIY. 

Mark has been busy learning from square one all about boat plumbing, thank goodness for YouTube and all the other boat bloggers out there who are a wealth if information, unfortunately for anyone else seeking information on how-to plumbing, this blog will not be very helpful.

Every night Mark updates me on what he's doing and what he's bought and the packages started coming in from amazon (pictured above) and the shower nozzle is the only thing I actually recognize.

Mark is on another four days off now and plumbing is the task at hand. I can be no help in this matter but my unshakable faith that my cyber searcher husband has learned everything he needs to, to complete the job at hand. 

Holding tanks, filters, crimping, pex fittings, pressure pumps, y valves, shower pumps, all works I kind of get the gist of what they are and do but I am so excited for the day we have running water on the boat.

Of course we are still having to deal with my fresh water tank blunder I made months ago when we did our major buying for boat supplies. Somehow, and I still have no clue how I made such a measuring mistake, but I ended up ordering two 55 gallon rigid holding tanks, only to get them and have no where they will fit. We've tried the engine compartment  which was our original plan, no luck, then we figured there was room in either ama on each side and there is room, but the hatch to get them into the amas is too small, they are even too large for under the v berth. So we have spent $500 on holding tanks and can't use them. 

Of course we have no money now to buy new tanks. We have listed the other ones for sale and you would figure an island which has such a huge sailing community as Anacortes we could unload them quickly enough, except the one things we have discovered about Whidbey Island, they are the cheapest people I have ever met. No one will buy anything from anyone unless it's priced at 10% of what it's worth! It's infuriating really! Every year after Christmas we clean out the kids clothes and toys and rather than have a yard sale or try to sell anything online we just donate it, I'd rather give it away than sell it to some tightwad at a price that's not even worth the cost of gas to bring it into town to deliver it.

Anyway, so that's where we are at with that, in need of tanks and no money as of yet to buy them.

But Mark is busy getting everything else installed and lines all run so that when we do eventually get tanks all we'll need to do it hook them up.

Head sink with drain and faucet.

Galley faucets.

Doesn't it look beautiful with all that junk in there?

This was the hole Mark had to make of the faucet, the boat came with the sink but no faucets. I don't know how he made that.

The pump that will pressurize the fresh water system.

The city water inlet.

Our tankless water heater, this is located outside in the cockpit, the propane locker will be right next to it eventually.

Starting to run the lines through the bilges.

Meanwhile, down here in Florida...

Meet Mulan.

We are Siamese if you please.

Make a wish...

Grumpy.

Sneezy.

Dopey?

Nanny and Baba and Mac at Lunch.

Follow the White Rabbit... Wait, are we going down the rabbit hole or out of the Matrix?

Practically perfect in everyway.

Good on ya, mate.

Portrait done in France (Epcot)

Just a spoon full of sugar.

Mark back in Washington, all work and no play, right?

Sailor? Or Trailer?

SweetHaven

Our Travel Star

Seven months ago I recall sitting in the hot tub, when we decided to buy our boat. We were settling in to our latest posting, however unhappy we were being stuck out in the woods on Whidbey Island we knew our time there was limited and we had planned everything up to this point... But now what? 

With some of the money we made on the move across country we bought our 27 foot travel trailer and had accomplished a few successful trips on it and discovered we really enjoyed a life of travel, now we were faced with some decisions. All along we said we would save up, buy a sailboat and live on it, travel great distances and see new and amazing places if we could but not wanting to over step our bounds we'd stick with the, "just live on a boat" part for starters.

Of course we received a mountain of backlash from our families, which as much as we don't want to admit has an affect on us, it does and puts little nuggets of doubts in our minds. But through our travel in the trailer we knew we wanted to live simpler, smaller, and travel ready and a trailer/motorhome does that too. Of course our tiny travel star was not suited to full-time RVing, so we started browsing the RV lots and found our motorhomes were out of our price range and then we'd have to tow a vehicle behind it for transportation when we stopped at a place. But we liked that everyone would have freedom to lie down, sit at the table, go to the bathroom while on the road, but it was out of our reach, at least a new one was and a used one had too many problems that we didn't want to tackle. We fell in love with the massive, beautiful fifth wheels. They are like a house and so nice inside, but we all still needed to be strapped in the truck while we travel, it is something huge to tow, which I am a bit uncomfortable with backing up in (but that skill can always be learned), and our truck is not powerful enough to haul a bigger trailer so that would mean a new truck. 

We got to the point where we were ready to trade in the truck and buy a new fifth wheel, but the idea of our sailboat was always in the back of our mind. Were we really not going to do it? Or at least try? We've been dreaming about it for so long and now that we were here, actually faced with it, were we going to wimp out? Obviously you know the choice we made because three weeks later we had found and bought our boat, but the idea of trailer living is always a standby for us, maybe down the road, maybe if we ever get to the point where we can do both that would be great... the roaming McShanes by land or sea.

When we approached the family with our two choices of course they weren't thrilled with either option, "so we're either going to be trailer trash or wharf rats?" Of course we use those labels jokingly and only when we talk about ourselves, we know the RV lifestyle and the cruising lifestyle isn't as those derogatory terms suggests. Either of these options opens up a whole new world of possibilities and an alternative lifestyle that we long for, something different, anything different...

So we boat our boat despite the parent-induced-nuggets-of-fear niggling in our brains, we'll fix it up and make it our own. We haven't dared to plan farther down the road than this summer, we'll take it a step at a time and see where we end up. You never know if you don't try, right?... Right.

Mark the Builder.

It's been a busy four days. Mark has started his off rotation, where after five days of working the midnight shift he gets four days off, and Mark being the hard worker he is, has had 96 uninterrupted hours of working on the boat. Of course it isn't the most fun way to spend your days off poor Mark has been living and breathing that boat, literally. Since the kids and I flew out two weeks ago Mark has only been back to the house once to do laundry, he works his shift then goes to the boat and works there, sleep and repeat. Although it hadn't been very fun it has been productive, which is what we have needed, boat work being accomplished.

Mark has been starting up forward and working his way back and has spent pretty much the last two weeks working on the head, considering there was no head at all when we bought the boat, there has been a lot to do. Last post he had put on the new flooring and installed the NaturesOwn Composting toilet. Now he worked on building the counter for the sink.

Shelving under the sink.

A closet with access from the V berth creates a wall in the head, a place to hang a mirror and hooks and so on.

Looking from the main cabin, into the V berth.

Mark is not a builder, he has worked with wood very little, he is more of a techi, you need a sound system setup, a computer fixed, software programs rewritten, Mark is your man. But this past year he has really branched out and started to become much more 'handy'. First with his two motorcycle fixer uppers he's gone through this year he has honed his electrical skills and gained some understanding of how engines work, which of course has come in useful. But now he has had to build almost

everything inside the boat, counters, shelves, heat shields, pantry... The list goes on and I am very proud of him for all the hard work he has done, especially since he hates building so much.

Sanding the floor where the table goes to varnish it.

Shelving in Aislinns cabin. She has a small cubby behind the wood stove so we build some shelves for her to keep her treasures, she is a little pack rat.

Decided the fill empty space in the main cabin with a pantry for storage (food probably) before there were three rickety, lopsided shelves hanging off the back wall there, this is much more efficient and now Mark has a nice big place to put his TV.

This is the inside of the closet that is in the head, if you were looking into it from the V berth. Mama needs a place to hang her clothes.

Floor varnished.

Our tiny Nav table, the stain was a bit more yellow than I would have liked. I know boat interiors are generally darker wood finishes but our boat is so small inside I didn't want anything to make it darker.

The window shelf in Aislinns cabin.

Mark is thankful, as he is about to head back to work tomorrow, that he has accomplished most of the major building and he can move on to projects he is more comfortable and happy doing, (plumbing, electronic hookups, etc.) Mark has two more weeks at home alone before he flies down to join us here in Florida, so we'll see how many more projects he can get completed, I've been encouraged with how much he has done already.

The wood stove is FINALLY 100% completed! This is the first project that is completely finished. A lot of projects have been started and almost completed but the final touches are always waiting, but now the skippy is completely installed, smoke pipe, damper and lastly bolted onto the shelf.

Also the toilet is installed and operational and economical. Here is 2 years worth of peat moss all bagged up for only $8.

So what have the rest of us been up to? Oh you know, lounging around in the sun, swimming at the pool...

 

A trip to Magic Kingdom (a trip that was far less magical than we'd hoped.)

But we had some good moments...