Guess Who Came to Dinner?

The 

The Bumfuzzles!

Anyone in the travel community follows or at the least has heard of Pat and Ali from bumfuzzle. For the last ten years they have sailed around the world on a 35 foot catamaran, raced around the world in a classic Porsche, drove from Alaska to Argentina in a VW bus, lived on a monohull in Mexico where they had their two children and now are traveling the states in an old Travco motor home. They've been there and done it all and are the epitome of "living-the-dream" that we all, deep down, wish we could live.

This past week while my parents where in town to help work on the boat, we had them set up in our trailer at the Oak Harbor RV park down the road from the marina. While checking facebook one morning, I noticed an update from the bumfuzzles, saying they were on a Whidbey Island. Knowing that every state park was booked up until Labor Day, there was a very good chance I knew where they were staying. I emailed my Dad and asked him to walk around the park and see if he could see their big, blue bus. He emailed back in a few minutes saying he had found them and they were coming to dinner that night.

We were thrilled to get to meet the family we have been following for years, we had a great dinner, courtesy of my Mom and the kids played.

We have enjoyed living vicariously through their adventures and thank them, and other traveling families out there, for showing us we can live our dreams, for ourselves, for our kids, that life is short and we need to live it. 

They head out of our neck of the woods tomorrow and we look forward to following their stories as they go.

How to Git-Rot Gone Quick.

When you own a wooden boat you expect to have some soft spots, some wood rot, it's inevitable, you are wood on the water, it's gonna happen, you just hope and pray it's not on the bottom and in a spot easy to fix. Our boat came with some lovely soft spots that we need to address, wood rot is cancer to a boat, eats it up from the inside.

Thankfully the hull seems sound, but there were a few spots on the deck that had been compromised. These spots could have been avoided with some simple repairs, for instance, the areas around the trampoline areas in the stern, where one of the previous owners had drilled dozens of holes in the hull, we assume to attach trampolines at some point. However, there were no trampolines on Sweets and all these holes were just left open and unsealed. Of course water got in and the wood is rotten. 

This week we are determined to get trampolines installed which means we need to fix the rotten areas first. So do we cut out large patches of our boat and try to put in new wood and re fiberglass? That was the plan until we discovered this product called Git-Rot, it is a one starting epoxy that you squirt in through holes drilled halfway into the rotten wood, it spreads through all the soft spot til it reaches good wood and then solidifies, sounds worth a try. 

So above we drilled holes in through the top of the deck a few inches apart and only halfway into the wood, if we went all the way through the epoxy would run right out into the water.

Next we duct taped the bottom of the spots we were going to epoxy, there were some cracks in the fiberglass underneath.

There was only one small spot of deck that was actually soft to the touch but once we started tapping around the edges we could detect the hollow sound of rotten wood. When we started to drill we worked from the outside in and kept going until the drill hit good wood.

We bought the biggest jug available, it was $90 at Ace Hardware, but it does go quite a long way. You mix the epoxy and the hardener into the little squirt bottle and shake it up. The instructions said not to apply in hot temperatures, optimal was between 10 degrees and 21 degrees Celsius so we waited until dusk to do it. 

Once your bottle is all mixed up you begin pouring little drops into each of the holes you drilled. This was the fun part, time consuming but it was so cool to watch. The mixture fills up the hole and gets sucked down into the wood. You move from one to the next and keep adding more until each hole is full to the top and doesn't get sucked down. 

We were surprised at how it kept going, it took about an hour of constant filling and refilling before the holes started to remain full.

Left over night the Git-Rot was still tacky to touch the next morning and some of the holes had sunk down again. The next evening we reapplied another batch. The soft spot is starting to firm up and all that will be left once it is cured completely will be to sand down the top and fiberglass over the holes. So far it seems to be working just as advertised, but the real test will be how it holds up once we get the rear trampolines installed on them.

Get a Life (line).

Lifelines are a project we have been working on for a while and finally got to this week. We have had the stanchion bases installed for weeks but only just got our custom cut poles delivered this week.

Netting up.

To buy pre made stanchions from a marine store would cost over $100/pole, way out of our price range so we improvised as we always do and made our own. We ordered 1 inch stainless steel tubing from Defender and had them cut it for us, for an extra $5 each, to 24 inches long. Then bought the stainless steel heads with the ring for on top. 

Shiny.

The poles are secured in the bases by tightening two minuscule screws into the bottom, this required us to drill two notches where they would go in, plus we threw in some epoxy just to make them nice and sealed.

The hardest part about this project was getting the bases onto the deck and unfortunately we aren't quite finished. We made 8 stanchions all the way around the deck but now that we have the wire and net strung we know we need about 6 more to make it stable. Also the wire we bought was too small so this project is still ongoing.

How to Install a Thru Hull. What Not To Do.

We have been busy as beavers this week getting boat projects done, my main contributions were hoisting Mark and his tools bags up and down the mast, but most of the projects I can't actually do myself so I hang around and be a helper where I can. One thing I did do was make a wooden cockpit  grate. I was sick of stepping on the puddle of water that always accumulates in the side of the cockpit where the shower head is, so instead if wiping it up three times a day with a towel and creating more laundry, this seemed to be a better solution.

Turned out pretty good. We are too poor to afford teak and it would need to be special ordered anyway so oak it is. Cut to size, each piece individually varnished with six coats and nailed together, works like a charm.

However, this post is not about my lovely grate, but about the thru hull Mark installed while I was away last week. Here is a picture of it above, you can see the thru hull and above it a black circle, Mark didn't tell me about this and I had to discover it myself, but I won't do that to you, Mark cut the first hole for the thru hull at the wrong angle and couldn't get it to fit so he had to make another one and patch the first one.

Here he is patching.

And epoxying. 

So how could we have avoided putting an unnecessary hole in the hull of our boat?

1. Do not attempt the kind of project while your wife is out of town and you have no one to help.

2. Don't paint your dinghy the day before installing a thru hull so that you can't access the outside from the water.

3. Make sure you know where you are drilling. Check twice, drill once.

Here are so e picture Mark took of his attempts. This is the first hole drilled with a. Rope coming through it. A thru hull consists of two pieces, an inside piece and an outside piece, the hull gets sandwiched in between, how do you get the two pieces together when you have no one to help you?

The outside piece string on the rope, the rope out through the hole...

...and attached to a boat hook on deck. Pretty smart actually, he slid the outside piece of the thru hull down the rope and right onto the hole, if only the first hole had been drilled correctly this project would have been a home run, or hole in one?

Regardless of how it got there, Mark eventually got the thru hull in the head installed and I now have the sink draining overboard, would I have preferred not having an extra hole drilled in the bottom of my boat? Of course. Would I have liked to have been informed about said hole instead of stumbling on it myself? Yes. And considering the grief I have him over it, I'd say Mark is wishing that too.

A Step Up.

One of the biggest projects we needed to tackle this week was getting 15 aluminum, folding mast steps installed all the way up the mast.

Using the iPad as a level, I guess there was an app for that.

There was two ways to attach the steps to the mast, rivet or machine screw. We had hoped to go with  riveting, drill a hole, rivet it in, done. Of course there was no where we could find 1/4 inch sized, stainless steel rivets so we had to go with option number two. 

First Mark needed to drill four holes in the mast per step.

Next he needed to hand tap those holes.  I had no idea what this meant but apparently it is a kind of drill bit that has grooves around it and you slowly turn it the hole you've drilled and this puts the indented threads in the holes. Next you cover your screw with lock tight and screw it into the holes...

... And an hour later you've got yourself a mast step.

Folded.

This was a huge job. Each step took Mark an hour to do and of course it got harder every step he had to go up, the wind is worse higher up and every time someone touched a stay or stepped off the boat or a motorboat would speed by and the wake would sway the boat, Mark had to hold on for deer life. We alternated them from one side of the mast to the other and used a climbing harness attached to a halyard to hold him up there. His tools were lifted up in a bag on another line.

15 hours over three days and we have a job complete, now getting up the mast is a breeze, which is good because Mark will be spending a lot of time up there in the upcoming week, installing lazy jacks, wind system and the radar.

Such an exhausting day.

Keep Calm and Breathe.

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.

One of the best perks of living on the ocean is the closeness to nature. Above Finnegan is watching the mama seals and their babies settle in on their log for the night as the sun sets below the mountains, it's like something out of a painting, too perfect to be true. And actually a lot of our moments spent up on deck are like that, we are immersed in creation, the sky, the sun, the clouds, the water, the weather, the animals and the smell of salt in the breeze but a lot of that life is spent below deck too and sadly that air ain't as fresh.

To combat the stale, dampness that can infect the air while living inside a wooden boat on the water we have some small appliances that help us. First up is my electric space heater, it's sad but a necessity while living in the Pacific Northwest, but we need heat pretty much year round. On sunny days we run the heater in the morning to chase away the night chill and again in the evening once the sun goes down. The dampest part of the boat is the v berth where Mark and I sleep, so about a half hour before we go to bed I put the heater in there to warm it up and dry it a bit.

Next to the heater we have our weather station, which tells us the forecast for the next day and the temperature and humidity inside and outside the boat. We like to keep the inside humidity under 50% to fend off mold growth, which is difficult to do when most days the outside humidity hovers around 90%.

Next we have the air purifier, it's noisy and big and pumps out cold air but it fulfills a major necessity on the boat. Since we do keep the humidity in the boat managed most days we don't worry too much about mold, which the purifier will help clear out of the air but the main reason I put up with this obnoxious machine taking up precious floor space is because it eliminates odours. In a small space even the slightest bad odour can become unbearable, left overs in the fridge, dirty laundry in the corner but we keep it in the head for obvious reasons. 

Lastly, we have our small dehumidifier. As much as heating the boat helps to reduce the humidity there are corners and spaces that heat just doesn't reach and moisture likes to collect. Usually we keep it right up in the v berth but it gets moved around as needed.

With these three machines that are running pretty much constantly we have to consider the power they draw, when we are alongside it doesn't matter of course but when we are at sea we have other options. The dehumidifying buckets with the white crystals, do work well and don't require power, we have about three of these around the boat and mostly in areas where the clothes are stored.

So far we have been so blessed with the weather this month, but the sunshine couldn't last forever and the last two days have been cold, windy and rain, rain, rain.

The rainy days have had one benefit, we now know where all the leaks are and there are a few. Woke up to wet feet, the anchor locker above our bed is leaking, the main cabin hatch is still leaking after numerous attempts to seal it, the chimney is leaking around where it goes through the deck and there is water accumulating in the pantry shelf but we haven't discovered where it is coming from yet.

After a few days of rain the boat becomes very damp and cold and sometimes the little electric heater won't cut it so it's time to break out the big guns, skippy. Last night we chopped up our energy logs and flash up a wood fire, skippy sure pumps out the heat and it just dries everything out, we can actually watch the humidity drop on our weather station.

Unfortunately, we are still getting used to using the wood stove inside such an enclosed space and there are some important aspects we need to always be aware of. Around mid night last night as the fire was dying down the carbon monoxide detectors started beeping. This of course sends us into battle stations, I freaked right out and we spent the next hour opening every hatch and doorway which let out all the lovely dry heat we had built up and let in the rain, while we checked every single gas fitting and finally realized it was the wood stove. We had shut the flew but left the bottom vent open a bit and it was leaking out of there. It was a miserable night, I refused to close the hatches completely just to be sure so it was freezing and wet inside and I had mark sleep on huge boys cabin floor and I woke about every half hour to check and make sure we were all still breathing. I am so thankful for working alarms and we will be more vigilant next time we light a fire to make sure we have proper ventilation. 

Work has had to stop while it was raining, we pretty much hunkered down below and tried to keep warm and dry. But this morning the rain slackened off a bit and Mark went out clamming on the beach, our neighbour told him these were the best kind of bait to put in our crab traps, we shall see.

Wiling away the rainy days.

Are we bored yet?

Forecast tomorrow is sunny, looking forward to warming up and getting back to work.

Work Week.

Yesterday was the first day of Marks week off work to... work, on the boat. With one kiddo still in Victoria we have the two boys here who are pretty good at entertaining themselves. 

Our little helpers who, after watching Herbie the Love bug movies, are obsessed with punch buggies.

It was also the first day of Race Week here on Whidbey Island. This is the navy base next door to the marina, they open gates in the fence which separates the two and they set up a tent city on the grassy area on the base, hundreds of people come from all around Washington, Oregon and BC. 

The mornings and evenings are hectic at the marina, the sailboats heading out for their races and in again after supper but the days are deadly quiet and thankfully the nightly bands playing at the yacht club wrap up by 9pm, so not too bad.

We have a huge list of projects to work on this week, really want to get the last big projects done or at least started. Unfortunately we were still waiting for our order from Go2Marine with the supplies we need to arrive so we spent the day working on building a propane locker.

The boys made swords out of scrap wood and duct tape.

They love the yellow duct tape, it is everywhere.

Unfortunately we started having plumbing problems in the afternoon. I had just bought a memory foam mat for the galley and when I stepped on it during lunch it squished and my feet got wet. We looked everywhere to find where the water came from but couldn't see the source, so we figured the boys had spilt something and weren't telling so we cleaned it up and carried on. 

Thanks to the still leaking shower nozzle in the cockpit I decided it was time to make some cockpit flooring, wooden deck grating to keep us elevated above the wet floor, as it seems my pet peeve of a wet cockpit is never going to manage to be kept dry so at least this will help. Starting to varnish the wood slats for the decking.

The newly painted rhib back in the water.

The epoxied propane locker in its place.

Fits like a glove.

Once supper time rolled around we discovered a significant leak in the galley when I reached in the cupboard for a fork and my utensil tray was full of water. All the pipes leading to the cockpit where the shower goes out, where the city water and hot water comes in is in that cupboard and it seemed the other end of the shower hose was leaking inside and that's how the mat got wet.

Look out! He's got a pex tool and knows how to use it!

Mark ran an extension of pex pipe outside into the cockpit behind the propane locker where all the connections are and attached the shower to that with a new fitting so that if it does leak again it will leak into the cockpit and not the galley. Unfortunately when we turned the water back on one of the other fittings inside the cupboard had come loose and needed up be replaced too. Of course by then it was late at night and Home Depot was closed so we were without water for the night, we took a break from the boat and went to the drive-in to watch Planes 2.

 Doesn't everyone have screw drivers in with their spatulas?

This morning bright and early Mark went off and got the new fitting for the pipes and a new shower

head and hose and everything was fixed... Well sort of. It seems there is some kind of regulation on the shower head he bought that says all hand held shower heads must have a slight drip while in the off mode, so we replaced a broken shower head that leaked all over my cockpit to a new one that was designed to leak all over the cockpit, at this point I am feeling like I can't win, the writting is on the wall, I can see it now "Becky is never to have a shower on their boat." But Mark came up with another work around, he's so good at doing that, we went out and bought another pex fitting that has a ball opening that can me opened and shut. He installed it right before the shower hose so we can completely shut off the water to the shower head when not in use, finally no drips, SweetHaven is currently leak free... For the moment.

This morning our supplies were delivered and we are moving on to projects we actually had planned to do, on to lifelines.