Stairs.

A few posts back I showed my first attempt at making it possible for the dog to climb up the ladder so she could get in and out of the boat herself. I added sliding extensions to the rungs so the dog would have more room to stand while she climbed. Unfortunately this attempt was unsuccessful and Penelope was still unable to climb out. 

Behold our new stairs. 

I couldn't help looking at all that space that was being wasted behind the old ladder and on a small sailboat you really can't afford to have any wasted space. 

Our solution was building these stairs up the side of the hull, to use up that wasted space, create storage under the steps and finally have a platform the dog could actually use.

It wasn't an easy build, of course nothing on the boat is. I managed to find a 4 x 8 ft piece of oak plywood from Home Depot that had a small chunk missing from one corner so I got it discounted and made the whole stairs out of it for $30. The thing weighed a ton and was a challenge for Mark to get down the docks. The project took three days to build and they turned out pretty well, much better than I had hoped.

They are sturdy and look so much better than the ugly ladder, plus that extra storage space under each step is awesome.

It was a risk building stairs sideways up the hull instead of actually in front of the door it is leading up to, but this was the best way to maximize space. Mark was worried it would be too awkward to walk up sideways, but the distance is so short, it's actually much easier than the old, rickety ladder was.

We added risers on hinges to hide the storage space underneath.

With winter coming and still so many leaks to fix, a staircase doesn't seem like a priority project to waste time on, but this is our home and in a world of fickle water heaters, hand washing dishes, laundromats, ducking to get into the bathroom, a 2.1 cubic foot fridge and yes, leaky hatches, in the world of inconveniences you sometimes just need one small thing that looks pretty and makes life a little bit easier.

Ships Cat.

Well we decided to add to our crew; well I should say I decided and Mark grudgingly went along with it. We adopted a cat.

People who know me know I love having pets and as often times some pets have not worked out, I keep trying, a cat was inevitable, sooner or later; welcome to sooner.

A cat seemed to be the logical choice and cats on boats have a long history, dating back to ancient Egypt, cats used to be on the boats on the Nile, they were thought to be lucky and appease the gods. Naval tradition also includes ships cats, then they were on board to catch rodents and had an added benefit of being moral boosters.

Meet Jeep. Our feline. We adopted her from Waif animal shelter, it is quite a set up they have here on the island, with about six different locations and holding facilities, it was not hard to find our new furry friend. I drove to the newest one, about five minutes down the road and said I was looking for a cat that would be good with kids, good with dogs and good on a boat. The woman said she had just the cat for me and here we are.

Jeep of course was not the name she came with, and being a female cat it is an odd choice but it goes right along with our Popeye theme.

Jeep was picked up as a stray and was pregnant, the shelter held her while she gave birth to her litter and adopted out her kittens and now it was her time to find a home. We figure she is about 1.5 years old and so far she has been a perfect pet. She has taken to boat life like an old salt, squirrelling away in all the small spaces and cubbies, only scratches on her scratch post, is playful when we want her to be and a snuggle bug when we don't.

Mark installing shelves for the cat to sleep on, we are finding there are a lot of pets under our feet in our small floor space so if we can get her off the floor it would be that much better for everyone. Of course nothing is easy, the tv needed to be removed to install the brackets and couldn't be put back on again.

In the process the TV holding brackets broke off and now one side of it is temporarily velcroed to the bulkhead.

Testing it out.

So far we have kept Jeep inside the boat, we don't want her wandering off before she knows where home is, she managed to jump out of a hatch once and before we could get up top to get her she had jumped down again, I think she wasn't prepared to be all surrounded by water.

In other news, school has started, we have done our first week of grade 3, grade 1 and kindergarten. Boat schooling does have it challenges, trying to teach three different grades in such a small space is proving difficult, it may take me a few weeks to get a good routine down.

Notice the nautical themes to our craft time.

And the canvas man has started work on our cockpit enclosure, so far we have a new metal frame on the stern, can't wait to see it with some sunbrella over it.

Rain, Rain, Stay Away.

Our plans for this past weekend were changed after we experienced a major storm. We had planned on sailing down to Port Townsend for the wooden boat festival but a few days before we were set to leave we got pummelled with wave after wave of torrential rain, thunder, lightening, high winds and some hail thrown in there for good measure.

It was an amazing storm to see and even more so when you are in a boat, you feel closer to it, you feel every movement of the wind, hear every patter of rain on your deck and we could see the black storm clouds coming off in the horizon. Mark and I enjoyed it, watching from the cockpit, feeling the spray off of the water, the kids on the other hand were a bit scared by it all, not that I can blame them,  the boat leaked like a sieve.

Rain just beating down.

Hail on the deck.

Soaked after a five second trip to the potty patch.

So after all this rain and the sheer amount of leaks we have in our boat we decided to skip the festival and spend the weekend trying to fix some of them. Of course best laid plans...

The weekend turned out to be some of the best weather of the year, we had days over 30 degrees Celcius and was too hot for fiberglassing, the resin would harden within seconds. 

So we moved on to another project that was pressing, we have had a soft spot on the deck since we bought Sweets and it finally got replaced.

The hole started out this big but of course got bigger. 

Thankfully it was not on the actual deck, it's a raised, curved part on the port side of the cockpit, it is hollow inside but we have no access to the area, after cutting it open we found some water and a plastic bag in there.

Vacuuming out the water. Unfortunetly we aren't sure how the water is getting in there which means our fix could be temporary unless we can stop it.

Bigger...

And bigger. We ended up having to cut out the whole top of the area.

Tracing the cutout onto bristal board.

Cutting out the shape onto wood.

We used very thin oak plywood to replace the wood, because the area curves we epoxied two layers of the wood into the area to fit the curve and fiberglassed over it, it's all sealed up tight now.

Some R & R after hard days work.

What happens when you watch a movie with your sister.

We were kind of disappointed that we missed the boat festival and we didn't actually end up getting any leaks fixed but the weekend wasn't a total loss, enjoyed probably the last of the amazing summer weather and finally got that soft spot fixed and the canvas man starts work on our custom cockpit enclosure this week, it's been our inside joke that when it rains we'll have to all hang out in the cockpit, it will be the driest place on the boat.

Saying Good Bye to Summer

September is here, school is right around the corner and the days are decidedly chillier than even a week ago, fall is in the air and we sadly say good bye to summer. 

With a wet and dreary winter ahead of us we will try to enjoy as much of the last few days of sun we have.

Labor Day weekend we joined some friends at the Drive in for a rerun of Planes 2 and a final go kart ride for the season.

We have been noticing a lot more jellyfish around the marina, the kids think they are so cool. We know nothing about jellyfish so we looked them up and found out they tend to show up when the Eco system is compromised, makes sense they would be in the marina I guess.

We have made some friends with a couple who live on their boat a little ways down our dock, they are a military family as well, minus the kiddos, and have a veritable playroom in their storage unit. 

Ping pong

giant jenga.

We have enjoyed meeting another liveaboard couple our same age.

It's been bothering me that Penelope can't get in and out of the cabin on her own, she can't climb the ladder, she discovered a way to climb out when the garbage bag which is kept next to the ladder is full, she climbs up the bag, shredding it in the process, and then gets out. That is not a long term solution and I am afraid she is going to get seriously hurt someday when Aislinn 'helps' her get out, she dropped her the other night and she landed on her back.

I made some retractable ladder extensions to hopefully help her have some more foot room so she can learn to climb the ladder. It's going to take some practice.

Extensions out.

And they slide back in when we don't want her to get out.

Boat related work is still being addressed, Mark is finally finished the Git rot around the rear trampolines and all that is left is to fiberglass over the holes and then string the trampolines. We are still waiting for the extra long radar wire to arrive, apparently it was back ordered. Projects we need done before winter is to fix the wood rot in the cockpit, Git rot won't work there; have the cockpit enclosure made and installed; have bilge pumps in working order; get energy logs and coin them and install a deck fill for the water tank.

Those are the main things on Marks to do list, mine is a lot less physical as I prepare for all three kids  school this year, organizing curriculum and switching out summer clothes for winter clothes.

The public schools start this week but we are aiting until next Monday, one more week for me to mentally prepare, unfortunately I hated school my entire life and here I am teaching it to my kids, I know the reasons why we decided to homeschool and the reasons are still sound but sometimes I can't say I haven't thought about just packing them all off to school. We take it year by year, but when I have a three month trip planned in the spring which wouldn't be possible with the kids in public school it strengthens my resolve.