Tanya is Home! Wooo Hooo!
Things seem to be looking good…or at least better, on all fronts. Not much going on but making some slow progress preparing the boat for our next adventure…
All three sails needed a little work. In addition to normal periodic maintenance, we wanted to change the dark blue headsail cover to match the rest of the canvas:
(Click on the pics for full screen view)
The mainsail needed some work as well:
The sails haven’t been to a professional in several years, and my little sewing machine is not strong enough to take on some of the larger projects, so we took them to a real sail loft:
Reconditioned headsail with new linen sail cover:
Reconditioned mainsail:
New clew:
Reinforced headboard, ALL the slides were reattached:
…some of the slides replaced:
All set, ready for our next journey:
Had a pin-hole leak in the mast boot. After some searching we found and repaired the leak. We had to replace a couple of small wood strips and two ceiling panels:
New pieces installed:
Cut out new ceiling panels:
Installed:
Leak Fixed, Ceiling Done!
Time to re-varnish some of the interior pieces:
We are using Epifanes varnish:
Varnishing some of the hatch trim pieces:
Finally bought some closed cell foam and made some new seat cushions:
Done! They’re closed cell waterproof foam covered with Sunbrella so we will be able to leave these in the cockpit 24/7, rain or shine:
I’ve been in front of the sewing machine quite a bit this year. Fourth and final modification to the dinghy chaps:
The Caribbean sun is tough on canvas, ours needs to be replaced. Mizzen sail cover is done, the main sail cover is almost done:
Another “woo-hoo”, this time for steel reinforced butyl rubber sanitation hose!! $10 per foot YAY!! Can I pay more?? YAY!! …our sanitation hose was about six years old and getting a bit…crispy… so we opted to replace it. Expensive but worth it:
We’ll skip the installation pics, best for everyone. Hose installed, toilet back in:
I don’t like storing too many things on deck because I think it makes the boat look cluttered, so I ordered four of these inflatable fenders, they’re huge! Our old fenders are fairly large but can not be deflated, so we have to store them on deck. These new fenders inflate quickly and deflate quicker than a New England Patriots football! They can fold flat and even roll up so now we don’t have to store our fenders on deck. I will probably order four more in the fall. Exciting stuff:
I forgot to order the special fitting to properly inflate them…so two weeks later:
They deflate in about 15 seconds. Four huge deflated fenders:
More exciting stuff…anchor chain flaked-out in the back yard, I’ll recoat it in the fall. The last time we stored the boat we left the chain in a pile only to come back in a year to find nothing but a pile of rust. Never leave expensive metal in a pile, that was a $1000 mistake. I love making expensive mistakes, they’re the best!
We thought we were done with bottom jobs/paint, but we’re not. We will haul out again in the fall to change out a small thru-hull and paint the bottom one last time. Last month I picked up our favorite bottom paint during a boat show. This paint is normally around $260 or more a gallon, I got it for $210! We have used four different brands of bottom paint and traveled from Maine to South America and none have come close to Petit:
Well here she is, stripped down, empty, sitting (about four inches higher) in the marina. We have taken nearly everything we own off the boat in order to scale back and tailor our list for the next leg of our journey. Having an empty boat also makes projects go much better! We’re slowly fixing and upgrading systems in order to avoid as many problems as we can. She is still in great shape and will be better than ever by the time we depart again. I’m thinking about painting the topsides when we haul out, maybe a couple of coats rolled and tipped, we’ll see.
Well that’s it for now…stay tuned…for more riveting, edge-of-your-seat excitement!