Finally, A Day Off (to celebrate!)

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Today was our one year anniversary and we decided after two straight weeks of work with no break, to take a day off!  Luckily, our friends John and Lisa were also ready for some fun and to round it off, Alistair and Janette the owners of the B and B (and now also our friends) where we did the ceremony and Fraser and Helen the owners of the boatyard where Orcinius has had all its work done all came along on a sail on Orcinius.  Sort of a re-christening for Orcinius and a celebration for us.  That works since champagne was involved!

The day started with John and Lisa making us an anniversary breakfast on Orcinius, complete with Bloody Marys.  Then everyone else showed up and off we went.

Nice to take a break from the tedium (and pain) of boat work.

One picture to show we're still here. Scaffolds, ladders and other stuff scattered around a work in progress.

 

"Cheers" for Bob and Ann, "Cheers" for Orcinius and um, well... "Cheers" for a beautiful day!

John and Lisa happy to be almost off voyaging again after a year's delay.

Ann and Lisa enjoying the day.

 

Tucked into a nice little anchorage.

Burgers on the "barbie".

 

Even time for a "little" fishing. Well, what do you expect when you use bits of cooked hamburger for bait?

good day.  Back to work tomorrow.  More varnishing and bottom painting, then maybe back in the water Thursday – weather permitting.  Big storm heading this way Wednesday that may delay that, but we’ll see how the week progresses.

 

More Work (and a little fun)

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Yup, we’re still here working.  Got a blister on my finger from so much sanding today.  We’re now on to the maintenance coats of varnish on last year’s work.  Two coats, but first you have to sand with 320 grit, wash with detergent and then clean the whole mess. Took all day to prep the toe rail (basically all the way around the boat), the rub rail (most of the way around) and some miscellaneous wood around hatches and such.

Ann finished polishing the hull.  Two huge accomplishments.

Charisma at night on the hard.

Tomorrow we’ll go round the whole thing with paint thinner and wipe it down, then tape it in prep for two coats.

Monday the bottom paint guys are supposed to come and Wednesday the guy who puts on “prop speed” does the propeller and associated fixtures.  Did I mention I spent about five hours yesterday cleaning and polishing the prop?

OK, the fun part.  We have a lot of friends in the boatyard with us.  Tonight we had a BBQ with Bright Angel and Orcinius and along the way Kismet Dave and Sue and Andy from Spruce also showed up.  Fun to get together at the end of a work day and swap stories.

To top it off, Ann baked a pumpkin pie in honor of her late sister Beverly who passed away nine years ago today of breast cancer.  Everyone took a serious moment to honor Bev, then dug into the delicious pie Ann made complete with whipped cream (to John’s horror it was from a pressurized can, but whatever…Lisa liked it!)

You can see the remnants of the pumpkin pie in the lower left of the picture.

 

Some of the gang. (Missing from the picture is "Bunghole Bob". Google teak decks and bungs and you'll get the idea)

...and all's quiet in the boat yard as we wait for another exciting day working on our boats.

 

Work, Work, Work, Work (and some fun)

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Yup, we’re on the hard and still working.  It’s the price we pay for having as much fun as we do and even here on the hard we’re having fun socializing with everyone else in the marina and working on their boats.  Just today I had some time that I didn’t know what to do with – so what to do?  I know, I’ll walk across the yard and pester Bob and Linda on Bright Angel.   😉   So, there’s always something to do!

Yup, we hauled. Didn't plan to but there was a "bloom" of barnacles that we needed to take care of.

Yipes. Just six months ago we were clean. Good thing we hauled. It took four hours to scrap these off.

We've had a great weather window to varnish and this is me putting on the last coat on the "new" wood. Now it's protected and when the rain that's predicted for the next few days is over, I'll put two coats on last year's varnish and we'll be done.

We've got the scaffolding going for Ann to polish the hull. Not fun, but beats doing it from the dinghy!

Hopefully we’ll get the bottom paint started on Monday.  We’re having Pacific Gloss do it.  They know what they are doing and I don’t.  Pretty simple, huh?

Up On The Hard (by Ann)

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We hauled out today. We originally thought we could skip it this year but as I was hanging off the dock and out of the dinghy polishing the hull I noticed some “growth” underwater. More investigation lead to a bottom covered in barnacles. How could that be? When we were in the Bay of Islands in November the bottom was pretty clean.
Once Charisma was up out of the water hanging from the sling we could see that hauling out was a good call. The yard spent over four hours power washing and scraping the barnacles off. We look much better now but will have another coat of paint put on while we are out.
The good thing about being out of the water is that the varnishing and polishing of the hull will be much easier jobs.
The “hard” thing about being out if the water is the bathrooms are down the 12 foot ladder and around the corner. Good exercise, right?

A bottom covered in barnacles was not what we expected!

Prep Done, Time to Varnish

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Well, Cetol, but same thing.  After over a week of prep – strip, sand with 80 grit, sand some more with 120 grit, remove old caulk, chemically bleach the teak, tape, caulk, untape, sand some more with 180 grit and then a final sanding with 220 grit.  Now Ann is taping (yet again) the edges of the wood so I can start varnishing.  Four coats at 24 hour intervals for the stripped wood and two coats for the rest of the boat.  The end is near, at least for this project.  Then we can start all the other ones.

I love this part when it all comes together for that beautiful varnished teak color.

Orcinius Is Back!

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Our friends John and Lisa are back after over a year “on the hard”.  Orcinius has had an extensive refit and is raring to go.  They proudly came through the bridge (that wasn’t even here last time they came up river to go into the boatyard) this afternoon and docked just down from Charisma in Riverside Marina.  Guys, we’re glad to have you back!

The new drawbridge waiting for Orcinius' return.

Comin' through the bridge.

 

 

Orcinius looking better than ever.

Happy to be back!

Happy Birthday To Me

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OK, it’s my birthday today (April 3rd).

Ann put on a great party.  We had a bunch of cruising friends up at the BBQ for a pot luck birthday.  What a great time!  Such wonderful friends and I got to hear “Happy Birthday” or some such, sung in English, German and Swedish (OK, I sung the Swedish version since Ann made me do it).

Can you get a better view for a birthday event?

Some of the gang at the party...

What a great day.  Thanks to Ann for putting it all together…

Boat Work, Ad Infinititum

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…and on, and on…

OK, so for the last couple days we’ve been doing some of the less glamorous jobs.  Like caulking the seams on the teak.  Not very exciting, not much fun.  In fact, it’s back breaking work, but has to be done before you can varnish.

So…a quick look and hopefully we’ll have something more interesting to show in the future (like finishing installing the windlass…??)

First you have to tape the seams, then inject the caulk into the gaps...

...then you smooth the caulk with a putty knife. Easier than it sounds. Lastly you pull the tape as you work, before the whole mess dries...

There you have it.  Caulking 101.  Now all we have to do is let it dry a couple days, sand it a couple times with progressively lighter paper and put four coats of cetol on it (with 24 hours between coats).

Oh and today I put the last of the four injectors back in the engine.  The local mechanic pulled all four injectors and had them serviced.  I just wanted to make sure all was well.  Apparently the guys in Fiji who cleaned them did a pretty good job,  but one was not “seated” properly.  It was leaking and had to be re-machined a bit, but it’s all done now and all is well.   We even timed the injector pump.  When I did it in Fiji (not having a clue how to really do it) I came very close, but it was a tad off.  We adjusted it further here and now Charisma’s engine is purring like a little kitten.  Nice to know all is well in the engine department.  I’ll do an oil and filter change before we leave for Fiji again in a month or so.

OK, that’s it for today…