Finally aboard (sort of)......................from K

I'm finally onboard - literally! While P had his fun renovating Senara, I kept my distance. So today was my first sojourn aboard and I hadn't realized how much I missed her. Even though Diesel Dawg is still working his magic and the salon is strewn with tools and rags, Senara's familiar buoyant roll feels like a comfortable ol' rocking chair, ready to both lull me to sleep and quicken the blood for adventure. She smells of fresh teak and clean diesel, and I can't wait to hang clean porthole curtains and stock the cabinets with beach towels and thick novels. Although I thought I had stripped her clean before the work began, I was surprised at the valuable trinkets I'd left behind - a lucky beaded necklace we found at the horseshoe pits at Warwick Yacht Club last fall, my favorite rosary tucked in my v-berth drawer, and perhaps most useful, P's wristwatch with the broken strap with the numbers that glow in the dark. We're still not sure why we need to know the time in the dark of night, but somehow it's comforting to connect with the rest of the world, at least through arbitrary numbers.
As I begin stocking the boat for our long adventure, I have to weigh the significance of each item. The rosary and watch will stay, but I'm afraid the beads have run out of luck...P better maintain his usefulness!!

floating ........................from P

When the travel-lift straps dropped down out of sight into the murky water and I felt her bob up and down freely, I could not restrain throwing a fist in the air and letting out a whoop! Finally - I can bring her home. But first, we had to see if the new diesel would start. Hold the pre-heat button, count to ten..... yes! she fired right up. I had a great single handed motor trip for the 16 or so nautical miles through the harbor, between the bridge-tunnel islands and into the creek. On the way I set the auto pilot and started thinking back over the last few months. So many decisions - so much money. But I also kept seeing mental pictures of the people I met in the yard and thinking how we had come to know each other so quickly. Apparently common suffering and poverty breed friendships. Who knew? There were at least eight skippers I had not seen in a while from my old boat club who got lifted out, took care of business, and splashed in a few days. There were a few good friends and sailing buddies usually around, one of which still has his boat in for repairs and may be there a few more weeks yet. We often spent Friday afternoons standing around the back of a pickup drinking cold ones and swapping stories. There were a couple of seemingly semi-permanent residents of the boatyard including the Frenchman working on his huge steel hulled ketch with rusted-through everythings. He has now hired my friend Fred (see OK Marine Services in my second entry way down below) to re-weld flat iron around the rails and weld panel patches in the hull. He helped me launch Senara too. That's what happens; everyone talks to each other and all of the sudden we are helping out on each other's boat. Or we just hire each others' help. There were a few good guys working for the yard who seemed to take an interest in the customers. I even reconnected with my ex brother-in-law who was doing some intricate carpentry work on another boat in the yard. It was great to see him again. I got used to looking around for the white and gray cat who lives aboard one of the permanently ensconced, possibly abandoned, boats in the back. This cat's ingress and egress required climbing up a ten foot extension ladder propped against the boat, and back down the ladder head first. Quite a sight among many interesting sights. No, I don't want to take Senara back to the yard. I want to go sailing. But I might drive over there next Friday afternoon - you know, just to say "hi."

A BIG day ........................ from P

Yesterday was a culmination of multiple plans that had been laid for months. The new Westerbeke 44-b diesel powerplant was installed, the "I can't tell you where I got it from" commercial ship grade bottom paint was rolled on - 3 good coats, two layers of epoxy was laid on the bottom of the rudder, and a number of deck fittings were tightened up and re-sealed. It is a strange process. Weeks go by with nothing happening, then we have one or two days of frantic progress. And so it goes. I worked so hard yesterday squatting and rolling paint, shimmying under the rudder and dripping epoxy down my arm, helping guide the engine into the compartment, then pushing and pulling it around; today my ear is still ringing (that one is a mystery), my shoulders have spasmed into knots, and my butt hurts. But I couldn't be happier with the results. Thank you Diesel Dawg, George and Chris! I cannot wait to splash. Maybe two more weeks?
The new engine bed at left - Scott the "Diesel Dawg" worked hard to ensure this was perfect.


...............................birth of a new engine

on the way!

dropped in - and onto the slide ramp that Scott built just for this. Just a couple of pushes to set her onto that bed.

just like butta!

do the Diesel Dawg strut - you deserve it!

Chris helped me paint all day, did fabulous work, and made it look easy

reactions . . . . . . from P

"You are going to do that for a whole year?" or "It must be nice to be in a position to just lay around on a boat for a year!" or, of course, "Is everything OK?" and "Have you thought about your health insurance plan?" I really did not know how people would react when we told them our plans. Overall I have been pleasantly surprised by the supportive words from everyone, mostly genuine I think. Friends, family and co-workers have graciously expressed happiness for us along with some appropriate, if not obvious concerns. We are just so relieved to finally be able to talk about this. Really, our plans are not overly ambitious. Josh Slocum sailed around the world at the end of the 19th century in Spray, a rickety re-built 36 foot wooden boat. Not much later, Thor Heyerdahl drifted across the Pacific on a bunch of balsa reeds wrapped together, for crying out loud. By the way, Kon Tiki is still one of my all time favorite books - it is one of those that I think everyone should read. No, our plans are simply to take a year off and sail up and down the east coast. Unlike Josh or Thor, we will have an engine. And a GPS. And a bunch of other stuff. We will leave the port of Hampton Roads in July, sail up the Chesapeake Bay, through the C&D canal, up and around to NY harbor, possibly up into New England. We will be in familiar waters until we get to the northern areas of the Chesapeake. In the fall we will make our way back south and stop at home to survey the damage to the house. We plan to set sail again in November, head south down the ditch (behind Cape Hatteras of course), pop outside for a while, bounce down the coast, and spend Christmas in Florida. Depending on how things are going I want to set eastward across the Gulf Stream and spend January exploring the Bahamian islands. We may take our time and stay put for a while somewhere if we like. Wow! - relative to how we normally live our life, this is a huge adventure for us. Really the adventure of our lifetime. It is no wonder we get a wide range of reactions - from incredulous to envious. Each time I imagine the trip I feel a little different reaction inside myself. Mostly I am just itching to get under way, but there is so much left to do.....

boat projects are underway...... from P

Senara has been "on the hard" since late January. It has been unusually blustery - grit from a nearby construction site combined with particles of sanded bottom paint has been blowing and cutting its way into every crevice in the boat. When you slide open the hatch it screams with grit grinding in the tracks. I keep wondering if she will ever be the same after putting up with the indignities of sitting on blocks for months getting crapped on by pigeons .. and all that dirt!

P on the sander.....

The progress so far: Her bottom has been sanded, 22 blisters have been ground out of the hull and re-filled with west-system epoxy, her engine has been pulled out (we are replacing it with a new one!), shaft has been pulled and the hull has been polished.

This is the hole where the engine used to be. I am a little worried.

Then there was the real time consuming project - I pulled off the stainless steel rub-rails and added a 1 inch milled rub rail all the way around. This new rub rail is made of ipe' (eepay), an extremely hard imported wood. Capt. Fred was in charge of this project. This stuff is like iron; much harder than teak. We seated the stainless rail back on the ipe' to form a good hard rub rail that sits out away from the hull about 1.25 inches. Maybe now I won't ding up the hull so badly when I "utilize the pilings" when backing into a tight slip. While the old rail was off, we ground out the old hull-to-deck joint and refilled it with epoxy. We have made progress, but I still feel like we are in the egg breaking stage. Looking forward to the omelette.... will we ever be finished?

Capt. Fred, master of epoxy!

Fred's new business is OK Marine Services

Suffolk, VA. Reach him at 757-749-5905.

I highly recommend him.

Still to go - Paint the bottom, install new engine, re-install shaft, build cabinets, refinish inside teak, rebuild the lazy jacks, design and assemble an emergency tiller system, design and build a dinghy motor mount in the locker, and then figure out how to best utilize all the nooks and crannies for storage for a year-long cruise. This is big fun.

An April Fool? from P

It is official. I gave my notice at work today! Wow, that's a relief. I have been thinking, dreaming, worrying about how this would go since last summer. My meeting with my area manager went very well. The best part was when he said "So you are going to take a year off and go sailing? For you that makes perfect sense. That fits you." The hard part is going to be telling my team tomorrow. But the great part is that the journey begins for real - now.