It has been a few weeks since I posted, seems that I've been too tired at night to do anything but gaze idiotically at the computer when the day's work is done...
We spent about a week at the house in Georgetown. The apartment has been painted an inoffensive shade of "oops" paint and I hope to be able to pick out green trim (Mom's choice). We hosted the Burns Supper for the 3rd year in a row, and I thought it was the best yet, due to the interesting and fun people who were there. We really will miss you guys. Won't miss anything else about Texas though. I'll be quite happy to spend a few months without ever getting on a highway, or huddling inside the house with the air conditioning cranked up.
So . . . we're back in Palacios and once again painting like a couple of Van Goghs. Still have our ears though. Here is a list of things we've finished, with picures where I have them:
Primered the "locker of death" and other nasty places that haven't seen the light of day in years. Even cleaned the aft "no mans land" locker.
Painted the v-berth, head, and main cabin with a beautiful and highly expensive paint. I try not to think of its price every time I finish another quart. ((Still to do: paint the galley, quarterberth, lazarette, and aft locker)
Plumbed the propane for the heater and cut a hole in the deck for the exhaust vent. Temporarily set up the heater and it works. We debated whether it would be cold enough for this item, but decided it was important to be able to dry out the cabin when necessary. Damp bedding is a killer to our morale, as I found out when we lived in the pop-up trailer last year.
Created bulkheads for the galley and quarter berth. Created new panels for the instrument panel and the space below the stove that will house a new propane leak detector.
Reworked the engine exhaust (formerly in four sections, which Tom deemed a risk of leaking toxic fumes) with a single, expensive, but much safer single section.
Installed a pressure water pump and a new automatic bilge pump. Replaced some yucky looking water hose with clean new sections.
Built a cabinet in the head which will house more clothing (our previous clothes storage was limited to a hanging locker and three shelves, not quite enough for five people).
Replumbed the head so that most of the pipes will be hidden behind aforementioned cabinet. Tiled the sole in the head. Cleaned the head itself, after first dunking in the marina to remind it what will happen if it ever fails us.
Still to do: check the sails for wear and re-sew where necessary. Our jib ripped across the middle, but amazingly, Tom found another jib in the bag with the storm sail. So we don't have to spend $450 for another (not even new) one.
Also still to do: we decided, while running the gauntlet at the new IKEA store, to lay bamboo on the cabin sole. Before we always just got a section of cheap indoor/outdoor carpet from the hardware store, but with all of us eating and cooking in this little space, a hard floor will be a lot easier to clean. And I lived in a place with a carpet kitchen last fall, so I can testify to how awful it is to keep clean.
We need a bit more lighting in the cabin but maybe we can work on that as we go. I would love to have tiny LEDs by everyone's bed and we saw a kit at IKEA that would be very easy for Tom to install and modify so each one can be turned on individually. They won't need to be replaced as often as regular bulbs and are already wired for 12V, at a much lower price than the stuff designed for boats.
We need a medicine cabinet -- the boat came with a nice waterproof first aid kit, which is too small to hold all the stuff we use day-to-day. It needs to be big enough to hold a bottle of rubbing alcohol and deep enough to hold a bottle of Nyquil. I prefer two sections, one with medicine that is lockable, and the other easily accessible for bandaids, cotton swabs, etc. and have a fold-down desk like the old first aid box. Once again, we found one at IKEA (can you tell I don't shop around much) but it was $50 which is a bit pricey for a BOX even if it does have a cute first aid cross frosted into the glass. It will hang over the head which is now free of ugly and unsanitary hoses.
Hang the lifeline netting, fabricate safety harnesses, and install jacklines on deck to attach the harnesses to. Also, once the weather is warm enough for swimming, I intend to put the kids in their life jackets and stage a men-overboard situation so we can make sure the jackets will do the job.
STILL -- need to paint the name and hailing port on the back of the boat and dinghy. This should be the fun part, but I still haven't done it. Will have to buy the little cans of paint in Austin, though, so it will be done on the next trip down here.
Also Tom needs to make a place for the battery bank in the aft locker, and hook up the various pieces of equipment that will give us electricity to charge the computer, GPS, radios, etc.
We're hoping to be finished with the painting in about a week, enough to start provisioning and begin moving our stuff aboard. I'm trying to gauge how much clothing we need between laundry trips, and will be able to see how much space we have once the painting's done. The same goes for kitchen stuff and books. We're also working on keeping the kids' toys very simple, with only stuffed animals, legos, books, etc. so they can keep their things neat without a lot of trouble.
Ack, it's absurdly late and I have painting detail in the morning, so uploading pictures will have to wait. Check this same post in a few days and I hope to have illustrated this entry with lots of boring pictures. Maybe one or two interesting ones too.
Dana
