BOAT PROJECTS

At this point the boat projects seem endless.  My lists have lists! One of the best decisions we made was to work hard on the lists one day and take the boat out, enjoy brunch underway, the next day. This worked out very well.  There were many tasks involved to make  Pairadice our own. 

1st, I cleaned every inch of the two heads. John purchased an electric power washer which was perfect to clean all the canvas covers.  He mixed vinegar and water in a spray bottle and doused while they were dry. We let it soak in for about an hour then began the hosing down process. Our rig looked a bit getto with so much canvas hanging out to dry, but the method worked very well. Give a boy a new power toy and watch the magic happen! Great job John.......

Then there was the evening we hauled out all 300 feet of anchor chain to mark it. John measured out 25' on the dock and I proceeded to unleash the rhode a bit at a time, while he laid it out, got it even and marked the 25 foot lengths with orange rustoleum spray paint. He added white every hundred feet. Once dry I loaded it back into the locker. Can't wait for our first night at anchor.....  Thanks Mr. Handyman!

The reward for a job well done was a marina cruise in the dingy and happy hour at our favorite, Hidden Bay Cafe. We ran into our dock master, Justin, who was having a bite to eat with a friend. We invited them over, they were interested in having a look see at our Pairadice. Everyone at the marina has been so welcoming. John used a heat gun and a bamboo spatula to remove the old name. An imprint was left, so we realized the transom would need to be sanded and buffed. We commissioned our friendly and knowledgable neighbors for that. They had all the tools and materials and more than willing to make it happen. Meanwhile, we ok'd the proofs and ordered the new signs. Turned out "Fast Signs" are not so fast. They were not ready on time and we had to head back to Las Vegas without them. The heat gun boogered up the varnish on the port and starboard signs above the pilot house doors, so John packed them up to take home for refinishing. 

This is what cleaning teak looks like!

Yes, it was time to think about returning to the blast furnace.  Before we would do that, there was one last large chore to accomplish.  John had cleaned and oiled the teak in the master stateroom before I arrived, but the rest of the boat needed to be done. Thursday June 18th was cleaning day... all day! With the help of good ole' Murphy's wood soap and much elbow grease, we worked together covering every inch.  I would clean with the soap and John followed with the oil. 

This is what dinner looks like....

We got it all done, but back together and planned to grill pork chops.

During dinner we got out the charts, planned our cruise for the following day and made dinner reservations for Friday, our last night aboard our new home, until our return late July and most of August.  It sure was hard to leave.

NORCOLD REFRIGERATOR FIX

 After hosting a family weekend aboard Pairadice, Monday morning I found the refrigerator to be failing. Below is a post he put on the Trawler Forum.

As a new owner of 47014, one of my first tasks to make the Admiral happy, was to check into why the refrigerator wasn't getting very cold. Early this month the temp in Portland got pretty high to mid 90's and the refrigerator was struggling to keep up. 

After pulling the unit out of the rather tight cabinet I found the problem. My unit had two electric fans that cycle on when the unit starts up, only mine never shut down. Upon further investigation, I noticed the large fan (there is a small 2.5 inch and a larger 4.1 inch) wasn't turning on. This fan is directly under the condenser tank and is supposed to blow air across the condenser tank. Now this fan looks just like the cooling fan that computers use to cool the cases. So much so that the mounting holes are in the exact location, so off to the local computer store in search of a replacement. I pick up two thinking it would be nice to have a spare. Get back to the boat and start the depacking process only to find that computer fans now a days are four wire with a connector plug and require it to be controlled by the mother board in order to operate.

Starting all over again, I get on the Norcold site and find that the replacement fans are $72.00 each plus shipping but are not in stock. So off to the local chandlery for solutions. At Ocean Marine the owner, Kim (who by the way is great to work with) had about a dozen of these fans hanging on a wall so I pick the best 2 and she even tested them for me to make sure they worked. Now these fans have the required 2 wires I needed and for 10 bucks apiece I figure I got a good deal. Back to the boat, again. 
I install one of the fans and plug in the unit, It works great ! Picture this if you will.......

Mr. Handyman

When the unit is out of the cabinet, it now sits between the cabinet and the galley counter. You have to climb over the counter to get to the other side. By the way our galley is a center galley, passageway down to berths is on the port side, passageway up to pilot house is on the starboard with galley in between. 

So now I'm thinking, if one fan works well, why not add an additional fan to help draw the air out of the rather tight cabinet. After all, the current draw on these fans is so light, it just might reduce cycle runs of the unit. So I install the second fan on the inside of the port vent and wire this in series to the other fan. The reason for wiring in series is, I wanted to know if a future fan failed we would know right away. Test it and it works great! Now I slide the unit back into the cabinet, after I taped up the Teak trim and grab rail with blue painters tape ( trust me, do this before you attempt to remove the unit in the first place, I didn't ) reinstall the new screws to retain the unit in place and make myself a cocktail for a job well done.

Now the admiral is so happy that she decides to make me a very nice dinner. Only she is having a problem getting the gas stove to light now. So now, Mr Handyman has to fix the stove, only to find out that the extra fan is now blowing all that warm air from the cabinet directly onto the stove top and not allowing the burner to light. I don't claim to be an engineer, but am rather handy with tools. 

But by this time Mr Handyman is in no mood to pull the refrigerator back out again, so on to the second cocktail and fire up the BBQ. Dinner was a success, and as I'm making cocktail number 3, I'm getting Ice from the Raritin Ice maker that just so happens to be right behind the refrigerator cabinet, I notice that the Ice maker is generating an awful lot of heat from its little cabinet that is directly under the watch berth in the Pilot House and right behind the refrigerator cabinet. You guessed it, an ah ha moment.

Day 3. I again remove the refrigerator unit from the cabinet, after taping the wood trim again, and after a bit of carpentry work the extra fan is now located inside the Ice maker cabinet drawing air from the refrigerator cabinet and venting out the ice maker cabinet hatch. Reinstall the refrigerator and make myself a job well done cocktail. 
So the end result is, the refrigerator now cycles on and off less often, the ice maker is running so much cooler and making ice faster. 

And now it's on to the next project, don't ya just love boat repairs?

John and Tracey

TAKING POSSESSION

May 2015, John knew he had a buyer for his company. After returning from the PNW trawler buying research event (including Xmas w/family in Washington), he started selling all our toys. The rv, boat, razor and snowmobiles now have new homes. It's all about retiring and cruising on Pairadice.

Having had the dominos play out and it was time to get our documents in a row, Lots of documents! Jeff had us prepare our marine resumes for insurance purposes. He gave us lists of records to duplicate and maintain on the boat...it's too long a list to post today, but little stuff like bill of sale, etc. Not to mention the fountains of knowledge we gained at Trawlerfest. I built binders of all this stuff. The garage was stacked with items from the motorhome and boat that we sold and needed for our new home on the water and John's Denali was loaded to the hilt.  I am committed to work through the end of the year, so I stayed behind. His brother Mat would be there to help in the move of the boat to our marina of choice... 

Thanks to the recommendation from Ron and Nancy Goldberg aboard  the Duet, a 50 ft. Nordhavn, the decision was made for the SalpareBayMarina.com  Hayden Island, OR. We had previously connected with the dock master, Justin and he had a great slip awaiting!  What a gem of a location! You can walk to shopping, lunch, west marine, etc. And there is this really cool cafe... the "Hidden Bay Cafe" right next door. The burgers are grilled outside, by the owners. It's has beautiful gardens, the atmosphere is blissful! (And the owners are two women, who are as awesome as their food!)

So now that we have the boat, its time to make it ours.  John spent the first two weeks on her and started cleaning and making a list of things to do. I arrived on a Friday and so did Dad, brother Mat and Dave, sista Liz. We had a fabulous time having the Washington family aboard for the weekend. My crockpot was very busy. It was fleet week so we set our sites on seeing the Navy ships on the Willamette River, our maiden voyage with the family.

Everyone was very at home on the new vessel!  We had plenty of room and all kinds of fun....

I received and exercised instruction from Caption John. Liz and I chose to hang out on the bow in our "sista" shirts.
It was a great day!

THE DOMINO EFFECT (part two)

After the sea trial, we drove from Portland  to Whidbey Island. When in the PNW we always stay at the Navy Lodge.  You can't beat the rates and I love shopping at the commissary. We arrived very late. We had to be in Anacortes very early...

John was scheduled for the diesel class and I enjoyed the day off, to explore the town. My classes didn't start until Wednesday. I roamed the streets, visiting the museums and sampling clam chowder. It was a wonderful day!             Everything was falling into place so perfectly. John was retired, the boat will become ours before the end of May. We had a great time making the most of the event.

We stayed busy with 5 days of classes;  John would attend one, such as a diesel engine class presented by Nigel Calder, while I attended Emergiencies at Sea. We attended two classes, "Don't be Afraid of the Dark and Pride of Ownership, which were presented by our broker, Jeff Merrill. Friday evening was a "Trawlers at Twilight, Docktail Party" and Saturday night PassageMaker hosted "Dinner and a Movie", at the old movie theater, turned banquet hall. Then the next day more classes... hands on dock handling, where I skipper a 32' tug, docking it , the whole bit. The entire experience was spectacular! We received a lot of valuable information and experience met many great people and tons of fun!   I highly recommend Trawlerfest to anyone living this lifestyle....

Upon arriving home to the concrete and congestion of Las Vegas, we realized how blessed we are to be making the dreams come true. The domino effect is proof!

THE DOMINO EFFECT

Rewind to April 2015. Our broker Jeff Merrill, (www.JMYS.com) built the time line so we would make the offer, if accepted, we would schedule the sea trial, survey and haul out in Portland, just prior to attending Trawlerfest Anacortes. We registered for our classes, made travel arrangements, found the contacts for the survey and boat yard.... got all our duck in a row... and made the offer. It was accepted and we were so excited!

Pam made a sea trail sandwich run. Thanks, Pam

We arrived in Portland early to learn our way around and glance at the boat again. We could not board her until the seller's broker was present. Jeff and his wife Pam (our broker) arrived, we had a great dinner on the river and got to meet the ship that evening prior to the sea trial and survey to checkout the systems and lights. She was more majestic than we had remembered! The owner had moved out and this whole thing felt very real!

With the onset of the survey and sea trial underway,  Jeff gave me a list of mandatory things to find, a scavenger hunt for safety gear, GFI's, HIN# locations, etc. and this waste disposal plackard which eluded me.  I could not resist taking this photo when I reported back, having not found this. It was in a galley drawer. I spent an hour looking for it and presume he knew where it was all along. Love this photo!

With just under 800 hours on the engine, it was hard to believe she was 10 years old. We hired Allison Mazon to do the survey.  Our mechanic was Larry Blass, he joined us to  accomplish the necessary oil samples and engine checks.  We highly recommend both Allison and Larry, they were equally knowledgable and professional. The haulout was scheduled  at Multnomah Boat Yard on the Willamette River, just off the Columbia River.  Pam took the lunch order prior to the sea trial and made sure everyone was satisfied come noon.  Thanks Pam! 

The haul out was a bit nerve racking!  Keeping in mind the boat weighs 55K pounds... it was crazy watching it lift out of the river!  Once up... it traveled to the hard. The equipment carrying it seemed tired! I was biting my nails! It was a very long day for everyone and the sea trial and survey had a positive result... so, off to Anacortes, WA for Trawlerfest!  

DREAMS CAN COME TRUE

My name is Tracey. John and I have always enjoyed a work hard / play hard spirit. Being landlocked in the desert never precluded us from many various and diverse travel and boating experiences. (Perhaps a topics for subsequent blogs.) Having been boat owners all our lives, even before we met, boating was common ground and always a mainstay in our lives.. We were always looking for the next adventure....Over the years we indulged in many different recreational sports and toys. Yet, by fall we were always planning on returning to the Lido Boat Show, Newport Beach, CA to dream of retirement.

Lido Boat Show Newport Beach 2009

It was there we met Jeff Merrill, who was (then) a rep for Nordhvan. He took us under his wing, educated us on all the variety of boats available and their applications. Supplied us will all sorts of informative materials. From this we became fast friends. John got busy doing his homework. Now, having  enjoyed a five year relationship w/ Jeff, JMYS.com he is our broker and go to guy!  Couldn't have done it without you, Jeff... Thank You ! ! ! 

The plan to own an ocean trawler was set in place. The W's came into play. We set a budget, decided on "shopping" the Pacific North West. Jeff hooked us up with ten Selene's and one Seahorse to look at over the December holidays 2014. Away we went!  Portland, then Seattle,  Xmas w/family in Washington, then Anacortes. We created boat reports w/pics at the end of each day. We were sold on joining the Selene owners family. We narrowed 10 down to 4.

Upon returning to work in January, we learned there was a serious offer to purchase John's business. Retirement was looming on the horizon!  Time to make a decision... which 1 of 4?
With plans in place to attend Trawlerfest, Anancortes in May... It seemed logical to make an offer on "the boat" while in PNW. A decision was made.  It was the 2004 Selene 47 hull 14, in Portland. That choice gave us plenty of "wiggle room" to set her up as our own.

MV Pairadice 2015