WORK HARD / PLAY HARD

John and I have always enjoyed a "work hard / play hard" mentality. We may be busy making the new vessel our own, however, we spend plenty of time enjoying ourselves as well. While in Portland during our last trip in August, we entertained family from Washington again. We always love having them along. We enjoyed several day cruises on the Columbia River, as well as family meals,  fun and games.

We spent the night docked at Government Island, what the locals call the "west dock".

John wanted to test the DC power and the rest of the systems without all the hookups. Sister-in Law, Liz (who lives in Vancover, WA) joined us for the trial run. During that time, Liz and I, explored the island, picked blackberries and spied on curious rabbits.

John enjoying a well deserved moment cooling his feet.

When I jumped in the river for a swim and lounge in the sun on an air mattress, I learned a valuable lesson about the river current. I was swiftly swept away and found it difficult to get back to the swim deck.    Even though John put a line out.... it wasn't quite long enough! I had to decide to swim for the mattress, the line or the boat? I managed all three, but it was tough. Definitely NOT a lake!

We spend a lazy afternoon, telling stories, enjoying a fine meal and a fabulous sunset. Liz and I crashed early. However, John woke us early... the generator was tripping the circuit breaker. He was in a hurry to get back and trouble shoot the problem. We poured coffee and got things ship shape, only to learn the freezer was no longer working. We got back, repacked the yeti with food instead of drink. Grilled lunch, made the most of it.

Enough playing around for today. We had to do the research and make a decision regarding replacing the refrigerator. The logical decision was... stay with the Norcold, most economical, in stock at West Marine and the holes matched up in the existing cabinet. It fit in our truck and the store let us borrow their dolly. I was dreading the extraction and installation of said equipment.  It's very different than just replacing fans.
What ever happened to home delivery?

Fortunately our new friend and neighbor, Mike, is always their to lend a hand. The fridge wouldn't fit in the galley walkway, so the guys had to lift it out over the counters. Next up, new equipment in. I was sure to cover handrails and exposed teak with blue painters tape. Learned that one the hard way. Hooked it up and runs great! Door panels didn't fit, so we will order those when we get home, next week... 

Thanks so much Mike, for all your help!

Yikes, this August trip is almost over :-(  The next day, while John was busy scraping the old fridge at a metal recycling outfit and finishing canvas.... I assembled our "bail out bags". Last year for Xmas, my boss, Danny, gave us an "emergency essential" kit for two. He included a bunch of extra stuff like solar flashlights, water filters, headlamps, etc.  I laid it out in the salon and packed both bags. This is all part of the main goal...
Heading to the Pacific Ocean 2016... 

We had a few more days to enjoy Hayden Island and the Columbia River. Growing tired of the Las Vegas summers, we planned another pleasure cruise.  This particular day, we passed a jetski with a couple on board, just floating on the river. Something didn't look right, we agreed to turn around and make sure they were OK. As expected, they were stranded. We invited them onboard and  placed their jetski in tow. While bonding with our new fast friends, we realized their toy was no longer in tow. The owner's knot had failed! We had no idea when it happened or how far we had traveled since losing the ski. John immediately got on the VHF radio. We received a response within minutes. This guy had found it, abandoned and had it in tow. As luck would have it,  he was taking it to the neighboring marina right around the corner from our marina. The guys checked the fuel and plugs. Nothing! So we secured the craft next to our slip and gave them a ride to a motel. The thing was we are moored at Salpare Bay Marina on Hayden Island. There are no launch ramps on Hayden Island.  Their vehicle was somewhere on the Washington side. The following day, we had to visit the canvas shop in Portland.  Upon returning, we found the jetski was gone and our new friends had left us a bounty of prepared food and John a case of beer. Another rewarding learning experience!

Columbia River Regatta

Before heading back to LV, there was time to sit on the dock and check out the twilight  regatta on the river. This is the view from Pairadice. Our new fridge was working great and another new friend and neighbor gave us a giant slab of fresh tuna. (So sorry I didn't get a pic of that). We couldn't resist having brother Mat, Liz and neice, Audri, over for dinner on our last night. Of course we grilled it... the fresh tuna was amazing. Thank you, thank you.... Paul! 

Down side was, it takes quite a bit of effort to ready the boat and head to the landlocked life. Saturday, we pump out, stowed the dingy...(lesson, don't wait to the travel day) clean and stow everything. Packed and loaded the truck.  It was 2 pm when we began our drive home. I insisted on a way point for rest. That was Susanville, CA, at 11:30pm. Nothing photogenic there. The drive from Portland to LV leaves a lot to be desired. I resorted to working on the laptop, creating outlines, lists, etc. The positive side of the driving home is...we have so much time to plan!   And the plan is, back to the boat in October. We are focused on getting her ready for the Pacific next spring! John, having been retired for over 6 months now, is ready to live aboard. I have committed to working thru 2015, last day being Wednesday, December 16th!!

NEW CANVAS

Hello Friends,

Yes, I am tardy with the "blog" update, Oh well... John arrived at the boat appx 3 weeks prior to me and wasted no time getting the new canvas going. I'm inserting a post John wrote for trawler forum. The verdict was to buy the equipment, materials and have John's brother Mat's help. I had no idea what to expect when he bought a sewing machine. But upon arriving at the marina, I was blown away by the beginning result !!!

New Canvas

Spent over a month on the boat and did a little canvas upgrade. I had a few local canvas shops quote out the job and was not surprised as the prices, 11K to 14 K. the big problem was when they could get to it. Late November and December or later.

So, I decided to do the job myself. I had done canvas work up on Whidbey Island many years ago while in the Navy. It was a great experiance and like riding a bike, you kind of get back into it fairly quickly. I bought a new Sailrite LZ1 from Sailrite and a few attachments, had it shipped to my home here in Las Vegas. Contacted Vaughn Brothers, in Portland to negotiate pricing and headed North to start work on the canvas along with other projects.

Can you see John utilizing Mat's experience?

I made arrangements with the Harbor Master at our marina to use the community patio that is on the docks. Not the best facility to do a major sewing project but a heck of alot better than working in the sun all day, plus they had several large patio tables to make a usable space to work with. The old canvas was tan in color and over 10 years old. It had many repairs over the years. It was also dried up, moldy and pretty worn out.

                                                                                                              I wanted to make some design changes, but had alot of canvas work to do. Picked up the material from my vendor and started the work. 55 yards of Capt Blue Sumbrella, 15 yards of reinforcement material, Snap setter tool, thread and  much more. With the bimini finished, here you can see the difference between the new and old. Big improvement, and all the neighbors thought so too!

Next was the cockpit panel and seat covers. I wanted to finish off the FlyBridge area and the next job was the Dingy Cover.
The previous cover was not very well designed and it needed some improvements. Because the dingy has a stainless arch over the motor I wanted to have a better fitting cover. Also the previous owner liked to attach the winch line to the dingy. This required a long zipper and a hole for the line to enter the cover. The thing leaked pretty bad so I decided to bypass that. Here is how it turned out. This cover took us 3 days and alot of cold refreshing adult beverages.

So now I had to decide. Work on all the small covers or tackle the aft enclosure. I knew I had another couple of weeks to work on this project, by my other projects were not getting done. So I took a few days to work on those, before tackling the aft enclosure. I had some help from my brother who lives just over the bridge in Vancouver. He still works, where as Im retired, so any day that he has off which is only on Mondays he comes down to the boat and drinks my beer. Was he in for a surprise this trip. I put him to work, and we got a pretty good chunk of the layout done. Several beers and a few days later and it was done.

And the finished Aft Enclosure. Also got most of the Cap rails covers done. Back up next month to finish the one remaining cap rail cover, hatch covers, winch covers and Port and Starboard sign covers. Might even have enough material left to make a couple nice bags to put all the covers in for storing.