HAPPY 2016

Wishing Everyone a very Happy and Healthy 2016.... 

Winter life in Portland, Oregon.... offers much more "weather" than we are accustomed to in Las Vegas, Nevada. In spite of the freezing wind, persistent soggy rain, the white fluffy stuff (called snow), frozen docks and spiggots.... a good time was had by all.  John, who is typically not interested in making tourista stops during a road trip, made an exception on our drive back from Moses Lake Washington.  The stop was the Maryhill Winery. He was very patient while I admired the Winery, gift shop, and chatted with the staff.

Our heater had went out just before Christmas, so we dealt with it by using with our small space heaters (x3). We pretty much stayed bundled up, ate hot food, baked a lot and slept under multiple pounds of blankets. 

After enjoying the Christmas holiday with family in Washington, we put the word out that we needed to find someone qualified in serving a hydronic heating system, ours is a Hurricane. We got a name and phone number from another resident (also named Mike) at the marina. Jim Palmer gave us a call right back. He has a shop right here on Hayden Island (Columbia River) and arrived with his tools one hour later! He had the problem diagnosed AND the parts on hand. After replacing the brushes and circulating pump the system had no problem heating the living spaces efficiently. We were very happy with Jimmy's affordable service and will be using him to service the engine room systems, even helping train John for future maintenance.  

During the Cruise RO water maker installation, the heater was repaired, 48 LED bulbs were replaced, cat5 wifi booster installation, teak and head maintenance, etc.... there was still time to celebration New Years with family and friends. Regardless of the ice and snow, we awaited the weather window for reinstalling the winches on the fly bridge, go on a training cruise (for me) and of course pumping out, again. We would be closing up the boat for several weeks while returning to our home in Las Vegas.

Mount Hood in the distance

WATERMAKER INSTALLATION

Arriving back at the boat John's biggest priority was to take delivery of the new "Cruise RO Water Maker" and make the initial installation plans with Mike Dunlap. Mike is our neighbor here in Portland at Salpare Bay Marina, He lives aboard Faith Ryder, his Catalina 39' sailboat. He has an impressive resume with experience in the Navy and is a retired electrician.  I'm sure there are many attributes we haven't learned, but after working for us for over a week we will recommend his services to everyone. After humping all the equipment on board the guys unpacked it, moved it to the engine room and began the arduous task of designing the installation, relocation, etc. involved with making it fit in the engine room and still be able to efficiently maintain the system, as well. Speaking of efficiency, another smart move was to bring the tools to the project... This was accomplished by bringing his boat around and parking it in the empty slip next to us.

Mike's Boat, Faith Ryder

From what I can see there are numerous phases of water maker installation. Every boat is different in so many ways. We are concerned with how ER equipment is located and it takes several minds to put their heads together, coming up with the best, most logical and efficient use of the space, as well as, considering maintenance. Mounting the parts location has to be well thought out. You only want to reroute existing and mount new equipment once.  There are two pumps; one low pressure, one high pressure. There are three pre-filters and two very long membranes, not to mention the control panel and a plumbers nightmare of fittings and lines. 

Mike and John discussing location of parts.

The High Pressure pump draws 13.2 amps and the Low pressure pump will draw 8 amps. With luck we will make 40 gallons of water per hour. Total cost was just under 8K and we hope to have plenty of water for everyday life while cruising.







We were able to fit the entire system in the engine room, this will free up the Lazzerete for all that other stuff.  

Some pictures of the finished watermaker installation. You can see the blue membranes mounted above horizontally. The filters can be easily dropped for maintenance. Mike did a great job configuring the placement of intake and output valves and associated waterlines. The raised electrical box was mounted to the wall. When it was time to finish the installation by providing power, the wiring was run through existing wire chases throughout the boat. Mike and John worked together,  removing closet paneling, dropping ceilings and fishing it all up to the pilot house where the main power panel is located. It was difficult to photograph this portion as the guys were completely focused on the tasks at hand. They did not appreciated the photos opportunities, as I did. I backed off and lent a hand. The intricate shapes of the ceiling panels are definitely easier to drop then reinstall. Emptying the hall closets gave me a chance to better organize the tight quarters and inventory meds and sundries for our cruise.
Mike did a great job labeling everything and provided a binded hard copy manual with all the pertinent information. The installation went very well and was completed during our winter window.     Mike Dunlap has provided various services for others at Salpare Bay Marina, Porland, Oregon. During the water maker installation, we became fast friends and learned of his service with the U.S. Navy and his accomplishments as a sailor and delivery skipper.
We look forward to hanging out with him again and recommend his diverse services to all.

Cruise RO Watermaker

CHRISTMAS VACATION

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  We have been very busy checking things off the lists. Wedding, check. Cleaning the garage, check. Numerous visits to goodwill, check. Packing up the house, check. Organizing at home, check. Packing the truck check... all so we can get back to the boat. There has been a gaggle of doctor's appointments, planning, shopping, etc.  It's Christmas time, the grandkids presents are delivered and it was time to hit the road. There were weather warnings so we decided to spend the night in Winnemucca, Nevada. It is not a very exciting drive and John is a man on a mission. He prefers to drive straight though... Ouch! I was the navigator and  DJ, spending the 1000 mile drive preparing Christmas cards and such. Oregon has set a rain record this year for the month of December.

Lots of snow on the route made for very majestic views. We were able to use the Mt. Hood pass without the use of chains and saved some time there. Text messages for Brother Mat kept us informed of weather conditions. He told us "the good news about all the rain is....the the ramp at Salpare Bay Marina is much less steep.  We found that to be no understatement! Nevertheless, we unloaded the truck under very soggy conditions, got all the luggage and supplies on board Friday, December 18th. We would only have four days on board to get organized and start the water maker installation. John wasted no time checking in with the dock master, where water maker equipment was waiting, as well as, Mike the electrician, who was to install it.   John got to work on hanging Christmas lights on the fly bridge and after a trip to the market, I went to work in the galley. Brother Mat and Sista Liz were coming over for chili!  That always makes for a good time.  The freezing wind has been steady and on this particular afternoon the sun was out! Yeah! While the boys were in the cockpit enjoying a "cold one", they spied a sailboat whose bow line had snapped in half. The boys were fast to respond. Mat got onboard, brought her port side over to the dock and secured a new line. The owner was no where to be found. This sailboat had no registration and had not even checked in with the dock master for it's moorage. Very curious! We have been watching this abandoned boat pitch in the wind, rain and snow for days now. Her rigging has come loose and looks like there will be more damage to come.

John & Mat to the rescue

We left for our visit with Dad and Brother Dave, who live in Moses Lake, WA, on Wednesday December 23rd. And we thought Portland was cold. The guys welcomed us with open arms as usual! 

ALL WE HAD TO DO...

It all started so simple.... all we need to do is change all the Halogen light bulbs to LED bulbs. Piece of cake........48 bulbs later.......now I need to order another 20 or so and we will have a very energy efficient vessel. So now would be a good time to run the Cat 5 cable for the Wi-Fi antenna.... 

Simple job, no problem, have this done in just an hour or so...  Damn, forgot the 5 factor. (For you landlubbers, it takes 5 times as long to do anything on a boat, as it would take on your house) All we gotta do is feed the cable down from the mast on the flybridge, into the salon across the galley (under the ceilining) up towards the Pilot house, through the existing wire chase, then just feed it to the fly bridge access. 

Ya right!  Three friggin' days later and way too many cocktails, on my part, we have made it to the pilot house. Now all we have to do is feed the rest of the line down the utility tube and job almost done. Time to put the Admiral to work.... She has done very well holding the flashlight, handing me the drill, cleaning up, as well as giving me her two cents worth of technical support.

Who would of thought she actually can chase a wire with the fish tape and zip tie with the best of them... well almost as well as me..... Im just saying... (a Traceyism)  So I'm thinking, since she did this so well, maybe I could show her how to clean the bilge as well...... Hmmmmm, while I'm at it, how about cleaning the black water sensors.......Ya right!

Oh, by the way, did I forget to tell ya, I had to cut the end of the 50' factory cable in order to feed it thru those little access holes..... Now we have to learn a new trade, telecommunication specialist. Thank god for "Water Maker Mike", he is our neighbor and has damn near every special tool you can think of! Ok, when we get our own tools, we'll be ready to start charging $90 an hour to help the newbees out, yep were gonna be rich.

So now that we have the new WI-Fi POE and router installed in the pilot house and it even looks like a pretty damn near professional installation.  Did I mention that it even works? 

We have much faster WI-FI now on Das Boat!

Tracey let me post this one, give her a day or so and she will post a Christmas Vacation entry.  ......Bah Humbug!  However, she will say, I am the one responsible for the absence of the good pictures with the ceiling down because I had her too busy for the photo opps.

Coming soon.... 

Look forward to the heater repair and water maker installation....

FAMILY TIES

Our family got together Sunday, November 22nd to witness and celebrate John and I actually getting married.  Even though we have lived together for over ten years, bought a home, numerous toys, and considered ourselves parents and grandparents of all the children, it was time to tie the knot prior to the next BIG adventure. We enjoyed a simple ceremony with the Justice of the Peace, stopped off at the "Las Vegas Welcome Sign" for  pictures and a finale of an Italian dinner party at a local restaurant. Truly a great day!

Gavin (14), Shay, John Jr, Kally (16), John, Taytem (7), Tracey, Kris, Makenzi (12), Michelle, Seth

TEAM WORK

Last month (October), our time on Pairadice was very productive! John and I drove up together on September 30, with another full truck load of supplies and a kayak strapped to the roof of the truck. After a 17 hour drive, It's always very rewarding to arrive at the boat and find everything in order.

Summer was over and it was time to get to work.  Our lists had lists! My Oct 1st window was only for 3.5 days. We spent the weekend unloading the truck, stocking fridge and pantry. My head was filled with locating and cleaning all the storage spaces. We found the previous owner had left Halloween party decor and favors. We took the evening off to decorate and bond with our neighbors who did the same. It was a lot of fun and row G at Salpare Bay Marina looked great!

John would be on board appx 5 weeks. I flew home Sunday for work obligations. The contrasts between being together on the boat and home alone after work, in a big house,  are huge. All the while looking forward to flying in and out for a 10 day stay later.

When I returned Oct 16th, he had completed all the canvas work. What a major accomplishment! Then there was the dock and fender lines. He cleaned and treated the old  ones, even rewhipped the ends. Re-installed and/or replaced with new dock lines and fenders where needed. He took advantage of rain days by working on removing the old A/V system and installing a new home theater system. Another laborious task with many rewards! We now have appx 22 channels without a cable bill and can easily watch our movies and rock concerts, or listen to cd's, Itunes and sirus radio.

My first priority was to get the drapes cleaned! It was obvious they had never been done. That required removing 16 panels, tiebacks, all the hooks and keeping it organized...room by room, so as to ease the re-install.  The dry cleaners wasn't even sure what to charge us. We left a deposit and the cute clerk hated asking for the balance. Another project came out great!

We shopped for supplies. John fixed the search light and replaced all fire extinguisers, with the exception of the Halon Fire Suppression System in the engine room. That is still on the list and will be forthcoming.

That day we started the engine room inventory. We both climbed in and got comfy. I was taking pictures of all the different systems and asking lots of questions.  John has really done his homework!!! I feel confident that we have all the bases covered. The boat had many spare engine parts like belts and filters, but we ordered more. By taking pictures we had all  the reference numbers very handy. We continued by going through the lazarette, pilot house and flying bridge where we identified a leak in the hydraulic steering system. The necessary tools to complete that repair are in Las Vegas, but we have a new switch for the horn!

I completed my time onboard by hanging drapes, cleaning heads (again), reorganizing galley, first aid emergency kits, bunk room storage and the like. We had a neighbor friend over for dinner, trading his IT skills (hooking up new WiFi antenna) for some canvas work.  I think they enjoyed the bourbon more than the task. I was leaving Sunday afternoon and John assured me he would not be on the ladder mounting brackets on the mast by himself. While doing that he would remove the winches and bring them home for rebuilding.

before and after

He worked long and hard on those winches. Testing them with power proved they  came out perfect. The dyneema synthetic winch cable order arrived, as well as, all kinds of other critical supplies. The boxes are piling up in the garage again, getting ready to head north in December. Looks like Santa will be delivering foulies and rain boots this year :-)