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February
2009, Palatka, Fl still
Slowly but
surely we are making progress on the boat. Yay! Why did we sign up
for this again? Oh yea, living the dream. Hopefully we can start
to realize part two of this dream in a couple of months. (Part
one
being our time spent on Colomba). All 10 of the port lights in the
salon are in. The fridge and freezer are being mounted
properly for the galley and glassed in. A counter has been
made for the galley and an insert for the stove/hob area to just be
cut again when the oven and hob arrive. The salon, galley and
hallway areas have been sanded for gel coating or buffing whatever
will be easiest. The 3 heads are currently being sanded for
gel coating. 2 of the heads are having the flooring
reinforced. Lots of minor repairs all around the boat
involving grinding, glassing, filling, sanding, gel coating, buffing etc.
There are still several counters to be repaired and Corian
(spelling) tops to be mounted. We also have many a cupboard
door to replace as well as the bulkheads, door trims etc. The
swim steps (the steps in the back of the boat leading to the water)
are somewhat of a mystery still. The should be symmetrical but
they are anything but. We continue to sand and shape and hope
for the best. We hope to gel coat the exterior in about 2
weeks time so, middle of March ish.
Our wood for
the bulk heads and interior arrived this month. After searching out
the best deals for the wood we need, we took off with "Mini", our
trailer that has a mind of her own on the interstate, and drove to
Clearwater, FL to get it, which turned out to be a disaster because
the shop owner (or shed owner in this case) down there didn't have the right stuff. He did,
however, put
us in contact with his supplier and we were able to order
the woods we need directly. We took a trip over to West Marine
Clearance Center in Clearwater which turned out to be a bit disappointing.
Could have something to do with the fact that the last time we were
there, 5 yrs ago now, we had jobs and everything seemed like a good
deal! Seriously, we have found better deals over time at the
many independent discounted marine shops dotted around Florida.
A friend of a
friend who is a shipwright is going to be helping Justin with some
of the woodwork and of course, me too! Just as soon as I get
finished with Cool Blue. The weather is back in the 70s & 80s so my
cold weather sabbatical for a couple of weeks is over. Actually
after 2 days hard graft, I am within a day or two of applying primer.
But I have to do laundry this week so maybe 3 days. In an effort to
get to my dingy work before 2pm I have been schooling the squids at
the storage shed/workshop. They love it and so do I because we are
done by 10.30 and we are all up at the yard so I can get straight to
work. I did get a comment from Tom, the dock master, who said,
"Only in Palatka will you see school being taught on a can of
acetone, a bucket of resin, a tub of degreaser and a cement
brick!" I suppose we did look a bit unconventional.
As a side
note, we were looking at the West Marine Clearance Center with a
hope in finding an oven for Yebo. Yea, we found one alright but you
couldn't have baked a loaf of bread in it. The new boat ovens have
gas top and bottom for better heat consistency I presume which is
nice but, when the oven is only about 12 inches tall and you have a
center rack that leaves you 4+/- inches above the rack and 8+/- below
because of a heat plate that you can't remove or cook on top of it
makes for a teeny, tiny cooking area. The whole oven is about 12
inches wide. Now we thought about how one would bake bread in
that oven or a cake or cook a roast?? We left their $873.00 oven -
yes, can you believe how much teeny weenie marine ovens cost! The whole oven was no larger or smaller than our one on
Colomba but the one one Colomba only had gas at the bottom and you
could move your center rack higher or lower. We found one in the end
directly from Smev (spelling) who are currently getting rid of a lot
of stock because Dometic has bought them out. Apparently
Dometic won't be producing the Smev ovens for a year or more.
We got really lucky and bought an oven with separate hob on
clearance which was designed for an RV but in fact is the same model as for
the marine industry. The best part is the discount.
We got them for half the price of what we should have. Yay!
Always nice to find a bargain. And the new oven is rated #1 in
Europe for using the least amount of propane for cooking,
largest amount of cooking area as well as having the least amount of
emissions.
I managed to
drag Justin to a Medieval Fair. It was in Gainesville. We
drove for an hour to get there and the kids got all dressed up. We
were the first ones there so we thought, cool great parking! But
then as the clocked ticked and no more cars arrived we started to
wonder if perhaps I'd mixed up my days. Well, turns out we were a
week early! Ooops. As we started back home, on our hour long
journey, Justin asks, "Did you have fun kids?' Grumble, grumble in
the back seat. We went back the next week and had a nice time
except Aaron who was having a pre-sick day and was a bit miserable
and we didn't know why until the next day. Abigail rode an
elephant which was really cool - I hope she will write about it on
her page or at least add the picture.
I took the
kids on a field trip to the Fountain of Youth in St Augustine with
the homeschool group this month. I had a drink of water from the
spring water to no avail. Abi refused the water because she was about to have a
birthday and didn't want to get any younger. We visited the
planetarium which was powered by a Singer Sewing Machine motors and
for lights they use old Chevrolet headlights! Apparently they are
upgrading soon and will get the nice computerized ones that you see
at every planetarium and I think that is sad because I learned more
in this planetarium than any of the others I've been too. I believe
this was mainly because the system was too slow for the host to zip
around with his pointer and change the sky and constellations
rapidly like all the other ones do. We also were given a history
lesson which featured a two story illuminated globe! Really cool.
We had a picnic with peacocks and
squirrels, despite the cold day and fed an ostrich. The kids
and I got to see a lot of artifacts from the
Indian burial mound that was discovered on the property. The
guides taught us that Christopher Columbus didn't discover America and it
was not discovered in 1492. In fact Chris never set foot on
American soil! Honestly, why did I bother going to school?
What I did retain has turned out to be a lie! Anyway, the fact is, Juan Ponce de
Leon was the first European to come to America and that was in the
year 1513. He arrived just after a storm somewhere near St
Augustine's Fountain of Youth. Yay Ponce! The kids are pictured
with Ponce and also with a 7ft tall Timucua Indian chief.
Incidentally, the Timucua tribe did scalp their enemies. Not a lot
of Native American tribes scalped but this one did.
Railing across bow repaired.
Diesel tank -now repaired & back
in the boat
Nidacore shelving up
Very nearly finished with the
starboard side. Just a bit more sanding and need to get the
portholes in, then gel coat all the exterior
Other news, Winn Dixie,
the grocery store, has stopped offering free cookies to the kids! I
guess these are hard times indeed. I have no idea how I will
motivate the kids to behave while I shop now! I got 20 loads of
laundry done this week - I guess I also took a little sabbatical
from laundry as well - he he!
BTW, These
latest posts are usually frantically written with a LOT of
interruptions from the kids or the dog or dinner or something so I
hope they don't read as complete crap.
Till next
month.....
Cat |
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