Pre-Thanksgiving Update

Last Saturday, 11/12, we had our friends Pete and Gina over for the day.  We hadn't seen them for quite a while and it was nice to sit down and catch up with them.  Around noon we decided to take the boat out for a quick cruise across the Bay and back.

After motoring out into Herring Bay we put the sails up and shot out into the Chesapeake.  We had pretty good wind, 20 to 25 knots out of the SW, so we headed kinda SE towards Sharps Island Light at the mouth of the Choptank River.  Pete manned the helm for the better part of the day so I had a chance to play with the sails.  This is really the part I enjoy the most about sailing, trying to get the most out of the boat for the existing conditions.  Way better than any video game.  We really flew across the Bay, averaging 7 to 8 knots, and around 1430 I decided to head back to give us enough time to beat the sunset in case the wind died off.  We came about and sailed close hauled into about 25 to 30 knots winds.  We were heeled over 20 to 22 degrees and just crashing along, really great.  I glanced over at Gina and realized she had this deer-in-the-headlights kinda look and decided wed better calm things down a bit.  We reefed in the genoa about 30% and the boat settled out to 10 degrees.  Much more comfortable and I think the boat handled better too.  We shot back across the Bay and were outside Herring Bay by 1600.  I suggested we could maybe sail back across again but in the end we decided to call it a day and head back in.  We tacked our way back to R2 where we dropped the sails and headed back to our slip.  All in all it was a beautiful day, excellent sailing, and it felt really good to be back out on the Bay again and spend some time with our friends.

It's funny but living aboard doesn't really mean we get to go out sailing all the time.  This was only the second or third time we'd been out since July.  Ya work all week and when the weekend rolls around something always seems to come along to change your plans.   We are planning to spend Thanksgiving weekend, Friday through Sunday, anchored out.  We'll see how that one works out.

In the last installment I mentioned something about getting another boat.  We got all excited about a Moody 54 because it had all the things we were looking for in a boat and had the perfect layout down below.  Plus it was really, really big.  Well, we gave it some serious thought and decided it wasn't a good idea to take on such serious debt when we're so close to retirement.  That 54 woulda been pretty sweet but she woulda put quite a dent in our finances.  Of course, we still wanted to have more room and craved the perfect layout.  We searched the internet for something more affordable and came up with.........a Moody 46.  For about the same price as La Vida Dulce we could get a center cockpit boat with an aft cabin and two guest cabins.  It also has a sea berth (work bench) in the passageway to the aft cabin.  The layout is identical to the Moody 54 except it's been shortened in the Port side guest cabin, the engine room and the aft cabin, each loosing a few feet of floor space.  I think the port cabin might feel tight but the rest still look to have plenty of room.  The main salon is spacious and comfortable and the galley is very similar to the 54 with plenty of cabinets and counter space.  While the 54 is flat-out gorgeous and took our breath away it would really add to our yearly expenses.  The 46 can give us everything the 54 offered and keep us within our budget.  Sometimes ya just gotta be realistic.

So we're moving ahead with selling La Vida Dulce.  We stripped down the exterior teak, re-oiled the toe rail and bowsprit, and varnished the coaming in the cockpit.  Cheri's doing the varnish.  She used "Boat-Brite" soy stripper to clean off the old finish.   This stuff works great, lifts the finish quickly and then you just scrape it off with a putty knife.  Then she cleaned the teak with West Marine "Step 1 Teak Cleaner" which took out the black and gray stains.  After some sanding she applied five coats of natural high gloss Cetol finish.  It looks really beautiful.  Gonna be a bummer to sell the boat now.

I spent this past weekend repacking the chainplates.  This is an annual chore on Island Packets and I'm a little behind schedule.  We've been having problems with rain water getting into some of the storage areas and I'm pretty sure it was coming through the chainplates.  The last time I did this the mast was still down and it was a pretty easy job.  This time I had to remove one piece of the standing rigging at a time, loosening the turnbuckle and keeping track of how many turns it took so I could get it back to the correct tension.  There is a tool for adjusting your rigging that reads the tension on the shroud.  Check out this link to see how it works (click here).  Cool huh?  Gotta get one of those.  Anyway, as I started in on the chainplates I remembered I had sworn to myself two years ago that the next time I would chisel out the space around it to make more room for extra packing (silicone sealer) and to make it easier to clean.  This was the time to get it done right.  There's just three chainplates on each side and they poke up through the teak toe rail.  The factory didn't leave much room around them, just a 1/4" in some spots, which makes digging out the old gunk pretty difficult.  I chiseled out a good 1/2" all around and then filled it with Silpruf silicone sealant.  This is the stuff that's recommended by IP and now I know why.  I had used regular silicone goop on the starboard side and Silpruf on the port side last time.  When I went to dig out the old stuff the Silpruf came out in a solid block while the other junk was just a mess.  I'm told the Silpruf clings to stainless steel way better and provides a better seal.  Better is good.

Of course we're doing all this work to make the boat "pretty" for pictures so we can sell her.  We've been talking to some financial institutions about getting a loan pre-approved which'll take our heads out of the clouds when we're looking at boats to buy.  We got numbers all figured out and put in the paperwork and got turned down for the loan because we live on the boat (?).  We don't have any property that's firmly stuck in the dirt and that makes the banks very unhappy.  Despite the fact that we both have pretty good jobs and make oodles of money, have almost zero debt and pristine credit numbers, we are considered a bad risk because three hundred and fifty years ago some dude skipped out on his boat loan.  The loan officer said we needed to get a family member or friends to set up a lease showing that we rent from them and that would be good enough.  Of course we'd also have to change our driver's licenses too.  Does this sound ridiculous to you?  It does to me and I find it kinda insulting too.  But we're playing the game.  We couldn't get any family members to set up a lease with us because they think we're a bad risk, being live-aboards and all.  My friend at work, Gene, agreed to do it so now we're getting things in order.  I'll keep you informed.

So, not much more to report.  Work, eat and sleep for the most part.  Maybe we'll have something exciting to report the next time around.  Like how I gained fifteen pounds over the holiday.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.