October and November 2011 - no boat trips

Well it's been a long dry spell for us!  We haven't been out in two months which is likely a record for us.  I tore the boat apart to replace most of the galley appliances and to install a diesel furnace so we can stay nice and warm during the cold winter months.

After our boat renaming party where we followed traditional maritime tradition, I began to tear the boat apart.

NOVEMBER 23, 2011 - Thanksgiving Trip cancelled:
We were planning on taking the boat out for 5+ days during the long Thanksgiving vacation.  I spent a lot of time in the weeks just before Thanksgiving getting the boat furnace installation completed, and putting the boat all back together.  I made it in time for the long trip, but the weather just did not cooperate.  It was VERY windy throughout the long weekend.  The forecasts were calling for 50 knot winds with 6'-8' wind waves.  At one point I saw the weather station at Smith Island (just a few miles south of the San Juan's) report 58 knots.  That's almost hurricane strength.  Obviously we didn't go out.  We decided to instead stay on the boat Wednesday night at the dock.  It was nice to be on the boat again, even if just sitting at the dock.  We played games, watched some DVD's, BBQ'd dinner, just as if we were out in the islands.

Playing "Clue".  I think it was Col. Mustard, in the Conservatory, with the Candlestick.

This version of Clue is from the 1950's.  Wow, how has it survived this long!

Eating popcorn and watching  a DVD.

Kevin playing with Mom.  Good times on the boat.

September 10 through November 22, 2011 - Projects:
This has been one long dry spell without boating.  But, I knew that I had some serious work to get done before the boat was going to be usable in winter/cold weather.  I also knew that our home refrigerator had to go.  It was literally sucking our house battery bank dry overnight.  It was also an excellent opportunity to deal with a great number of other issues.  I was able to take advantage of the good weather and caulk/seal all of the windows.  I also repainted the flybridge and the cockpit floors.  I removed all of the old snaps, filled the holes, ground out any cracks in the gelcoat and filled them in.  I painted with Interlux non-skid mixed into the first coat of paint.  Followed by a second coat of just paint to even out the finish.  It turned out great.

The flybridge just before the new non-skid paint.

Just after the new paint.



The cockpit before the new paint.



The cockpit, after the new paint.  Looking good!!!

I also tore into the galley removing the electric cooktop that was damged in the trip up the coast.  I also took out the microwave, which only operated on 220 volts meaning it could not be run via the inverter, only the genset.  I also took out the house refrigerator.  That was a total power hog; consuming at least 10 times as much power as a boat-specific refrigerator.  This meant tearing cabinets apart in the galley, which was not fun.  The washer/dryer had to be removed in order to get the refrigerator out of it's hole.  I seriously contemplated cutting the refer into pieces to remove it, but decided that the environmental impact of releasing all of that freon into the atmosphere just wasn't the responsible thing to do.

The galley before the remodel began.

Washer/Dryer removed so refer could be taken out.

Appliance Central.  I could open an appliance store!

One of the new refers.  Also the new cooktop.

The new convection microwave, the propane cooktop, the efficient 12-volt refer

Repainting the chain locker.

Marking the chain every 25 feet.  Red/White/Blue = 25'/50'/75'

Our new anchor.  This baby is MASSIVE!  Yellow/red/yellow = 100'/200'/300'

But the biggest change of all was the  installation of a new diesel furnace.  This is a HUGE project.  It's a really complex system.  There is a diesel-fired boiler in the engine room that heats water/antifreeze which is circulated through PEX tubing throughout the boat. 
      There are 4 loops in the system (PEX tubing loops, that is). 
         1.  The v-berth and guest head. 
         2.  The master stateroom and head.
         3.  The pilothouse.
         4.  The salon.
Each loop is considered a zone and has it's own thermostat.  That means we can set each zone to a different temperature or even turn a zone off if desired.  This allows great flexibility when using the boat in cold weather.  I had to fabricate a custom stainless steel exhaust for the boiler to vent to the outside.  I had to tap into the fuel tank.  There were a lot of elctrical wires needed to connect everything.  Plus, running nearly 275' of not very flexible PEX tubing from one end of the boat to the other.  Definielty a big project with great rewards; year-round boating!  That's enough boring details for now..... here are a few pictures.

The di$tribution manifold.  4 zones plus a water conditioner/filter loop.

I painted and installed the vent on the right.  This pulls fresh air into the boat to dry things out.

The 2.5" double-wall exhaust.  I don't like cutting hole in the hull.  But, this is  a quiet system!

The exhaust on the inside.  Nice heat insulation blanket.

Beginning the wiring for the control module.

The furnace control center; fuel filter vacuum gauge, master power switch.  3 setback timers.

One other little project was to polish the portholes in the master stateroom.  You could not see through them when we bought the boat.  It turns out that with plastic cleaner followed by plastic polish, applied with my Porter Cable random orbin sander using some special polishing pads, you can actually buff very cloudy Lexan back into a "window" you can see through.  I never knew...

The porthole before cleaning and polishing.

The porthole after restoration.  What a difference.

In addition to all of this I dealt with some other random water leaks.  I installed new digital tachometers in the pilothouse.  I removed all of the temporary electronics that I had installed in the pilothouse for the trip up the coast and remounted those that I wanted to keep in the overhead.  I also upgraded the navigation PC monitor from an old LCD screen to a nice new LED backlit, widescreen unit.  How nice!  Widescreen allows multiple windows to be displayed simultaneously, as well as a pane for navigational data.  I big improvement.

Waht's next?  The galley needs to be finished.  We have a second refrigerator-only unit on order.  It will really only be used during longer trips where we overflow the new refer/freezer.  We are going to convert a galley base cabinet corner, which is kind of a dead-zone into a custom-built freezer with large capacity, and efficient operation.  This might wait a few month while other project are completed.  The v-berth has been torn out and needs to be rebuilt so it can become the kids room or guest room when we have overnight company.  This will take a month or so.  Next might be the salon u-shaped settee.  After that it will be the pilothouse dash reconfigure.  This would be followed by the master stateroom remodel, which won't be a huge project, but will yield us with much greater flexibility when we have guests overnight.

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011 - Boat Renaming Party:
We had a boat renaming party on the dock with a bunch of our boating friends.  It was a great time.  Kathy read the traditional boat renaming "script" that is used by mariners to appease the gods of the sea so that we may have good luck aboard our new, and renamed, vessel.

Our group of boating friends for the boat renaming party.

The ceremony was complete with offering champagne (not the cheap stuff either) to the sea gods, pouring in specific directions (North to South, West to East, etc).

Reading the traditional renaming script and toasting the sea gods.

Pouring the champagne during the ceremony.

It was a fun party and it was the first time some of our friends had seen the boat.  The kids had a blast running around the boat, up and down the boat, on the dock with fishing nets, and acting like kids. 

The kids stop for a moment.  They were having a lot of fun.

Aidan getting off their dinghy.  Don't spill that wine young man.

Kids grabbing some beverages.  I hope they don't drink our wine!

The party went well into the night.  I feel sorry for my Shelter Bay neighbors who had to endure our late party well after dark. Sorry friends and neighbors!!!

Still partying!  I think we got pretty loud.  Ooops.

Our boat is now officially (both with the Sea Gods and the US Coast Guard) renamed "Adagio".  It was a fun night with our friends!