Yard work

My idea of hell would be sweeping up a boat yard. There are so many little bits of boat and scraps of parts.

Nothing is open for breakfast before 8 so Sasha finished up a few odd jobes before we ate.

Sorting out sails. More odd jobs before breakfast.

Playing with our awesome new camera! Hope everyone following this blog appreciates the imporved picture quality :)

Sea Island Boat Works

So I have worked on or sailed a few boats so far in my life, starting from an 8' long fiberglass sailing dinghy custom built by Tom and Charlie Bunger of Bunger Surf Shops, up to a 99' party barge in NY harbor. Many of the sailboats, however, have been built at Sea Island Boatbuilders (formerly Sea Island Boat Works) in South Carolina.

The first such boat was the Spread Eagle II, a 51' catamaran out of Fajardo, PR:

Then, I moved up to captain the Katarina, a brand new 32' SeaRunner, in Rincon, PR:

There are a number of other Sea Runners down here in the VI, including Dancing Dolphin:

Adventurer and Adventuress:

And the newest delivery, Kekoa, a 50', 99-passenger version of Katarina that will operate out of the Westin in St. John:

Equipped with twin 75 HP diesels and all sorts of toys and goodies, she is pretty sweet!

New Bridle Shackles

For some reason, the shackles holding the bridle to the boat were not stainless steel, so they rusted into a ball of, well, rust.

So I borrowed an angle grinder (thanks Bliss) and got to work.

Sparks flew and I still have all 10 fingers.

Beautiful!

Now I need to replace the lines as they are not only rust-stained but also worn where they chafe.

Culebra Days and Nights

Current Location: Ensenada Honda, Culebra, PR
Lat/Lon: 18°18.6' N 65°17.5' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Clear, Light NE Breeze

Continuing our trend of working harder while on our vacation, we sailed down to Culebra to "relax" for a few days. Here is an abbreviated list of things we accomplished while here:
- Removed dinghy engine
- Beached, flipped, scraped, washed, scrubbed, and sanded the dinghy
- Applied three coats of antifouling paint to dinghy bottom
- Tara scrubbed all the teak on Hypnautic
- Installed a ventilation fan in the cockpit fridge cabinet
- Installed two waterproof GFCI-protected 120VAC outlets in the cockpit
- Ate a Barbara Rosa's, a local culinary institution
- Hung out at the Dinghy Dock
- I even cooked dinner tonight
This does not include the two hours spent stirring the gallon of bottom paint (all the copper clumped up at the bottom). Many thanks to Kirk and Pam for their help and advice, loaning us tools, letting us shower off the paint at their house, and for helping us flip and scrub the dinghy!

Also, Tara is probably entirely correct about how awesome it was to finally be on vacation. Getting some more surf at Sandy Spit was awesome!!!

Here are some pics, Tara scrubbing Teak, Sasha Surfing

Hard at Work

Current Location: American Yacht Harbor, Red Hook Bay, St. Thomas, USVI
Lat/Lon: 18°19’30.00” N 64°51’08.94” W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Partly Cloudy

Well, we tore the boat apart and put it back together again, taking everything out of every cabinet, cleaning it (and the cabinets) and putting it all back together. We found some surprises, for example more linens than we could ever use in a month, and a mess of tools that took an entire day to sort out. Along the way I did some significant repairs: removed a fried inverter, disconnected a leaking water heater, fixed an a/c drain, cleaned all the strainers, etc. Next few tasks on the list include overhauling the watermaker, servicing the generator, and taking her for a spin on the open sea! But first, we go shopping! Look out St. Thomas!