My day off at work was switched from Thursday to Friday to coincide with the last day of the month. It was busy at work, but as the weather gets progressively warmer my thoughts turn more and more to sailing. The forecast called for a snowy rainy mix which luckily didn't come. I was able to spend most of the day working on my boat getting her ready for her first season of sailing in a long time. There was a small amount of water that had trickled down into the bilge (the lowest part of the boat) and had frozen over winter. I had thought that after the 40+ degree weather that it would all melt and I'd be able to scoop it out. It took days before I could break up the chunks of ice and throw them overboard since the 3,000 pound solid lead ballast in the keel didn't want to warm up as fast as the rest of the boat.
Rather than worrying about buying or renting a generator I decided to just get some useful cordless tools. I bought a drill and a circular saw. I used the saw to cut a few boards up for a makeshift floor, and used the drill in conjunction with a wire paint stripper to do most of the other work. It was amazing how quickly and easily I was able to get the random spills from the previous owner cleaned up when I had electricity on my side. I had been trying to scrape this stuff out of the cockpit by hand, but it would have taken days; I accomplished the same task in about an hour. It's so gratifying to see things start to come together. After a long cold winter of worrying if she'll be ready in time, of being restless, of magnifying problems in my mind, I was finally getting stuff done. I scrubbed and taped and began to paint. I organized and analyzed. Now I know the ins and outs of the boat just a little bit better. The part that I thought had been leaking I sealed up so that no moisture could make it through. On Sunday when I swung by to check it out in the rain I found out what the real problem had been all along. The cockpit is like a big bath tub with two drains close to the forward edge. These drains go through two hoses and out the bottom of the boat. One of these hoses was not only clogged at them bottom, but it wasn't properly aligned where the drain meets the hose, so any rain water was just filling up inside the hose and draining out inside the boat. I tightened down the hose clamps inside the boat, and then went to see about clearing the clog out. It was pretty easy actually; I found a long bolt, and poked it up in the drain once and a hole bunch of water splashed out on my arm. Now when it stops raining I can go back and paint the engine bay, finish painting the cockpit, and begin varnishing the woodwork. Varnishing will probably take a long time, but I'm hopeful that it'll look all pretty when I'm done.
The official sailing season starts here on the 15th of April. My goal is to have her in the water by my birthday on the 24th of May. These dates are getting closer and closer. I do feel confident that I'll have everything done on schedule, and then I can move in and enjoy the summer aboard. She may not be the newest, prettiest, or most high-tech boat out there, but at least I will have the satisfaction of knowing that I brought her back to life and helped her be out where she belongs: on the water.
-I'll put pictures up next time- Feel free to leave comments or ask questions. Otherwise you can find me on Facebook.
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