01-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
If I squint my eyes a little bit this is a video of me on a Thursday night in college.

02-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
Back home on the water and our timing couldn’t be worse. It was a hundred degrees today and isn’t cooling off much tomorrow. That’s hot. With no air conditioning on the boat or in the car. Yep, hot. We tried to cool off by going over to our spot in the shade along the water where there is always a breeze. Today, no breeze. Oh well, at least our flight went well. Aside from the diaper changes on the seat six inches away from a complete stranger I hardly have anything to complain about at all. Ouest has been doing this flying thing for so long that it doesn’t bother her in the least. The only difference now is that she’s becoming so mobile that she is tough to get to sit on our laps for a couple of hours. Anyway, grandma, we’re safely in California again.

02-Sep-2010 9:36 PM
Arrived at the boat to find a couple of boxes onboard. One being the fresh water pump we need, and the other being a huge box full of hardcover books from a long time Bum friend. He told us he’s gotten his use from them and that he thought maybe we’d enjoy them as well. The box was filled with a collection of all sorts of sailing related books. Sailors will recognize the names, Hiscock, Tristan Jones, and yes, even a couple titles from the Pardeys. It’ll be interesting to read stories from these well seasoned, extreme minimalist, always prepared types. Our opposites in every way, and yet I’ll bet I find many similarities in them as well. Thanks Fred.

03-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
New water pump went in today. If only every engine part replacement was this easy. Hell, I even wore a white t-shirt for this one. Another step closer to ignition day.

03-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
Today we were dragging Ouest out from under the table for the umpteenth time when Ali suddenly said, “Hey, why don’t we drop that thing down?” The table, like pretty much all boat tables, drops down even with the surrounding couch in case somebody wanted to make a big bed out of it. Without a mattress flopped on it though it makes a great coffee table, which in Ouest’s case is slightly less likely to cause a lump on the head. She loved it.

It was hot as hell again today. To keep Ouest cool while on the boat we would just drape a wet washcloth over her head. It felt like an ice pack when the fans hit it. I don’t know what it is about this girl but she could have a howler monkey screaming on top of her head and she wouldn’t even try and pull it off.

04-Sep-2010 8:33 PM
We’ve got the best internet Bum friends. When we asked if anybody out there would mind taking a go at our little sewing project, Ouest’s bed, we got a flood of e-mails. Eventually Laura got the job. We’re going to start her out as an intern, meaning she won’t be getting paid, but will be gaining valuable experience. Experience in the highly lucrative and specialized field of custom boat crib design.

04-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
I continued work on the engine today. Unfortunately the v-belt I ordered doesn’t fit. Not even close. I guess the alternator on this engine isn’t original. And just from looking at it I’m guessing it isn’t a high output alternator either. Looks like just some standard jobbie from the local auto parts store. Need to go pick up a new belt as I was lazy and just cut off the old one. Thought I had a brand new replacement in hand. Ahh well. Also kept chipping away at the bathroom remodel. By chipping away I mean trying to get the old glued on vinyl wall off the underlying plywood. It was cracked and ugly, but man this is going to be a bit more complex job than originally anticipated.

I also took another crack at the boat name. The rubbing compound does take the name off nicely, but based on how much I’ve accomplished in one hours work I calculate that both names will take somewhere in the neighborhood of 48 hours to remove. Clearly something else needs to be done.

04-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
Had a bit of fun today as Ouest explored more of the boat. It became clear that we’re going to have to get those lifelines and netting up sooner rather than later. Not that that will be any substitute for one of us being constantly within two feet of her, but it would still be a nice little safety buffer.

I have to say that lately, every day that goes by I enjoy being a papa more and more. Watching Ouest at this age is amazing. It’s really something to me to just sit and stare at her and see the nuances in the way she looks and acts from one moment to the next. It’s exciting to wonder what she’ll look like in a month, a year, or ten years, and what kind of person she will grow up to be. The possibilities are endless for her. For me that’s the most exciting part of all.

05-Sep-2010 9:27 PM
One more day of nasty heat ahead of us and then we get some much needed relief. In the meantime we spend hours each day on the other end of the marina right alongside the Delta waters and the breeze that comes with it. Today Ouest fell in love with this cement post. She talked to it, raced over to it time and again, climbed it, and eventually fell face first into it. She still loved that post though. Speaking of the heat and the boat. We wouldn’t be bitching about the heat if we were simply anchored out on the water. There’s always a breeze on the water. On our previous trip we wished for a heater far more often than we wished for an air conditioner. But being tied up in a marina, especially a well protected marina, is brutal. The air simply does not move.

05-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
Ali and I are just thankful that Ouest can reach this little latch, because she is obsessed with it, and if it were out of reach she would kill herself trying to get to it.

05-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
Today I was staring at our engine controls and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how they worked. On our last boat each engine had one control. Simple. Forward, reverse, and neutral. To rev the RPMs up in neutral we just pulled the lever out an inch and then forward. It was easy. But this engine has two controls. I could see that one was for the fuel delivery/RPMs and that the other was for the transmission, but how this would function just wasn’t clicking. Though eventually it did. I can rev the engine to whatever RPM I want and then drop the other handle into gear forward or reverse. Okay, fine. I don’t know why this was so confusing to me. It’s essentially just like an automatic car. You’re at idle speed, you put the car in gear, and then you hit the gas. This is just one of the subtle differences we need to become accustomed to with this boat over our old one.

06-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
The inside of this boat has felt the love. The outside? Not so much. I’m thinking cool San Francisco weather will be just about perfect for that.

06-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
A new Bum friend stopped by the boat this morning. While talking to her we got to discussing some of the reasons we have chosen this lifestyle to raise Ouest in. I really can’t say whether or not our reasons are right or wrong. They seem right for us, which is the only thing that’s really important. And even though I’ve posted similar pictures before, this really symbolizes for me what this rather simple boat lifestyle means and why we live it. This sight never fails to make me smile.

07-Sep-2010 11:46 AM
Oil, check. Coolant, check. Raw water seacock open, check. Fuel lines open, check.

Engine attempt number one. FAIL. Not sure why really. Turned over just fine. Gave it three attempts before the inverter suddenly started clicking non-stop. Shut it off and it just kept clicking for a minute before it stopped on its own. I stopped then to do a little research. Next attempt, after Ouest gets up from her nap, will be with shore power unplugged and everything on the boat shut off. It’ll be just me and my big red engine.

07-Sep-2010 3:44 PM
Engine attempt number two. Still not happening. Gonna have to give this some more thought.

07-Sep-2010 our life. daily.

08-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
Went over a few things in the engine today and finally decided that, at least as far as I can tell, it all looks good. Doesn’t seem to be any reason she shouldn’t fire. So I gave it another crack. Still wouldn’t go though. Now I’ve decided that the problem may not lie in the engine, but in the batteries. Right now there are just two lowly batteries hooked up. Two batteries that are at least a decade old and have been charging on shore power all that time. One of them has a nasty bulge in the side. Anyway, they aren’t cranking this engine over very well. In fact, it’s turning over very slowly. Wasn’t really planning on doing this project right now, but looks like we may have to.

08-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
Ali is constantly tripping over me. “God, look at your legs.” “Move your legs.” I really don’t know what she’s talking about.

09-Sep-2010 1:22 PM
I borrowed a battery booster from the marina guys today in an effort to give the engine one more chance before embarking on an electrical system odyssey. I hooked everything up, turned the key, and like magic she fired right up. At least six years have gone by without this baby turning over and we got it on the fourth try. Would have been the first try if I’d had a good starter battery hooked up to begin with. Damn. I would have liked to be able to tell the story of this boat and say, “Yep, she fired up on the first try.” But I can’t. So I won’t.

Needless to say I am one very happy camper at the moment. Despite the fact that she ran for five minutes before slowly stalling out. From my trained ear I’ve determined it was almost certainly a lack of fuel. Probably still air in the lines. The guys needed their charger back and Ouest needed to lay down for her nap, so that can wait for another time. For now I’m just happy to hear her run and know that nothing is seized up. Whatever problems lie ahead with it at least now I know they can be dealt with reasonably easily and inexpensively.

09-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
Listen to her purr.

09-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
Ouest didn’t seem too interested in a running engine. She just wanted her play room put back together. And no, she’s not securing that buckle, she’s about to eat it.

10-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
Ali put her hat on Ouest and took this picture. Later on I was messing with some settings when I hit this one and realized she looks just like that little boy in the black and white movies selling newspapers on a corner in New York City and yelling something like, “Roosevelt wins in a landslide! Read it here!”

10-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
I forgot to mention the other day that I had indeed bled the fuel line, which resulted in a flood of, “You need to bleed the fuel line” e-mails. This is just to state, for the record, that I did. Twice. Anyway, now that the engine ran a bit I’m going to change the oil again, bleed the fuel line, and get crackin’ on our battery situation. In fact I’ve already ordered battery cables and fittings so I can make all new lines, bought three batteries, and am just waiting on the other two on backorder to arrive in a few days.

10-Sep-2010 9:28 PM
Ali and I are starting to feel a little stress. Despite the fact that we’ve made some good progress on the boat, i.e. gotten the engine started, it still feels like things are moving at a glacial pace. Not that we’re on much of a time schedule really, but still, we just start to feel a little lost when we don’t have specific timelines and goals to meet. Seems silly after all these years that we’d still function in that way, but we do. Be nice if we could just get a couple of projects fully completed.

Our friend who is making Ouest’s bed for us has been waiting the past few days for some canvas grommets to arrive from iBoats.com. Six packs of twelve each is what was ordered. And not cheaply I might add. So today when six packages arrived with just one grommet in each but a label that says “Twelve Grommets” on each package, we just thought, “Well that sounds about right.” Seriously.

11-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
I changed the oil again today and I really can’t believe what a joy this job is on this boat compared to the catamaran. The fact that I can stand next to the engine, slip a bucket underneath it, squat down and remove the drain plug, and then sit back while the oil runs out, is such a vast improvement over the old method that it makes me almost giddy. I changed the oil dozens of times on the catamaran, two engines at a time, and always had to use the ridiculous method of sticking a tube over the dipstick hole, securing it with a hose clamp, and hand pumping it out with a tool that leaked oil like a sieve. Now, one wrench, ten minutes, ten paper towels, and I’m done. Chalk one up for the monohull.

11-Sep-2010 3:22 PM
Question for our boat peeps. Our shower walls have a sort of rubber paint on them that we would like to get more of. Does anybody know what or where this stuff is from? West Marine didn’t seem to know what we were talking about.

11-Sep-2010 8:51 PM
Ouest has eight teeth now, which means it’s high time to brush those bad boys. She loves this. For some reason she just thinks it is great. If we try to pry into her mouth with a finger to check out her teeth she clamps shut, but bring that toothbrush to her mouth and she’s all opened wide. My favorite part of this picture is Ali’s mouth. It’s hard to brush a baby’s teeth without making the tooth brushing face yourself. Our bathroom is currently undergoing renovations, thus the funhouse mirror.

11-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
One of the nice things about being in a small town family owned marina like this is that we can ask for miscellaneous boat stuff and they’ve got just about all of it. And usually in exchange for little more than a twelve pack of beer. Try that at some 1000 berth marina in the city. Here is our latest purchase. A bosun’s chair to send Ouest up the mast in. There is some wiring up there at the top that needs a little work.

12-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
Got a lot of warning e-mails regarding that big bulging battery of ours, so today I got it off the boat safe and sound. No nasty battery acid explosions.

12-Sep-2010 7:24 AM
Seven years ago today we moved aboard Bumfuzzle in Fort Lauderdale. From day one I knew we would sail around the world. I never doubted it for a second. What I didn’t know at the time was where that trip would ultimately take us. Where our lives would lead because of that trip.

I believe it would have been very hard for me that day to envision this day. That Ali and I would be living aboard a boat in California. On a monohull no less. Prepping for another grand adventure. And that we’d be doing it with our baby girl.

We get a lot of cruising dreamer e-mails that talk about five year plans or when so-and-so graduates. Everybody thinks they’ve got a foolproof plan in place to go sailing. They’ll just work a bit longer and then they’ll be able to buy that better boat or will qualify for a bigger pension. The thing is we very very rarely get a follow-up e-mail saying they’ve done it. Life happens and gets in the way most of the time.

All we can really say is to go and to go now. Don’t hesitate. Once you are gone things just sort of fall into place. Or they don’t and you end up returning. Big deal. We don’t consider that a failure. The failure is in not taking the chance in the first place. For us things have worked out probably exactly the way they should have. Though we would have never known it at the time.

I hope the next seven years are every bit as incredible as the last have been. And no, I won’t be making any guesses on where the 12-Sep-2017 post will be coming from.

12-Sep-2010 our life. daily.

13-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
I got the propane working today. Now, if either of us had any inclination to do so, we could cook something. But honestly, with a Taco Bell three miles away why would anybody want to do such a thing? The problem with the propane was in the gas control panel switch. The toggle fuse switch was bad. This is the second one of these that has needed replacing already and makes me wonder just how much of the wiring in there could really use a once over.

13-Sep-2010 ouest lill. nine months.
Ouest,

Nine months old and already your mama and me are saying things like, “She’s growing up so fast,” and, “I don’t want her to get any older.” We feel like such a cliché saying this, but it’s true, “they do grow up fast.”

We didn’t exactly score any big milestones this month, but instead worked on perfecting everything you’d learned in the first eight months. You can crawl the hundred meter dash in 10.4 seconds. World class speed really. You sit up comfortably from any position, and most importantly, to you anyway, you can stand up using pretty much anything as a support. A tall weed in the grass will do just fine. But better yet, a car tire, a concrete post, a tree with an ant colony climbing it, or any other number of unsuitable projections.

You’re on to eating everything we put in front of you. We’ve actually been sort of lazy about making the switch to real food with you. Mainly because absolutely nothing that mama and papa consume has any nutritional value whatsoever. Somehow we’ve got to change our ways. So in the next month you can expect a lot more of those delicious delicacies you’ve sampled this month and a little less of the Gerber meals in a bottle.

It has been a good month for all of us. We had a nice trip out to Minnesota, went to the State Fair, played with your cousins, hung out with grandma, grandpa, and your aunts, and got great news from your doctor. Back on the boat we’ve made a little progress. Less than we’d all like, but we’re far too busy spending our afternoons playing in the grass to be bothered by boat work.

Anyway Ouesterly, that’s your month in a nutshell. Happy nine month birthday.

14-Sep-2010 our life. daily.

15-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
This morning we left the boat and drove in to San Francisco. Just ninety minutes after leaving the tractors behind we were in the midst of what has to be one of the coolest cities on earth. No pun intended. If only they could do something about the weather here. It’s freezing. My mom came to town to see her granddaughter and this picture was the unfortunate outcome of this reunion. Don’t even get us started. Sometimes Grammy doesn’t fully embrace our non-holiday lifestyle. Besides, Ouest is still too young for this to do any permanent damage.

16-Sep-2010 7:23 PM
China Town was our objective for the day. After breakfast at a little donut shop on Polk we climbed aboard the cable car and rode that up the hills right into the heart of the Far East. The main street through the neighborhood is full of touristy knick-knack shops where no doubt the vast majority of goods were indeed made in China. But it’s also a local’s neighborhood with parks filled with elderly Cantonese speaking Chinese playing card and board games. Men and women alike which I found interesting. It’s not often you run across a dozen women involved in a heated game of cards in the park. We had a great lunch of pasta and meatballs. Kidding of course. And when Ouest had finally had enough for the day we hopped aboard for one more cable car ride home.

16-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
Pictures capture Ouest so much better than my words ever could.

17-Sep-2010 8:20 PM
We all went for a walk this morning. After stopping for breakfast we continued wandering around and then stopped in at a Walgreens for, of all things, a bottle of dishwashing soap. That’s when Ali realized she’d lost her wallet. Considering that I stopped carrying a wallet about seven years ago this meant that every dollar, every credit card, and every form of identification we own was gone. Not to mention we’d just stopped at the cash machine the day before. Ali sprinted out of Walgreens faster than I’ve ever seen her move. When she got back to the restaurant there was a group sitting at our table, but as she walked up she spotted it on the floor right in amongst their legs. Umm, phew.

In the afternoon we took the bus down to the Wharf. Ali and I spend a lot of time on buses, but a thought struck me and I turned to my mom, “When was the last time you were on a city bus?” We figured out it would have been close to thirty years ago making the trip to work from the burbs to St. Paul. “Hasn’t changed much.”

We strolled around the touristy bits along the Wharf for a while. Took in the sea lions at Pier 39. But eventually Ouest had had enough for the day and began to break down on us a little bit. We rushed back to the bus and thought we’d take her back to the hotel for a nap, but the minute she was on the bus surrounded by strangers she was a new girl. If she’d have had a hat to pass around she would have cleaned up on tips. She’s got a future as a busker.

17-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
The view out our hotel room window. We could also see about a twenty foot span of the Golden Gate Bridge, but only for about five minutes worth of our stay when the fog lifted.

18-Sep-2010 11:55 AM
This morning we went out to Alamo Park, which overlooks the Painted Ladies line of famous Victorian homes and also sits high up on a hill above the city. The parks really are fantastic here in San Francisco. Every one of them that we’ve seen has had that nice bouncy recycled rubber flooring, and clean new playground equipment. They each contain a sign giving Governor Arnold credit for them. Good job Terminator.

18-Sep-2010 7:50 PM
After Ouest’s nap today we took off for Haight-Ashbury to pretend like everyone else walking the neighborhood that we still listen to the Grateful Dead, smoke ten joints a day, and practice free love. And while that may be true for some of the people milling about, most of us were just interested in the funky little bars, restaurants, and retro clothing shops that line Haight Street.

After lunner we headed into Golden Gate State Park where we had tentative plans to visit the Japanese Gardens. We got sidetracked by the Carousel and huge playground though, and that is where we spent the rest of our afternoon. Yes, another great park. It was fun listening to the amazing variety of nationalities represented there. Everything. Brits, Italians, Mexicans, French, Chinese, and probably another dozen that I didn’t identify. That’s probably my favorite thing about this city.

We met a guy today playing with his two year old. When we told him Ouest was nine months old he seemed reminiscent and then said, “The days go slow but the years go fast.” Truer words may never have been spoken.

19-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
Mom left for home early this morning and we weren’t far behind. It was a brief visit but a much needed one as Ouest is changing nearly every day, and in two months without seeing Grammy she became a totally different baby. We all had a good time just hanging out together and kickin’ around San Francisco a bit. And thankfully Mom didn’t take this sticker to heart as we were three bums that were very grateful for a few good meals.

20-Sep-2010 our life. daily.

21-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
Certain pictures I just know Ouest is going to kill us for someday. This is one of them. Her first time sitting on the toilet. Ali and I are determined not to be hauling dirty diapers from one port to another. And while this process may take quite a while it seems to us that the earlier the better.

21-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
As long as we’re showing bathroom pictures we might as well point out that we’re still in the midst of a remodel. It’s the go to job whenever there is nothing else available to do. We’re basically tearing down the cracked laminate style wall coverings and countertop in order to clean and brighten the whole room up. The walls will get a coating of elastomeric type white paint and the counters will get some tile. And we’ll finish some trim and varnish that somehow never got completed previously.

21-Sep-2010 8:14 PM
There are hints that Ouest may be getting her first two molars. This is unconfirmed at the moment, but something is definitely going on in that mouth again. After the last burst of teeth Ali and I really thought we were going to get a few months rest before her steak grinders showed up.

Picked up our last two batteries for the boat today. Install begins tomorrow on our five house batteries and one starter battery as well as the voltage relay to group the two. I’ve made my own battery cables for this job which turned out very nicely. Ali was a bit perplexed by the cost of the materials and tools needed for this. The total was right at two-hundred dollars. This included enough wiring to link all the batteries as well as replace the engine ground, starter, and alternator wiring. Just the battery links at West Marine would have cost two-thirty, so I’m way ahead of the game, and I’ve got two new tools. Sweet.

21-Sep-2010 8:58 PM
Our routine of getting off the boat and into the grass each afternoon for a little play time and leg stretching continues. Ouest is endlessly fascinated by leaves. They’ve always been her thing. A biologist in the making? My brother would be proud.

22-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
Work began on the battery bank today, though we’re still waiting for a couple more cable connectors and a trip to Home Depot for a couple of things before any real progress is made on that. We also did a bit more demo on the bathroom. We’re inching closer to final prep for paint. Then we can do a little tiling. And let’s not forget the skylight that needs rebedding. Each job here on the boat moves in very incremental steps.

22-Sep-2010 8:36 PM
Ouest’s bed has been ready for a couple of weeks now, save for a few grommets needed to go around the edges. Grommets that we ordered from iBoats.com a couple of weeks ago. An order they screwed up. An order that they then promised to ship out correctly right away. An order they promised they would confirm to us by e-mail which they never did. An order they promised again would go out that day, but never did. And finally an order that, at least in theory because we now have a FedEx tracking number, will finally arrive tomorrow. None of us are the least bit confident that they will have sent the right thing.

22-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
The sun is high over the boat most of the day precluding any play on deck for Ouest. But come six o’clock the sun is just barely peeking through the trees and the temperature is just right for crawling around.

23-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
The ferry between us and Rio Vista, just three miles away as the crow flies, often makes the five to ten minute drive take a good thirty or forty. If it isn’t one thing it’s another. Today a car broke down so it was all hands on deck to get him running again. The ferry captain somehow figured out it was a loose battery ground and got him on his way in short order. Ouest cried bloody murder when that car started up. Should have probably given her a little warning on that one.

23-Sep-2010 9:14 PM
Had some new Bum friends stop by the boat today bearing gifts. Pizza and Pabst Blue Ribbon. How perfect is that? We’ve actually had a few visitors recently, all of which have been making their way down the West Coast in anticipation of a November run to Mexico. They’ve all been first time “distance” liveaboard cruisers and it’s been fun to see their excitement and get a taste of somebody else’s freshman foibles for a change. Good luck to all of our friends making the leap this year.

23-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
We’ve been hanging this canopy for the past few weeks whenever the temp climbs into the nineties. Forecast now is for a week of it, so today I actually took the time to install the rods that go in it to give it this nice covered wagon shape. It’s a pretty slick set-up right up until a thirty knot blow comes through in the middle of the night.

24-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
This morning we got started on pulling out and rebedding the four skylights on the deck. All but one leaked if I so much as gleeked on it. If you don’t know what gleeking is, look it up in a slang dictionary, you should have learned it in junior high school. Anyway, this is a pretty straight forward job. Pull the frame and plexiglass off, clean off all the old caulk, and rebed it. Today we got it all cleaned up, tomorrow the caulk gun comes out. The great part about Rio Vista is that it never rains. We could leave these holes in our roof for a month and not get a drop of water in the boat.

24-Sep-2010 8:27 PM
I’ve been hesitant to even show this thing as both Ali and I are a bit embarrassed by it. We both loathe and love it as well. It is Ouest’s new cage. We’ve been struggling for the past two months with how to childproof the living room. On one end of the room are two steps down into the kitchen, on the other are two steps down into her room, on another side is a kitchen table, and another a set of stairs leading outside. As well as a dozen drawers and cabinets. Not an easy space to make even moderately safe, which for me is plenty.

Anyway, we’ve spent way too much time the past few weeks with one of us sitting on each end of the room “playing” with Ouest, and not getting nearly enough work done. So a few days ago we finally gave up and purchased a cage from the zoo that they used to keep the wildebeest in. And frankly our productivity has skyrocketed during this time period. We can now leave her on her own for hours. Kidding of course. But one person can now be off working while the other can play with her or even get lunch ready in the kitchen. Multi-tasking baby.

Truthfully though we’re still not sure we’re going to keep this thing. We really do hate it. It’s big, ugly, and our daughter paces around in it like an elephant dreaming she were back in Africa. Again, not really. But that’s how it feels to us. To us this is just one step removed from one of those leashes people put on their kids. We’ll give it a few more days and decide then.

24-Sep-2010 our life. daily.

25-Sep-2010 7:19 PM
We are really the life of the party these days. We are already back from the Hidden Harbor Marina yachties end of the season barbeque. A nine-month-old who is absolutely ready to have her head hit the bed at seven o’clock sharp every night does that. It was nice getting to meet a bunch of people that we’ve seen around the place the past couple months. It was also fun to hear about our boat and how much everyone seemed to know about it. This thing seems to have been the envy of quite a few in the harbor for a long time. “That’s the boat you take to Tahiti honey,” was a common refrain. For not knowing diddly about Spindrifts, or monohulls for that matter, it seems we’ve gotten ourselves a true blue water cruiser this time around.

26-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
The skylights are rebedded. Now we’ll give them a couple of days to cure and then we’ll drown them to determine if I’ve actually completed the job. Every time I do this sort of job I know that they won’t leak when we do this, but still there is that lingering doubt. Next up on the waterproofing list are the portholes. We’ve got all new gaskets for the windows and expect that’ll do the trick as that’s the only place the water appears to be getting in, but we’ll see. After that will be the granddaddy of the leaks, the big square wooden window, butterfly hatch, and the sliding front door hatch. Looking at these we just can’t believe they’ll ever be made waterproof under real sea conditions, but I suppose they wouldn’t have built thousands of boats this way if that were true.

26-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
We’re starting to get bored with the Rio Vista lifestyle and are itching to get moving again. Even if we’re not exactly, how can I put this, remotely ready. Life of a steady routine, even an enjoyable and relaxing routine, just isn’t our cup of tea. Putting down roots, even if they are as tenuous as lines to a dock, really make us uncomfortable. But a lot of things are still up in the air for the foreseeable future so we’re just going to continue trying to live in the moment, enjoy ourselves, and get a little boat work done in between.

27-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
So I was reminded recently that I haven’t really said a whole lot about the boat. Specs-wise anyway. So here is what I know.

– 1982 Spindrift 43′
– Ron Amy design built in Taiwan
– full keel weighing in at about 36,000 pounds and hanging 6.5 feet under the water
– it’s got a 13′ beam and a ton of freeboard, this baby sits high
– water line is about 36 feet though up top she’ll probably measure somewhere closer to fifty
– there are 2 x 125 gallon water tanks, 1 x 150 gallon fuel tank and another new 60 gallon (the other 150 was removed)
– the engine is an 80hp Ford Lehman with 2100 hours on it, about 50 in the last 12 years or so
– sails are OG and will need to go
– there are about a million winches scattered around the boat
– the Lewmar windlass is brand spanking new, never been used
– there are 2 CQR anchors, one a 60 pounder and the other a 33, still not sure how much chain is piled up in the locker
– it’s a 2BR, 1 1/2 bath, split-level rambler
– every last piece of electronics is being replaced
– battery banks include 5 x 105ah house bank and one starter

And that’s really about all I can think of off the top of my head.

27-Sep-2010 our life. daily.

28-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
Not sure what happened with the battery bank today. I got everything hooked up the way I wanted it and then turned the shore power and DC back on. Within a couple of minutes the inverter/charger started making a rapid fire ticking noise. I shut down the shore power and it quit within seconds. After some trial and error I finally gave up for the day by hooking the inverter/charger wiring directly to the starter battery and unhooking the charging relay. Short-term fix until we figure this out. Anyway, I hate electrical stuff, it always gives me troubles somehow.

28-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
Temps hit triple digits again today and there wasn’t a breath of wind anywhere. To combat this we led Ouest to water. First to the sprinkler making mud puddles in the driveway and later to the hose flowing on the deck of the boat. One thing for sure, this girl is not shy of water. She crawled right through the sprinkler face first more than once, and on the boat she sat there with the hose in her hands bringing it right up to her mouth for drink after drink. I admit I was a little amazed at how quickly she figured that little trick out. She has also been getting more and more stable standing up. She now stands up pretty easily and steadies herself for as long as her hands are busy. That’s the catch, her hands have to be busy with something. Today it was the hose. She looked like a little firefighter.

29-Sep-2010 our life. daily.

30-Sep-2010 bumfuzzle.
Despite a flood of advice I still couldn’t solve our battery bank issue today. The inverter/charger starts clicking within a couple of minutes of my hooking up the ACR linking the two battery banks together. Unhook that ACR and it stops immediately. The inverter is roughly a hundred years old (note the picture and the fact that I can’t even discern a model number for this thing) and I’ve been thinking of replacing it anyway, so it seems this may be the deal breaker. We’ll see. I’ll poke around a bit more before giving up on this one.

30-Sep-2010 our life. daily.
The past two or three days we’ve been having some sleep problems with Ouest. Basically she doesn’t want to go to sleep, and has trouble staying down when she gets there. It’s pretty unlike her. This is the sort of thing that usually comes with her getting teeth, but so far we haven’t been able to find anything going on in her mouth. During this time she has also developed a new cry. A scream really. An ear-piercing, marina-spanning scream. So far the marina dogs haven’t joined in with her. I think they’re too frightened.