Category: Maintenance/Repairs

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When Someone Says the Floor of the Boat is Open, REMEMBER THEIR WORDS FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

Last week, Capt. Brian Whiddon (the Managing Editor here at WritersWeekly and the Operations Manager at BookLocker) had the salon floor open while he was working on the engine. Knowing how graceful (ahem…) I am, he came into the floating home office several times to remind me so I wouldn’t fall through.

The floor has been opened many times since we moved onboard two years ago and I have never even come close to falling in. I am VERY cognizant when there is a gaping hole in the floor. Falling in can be very dangerous. There is metal, potentially some dirty, stinky, tetanus-laden water, and even rust. So, I am always hyper-vigilant.

Except, apparently, when I am carrying groceries. I had to run out to the store that day and, when I came back, Brian was working on the bow. He helped me get the groceries out of the dock cart, off the finger pier, onto the deck, and into the cockpit. Loading groceries (or anything) onto the boat is a multi-step, all-hands-on-deck process.

Once everything was in the cockpit, I told him I could finish getting it all inside. He said no, he’d help, and followed me into the cockpit. I opened the companionway door, grabbed some bags, and proceeded backwards down the slanted steps. Then, I turned around, took a step toward the settee, and instantly down I went.

Before my brain could even register that I was falling, my right foot was on the bottom of the bilge. My left leg was bent all the way, with my knee on my chest. And, I was still holding the groceries. Embarrassed as all get-out, I turned and, yes, Brian had seen the whole thing. He had one of those “did you seriously just do that?!” looks on his face. And, I stammered, “Oh yeah. There’s a hole in the floor.”

I put down the groceries, settled back on my haunches, and pulled my leg out of the floor. My foot had landed square and safe on the bottom of the bilge but my right leg had banged the engine, right where “pancake” (my hematoma from falling off the boat in November) is. It honestly didn’t hurt. Maybe my brain was still swirling with humiliating thoughts of the dumb blonde move I’d just accomplished.

I stood up, and inspected my leg. An attractive red welt was forming and swelling on the top side of pancake. It still didn’t hurt much so I stood up, swallowed my embarrassment, and ignored Brian’s jokes about wrapping me in bubble wrap each time I try to step on board.

I put away the groceries, sat down with my laptop, and got back to work. A few minutes later, my leg started to throb so I put a bag of frozen peas on it. It really was a non-issue. But, a few days later, after the swelling went down, I realized that there were now two knots in my leg. The top part of “pancake” had gotten torn away from the other part, which was really weird. The good news is pancake seems to be shrinking again. She doesn’t feel like she used to, all flat, firm and roudish. She’s now lumpy and odd shaped.

Maybe falling into the floor was just what she needed to start healing again! 🙂

A few days later, the yacht riggers were here to finish tuning the rigging after putting the mast back in. When they opened up the floor, Brian stepped in here and said, “Hey, Grace. You are NOT allowed out of this room until they leave!”

NEXT: A Big, FAT, Red Storm!

Are you subscribed to our newsletter? We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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One WILD Toilet Ride!!!

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

The mast on No Tan Lines (“Tanny”) is 67 feet tall, and weighs several hundred pounds. We had it removed about a month ago for repairs. The mast step (or i-beam) is a large, steel box in the bilge that supports the mast. It weighs about 250 pounds, and was also removed so we could have a new one manufactured.

A few days after the mast was removed, the wind picked up. We woke up one night to the boat pitching wildly left to right, left to right. Since we lay with our heads to port, and our feet to starboard, it felt like we were doing involuntary sit ups.

The lines on deck above our heads were straining and complaining against the stern cleats. I jumped up with my trusty flashlight (which is always sitting on my shelf), and peered out all the ports, making sure were weren’t bumping the dock or, worse, a neighbor’s boat. Everything was okay but it was VERY difficult to get back to sleep with the violent lurching. I wondered how our marina neighbors were faring in this odd weather change.

The next morning, as I was crawling out of the cockpit, our next boat neighbor, Vince, said, “What’s going on with your boat?!” I looked and his boat was hardly moving. I turned and our other neighbor’s boat was also stable. Yet, Tanny was still pitching violently. It only took a second for my brain to put two and two together.

Once I turned on my laptop, I contacted the riggers to ask when the mast step would be replaced. They still hadn’t sent me an estimate and they had guys out sick with the flu. Ug! How long were we going to have to live on this roller coaster before things got back to normal?

Brian showed up for work shortly thereafter and, after using the head, commented that our toilet was a bucking bronco. He was RIGHT! We have to hold onto the counter top and shower wall just to pee!

The rigger’s guys were working on another boat on the dock the following day and they said they towed a boat once without a mast and they couldn’t believe how much it bounced around. The mast is not only heavy, providing stability, but it also acts as a pendulum, helping to even out the boat’s movement.

After a few days of very subtle nausea and a sore lower back (because I’m constantly trying to sit still while working, fighting the movement of the boat), I figured out the formula. If the wind is blowing from the east or west over 10 knots, we start dancing. If it’s under 10 or blowing from the north or south, things are pretty stable.

Today, we have an east wind blowing steady at 14 knots and my back is KILLING ME. I’m emailing the riggers almost daily to ask for updates because, while I love a good bounce now and then, hours and hours of constant movement, while constantly checking the lines, is exhausting. Don’t even get me started on the sleep deprivation part.

But, I must say…all of this sure beats the multi-thousands of dollars we are saving by not living in a house! 😉

NEXT: When Someone Says the Floor of the Boat is Open, REMEMBER THEIR WORDS FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!

Are you subscribed to our newsletter? We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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Our Boat Has Been Demasted!

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

Don’t worry. We demasted it on purpose. Several months ago, we scheduled “No Tan Lines” to go to the boatyard, and have the mast removed so we could have the mast step and stringer replaced. After our last sailing trip, we noticed the mast step was cracked and decaying. The mast step supports the mast. If that fails, your mast can fall and that can be catastrophic, structurally and financially.

Our first appointment was postponed because a hurricane was barreling our way. The second appointment was also postponed because our motor conked out that morning.

Our third appointment was yesterday. The night before, the wind kicked up to more than 20 knots. We knew it was going to be a hairy trip but we did NOT want to postpone again. So, we got up at 5:00 a.m., did the final prep work, donned our all weather gear (it was in the upper 40’s), welcomed 3 of our awesome Dock 4 friends on board (who had volunteered to help), and shoved off.

Capt. Brian Whiddon (who is also the Managing Editor at WritersWeekly and the Operations Manager at BookLocker) immediately noticed a problem with the left bow thruster. It was shorting out. Despite that, and despite the strong northeast wind, he got us out of the slip with no problems at all. Once we got into Tamp Bay, we braced ourselves. There were breaking waves in the bay so it was quite an exciting ride! It only took about half an hour to get to Salt Creek, which is protected from the rough water. However, it was still windy and getting the boat through a narrow channel in gale was another adventure.

Brian got us into the narrow slip at the boat yard with no problems once again, even though we had to veer left to get in there.

The yacht riggers immediately got to work removing all of the rigging that supports the mast.

The crane arrived so they hooked it up to the mast, and got to work jiggling it back and forth until it literally “popped” out of its support.

In THIS VIDEO, you can see the mast popping from the interior of the boat.

In THIS VIDEO, you can see what the riggers did on the outside to break it from from its support. Not very technical but extremely effective, and even a bit humorous!

They then pulled it through the deck, got it on land, and laid it on a large, big-wheeled cart. And, we were then cleared to leave.

Brian backed us out of the slip, and steered far left (still going backwards) to avoid running aground on the other side of the creek. He was then able to use the right bow thruster to get us centered in the creek (think a creative, backwards three-point turn) and off we went, back to the marina.

The wind was blowing even harder now and, without the added weight of the mast, the boat was pitching to and fro quite violently in the breakers. It was a blast!!!! I only had to get up a few times to investigate crashing sounds down inside the boat.

Mason’s closet flew open and his Nerf guns fell out. Max’s Xbox flew off his shelf (oops – I forgot to secure that). The kitchen lamp flew to the floor (my fault on that one, too). The good news is I DID remember to lay down the TV in the salon.

We got back to the basin outside our marina, and prepared for the possibility of a piling collision because we had to turn left into our slip. Two other awesome neighbors I’d texted about our impending arrival, Rhonda and Kelly, were standing by on the dock with boat hooks. Brian steered us into the slip, picture perfect once again. No collisions at all! Everyone on board had been assigned lines to secure and, within just a few minutes, we were safely docked once again. The wind continued to blow all afternoon and, without the weight of the mast, Tanny has been pitching wildly all afternoon and evening.

Next week, the riggers will be here to cut apart the floor outside the boys’ bedrooms to begin the work. It should take about two to four weeks and it’ll be a mess but the mast will be once again safe for sailing after that. Just in time for Spring! 🙂

Inside1
Inside2
Inside3
Inside4
outside1
OUTSIDE2
OUTSIDE3

NEXT: The Floating Flu Folly

Are you subscribed to our newsletter? We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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OOPS!! What Happens When You Drop a Microwave Inside a Boat?

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

When we first moved on board “No Tan Lines,” we bought a micro-microwave (meaning the smallest one we could find). Everything on the boat must be small. Then, we had to ponder where to put it. The galley (kitchen) wasn’t a good idea because there wouldn’t be enough counter space left for meal preparation. The large counter-top on the other side of the island wasn’t ideal because, when you need the microwave when cooking, you’d actually have to leave the galley to get to it. The only place that made sense was on the island, which is between the galley and the hallway. That way, you could simply lean over, while standing in the galley, and pop something in. And, it fit just perfectly right there against that wall! 

This week, the GPS guy had to come take a look at our electronics. Why? Because the last time we went sailing, our GPS was off by 30 degrees! Thank goodness we only sailed a mile outside of Tampa Bay because, had we been 12 or more miles offshore, out of sight of land, we might have ended up in The Bahamas…which actually wouldn’t be a bad thing. 😉

Anyway, the GPS guy showed up with his son and they quickly diagnosed the problem. Directly behind the microwave is a panel housing wires and all other sorts of electronic gizmos, thingymabobs, and whatchamacallits – all leading to our navigation equipment in the cockpit. The microwave has magnets. He said those can affect our navigation equipment. Oops.

So, we have to move the microwave. We’re not sure where yet but, as Richard pointed out, one thing’s for sure – we’ll be getting exercise while cooking because it’s not going in the kitchen, nor anywhere near that wall!

We also almost lost our beloved micro-microwave this week. When it was being moved for the GPS guy, it got dropped. It landed on the beautiful, rounded, teak step in the hallway, which cracked. So, now we have another repair to make…which is nothing new when you live on a boat. 😉

In other news:

  • It’s beastly hot here in Florida now. We have the shades up and the three air conditioners are running 24/7.
  • We found a leak behind Mason’s bed and it had to be removed from the boat for the fix. Mason happily moved his bedding and stuffed animals to the salon. He’s cuddled up there and quite comfy.
  • Reinstalling the port in his room didn’t work. The leak is coming from the toe rail. So, we’ll need to replace those now, rather than waiting until it cools off this fall. That’s gonna be a HOT job!!

NEXT: Black Sky in the Afternoon…Angie’s Over the Moon!

Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter. We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

 

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WE’RE TAKING ON WATER!!!

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

PART I

It’s been a long time coming but, after almost a year, tons of repairs, and a few motoring runs, we finally got to raise the sails on No Tan Lines (“Tanny”)! We’d been waiting for just the right weather window before the rainy season starts and this was the day when it finally arrived. Richard was scheduled to train a new employee on this particular day and he later told me how SO VERY HAPPY he was to be spared from the stress and mayhem we endured!

It was a beautiful morning. Just a few clouds, a cool breeze, and hardly any boats on the bay at all. Just before backing Tanny out of the slip, we bumped the box on the dock housing our utility connections. My fault. Oops. Just a slight ding. If only I’d known that was a sign of things to come…

We backed her out of the slip, rounded the basin, and entered Tampa Bay. We then turned south, towards the Skyway Bridge. After the main, mizzen, and jib were raised, we cut the engine. There was a nice morning breeze for a few minutes but then it petered out and we were only moving at about 1 knot. It was starting to warm up and we were passing around the bottled water and sunscreen. Capt. Brian Whiddon rolled up the jib, and set the staysail, which has a boom attached so we could more easily tack and jibe. It was very relaxing and we saw large schools of fish and even two dolphins!

It was so quiet and tranquil…until the VHF crackled to life.

The Coast Guard started making frequent announcements about a vessel in distress. Some poor guy in a 22-foot blue and white boat was taking on water “10 to 15 miles” from one of the islands. They were asking anyone in the area to be on the lookout, and to offer assistance if possible. As the alerts continued, it was clear nobody had found him yet. We weren’t anywhere near that area so we couldn’t assist. But, the frequent requests for help were unnerving as we worried about him.

When we got closer to the Skyway, after passing the land mass, our quiet ride ended. The wind picked up with impressive speed and we were suddenly flying across the water with the boat heeled over and spray splashing our warm cheeks. We were having a blast! At one point, we heard a large crash below. A drawer in the hallway had flown out, spilling hardware everywhere. I quickly cleaned it up.

We had to tack to avoid a slow-moving tanker that was crossing directly in front of us. Once it was out of the way, we proceeded under the bridge.

Another tanker was heading our way and I was at the helm. I had no intention of playing chicken with that big guy. However, I had to head more into the wind to avoid him and our speed slowed a bit. I guess the tanker captain grew a little concerned so he hailed us on the VHF, asking how we planned to pass him. He was very nice, and probably just wanted to make sure we could see him. (How could we NOT see him?!)

Brian told him we planned to pass well off to his port side. After we safely passed him, I let Max and Mason take a turn at the wheel so they could sail in the Gulf of Mexico, too. They loved it! It was such a beautiful day!!

We sailed about a mile into the gulf but it was already mid-afternoon so we turned around to head back. The wind was still kickin’ us along quite nicely and, once we were back under the Skyway, it continued. After we got into the dead zone again (which was no longer dead as the wind had picked up everywhere), Capt. Brian adjusted the sails so we wouldn’t heel as much. Heeling is more fun and I LOVE to go fast but it’s not good to put stress on the rigging if you don’t need to. Still, I’d very much enjoyed the exciting ride! I admit I pouted a bit about the excitement ending but Brian reminded me, “You want this boat to last another 20 to 30 years, right?” I nodded and, while were still moving along at about 5 knots, I stared longingly at the Lev-o-gage, which showed we were only heeling at 1 degree.

Things would not be boring for long, however. Brian took the helm and I sat back, watching the cormorants diving for their dinner, and the occasional pelican flying nearby. I pulled out my phone and sent Richard an update, telling him our location and estimated time of arrival, and I also sent him several pictures I’d taken of the boys and the boat.

I had just clicked send…and that’s when I heard the bilge pump dumping water. No big deal. I hear it a few times a day, every day. When we’re at the dock, it turns on about once every two or three hours to dump the water the air conditioners produce, or when the sump pump overflows.

I knew the air conditioners weren’t running and nobody had turned on a sink or shower to fill the sump. Then, the bilge pumps kicked on again. Then they stopped. About five seconds later, they started again. And, it wasn’t a lazy dump of just a little water from the air conditioners, which I was used to hearing. It was a big dump. They turned back off. And, about five seconds later, turned back on.

And, that’s when it hit me. WE WERE TAKING ON WATER!

I didn’t want to alarm the boys. I tried to remain outwardly calm but my words came out in a high-pitched squeak as I mentioned the bilge pumps to Brian. I took the helm and he casually walked below. I heard him pulling up the floor board in the galley.

I plastered on a fake smile for the boys while my mind raced. ‘Okay, breathe, Angie. Taking on water. Have dinghy. Have outboard. Have Epirb. In Tampa Bay. Easy to find…not like that poor guy they were looking for this morning. We’ll be fine, right? Keep breathing, Angie. Wait…bilge pumps are working. But, how long will the batteries last when they’re running non-stop? We have an emergency pump but what if the generator stops working?‘

A million words were flying through my head. I knew we weren’t going to die but I didn’t want to lose the boat and ALL of our belongings. ‘Can we get her close enough to land to run her aground? Is that even a good idea? Aarrrgghhh!!! Why haven’t I read more sailing books?! Angie, you have GOT to start budgeting your time better! Can Sea Tow get to us before the batteries give out???‘

It had been maybe 90 seconds since Brian went below. I heard the bilge pumps dumping again. Then, I saw Brian race past the companionway opening, from the galley to the nav station. My stomach tightened. He then silently darted by again, back toward the galley. The bilge pumps made another dump. Bile started rising in my throat.

I heard the bilge pumps dump yet again. I was counting in my head, waiting for the next dump. Three-one-thousand… Four-one-thousand… Five-one-thousand… I turned my head and strained my eardrums. No spurting. No splashing. Nothing. Whatever was wrong, Brian had fixed it!

The bile settled back down in my gut and I sat down behind the wheel, remembering that I was supposed to stay on course while in a full-blown yet silent panic. That’s not easy.

Brian casually climbed back into the cockpit. I didn’t mention the sweat on his brow. Still not wanting to alarm the boys, I smiled, and said, “Seacock problem, eh?”

Looking out at the horizon, he shook his head no, and said, “We’re fine.”

I asked, “What was it?”

He turned, looked at me, and sternly whispered, “We’re FINE.”

I knew he didn’t want to scare the boys with the truth. It must have been something bad. Very bad.

A few minutes later, the boys went downstairs for a snack and Brian leaned over to tell me a hose had come loose, and was filling the bilge. He had no idea how long the bilge pumps had been running because we couldn’t hear them when we were in high winds and rough seas. He’d managed to plug it with a cylindrical cork he pulled from the emergency bag but he didn’t know if the hose was going to the engine, or the generator, or somewhere else. No generator means dying batteries. No engine means we’re stuck out there, hoping we can sail to more shallow water, and anchor while we wait for help…all the while hoping we don’t start taking on water again.

Now that the boys were down below, blissfully unaware of our predicament, Brian wanted to see if we had outflow from the engine and generator. I fired up the engine but we were heeling and the exhaust opening was under the waterline, so Brian couldn’t see if water was coming out. We had to turn around so the boat would heel to the other side. Gurgle gurgle spurt. Thank GOD! It wasn’t a hose going to the engine. Brian then tested the generator. It wasn’t that, either. We’d have to wait until we got back to the marina to see what caused the problem. For now, we tried to relax, hoping the plug in the hose would hold.

I was tempted to send Richard another update but I didn’t want to give him a hear attack so I decided that probably wasn’t a good idea.

Taking down the main sail later was another adventure involving a lot of sail flapping, deafening clanging from the rigging, and hollering back and forth. The main didn’t want to come all the way down and one of the lines got stuck. We may have suffered some mild hearing loss from those few moments. The evening wind had picked up and Brian had to climb part way up the mast to fix the problem while Tanny pitched to and fro. He managed to get it down and things once again got quiet.

It was getting dark and we were still pretty far from the marina. Worse, the wind was blowing directly out of the northwest (the direction we needed to go) so we’d have to tack back and forth in order to get home. And, each time we thought we’d gone far enough north to avoid heading directly into the wind to get home, the wind would shift again. All the while, that hose was on our minds. We wanted to get home. And fast.

So, we sat in the cockpit, watching the sun set and the city lights coming on in the distant buildings.

We tacked to port, sailed awhile, then tacked to starboard, then back to port, then back to starboard. We weren’t going to make it home until around 10 p.m., if we were lucky. If we got home AT ALL. As the sky grew dark, I tried to relax while listening to my heart pound in my eardrums, and silently talking to myself once again. ‘Come on, Angie. Chill OUT!! I mean, seriously, what else could POSSIBLY go wrong?!‘

READ PART II RIGHT HERE!

Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter. We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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WHERE WE STAY WHEN “NO TAN LINES” IS ON THE HARD

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

No Tan Lines is our office and our home. We live there but we also run BookLocker.com and WritersWeekly.com from her salon. Our employees and contractors all work out of their homes, too, because it’s very important to us that they are able to be with their children as much as possible.

During the past two years, since we sold our house, we’ve been spending way too much money on storage for our business equipment and files. A few weeks ago, we decided to rent a “satellite office” for all of those, as well as a quiet place where we can work when the boat is noisy, for employee meetings, and for training since we really don’t have a table suitable for more than one person on the boat.

In most cases, when you have repairs made to a house, or even an office, you can usually stay there when they’re being done.

When you’re having repairs that require pulling your boat (office) out of the water, you have to find another place to work.

No Tan Lines has been on the hard for three weeks now. We’re having drive shaft work done, and getting new spurs. We wanted to have a new thru hull put in for the kitchen sink (it currently goes into the sump pump) but the sink is too low in the boat.

During Hurricane Irma, we spent $4500 staying at the Hilton. It wasn’t just us staying there. We had some of our adult kiddos and our new grandson there, too. Assuming we’ll have more hurricanes in the future, and that we’ll need a haul-out every year or so, we realized we could bunk at the “satellite office” if we need to, and furnished it accordingly. And, only two months after we got it all set up, here we are!

There are only two rooms (offices) and one bathroom, along with a tiny kitchenette in the front office. The desk in the front office has a regular chair but the other chairs fold out into small beds.

The shower only runs lukewarm. There are two window air conditioner units but they work pretty good.

It’s on 4th Street and, apparently, this is the route all the ambulances take to the hospital. So, we hear ear shattering sirens all day and all night. There is constant traffic and a traffic light right out front. Twenty-four hours a day of VROOM! VROOM!! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!!

And, rap music! It’s really nice outside so lots of folks are driving with their windows down. BOOM! BOOM!! BOOM-CHICK-A-BOOM!!!

Lots of people walk in St. Petersburg and, unfortunately, there are lots of late night walkers (and partiers) on the sidewalk out front, all hours of the night. Loud talking, laughter, and even yelling.

I call the lady upstairs “clogs.” I think she has insomnia. She is constantly clomp, clomp, clomping up there on the wooden floors.

The biggest problem has been that our dog, Coco, absolutely refuses to go potty here. We’ve tried walking around the block, walking around two blocks, and even walking to the dog park at the high rise we used to live in. She won’t pee anywhere except at the marina. Thankfully, Capt. Brian Whiddon has been keeping her on his boat most nights so Richard doesn’t have to drive her there late a night, and early in the morning.

We were ABSOLUTELY THRILLED to learn today that Tanny can be picked up on Friday. Only two more nights of sirens, traffic, rap music, clogs, and the like. Yea!!! While it’s nice to have an affordable place to stay when we need it, we can’t WAIT to get back home!!

Well, it’s late now so I have to turn off my laptop…and find my earplugs.

NEXT:  WE’RE TAKING ON WATER!

Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter. We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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SHOULD WE FIRE OUR BOTTOM SCRUBBER?

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

If your boat is living in saltwater, you need the bottom scrubbed on a regular basis. When we were buying our boat, we chanced upon a meeting with a guy at a local marina who offered this service. He had a lot of experience, and seemed to know everyone in the area so we hired him.

We’ve been paying $126/month for this service, which we learned from our Dock 4 neighbors is too much. But, he always showed up on schedule and he seemed to really care about No Tan Lines (“Tanny”). This week, we had Tanny hauled out for some work so we were able to get a good look at the bottom, which was scrubbed only about 9 days before the haul out.

Notice that, from a distance, the bottom looks really good. But, on closer inspection…

If all of this growth was “new,” it would be all over the hull. It’s not. If the growth above the tiller was permitted to keep growing, it could cause problems with steering. Don’t even get me started on the condition of the propeller. The growth on the bow thruster is pretty old, based on the size of the barnacles.

What really angered me was the thru hull. The one in the picture is from our aft air conditioner, which has been periodically shutting down with an error message. Now we know why! There was a lot of growth in there. The diver could have simply put a screw driver in there to break it up. Brian pulled his keys out of his pocket, stuck one in there, jiggled it around for a second, and then a mess of growth poured out, followed by a steady stream of saltwater. I was NOT happy.

I posted this photo to our Dock 4 Facebook page, asking our neighbors for a recommendation for someone who charges less, and who does a much better job.

NEXT: WINE GLASSES, EQUIPMENT AND PEOPLE FALLING IN THE DRINK

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Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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YEA! I DIDN’T WRECK THE BOAT TODAY!!

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

Today, No Tan Lines (“Tanny”) was scheduled for a trip to the boat yard. When I practiced docking a few weeks ago, her drive shaft threw a bearing. (I swear that was NOT my fault!!) We also want to add a new thru hull so the kitchen sink will drain directly into the water instead of into the sump pump. The sump has failed twice now and, when it does, it overflows into the bilge. Old coffee grounds, grease, and other yucky, rotting muck are NOT something you want floating around in your bilge. That can stink to high Heaven! (And, yes, we throw away leftovers and we have a strainer in the kitchen sink drain but it doesn’t catch everything.)

While it’s already been six weeks since I learned how to dock the boat, I was still feeling pretty confident so I told Capt. Brian I wanted to back her out of the slip. He said okay and we called our Dock 4 friends, Stephanie, Diego, and Allan, to ask if they’d come help. They and Max would handle the lines, and keep a watchful eye on our surroundings while Capt. Brian would stand by the helm, talking me through this perilous procedure. Once everyone tossed the lines, my stomach flip-flopped a bit. I ran a very real risk of turning the boat at the wrong time, and either hitting a piling with the bow, or hitting a boat behind us with the stern.

While regaling you with a tale of high winds, waves, and a hairy, heart-stopping experience would be fun, that’s not what happened. A northeast wind was blowing gently and I was able to ease Tanny out of the slip without incident. Once Diego told me the bow had cleared the last piling, I followed Brian’s instructions. Turn the wheel all the way to the right. Once she’s turned enough, put her slowly in forward, turn the wheel to the left, and bump the bow thruster a few times until she’s straightened out.

It took only minutes and I didn’t hit anything at all, nor even come close to a piling, much to everyone’s relief. We were on our way and I steered her into Tampa Bay, toward the channel that would then lead us past the Coast Guard station, and into Salt Creek. There were a TON of crab traps so the trip was like navigating a fun obstacle course. There was also a regatta of small sailboats that I had to steer around. (Thank goodness I didn’t have to pass THROUGH them!)

Once we got to Salt Creek, I let Capt. Brian take over. It’s very narrow, with boatyards and docks on either side. He had to pass a motor yacht and the vessels were only two feet from each other. That was a bit hairy.

By the time we approached Embree Marine (which is EXCELLENT, by the way), the manager, Chad, was walking out to help us dock. Brian pulled up alongside the dock on our port side without incident. It was perfect, in fact! Everybody secured lines and we disembarked.

We’re staying in downtown St. Pete until Tanny is done at the boat doctor. I can’t wait to take another shot and docking her when we get her back! 🙂

Diego, Stephanie, Brian and Allan. We love our awesome Dock 4 friends!

NEXT: NAUGHTY NAUTICAL TERMS!

Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter. We’ll alert you to new posts, and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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HOW TO SAVE YOUR MARINE MATTRESS IN A HUMID ENVIRONMENT

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

The humidity in Florida in the winter is odd. In the summer, any moisture in the boat dissipates pretty quickly, likely because the air conditioners are running at full-blast, 24 hours a day. In the winter, however, the moisture in the bathroom after you shower, for example, can linger for hours or even days. We hadn’t been vigilant about this and we started seeing mold on the teak inside the shower. After cleaning that, we realized that hanging damp towels in there was the problem. Now, one of Mason’s chores is to take all the towels outside each night, and hang them on the lifelines. We have a couple dozen clothespins on board just for this.

That worked! The mold problem disappeared.

Last month, however, we pulled the v-berth cushions out to have them measured for replacement. That’s when we discovered they were damp on the bottom. Those cushions have rubber bottoms so we were able to clean them with bleach. Mason’s mattress was the same way. However, our mattress, which came with the boat, is a traditional memory foam one. When we checked it, we found it was wet on the bottom, and had mold. We had to get rid of it.

While we waited for a new one to be delivered, we slept on an air mattress. That was NOT a comfortable experience and we had to keep Rambo the cat out of our room. If you’ve ever owned a cat with claws AND an air mattress, you know why.

It took a week for the mattress to arrive and, in that time, we took a trip to West Marine. With the calculations for the size of the mattress, we purchased enough Dri-Dek to fit the bed area. When the new mattress arrived, Capt. Brian pieced the Dri-Dek puzzle together, which only took a few minutes. We then placed the new mattress in its place. A week later, we checked underneath and it was as dry as a bone.

We will also be purchasing Dri-Dek for the boys’ mattress, and the settee cushions.

Another good use for Dri-Dek is in high traffic areas on your deck. While the boys scrub the deck weekly with a long-handled brush and Comet, there was still a noticeable difference in “dirtiness” on the starboard side, where everybody boards the boat. Capt. Brian pieced together a Dri-Dek walkway along the starboard deck, from the finger dock to the cockpit. Footprint problem solved!

NEXT: OUR FIRST BIG SAILING TRIP GETS BLOWN AWAY. LITERALLY…

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Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

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BUYING THE ARCH: NEVER BE AFRAID TO HAGGLE FOR MAJOR BOAT EXPENSES!

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

I’m pretty good at haggling. Whenever we need to buy a major asset, Richard stands back and watches me do the negotiating. The adult kids occasionally ask for my advice when they’re making a major purchase.

Even if the product or service has a firm list price, I’m not afraid to initiate a negotiation if it’ll save me some money, especially if the product is priced extremely high. When buying No Tan Lines, I negotiated the price down $30K. That was a 23.1% savings! (Yeah, I calculated it.)

Oh, the awesome (expensive) arch! They provide mariners with extra room for even more equipment (toys!). And, even better, they look super cool! No Tan Lines (“Tanny”) has one solar panel hanging from the port side that hasn’t worked since we bought her. Tanny’s myriad of antennas are attached to stanchions on the port side of the stern. I’m not even sure all of those work, either.

We had a really nice set of davits for the dinghy but we knew we’d have to remove them in order on install an arch. The good news is they’re worth about $1500-$2000 used. We took pictures so we can sell them.

For the arch, we contacted a well-known local firm for a quote. They came out and measured Tanny, and the estimate was astronomical. I was expecting to pay maybe $3K to $4K. When the much higher estimate arrived, I said, “No way!” I had resigned myself to the fact that we just weren’t going to have an arch.

Fast forward to the St. Petersburg Boat Show a few weeks later. The same arch company had a booth there and they were advertising the same arch for a much lower price. $1800!! I didn’t hesitate to immediately confront  the guy working at the booth. Why was the price so much lower than the quote I’d received? He stammered a bit, and tried to tell me the boat show special was for an arch that was too small for my boat. Uh huh… It’s so funny when salesmen in an industry dominated by men (boat products) think this blonde chick was born yesterday.

Fast forward again to the following Monday. Brian called the owner. He’d heard we’d been at the boat show. After Brian’s added high-skilled negotiations, we did indeed get the arch for the boat show price and Brian would install it for us, saving us even more money. The deal was so good that Brian got one for his boat, too!

Our awesome and multi-talented neighbor, Diego, pitched in to help and now both No Tan Lines and Floggin’ Molly have beautiful arches AND new davits to boot! (The davits were only $400 per set, and they attach directly to the new arches.) Now we get to begin the fun task of deciding on new solar panels. If you have any recommendations, please let us know! 🙂

NEXT: CAN GIRLS DOCK BIG BOATS? YEP!!

Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter. We’ll alert you to new posts and we’ll be having book give-aways! 🙂

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.