In the previous post you have probably read how we grounded the boat. We managed to lose a prop and bend the rudder. Turns out, we also cracked the bottom of our keel (which is one of our four water tanks). The good news is that it all added up to an insurance claim (which means cost wise we will only be out our deductible). The bad news is that the repairs have to be paid 100% before the insurance will re-imburse us all of those costs (minus the deductible). Needless to say, we did not have that kind of cash/credit laying around. So, we availed ourselves of the only option we had - a boat loan. We bought and paid for our boat with cash. Now, she has a loan attached to her. The good part is that we took more money out on her, than we needed on the repairs. That means we can do a few other things on our "wish list." With the loan application filed and the insurance claim made, all we had to do was kill time for awhile. So we played tourists in the beautiful city of Saint Augustine.
We prowled through the fort, we wandered the museums and shops, we visited St. Augustine Beach, we went on a ghost tour, we bought trolley passes to get a tour of the city, and we played lots of mini-golf. There are at least three mini golf courses in the vicinity. We have been to all of them multiple times. In fact, our son's fifteenth birthday rolled around at the end of May, and you guessed it, all day mini golf! Definitely not a bad city to get "stuck" in!
June rolled around with a visit from the parents. They drove over from Texas to see the boat in person. They thrilled us with a few days in a hotel to get a break from the heat. Our boat did not come with air conditioning, and summers in Florida are hot (not Texas hot mind you, but hot). They ended their visit with a few boat warming presents. One was a portable air conditioning unit for the boat - a wonderful break from the heat and cool sleeping nights! Another was two more foldable bikes, which means we now have four foldable bikes for transportation! They also managed to provide some non-cotton apparel for the admiral. Any woman will tell you that cotton is not your friend in the heat! The admiral is feeling much better these days!!! Needless to say we had a wonderful visit and the parents had to leave way too soon.
Within a few days of the parent's departure, the loan application was approved and work began. While the Marine Center began work on the stuff for the insurance claim, we began our work as well. We started with obtaining enough water hose and fittings to correct every "hose over hose and clamped" spot we could find. We were sick to death of water leaks from poor repairs, so we went through and fixed them all. The water pump is nice and quiet these days! Not to mention a dry bilge too!!!
We've decided to convert the boat from 230v AC to 110v AC. That means that everything from the inverter to the shore power cable (and all wires in between) have to be replaced. We decided to add an AC panel on the nav station, next to the DC panel. We had some additions to the DC side that there wasn't room for, so it was time to modify the nav station. We took out the old equipment that was no longer working, and the baby tv. In their place we constructed a new AC control panel for the AC breakers and for the DC additions (on separate ground buses of course). The nav station even has a nice vent up top to help with the heat. We obtained a new wi-fi extender (the existing one didn't work) and a new AIS transponder (since the one we had didn't work well and wouldn't send our location - only receive others). Needless to say the nav station is much less cluttered and everything on it actually works. The addition of the custom made hull ID plate (made by the admiral) looks great.
We've decided that every cabin should have it's our source of DC power, so every cabin will be getting a new DC outlet (with USB's as well) located next to their new fans (previously installed a few months ago). New AC outlets will be going in every location that currently has one, along with a few additions in the salon. We will be pulling out all of the old outlets and wiring, and replacing it with new. We are currently surrounded by several hundred feet of wire. It'll be nice when it's all finished.
Every boat owner will tell you that storage is one of the biggest challenges. The admiral has taken it upon herself to remedy the "storage" inadequacies of our boat. She had already made shelves in the port hull for all of the kids school books. She had also made some covered shelves in the salon to hide some of the clutter. She has added a galley shelf, to double the storage space, where the old broken microwave used to be. She has completely modified the master cabin hanging locker. It now holds three to four times the clothing it used to, with the addition of all of the shelves. She has removed an old non-working tv in the master cabin and converted it to a cabinet with shelves. The table in the salon was too short, so she modified it and raised it. Underneath it now has a cubby, soon to be modified into a large flat drawer. She is now preparing to add a medicine cabinet (that she's custom making to fit) into each head, along with a cabinet over the toilet (again custom made - and waterproof too). She's been getting her full use out of the craftsman bolt-on power tools given to her as a gift from her father-in-law (and added to by the captain). She's always painting or staining something, if she's not fabricating.
Everyone is getting new mattresses (and the master cabin is getting new bedding). The sunshades on the sides of the boat have been replaced (the old ones were ratty and stained). The thrown together screen on the interior of the companionway, made by the previous owners, is being replaced with a fully functional version that zips (keeping all the bugs out). We decided to pull out all the anchor chain and mark it, only to discover how badly rusted it was. So a new 200' chain and Rocna anchor have been added (and the chain marked). We removed the salt water deck wash and re-plumbed it for fresh water. Now the new chain and anchor can be rinsed with fresh water. The line and track slides holding the bow tramps are severely deteriorated, so they're getting all new line and clips. We're even adding stuffed animal hammocks to our daughter's cabin to hold all her plush friends (lots and lots of plush friends).
We are paying to have all of the through hulls in the boat replaced. They are original and in sad shape. We decided not to take our chances with one of them breaking and sinking the boat. It was discovered (with the first big storm here) that the large salon windows leak. Apparently the previous owners liked to just add goop around the windows instead of properly removing and re-bedding. We will be having them removed and properly re-bedded so they don't leak. We'll be replacing the crazed plexiglass with new at the same time. It will be nice to actually see out of the windows! We also purchased two kayaks because there has to be some fun in there somewhere!
As you can see, we have been very busy. We get up early, work all day, shower, and collapse into sleep. However, in the end it will all be worth it. We regularly ride our bikes into downtown for dinner, as we're usually too tired to cook. The kids did finish school on time. They both finished with all A's. They spend a large part of their time biking, swimming in the community pool across the street, or vegging out on the TV in the Marina's lounge. We sent them to camp at Marineland last week. They had an absolute blast. Marineland is a sort of aquatic sanctuary. They take in marine life that is injured and re-habilitate them (or give them a permanent residence if they cannot be returned to the sea). They have all kinds of marine life, including dolphins. The camp was an educational camp that taught the kids a lot about marine life, habitats, and ecosystems. The kids studied various marine life, hiked in maritime forest, made EED's (toys) for the dolphins, helped return a previously injured sea turtle to the ocean, played basketball with dolphins, snorkeled in the lagoon, dissected squid (and drew with the ink), cleaned up the beach, canoed in the intracoastal, played and body surfed in the ocean, learned dolphin signals, and swam with the dolphins. They had an incredible time and made new friends with several of the other teenagers. They would not have gotten to do that if we hadn't been stuck here.
Our time here, while long, has been productive and fun. We still have a lot of work to do, but are getting closer everyday. All of the insurance repairs are finished, except the painting of the keel. As soon as that and the through hulls are finished, we should be back in the water. We will still be here, until the salon windows are replaced, but hopefully floating rather than occupying space on the hard!
Oh, and for those of you wondering about boat cat Tiger - he's doing just fine:
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