Dinghy life vest organizer

While we have the dinghy home for maintenance, I decided we needed a way to "tidy it up".  We've always just thrown the life preservers in the back - where they take up lots of room.  You can see them in this photo from the Bahamas a couple of months ago.

I had some left over marine mesh material left over from a Island Girl project a few years ago, so I set out to make a "keeper" for the life vests.

Just made a loose bag.

And ironed some Sunbrella material for a finished edge binding.

 Added a few snaps to the bag and the seat support.  Very happy to have the floor space to stash groceries, etc!

Trip to Memphis

A few days ago, we did a quick trip to Memphis to pick up a 500 lb anchor!  Visited with the folks on our way thru, so was a nice trip.

We'll need a "hurricane mooring" at our place in Oriental.  If a hurricane is threatening, we need to be able to take the boat out into the middle of the creek and attach it to a mooring ball.  This way, the boat will just "weathervane" in the high winds and rise/fall with the tides. 

Here's the anchor being loaded onto the back of our pickup.

We'll have to get approval from the folks who are in charge of the waterways, but should not be a problem.   We drove over 1000 miles in one day - a very long day!

Bomar hatch re-bedding

Two of our overhead hatches have leaks....time to fix them.  I'm tired of wiping up the drips!

Hard to see, but the hatch is basically a "sandwich" with a lip outside that is supposed to be 100% sealed and the interior plastic (yucky old yellowed plastic).

With a bit of prying and pushing, it's all apart.   Now the "cleanup" begins.  An amazing amount of caulk had to be removed.

Duane's pretty legs dangling into the salon while he worked on removing all the caulk on the exterior.  It took about 3 hours!

The yucky old caulk fell to the floor below.

Outside part cleaned and ready to reinstall.

Interior plastic painted and ready!

He put down a liberal amount of 3M 4200 marine sealant.

Hatch back in place!  We'll await the next rain to verify, but I think we've got it fixed!

Dinghy chaps repairs

We hauled the dinghy home to the hangar to do some repairs.  It has a very small leak that needs to be addressed - and it can't be done hanging on the back of the boat. 

So, I am taking this opportunity to finally sew on the nice registration placard we bought when we were back in Texas.

This is a photo of the dinghy when we first bought the boat.   It has the previous owner's registration numbers showing thru a cut-out in the dinghy chaps.

And this was my solution to temporarily display our NC registration numbers - done with black electrical tape! Don't look closely - I "free-handed" those characters.... Ugly but legal.

But now that I have the dinghy chaps removed, it is time to fix it properly!

So I just measured the "hole".....

And cut out patches of sunbrella material to cover the holes on each side.

 Top stitched the borders - the placard is a very heavy plastic coated canvas.   My machine sews it easily.

Patches ready - I sewed the placards on with black UV resistant thread so you can't really see that.

And now the "hole" is covered and we're going to be all legal once I attach my NC Wildlife registration sticker.  Note that I did several other repair patches (like the one on the bottom left).  The dinghy gets some serious abuse up against docks!  (That's one of the purposes of the chaps - to protect the dinghy from protruding "stuff" on docks!)

Taking off the ugly netting

The previous owners had a tiny dog on board and had installed an intricate netting all around the lifelines to keep her "safe" when out on the deck.

We kept the netting on for our trip thru the Bahamas.   I was thinking, well, why not?  It's already there and it might "catch" something that had gotten loose on the deck.

But I started to hate it!  It interfered with the cleats and it generally just looked "yucky" and not "ship shape"....

The netting had been on the boat many years - it was a tedious procedure to cut/unwind all the attaching strings. 

All fresh and clean!  And those cleats are accessible like they should be!

"Before" shot.

And the "after" shot.  Much cleaner looking, I think!

Away

Weird to be posting non-sailing days!!!  Check out The World of Karen

We'll be back to the boat soon!

Dinghy Trailer Refurb

Our neighbor had a dinghy/trailer that had suffered thru a brush fire.  It wasn't of any use to her - the wiring was melted, the wood skids were burnt up and the front caster wheel had melted.   But the "bones" were good.

The dinghy was a total loss....so we loaded it up and will take it to the dump for her.   Duane will fix her up and she'll be good as new!

Back "home"....

Arrived back "home" to Pittsboro yesterday.   Over 3000 nautical miles from  Galveston in November.....a neighbor in Oriental had been keeping our little minivan running since Octobor when we left it there.  So, we had transportation once we arrived at our dock.

First time in at the dock at our lot.   I have been handling the controls at the docks since we left Galveston in November.  Duane has been out on deck handling the lines.  So far, we've only pulled up to "face docks" for fuel/water.  I will tell you, even though our slip is 30' wide....it seemed a little "tight" approaching for the first time!  Duane coached me from the deck - "don't worry about starboard.  Just forget starboard.  You've got plenty of room over there.   Just pay attention to the port side and you'll be fine".  Worked out fine, of course.

Spent a couple of days getting the boat settled in it's new "home" and relaxing.  Drove the 3 hours back inland to Pittsboro.

The house handled the 6 months empty well.  Nothing broke, froze or flooded.  A couple of wonderful neighbors took care of watering the inside plants and collecting the mail every day.   Thanks Pat & Diane and Lindy!

The pipes all expelled rusty water for a few minutes and the toilets had evaporated all the water out of the bowls.  Several of our outdoor plants did not survive the "below-freezing-for-10-days-straight" that they suffered this winter. (Not that anything would have changed had we been in residence)

Only one vehicle tag had expired while we were away.  The daffodils and the iris's bloomed without me.....


We've got a list of things we're doing before heading back to the boat in a few days....

One of the most important is flying!!!  Hangar in the backyard.

Pulled the Mooney out and did a good walkaround.  Amazing that the tires stayed pumped up and the battery was still charged after 6 months!

We flew and got our currency back (3 take offs and landings are required every 90 days).   Duane is a pro.....but I will admit that I was very, very rusty at the controls after so long away!  The NC countryside is just lovely from the air, though.

Really, really weird to be back in the house with all the space!   I seem lost in my own kitchen!   The king-size bed seems ridiculous!

Visiting with the neighbors and the kids.  Getting everything ready to head back to the coast in a few days for lots of "boat chores" - bottom paint, new engines, etc.

Seems like we're spread a little thin between all of our various interests.....and the plan is to head out again in the fall for points south!

Boat chores

Not a lot of interesting things going on in Oriental....just cleaning the boat and getting settled in the slip.  Since this boat has never been here before, we had to set up all the dock lines to make sure the boat sits safely in the center in all wind conditions.   A tedious but necessary task.

The boat is salty and dirty from 6 months with no unlimited water supply for cleaning.

I spent pretty much the entire day scrubbing and rinsing the decks, washing clothes, etc.  Love my little washer/dryer - sure beats lugging clothes to the laundromat!

When we had gotten all the coiled docklines out of this compartment, Duane noticed that the dryer vent tube had come loose....so I shimmied into the compartment.  It's a large compartment inside, but the opening is small and it's really claustrophobic while inside. 

Here I am laying down inside the compartment - I'd already put the vent hose back in place and secured it tightly with a tie-wrap.  Hope it stays put because that was no fun!!

That's about it....just lots of little necessary chores!

Home Dock

We left Morehead City in the morning....passing the shipping dock we saw this ship with huge turbine blades...I assume they're for windmills, but not sure.  These ships are usually about 900-1000' long, so those blades would have to be 200-300' long each. 

More familiar sights as we start the intercoastal trek to Oriental.

Core Creek bridge - glad our mast is only 62' now.  This bridge gave us fits when we were in Glory Days because it was often too low for us to pass due to wind driven water and tides.

Oriental in the distance - it's been a long time since we've seen this view!

Sojourn at "home" for the first time!   Now to do lots and lots of cleaning and boat chores!