Oriental, NC

 Just more chores on the boat.

Duane 60' up in the air doing some maintenance at the top of the mast.

Oriental, NC

 Finished up the window coverings - very pleased with them.

Duane installed all 75 stainless steel snaps!  (Thanks again to Ed & Cathy for loaning us the fancy Sailrite snap installation tool - wow - very easy (comparatively) to install snaps.

 

Looking fresh!

 

 

Oriental, NC

The previous owner of the boat had all the exterior "soft goods" replaced in 2014.  Apparently 8 years exposed to the elements 24/7 is enough to compromise even tough outdoor fabric.

The salon window coverings are the next on the agenda.  

 

Here's an up close shot of the failing fabric.

 

Sailrite to the rescue!  I ordered the exact fabric as a replacement.  It's a Phifertex Plus mesh.  Hard to see it from the photos, but this mesh actually does let some light thru.

 

Amazing difference between new/old!

I simply traced the edges and cut out the new fabric.

 

Nothing exciting or difficult - just tedious because of the large size.  The underside is reinforced with a strong webbing.  The edges are finished with Stamoid vinyl bias tape.

This is the underside - 

 

And this is the finished side.

 

The mostly finished panel (odd camera angle, I guess - because the panels are exactly the same size).  Tomorrow we'll install a huge number of snaps!

Oriental, NC

 Finally have all the sewing bits that I need to install the “smilies” (curved zipper openings) in the new enclosure panels. 

It was not as hard as I’d feared. 

Just lots of careful stitching using pre-made Sunbrella facing.  (It was just a lot easier to buy it than make 60' of it!)

 

And turned over for the zipper on the inside.  

 All done and installed!  Opened for easy entry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oriental, NC

 Back at the happy place!  We had a nice supper with Ed and Cathy last night followed by a card game like old times!

 They'll be traveling this weekend so we'll say see them again in a few weeks. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend!

Pittsboro, NC

 Had a meeting with the fire department at the airport this morning.  Great guys and happy they're close at hand!

Pittsboro, NC

 Lindy invited me to help myself to some garden goodies.  Just a few tomatoes and herbs.  Looking forward to using some of the herbs on some Mahi-mahi.

Oriental, NC

 We had a fun day yesterday!  First Buddy called and said he was visiting NC and would like to drop by.  

We had a nice catch-up session with him as we hadn't seen him since  last fall.  Had lunch at M&M's - great local shrimp but the staff was a bit zany!  

 

And then late in the day, Ed & Cathy arrived for a few days.  Fun catching up with them as well.

 

We were treated to a fabulous sunset as well!

Oriental, NC

We're at the boat, just doing some chores.  Things like re-wiring the bilge pumps, replacing a faucet and finishing some grommets on the cockpit enclosure.  Nothing very photogenic.  

But it's nice on the creek - temps are a bit warm but pleasant enough for the middle of the summer.

Pittsboro

 Another Osprey post. This is me standing in front of one of the rotor blades. The thing is huge!!!

Pittsboro, NC

 Thanks to my peeps at the airport for some cool photos from today!

Oriental, NC

 Nothing photogenic happening, just chores. It’s been overcast and rainy. 

Oriental, NC

 More chores at the boat.  I got the little spot cleaner vacuum back out and finished up areas that I hadn't gotten to earlier.  One particularly discolored area was in the galley cabinets.  The curved shape of the hull at the back of the cabinet is covered in the same indoor/outdoor carpet/fabric.  This area looks like it may have never been cleaned at all.  But, in reality, it is always stuffed with bowls and containers so this back area is not really too visible. 

 

Amazing that it all just gets sucked away by the little vacuum cleaner.

Back at the boat - pretty sunset with the two Mantas!

 And on a completely different note..... I've been meaning to mention this new sausage - Impossible Sausage.  Yay!  I get to eat something that tastes just like sausage.  (It's the same company that makes the Impossible Whopper "meat").  Duane likes it as well.  

 

Pittsboro, NC

 Back at the airport, pretty uneventful day.  A nice military helicopter used the airport for some practice take offs and landings.  

Weather continues to be fairly pleasant in the low to mid-80's.  Nice for the middle of summer in NC!

Oriental, NC

Last post about the enclosure for a while. Got it mostly completed thanks to Cathy having a few of the Little Hardware bits I needed. For some reason I didn't plan ahead and make sure I had everything, and it's nice that their boat is right there and fully stocked!

I've decided that I will put a "smiley" in the rear panel to make it easy to get in and out of the cockit (but not the others).   I'm very happy with the excellent  visibility of these new side  panels!

Back to Pittsboro now for a week or so. 

Oriental, NC

 I have almost finished 2 of the side enclosure panels.  Pretty pleased with the results.

As a reminder - here is the "before" photo - the photo actually doesn't show exactly how terrible these panels are.  

 

I know, kinda hard to see from the photos since it's all white but the new ones provide a lot more visibility. 

 

Oriental, NC

 Spent the day working on the enclosure.  Got one panel mostly complete.  If you notice, the borders are pretty narrow.   I wanted to give as much visibility as I could so I made the strips narrower. 

And I found a neat gizmo - a binding tape maker.  You can buy pre-made binding for Sunbrella - but it's a little pricey for what it is.  This little tool worked perfectly and will save me some $$ from now on.

 And here's a look at the first panel when I was fitting it for the zippers.  Big improvement over the old cloudy ones!

Oriental, NC

Jerry and Donna have been storing our big Sailrite fabric order while we were away - so we went over to pick it up and had a nice visit catching up with them.

Unpacking it - lots of zippers, hardware and of course the Sunbrella and clear vinyl (O'Sea 30 polished, if you're interested)  for the enclosure panels.  

 

Getting right to work - I borrowed Cathy's hot knife - really makes cutting Sunbrella nice.

 

Hard to show photos, mostly just assembling strips of cloth.

 

I did make good progress - and the weather is dreamy for the middle of August!  Low 80's and a nice breeze.  More tomorrow!