Boat envy

A brush from some boat work we did.

When we went to see a movie at another kid boat, I have to admit I got a little jealous. Their boat is quite a bit newer than ours, has a nice modern layout, and is just not as tired as our 20-year old boat. I realize that they have a lot more money than we do (they still own their house and are having a vacation home built in an exotic locale) and spent way more on their boat than we did. But you have to appreciate a boat that looks clean after you have cleaned it.

The feeling only lasted a short time though. I actually love our boat. It is home and it is right for us. The boys can live in it and drop their cars on the floor without ruining a perfect finish. It's our home now.

Also, what we are finding is that having a newer boat does not preclude spending a ton of time and money on fixes. The spending-too-much-on-boats club has a lot of members.

Plants

We bought some mint (for mojitos, of course) and basil. We will see whether (1) they survive our brown thumbs* and (2) we are allowed to bring them into the Bahamas. We already failed a little by putting the mint and basil in the same container as they have different sunlight needs.

*The aloe plant that another boat on the dock gave us is already looking a little yellow despite being "indestructible."

Here fishy, fishy

We went fishing at Anglin's Pier last night. Even if you're not fishing there is a great view of the ocean (although you have to pay a small amount to get on the pier). Sometimes there is really good shrimping--a woman we talked to at Sailorman said she got 60 pounds with very little effort. But there haven't been any good shrimp runs this season yet.

The pelicans will steal your bait if you're not careful.

We didn't catch any keepers and fed the fish a lot of shrimp bits (the fishermen that were having success were using squid and bigger poles it seems; I'm sure there was no other reason) but it was a lot of fun. Another guy caught an eel and a ray.

We saw one guy who tags sharks for research spend 20 minutes trying to reel in a 6-foot shark. He kept running up and down the dock with his pole, ducking under everyone else's poles. In the end, it got away when he handed his pole to someone else and went down to the beach to get to the shark. Before he went down to the beach, he said that no one else should go down to the beach with the shark there. No problem.

One of the fisherman next to us gave us a good sized bluefish that Matt filleted up for dinner. There must have been a school coming by because while we were there 6 or 7 were caught.

The picture above was Conrad fishing while trying to explain the finer points of fishing to a 6-year old girl who was on the dock. It was a contest for who could talk the most. They both won.

So did you win the lottery?

We have been asked indirectly and directly how we can afford to quit our jobs and live aboard a sailboat. No, we did not win the lottery or inherit money. So, just how can we afford to sail off?

Simple. We saved a lot. Simple, like lose weight by eating less or squeeze the toothpaste tube from the bottom and work your way up. "Simple, maybe, but not easy."

That's a quote from the movie "The Prestige". If you haven't seen it and you plan to, then--SPOILER ALERT--skip the rest of this paragraph. It's about two rival magicians. The way that one of the magicians performs the ultimate illusion is by living with his twin as a single person. The line (simple, maybe, but not easy) is uttered right before a montage that depicts the life of the twins and includes the purposeful severing of fingertips and daily betrayal of loved ones.

Our 'saving' montage would be way more boring and would include paying off credit card debt and student loans, rehabbing a 2-flat and renting it, bringing our lunch to work, and using an old flip phone* (me, not Matt--he can only take so much). It would leave out the vacations and weekly sushi habit. It's all very unexciting but we found that it is true that if you train yourself to want less, you don't feel like you're missing out.

We have been fortunate in many ways. And we are not recommending that everyone make the same choices. Some people would rather gouge their eye out with a toothpick. But you do have a choice. I love this post about time versus money. Of course, one of our big assumptions in all this is that we will be able to cruise pretty inexpensively. Others have done it so we know it is possible. In future posts, we plan to publish our actual costs so you can see how it is going.

*I swear my phone had a "G" on it the other day--as in not 3G or 4G connectivity, just G.

Oh, mast off

 

 

When we had our 26 foot Pearson on Lake Michigan, one year we lowered the mast ourselves with a couple of guys. I'm not saying it was a good idea, but it happened. Another year the crane operator dropped the mast due to mishandling. There were no serious injuries or damages. Today when we had our 67 foot mast taken off to have some work done, it was a whole 'nother ball game.

A mistep by this crane operator would mean serious injury or death. It really drove home how much bigger this boat is than what we are used to. Docking this beast was also quite the experience with the tide and wind fighting against us. There were a couple of times where we got close to scraping the hull a bit. But we avoided any damage to the boat and/or totally embarassing ourselves. So I guess we can play in this league for now.

Hurry up and wait

 

So far there was not a hitch. The workpeople, to be sure--riggers and

what not --were most annoyingly slow; but time cured that.

 

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

 

We are reading Treasure Island right now. It was written in 1883 and yet here we are in 2013, waiting for the riggers. They recently informed us that they could not install our new mast tracks without taking the mast down. Nevermind that two weeks ago they said they could.

So Friday we are having our mast taken down. Oh, well. It will give us the opportunity to inspect everything and install a new anchor light and radar mount without Matt getting a superwedgie going up the mast again.

Instead of this week, maybe we can set sail next week. Sigh.

 

  

 

Yesterday we played tourist and spent the day at the Miami Metropolitan Zoo. We practically had the whole place to ourselves. It is much more spread out than the zoos back in Chicago. They rent 4-wheel bicycles to facilitate getting around. There is also a tram and a monorail. Conrad and Mark spent most of their time digging in the dinosaur sand pit and jumping off a rock (things you can do for free outside of the zoo).

 

We met up with Shelley and Sanders, friends from Chicago who are in Miami for a few days, and ended the day with mojitos, which is becoming a theme for our time here, and Conrad tried escargot. Read his post about our day here.

  



The unmitigated joy of it all

We went to the boat show in Miami on Friday. It was cold, gray and rainy. Our jackets were not waterproof. Mark was being difficult and prompting disapproving looks from strangers (sometimes as he ran straight into them). As is often the case in such moments, I felt like a failure as a mother.




On the water taxi to the other part of the show.

Some hot chocolate to warm up.



We took a water taxi and bus to the other part of the boat show, which took so long that when we got there we had to turn around and come back so Matt would be in time for a seminar. He was helping the broker that sold us our boat give a talk on "project boats." Yeah, here's a tip for you. Don't buy one. Just kidding. Sort of.

While Matt was at the presentation, the kids and I walked around the show. At one point, as we walked along the waterfront, Mark decided to go tearing as fast as he could along the sea wall. I was yelling after him to stop, chasing him (while trying to keep Conrad with me) and having visions of him tumbling down into the water. A couple of times he looked back to smile and make eye contact and then keep going. From a distance I saw a security guard and then later an older woman stop him momentarily but he must have convinced them that it was okay for him to keep running because they let him go.

When I finally caught him I was extremely irate. I was about to start chewing him out for not listening when he broke into a huge grin and said, "I'm so happy!" "What? Why?" I asked. "Because this is so cool!" That and the ecstatic look on his face melted my cranky-mom heart right down. It's hard to stay mad in the face of such pure joy. Well played, little man. Well played. Of course, he still got a timeout for not listening. Yeah, sometimes Moms have to be jerks.

The snapshot above (sorry, it's hard to take dolphin pics with a slow, crap camera) shows a few of the dolphins that were playing along the seawall. At one point they were right next to the crowd of people watching and several dolphins were diving down in a circle. If you could bottle the happiness that dolphins bring to people, man, you would be rich.

We ended the day with mojitos and fruity drinks for the kids and, despite the weather and difficulties, some great memories.

Duck, duck...duck?

There is a woman who works at the marina who loves animals. She stays after work to feed the stray cats that live in the marina. 

Recently, she was feeding the ducks as well. Matt mentioned to her that there were about six of them that were pooping all over our dock. She was so happy that they had come back. But then she said wistfully that when the Vietnamese workers show up, the ducks always disappear again.

At least it's the ducks and not the cats that are disappearing.

Happy Chinese New Year!

 

Every now and then vendors and others associated with the marina throw random parties. Probably because boaters spend so much freakin' money.* 

So there was one for Chinese New Year. It was a fun party with a DJ, open bar, free juice boxes scattered everywhere, and a bouncy house. The food was good too--Asian noodles and barbecue (because it's the south). The boys said it was the best night of their lives. The grown-ups enjoyed it too.

*"Mom, what does 'freakin' mean?" Um...it means really a lot."

Every party has to end...

Tour de boat

Mark and Conrad wanted to give you a video tour of the boat. It's a length and kid-focus that only a grandparent could love--sorry. But it gives a glimpse of the boat (only the port side is shown; the starboard side is similar except that there are closets instead of a galley). It's also messy because of the ongoing projects.

The party don't start 'til I walk in

Brit and Sandy from Halcyon (who are awesome) took us surfing. The jetty got some nice waves off the passing boats and Mark and Conrad were able to stand up and ride a wave in. They were stoked! 

The title of the post?  The past couple of days Mark has been walking around randomly announcing that fact to the world...thanks Ke$ha.

Fear factor

Most European catamarans have hatches in the floor of the boat so that if your
boat turns upside down ("goes turtle"), you have a way to escape. What the...?!

The kids are going through a stage where they are afraid to go to their cabins alone. This predates the boat. At my parents' house, it applied to the bathroom two rooms away from the kitchen where everyone was gathered. It could be related to the "Bloody Mary" discussion started by someone in Conrad's first grade class.

Of course, they have no problem racing down the dock on their Razor scooters, looking backwards, and racing down the ramps at top speed. Kids are no better at gauging risk than the rest of us.

Being on the boat sets a whole new bunch of fears in motion. When we first moved aboard, our oldest was freaked out by the noises on the boat. Matt explained that those were the bilge pumps that pump water out so that the boat won't sink. Conrad said something like, "Wait a second...the boat could actually sink?"

There are some real sources of anxiety, if not fear (most don't usually involve death or serious injury). We are apparently in the lightning capital of the world with a 64-foot lightning rod directly over our heads. The biggest risk with lightning strikes (besides being scared witless) is frying our wiring and electronics. There is a catamaran in our marina that had that happen before the current owners bought her.

On the way to our current marina, Matt had to traverse the very crowded New River, sharing some very narrow passageways with some very big boats. There is one spot where a jetty pushes you into other boats while you wait for the bridge to be raised. When he got to the marina, he was told to back the boat into a very narrow slip with a brand new Beneteau Sense on one side and about 6 inches to spare. He did great but there were white knuckles and other clenched body parts the whole time.

There are a lot more firsts to come and fears to overcome, for all of us. In the meantime, who knew that we had a glass bottom boat? At least our escape hatches are not at the water line--yikes! Oh, here's a Tweet from sv Full Monty as they crossed over from Jamaica to Panama:

 

 

Attitude adjustments

The dot at the top is Matt. We really need to dig out
the good camera. Or get a better photographer.

After hauling (me) and being hauled (Matt) up the mast yesterday, we were both tired, sore and depressed (because after all that, the Wi-Fi repeater seems to work way better with the antenna in the cabin of our boat than on top of the mast). We were starving and really just wanted to order a pizza and call it a day. Matt was really strongly hinting that he would much rather get a pizza than cook. It sounded something like, "Let's just get a pizza."

But when we're "out there" we won't be able to just order a pizza. So we might as well get used to it, right? Speaking as the chief dish washer, it was an easier decision for me. As we passed by a family of cruisers carrying boxes of pizza back to their boat, I think Matt whimpered a little.

So we made homemade Pad Thai (improvising with spaghetti noodles and broccoli slaw instead of bean sprouts, which are not too popular in Ft. Lauderdale). It only took a little longer than the pizza would have and it was delicious (being really hungry always helps the flavor of things). We also felt good about ourselves for making the extra effort. It was like we were training a muscle of self-reliance or something.

So, what are we doing for dinner tonight? Ordering pizza of course.

When you get weary of spending money...

The dinghy that came with our boat was given to the previous owner by his friend. It basically washed up on shore and sat outside the friend's condo, deflated and partially submerged, for something like 4 years. The sun and salt water caused the Hypalon coating to wear away in many spots, which is the death knell for dinghies. Everyone thought it was mold and would give us suggestions on cleaning it. Also, it had been previously painted with paint that was wearing away and leaving a chalky residue on anything that touched it.

When we bought the boat, we had planned to replace the dinghy. A month and countless dollars later, we're less inclined to pay thousands for a new (to us) dinghy. Also, dinghy theft seems to be the most common cruiser-related crime in the Caribbean, so we're in no hurry to dump a ton of money into something that is such a desirable target.

We found this product called Tuff-Coat that we used to try to get some more life out of Grin. It has a base layer that is supposed to bond to the Hypalon and then a top coat of paint. It's a rubbery Xylene-based space aged polymer looking substance that kind of billows away instead of falling to the ground. A quart of base coat and a quart of paint was under $200 with shipping. Here are some pictures of the process, which took a couple of days (including drying time).

The first step was to wash it thoroughly. We used Oxyclean and 3M abrasive pads. That got most of the previous paint off. It looked way worse after that--it really brought out the bare patches.

 

Here's the dinghy (after taping off the rubber parts) with the base coat. It is slightly deflated because of a few pin holes. We thinned it with Xylene and it went on pretty smoothly. If we had to do it again (and we may very well), we would have put another base coat on because our dinghy was so far gone in some areas. But we didn't want to wait for another shipment and didn't get word back about local distributers.

 

 

Here's the finished product after the final paint job. Some of the Tuff-Coat came off around the edges of the tape. It probably would have been better to take the tape off while the coats were still wet and then re-tape, but taping was such a pain we didn't feel it was worth it.  

 

It looks a lot better than when we started and should last a bit longer than it would have otherwise. Time will tell.