Month: July 2019

The cruising life is one full of joyful “hellos 😀 ”, but also ripe with tearful “goodbyes 🙁 ”. We’re into the second part of the cycle right now. Our good friends Paula & Byron left a few weeks ago on their big journey south. Now we’re faced with saying goodbye to all the rest of the grand people we’ve gotten to know here in Corner Brook as we prepare to head off ourselves.

… but more on that later.

With our near-death sinking experience behind us, we returned to the tasks of getting our floating home more functional and livable. We cleaned and sorted things, we made some minor repairs, we installed the windmill, wind vane and reconnected the solar systems. And we sent the little monkey (Ann) up the mast to reinstall our wind instrument.

 

 

With our floating home in some semblance of function, if not order, we finally turned our attention to the major project of the season: replacing our well-worn old fridge. The old one had been installed in 1995, and was well past its prime. But we’ve been limping along with it because, just like with so many things on this boat, it’s virtually impossible to work on, let alone remove. But like lemmings running toward the cliff, we finally threw caution to the wind and started the job of getting the damn thing out.

This took a full day of grunting, cursing and blood letting, but the job was finally done!

Of course, this was just the beginning. Once the old fridge was out we realized the ice box itself needed some repairing and repainting, The compressor compartment was a total mess, and the shelving had nearly completely rotted out. So while Ann got to work cleaning and sanding and painting, I dove into the electrical side of things (which had been an equal disaster of spaghetti wiring).

 

Finally, everything was done — all except the new shelf. Our other good friend Kenny volunteered to make us one. He brought back a beautifully-crafted board that was so nice, Ann made him sign it. Now, a little bit of Kenny will always be with us 😉 .

With the cabinets all cleaned, painted and prepped, and the wiring in place, we then unfurled the many feet of copper tubing, and slowly threaded the new cooling unit back into place. After further cursing, grunting and blood letting, everything was back together, screwed in and bolted down. I plugged in the final wires, pulled the switch and … and…

Nothing.

OK, I’m messing with ya 😛 . There was ‘nothing’ for about two seconds, and then she fired up and has been running perfectly ever since. We now have a freezer, cold fridge and cool fridge (three sort-separate areas) that are freezing, cold and cool. PLUS — and this is the big one — it’s operating at about 1/3rd of the power draw of the old one.

    

What this means is that we are now pretty much self-sufficient when it comes to electricity. We don’t even have to run the diesel (boaters will understand this). But most importantly, the beer and wine still gets cold 😀 !

While sitting at the dock, slowly doing our work, we manage to meet some wonderful new people who were cruising through. Todd (and wife) from Halifax. Mark, and his crew Tony and Barb. Mark was also heading to Lewisporte, so hopefully we’ll reconnect once we get there.

Which gets us back to joys and sadnesses (if that’s a word). We’ve decided to move to Lewisporte this season. This means saying goodbye to all the friends and folks we’ve met and become close to here at the Bay of Islands Yacht Club. There are almost too many to mention, but along with Byron & Paula have been such wonderful people like Gord & Leona, Brian, John & Doris, Kenny, Roger and Graham, Keith, Don & Lisa and numerous good acquaintances and dock mates.

But despite the sadness, we’re both pretty excited to be moving once again. We rented a big cargo van the other day and loaded up all our stuff (stands, blocking, winter frame, etc) and drove across the Island to Lewisporte. We left it all, including our car, at our soon-to-be new home port, and then drove back to Corner Brook.

We’re stocked and almost ready to go. Just a few more small projects over the next couple of days, and then we’ll be looking for a weather window to begin the journey. It’s not a long trek, but it is through some waters that can be challenging. As usual, we’ll be going slowly and safely. You can follow along using our tracker.

We spent the week living in the lap of luxury at Byron & Paula’s place. We were in no rush to get to the boat since the Newfoundland weather was being distinctly Newfoundlandish; cold, damp, and cold. Besides, we were having way too much fun hanging with friends. We even got Paula interested in learning to play ukulele — so much so that she went off and bought one.

But after nearly a week getting spoiled with a warm bed and good food at Paula & Byron’s place, we finally girded our loins and moved back onto our little floating home of Pachina Mia. Except of course, she wasn’t floating yet, and was a complete disarray.

Slowly, over a matter of a few days, we managed to get the boat more livable, and prepare her for launch. Of course there were a few necessary jobs to do first. We had to  paint the bottom with new antifoul to keep the critters from attacking our hull. And we had to change the sacrificial zincs to keep the water from corroding our propeller and shaft and just about everything metal.

                         

Launch day finally arrived, and Pachina went in without a hitch. It was a smooth, easy lift; the best we’ve had. And she floated off the trailer looking strong and proud. Unfortunately she was sinking — fast. A thru hull was leaking, and was letting in water at an uncomfortable rate.

Despite the valiant efforts of Byron, we could not stop the leak. So a few days later we hauled out again and surveyed the damage. We did indeed have a cracked thru hull, likely caused when we hauled out last fall. There was nothing to be done except replace it.

Byron once again came to the rescue by donating an unused thru hull, so then all we had to do was remove the old one, and insert the new. Of course no boating job is ever as easy as it sounds. But after much banging and sawing, cursing and swearing, we finally managed to get the job done.

  

A couple of days of curing (during which we moved back into P&B’s — what are we going to do without you 🙁 ) we re-launched … and she wasn’t sinking!! So we moved back on board with the comforting knowledge our boat still floats, and our bilge pump works pretty damn well 😉 .

While we were dealing with all our struggles to stay afloat, B&P were busy launching their own boat, getting the mast on, and preparing for the big sail south. Like many of us, they’d been working towards this goal for many years, and with work and health issues mostly settled, the time had come.

 

       

All too soon they were packed up and gone. The club already feels lesser for the loss, but luckily we can all stay in touch with them via their blog: C Whisper.

During all this activity I managed to turn 52. I received some wonderful notes and gifts, and Ann even cooked me an amazing moose stew. The moose was given to us by new friends Jaimie and Nick. They are fellow sailors who also are moving on from Corner Brook.

But the best gift of all came from my wonderful nephew (great nephew?) Connor. Who could ask for more:

 

Now that we’re back in the water, and not sinking too fast, we’re slowing bringing the boat back to life. We have a few small jobs, and one major one to do yet. If all goes well though we plan to cut the dock lines once again and sail north around Newfoundland, over to Lewisporte. Will we make it? Who knows…