Cruising on Plover -- May 2013

They say that the definition of cruising is working on your boat in exotic locations. I'm not sure who "they" are but the definition holds true as we are working on a myriad of details that must be completed before we can leave Clear Lake for our first destination, Ingleside, Texas.

We left Hillman's Shipyard on Saturday, May 4, 2013, and headed to the home of our friends, Karen and Tony Townsend, who have a slip on a canal behind their house and had offered to let us use it for a few days while we got things squared away on the boat.

Gordo took this picture from the top of the mast. It's definitely a view of our boat that we won't usually get to see.

Hanging a pirate from the yard arms -- actually, that's Gordo Barcomb working on some splicing and changing out some blocks.

/

 

 

The Plover Project -- Life in the Boat Yard (Part 9)

Launch Day !!

On Saturday, May 4, 2013, Plover began a new chapter in her life and we began a new chapter in ours.

John Goodman, Gordo Barcomb, Chantel Barcomb, and my parents, Jerry and Margaret Jourdan were in attendance.

The following pictures show the sequence of events from transporting her to Hillman's Shipyard to her first moments on the water.

As we left Hillman's, Gordo said, "From this point on, you're cruising!"

Leaving the boatyard:

On the road:

Chantel Barcomb was there to photograph the event:

Arrived safely at Hillman's Shipyard:

 

 Gordo Barcomb helped with rigging:

 

My parents, Jerry and Margaret Jourdan, were there for the big event.

 

 Into the sling:

 

 

 

Backing out of sling:

 

Heading to Clear Lake. I'm not sure what Major is thinking but I believe it has something to do with "Oh man, here we go again."

 

The Plover Project -- Life in the Boat Yard (Part 8)

Making Lists:

I'm a list maker. I'm not one of those people that can keep it all in my head. I have to write it down and sometimes, if I complete a task that wasn't on my list, I will add it to my list just to experience the satisfaction of crossing it off. I know. Sick. My list of stuff to do has become 4 separate lists:

1. Stuff we gotta do today.
2. Stuff that can wait until next week.
3. Stuff that can wait until next haul out.
4. Stuff we ain't never gonna do.

Painting:

We spent the past few days painting. I've gotten one good coat of bottom paint on and will add a second coat. I love painting the bottom because I don't have to worry about making it look nice, I just have to get a nice, even coat of the thick, copper-filled paint on everything below the water line. We lucked out on our bottom paint and found 2 gallons that had been discontinued for $20 a can. The normal price is $200 a can.

We decided to paint the cap rails and rub rails instead of varnishing them. After almost 50 years of sanding and varnishing, and sometimes letting the varnish go and allowing the wood to become weathered, there was no way we were ever going to get them to look nice. We cut out and replaced sections of rot, sanded them as smoothly as we could get them, and started getting paint on them. Replacing the cap rails, rub rails, and bulwarks have been added to List No. 3, Stuff That Can Wait Until Next Haul Out.

Chris is taping off, I'm painting:

Green bulwarks, primer on cap rails and rub rails:

Our neighbor made window frames for our larger windows:

Chris got this box to mount our masthead lights on:

The Plover Project -- Life in the Boat Yard (Part 7)

I haven't posted much lately mostly because it seems like I don't have much to say about our progress on the boat. For example, today I sanded. Yesterday I sanded. I sanded the day before that, too, and I will be sanding tomorrow.

We did take care of some things that we had been putting off. We built a storage shed that fits on top of our flatbed trailer, cleaned out our storage unit, stored all that crap in the storage shed, and then guess what we did? We worked on the boat, e.g., sanded.

We spent 2 weeks at the local crack hotel so that I could completely paint and varnish the interior of the boat without messing up our nice cushions and everything else we own. I was able to set up a varnishing station in the kitchen area of our room and started each day by putting another coat of varnish on a few pieces I brought over. At least the smell of varnish masked the heavy cigarette smoke aroma that permeated the entire room. The hotel was surprisingly quiet (we expected crack head brawls about midnight every night), free of roaches (except for the extremely large one that resided in the bathroom and flew through the air, landing on Chris and traveling down his arm one night), and had a seemingly unlimited supply of hot water (although Chris enjoyed turning on the kitchen faucet while I was in the shower, causing me to get scorched and then frozen). Shower or no shower, launched or not, I missed living on the boat and was happy to move back aboard.

Aside from sanding, varnishing, and painting, I have learned a new skill. I put threads on all the bronze rod that Chris had cut into 3 inch lengths for attaching our chainplates to the hull. It was interesting to do, I had to be very careful to make the thread straight, and I only chopped off a small section of the tip of my index finger on my left hand.

Guess what I'm doing?

What do you think? Good idea?

 

First coat goes on.

 View from the bow:

View from the ground. That's our neighbor's boat in the background.

That's John Goodman standing on the stern, helping Chris. I don't know what we would have done without his help.

 

Newly painted cockpit.

The Plover Project -- Life in the Boat Yard (Part 6)

March 1:

March means Spring is here and Winter is officially over (in this part of Texas anyway). It means warmer weather but not too hot. Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes. My birthday is this month -- yippee :) I love March.

Today we paid our boatyard rent for the (hopefully) last time.
We also paid our rent at the storage facility and gave our 30 day notice to vacate. I was looking at what is left in there and it is significantly less than what we originally stored. Still, it will be a big project to get it cleaned out because, other than the initial organizational fervor of shelf building and box marking, nothing has been done to maintain order. Most of the time, we drop by the storage to pick up a tool or some piece of hardware, and leave as quickly as we can.

I saw my framed college diploma leaning precariously against the back wall behind some shelves. There are miscellaneous boxes of boat hardware that we have rifled through when retrieving usable items for Plover. The sailing rig for Sherpa, our dinghy, as well as the sailing rig for another dinghy, now long gone. All of our camping gear. All of our fishing gear. All the sails for Plover as well as a collection of miscellaneous sails. A bin of stiff, dirt encrusted dock lines. Several small anchors. Boxes of household items we haven't yet parted with. Books. More books. The list goes on....

I'll get some pictures ready for posting next time. I'm too tired to deal with it right now.

The Plover Project -- Life in the Boat Yard (Part 5)

Our Nature's Head composting toilet.

 

We had decided that we wanted a self contained composting toilet rather than a marine toilet with a holding tank and thru hull fitting. It took us awhile to get around to ordering it because it wasn't cheap so it was a tough decision to make. We have had it in use for over a month now and are completely happy with it. 

 

 

 

John Goodman arrived to help with sanding (again). We should be able to paint the hull this week if the weather cooperates.

***

Chris with the belt sander; it broke later that day and we had to get a new one. So far, we have worn out and replaced an orbital sander, a belt sander, and a drill. I'm sure most of our other power tools are feeling abused and won't last much longer.

I'm glad he's wearing the respirator while sanding fiberglass. Major was having a problem a few weeks ago with nose bleeds and we guessed it was due to inhaling fiberglass dust. The poor little guy needs a doggie respirator.

When the going gets tough, Major relaxes in the truck. He likes to hang out in there and we leave the door open so he can come and go as he pleases.

 

 

 

We got the rudder hung. I scraped and sanded off all the old fiberglass and it now has all new hardware.

New prop too, although it's hard to see it in this picture:

 

Food storage under our bed. All the cans have to be marked with a sharpie to show their contents in case the labels get wet and come off. We won't have refrigeration on our boat so most of our diet will be from canned and packaged foods.

I like this can, no need to mark the top, it's already labeled.

The Plover Project -- Life in the Boat Yard (part 4)

The first of February found us hard at work (still) and enjoying perfect weather. The mud puddles are drying out and we are making good progress on the boat.

 

I discovered more rot while I was sanding the cap rail and rub rail. Luckily, it was right about where Chris was going to install the bow roller so cutting out and repairing this section is not as bad as it seems.

We go through a lot of sandpaper. Chris is sanding the hull in preparation for painting. At the end of the day, he looked like a powdered sugar donut.

We had decided that on the next rainy day, we would take an overnight trip to Galveston. We booked a room at the Super8 (so luxurious!), had a nice dinner out, and walked the beach. We also took about 5 showers and laughed at Family Guy on tv for 2 hours. Proof positive there is something seriously wrong with us.

I hope we never wind up like this guy. 

Boatyard Cat. She was waiting patiently for us to return.

It's not all work and no play.