Going hiking

Since we finally got our December weather in February--it was usually overcast and a bit chilly. So not a lot of boating--not to mention the boat was in various stages of disassembly anyway.

On the southern edge of the Naval Air Station there's an abandoned road and beach area that you can access from Geiger Key.  We discovered it the last time we were there.  Technically at one point you are on military property, but as long as we kept to the beach area we would be fine.

Jes' don't want no tourists wandering out to the tarmac when the Tomcat and Raptors are taking off--it'd be a lot of paperwork.

There's a awesome little driftwood house that somebody built, I think there might have been a squatter at one point, but it looks like random campers and bonfire camps just happen now.

It used to be a two lane county road at one time.

Hard to see, but there were these tiny little birds just sitting on the sea grass bobbing up and down with the surf.

Part of the driftwood fort 'sculptures' made from cans/bottles/soft coral.

Entrance to the driftwood fort, it's actually quite soundly made.

In the back country area, maybe or maybe not on the base at this point.

Off to play shoot 'em up over the Atlantic.

Kim boat projects

The first one was to take our old mattress cover that was for a SQUARE bed and turn it into a triangle for the V berth.

Hand sewing a two inch thick cover is something else. Especially when you have stuffing and everything else popping up.  

Not completely done with it yet.....mainly because last time we were there I kept blowing it off--remember HAND sewing. But it will fit perfectly when done.  And I got the bonus round of giving smug looks to my husband.

My other project was patterning the grill, which has currently become a pelican perch.  

Speaking of pelicans--NO FEAR--I had one join me for sundowners when we were there. Just plopped down by me on the back deck, hey wotcha got there, sunshine?

So, patterning done, just have to get the sail loft at home ready to do all the fixit projects on Patriot and small projects on Elysium.

I'm eventually going to have to load up the sail rite machine and take it down to Key West to repair our sail and leech line on our main.  ROAD TRIP!

Here's a pic of the patterning with my supervisor Big Beak O'Reilly.

Fun with VHF

Tim went down and upgraded our VHF to one that will have DSC/AIS receiver, it is SUPPOSED to be able to work with our chart plotter, but I haven't really figured that out.

Our new VHF comes with two wireless handsets, that can also---wait for it---double as walkie talkies on the boat.  Think intercom system.

So we tested it, and I was getting testy, nice honey, but I'm sort of helming the boat through a busy area right now so can we play with these later.

Tim goes down below to lay down---THINKING that the VHF was still in intercom mode--but I had switched mine over to be a VHF because......I was in a busy area and was listening for those all important "all concerned vessels should stand by on 16" which means anything from the Fast Cat Ferry, USCG big boy ships, cruise ships, or one of the 14,000 excursion boats that leave from downtown Key West.

Weeeellll, evidently......when you switch one handset back to VHF mode, they BOTH switch.

Annnnnnddddd....evidently, my spouse was down below broadcasting on 16: "That's why I got these, so we can talk"  (quote/unquote)

He comes back upstairs laughing his ass off because he realized what he said went out on 16.

I'm very happy he didn't decide to say something MUCH worse.  Which is a good reason that we are keeping our 'no alcohol while' underway policy enforced.

Update on some boat projects

So, head install, we've had to boot the first guy for lack of response.  We also realized to replace the shower/faucet head hose will take either a)magic fairy dust that will shrink one of us down to size or b) most likely popping off the counter.  We are currently working with a new gentleman, and after this first project, we'll see if we want him to do the head.

And it has to be replace, the metal covering has rotted away and the actual hose is permeated so it smells like, well, shit.

We-which means Tim-have successfully replaced the holding tank indicators and resealed the front tank so no more odors are leaking from there.  Still need to pull up the holding tank to make sure there's no bad juju hanging out underneath.

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Boat George is currently working on rebedding all of our saloon windows, as I probably mentioned before evidently the fine folks at North Shore used some incorrect window sealant it crapped out on some of the Southerly 135s.  After talking to another Southerly 135 owner over in the UK, we decided it would be prudent to do it right and pull the windows and replace them. Evidently the failure started with the previous owner and there was a suck ass fix job that George had to deal with to remove the window without breaking it.

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Fridge/freezer.  We had somebody come look at it--which resulted in $250 for him to install a thermostat in the freezer (upside down) and basically say we don't have enough insulation.  Our last trip we had proof positive that we had enough insulation around both.  So, this particular service guy is now in my jackass column.  He was on the line anyway for the 'little lady' routine.  Well, sir, this 'little lady' has a good working knowledge of every system on this boat, so kiss my ass.

Tim called the U.S. Frigoboat dealer and received tons of advice and help.  We all came to the conclusion that we probably need to charge the refrigerant a bit, which Tim and I thought might be the problem in the first place, but we could not get the service guy to even check it.  Once again, jackass.

We also have a VERY large freezer and at this point in our lives we don't need to utilize that freezer space as a freezer yet, so it was suggested we hook up a digital thermostat and that will allow us to turn our freezer into a liquor locker for beer and wine--something we did on HemiD.

Project Liquor Locker commences.

After passing the 'beer isn't freezing and exploding' test, we decided to go ahead and replace the fridge with a digital also.  Tearing up all the floor panels to run the wiring was fun.  We don't have a pic of me with my head smashed into our starboard fuel tank up to my shoulder trying to fish a wire to Tim--thankfully.

The digital thermostat we got also has the ability to control the compressor speed, so we can set it to quick cool when we get on the boat or load it up with food and then dial it back---nice feature for our power hungry refrigeration.

So, it seems as if we've nipped that in the bud. Hopefully.