List from hell

Here's the list after we took our first blue water sail.  Holy crap.  However, some of this list started before we ever left the dock.  I will address some of this in posts to follow.  See below for what we hammered out.

Generator:  Tim tested it in the dock and it ran for 5 minutes, sputtered and crapped out.  Then we got what every boat owner wants to see:  Water leak alarm on the generator panel.  So, we gots Mr. Generator put to bed.  Just found out today that there was a crap ass silicone 'patch' on the generator that failed and there's a lot of corrosion and dry hose.  So, if we had ran it, we most likely would have set the boat on fire. F*($k. We didn't, but now we have some big B.O.A.T. units to shell out to fix this problem.

OC tender:  To take a line from the musical Hamilton.  "You married a Icarus, and he's flown to close to the sun."  My boy dreamed big, but he dreamed bigger than what the little tender could handle.  So Zeus is dead.  (Pulp Fiction: Zed's dead, baby)  The the combination of the attachment points to the davits and the weight in the dinghy-and possibly the Key West summer heat-Zeus suffered some serious structural distortion.  If we had tried to keep her on the davits, even without the weight of the Torqeedo batteries, she would have shredded on our way to the Dry Tortugas.  Thankfully we didn't get rid of Tiny Dancer or the other Torqeedo yet, so we got them rigged up.

Senders:  Waste tank sender already fixed, it got stuck.  Water sender has bad threading and we can't get it fitted to our tank, so we will get it grinded to right threading or they will send new one.

Stern light: We replaced our nav lights with LEDs just to find out that now, they are always lit.  Long story short-because I am not the electrical guru on the boat.  The diode that leads from the main power switch of the electrical panel to the nav lights went bad, so there was a constant short that provided enough ampage to power an LED light.  Got that? No? Yeah. Email Tim if you want more info.  However, it got fixed after we got back, and Sparky is so proud of himself of that.  I got to sit at the back of the boat like a jackass going, IT'S ON, IT'S OFF, IT'S ON, IT'S OFF.

All things anchor: More details in a bit, but remote is bad, snubber needs upgraded, and where the chain meets nylon rode is not good. As in, jams up the windlass not good.

Propane/stove:  Tim installed new sensors for propane in the galley.  It's either placement or sensitivity, but the damn thing would go off as soon as I tried to cook.  So, I get something started in the oven, start the stove. BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP and it does its job by killing the gas, but then I have to restart everything.  By now, the stove has had a bit of a build up of propane, so I'd open it and it would set off the sensor again.  Newly invented cuss words during cooking on the hook this time.  Generator shot, so no microwave.

I think the one thing is Front spot light, and more on that later.

My, turn. The Zeus needs clothes.

Set up for this:  "Honey, I'm done.  It's ready to be patterned for a cover.  You have two hours."

First, should I be flattered that he has faith in my skills, or should I be pissed.  I was a combo of both.
Cue in sound of Lisa or Marge Simpson snarling.

So I threw together a pattern based on research and other covers I have seen.  But if you don't have the actual object there to finalize? it tain't gonna work out.

So, I go with the basic 'box' design.  It means that it will be the shape of the boat, but not fitted and thus windage will be a problem.  I installed straps below, but I've seen plenty of covers where that just isn't enough over the bow and stern.

Tim will say it was his idea all along.  Tim's life got threatened a lot.

Remember, when the sail loft is open..no 'suggestions' while there are rippers, scissors and hot knives present.

So, another photo story for you.

The boat is rigged to simulate where I need to put the openings for the davits.

My assistant.  She sucks.

After the plan B pattern was put in place.

Once again, my suckass assistant (she is blended into couch).  And who knew that
thawed out freezer gel packs made fantastic pattern weights.

Finished product after being cleaned of dog hair and chalk marks.

It's the little details......

Down in Key West, and it freakin' fits (but baggy as I predicted)

So, we decide to try the old grommet and bungie cord method of fitting the bottom of the cover, and it worked, and made it easy to slide on and off right before lifting.

Yeah, don't try this at home.

Pleased that measuring by paddleboard is working and the promise of wine for reward.

Zeus, the one of a kind super electric dinghy.

And my husband our our Kiwi friend Russ will be happy to recreate it for $1 million.  That would be in US, not NZ.

Let's start with the basics.  The dinghy is a ultra-light (well....at first), carbon fiber rigid dinghy that weighs less than 100lb empty.  Cool little dinghy.  Actually was tested by the NZ coastal rescue and they couldn't sink it.  Go visit their website or Facebook page.  www.octenders.com

Tim got together with Russ and explained his plan...to which Russ replied.  "You are quite mad, mate."

However, you can't dissuade Tim, he's a man on a mission.  To help explain:  We found a superlight dinghy and equipped it with a Torqeedo/Battery bank/solar power.  It can take one person for a romp at 10-12kts, or it can recharge itself for the practical anchorage to shore trips every day. As back up, you can hook her up the big boat either under shore power or the generator if needed.

We are still testing the actual performance data, but at a normal cruising speed, she lasts a long time.

So first step--we help OC to figure out how to get a boat to the US.  You know with customs and all that.  I think at first they didn't want to, which is understandable because they were more just a local, make as you go business. But they got through that, and we had the boat shipped to Kansas so that Tim could start his mad genius work.

Think..."It's alive.  IT'S ALIVE!"  and then cue in Danny Elfman's "Weird Science"

So, below are a few pics.  We named it Zeus to keep with the Elysium theme.

Gel coat being applied over the base.

Packing for shipping.

Off to the cargo ship.  We had the info, so Tim and I tracked it on VesselFinder.com.

After arrival in Kansas, the battery platform was built and batteries installed.

The first part of my involvement in this escapade-a cover for the battery bank/seat.

Okay, it doesn't really have everything on this switch panel, okay, it has everything except cabin lights. 

Arrival in Key West. Not all power cells installed yet.

All power cells, and front nav lights can be seen.

Zee Torqeedo.

The control that run from solar to batteries.

Evidently, we thought we were buying a boat to go explore, but apparently its to practice....

....our skills in carpentry, electronics, plumbing, you name it.

We were THIS close to getting our boat fixed up and ready for the season when I get the call....hey, Kim, at the marina, the boat next to you got struck by lightning.  Just thought you'd want to know.
(Side note: By season, we mean thumbing our nose at potential hurricane threat)

#(*@&#

Tim was already heading down to put the final touches on some other projects, so he bumped up the trip by a day to see a) how bad the damage could be for us and b) deal with insurance if needed.

Turns out it could have been worse.  We did have to replace the control unit for the auto pilot, replace some wiring on the the thruster and replace thruster control.  Oh, the big thing was the comms network between the inside station and the cockpit was fired.  Since it was a combo of the old Raymarine Seatalk and NMEA 2000 it was sort of blessing to get it all NMEA now.

But as we have learned from our Hunter lightning strike....it's the ghost in the machine that can bite you in the butt.

Besides the step aside for lightning, the latest boat updates:
New windlass
Rebedded the midship cleats (well, we didn't, our awesome buddy Jorg did)
New dinghy
New propane sensors/alarms, one in galley and one in lazarette,  all remote connected, so if something goes weird, propane gets shut off
FINALLY GOT OUR MMSI!

...and there's tons other stuff, but since I can't get my Chief Engineer to write them down, there's no way I can remember.

Kayaking Bahia Honda

Next day out, we rented some kayaks.  Beautiful day, flat seas.  SPF 1,000,000 and hat and long sleeve shirt for me.

We each rented our own single kayak to keep marital harmony, I learned early on in my marriage upon the Ozark rivers that Tim and do not share canoes/kayaks/anything that involves two people, one boat and oars very well.

There's been this little island that we've passed in the Bahia Honda channel that we've always been intrigued by, so after permission, we were allowed to go out there.

SO COOL.

Tidal pools reminded me of Hawai'i

What dat? Who dat?

Colorful sea slug, that was a foot of water.  Unbelievably clear that day.

Kayaking back, I would stick my camera in the water and just take pics.  Yes, the camera is waterproof, that would have been unfortunate if it wasn't.

Bahia Honda revisited.

We took Elysium up to Bahia Honda.  Of course, we had anchoring problems.  No more Bahia Honda for us.  It's a jinx. Here's link to the last brouhaha.

This time it was the control for the windlass, could get it up, but not down. It was odd how we thought to check if it worked BEFORE anchoring, yay us.  But windlass down not a big thing, since gravity helps with the down.  However--Bahia Honda---between two bridges, not a lot of room for error.

First try didn't quite go the way we wanted.  And of course shore side peanut gallery was there.

So we try again and got well placed.  Then tidal swing and the tour boat pontoon got pissy, but seriously they had 5 boat lengths between us and shore.  AND ITS A PONTOON.  Later we found out that the captain is just a whiner.

No wind, so we didn't have that to add to the tidal swing.  Soon our chain rode (love my chain rode), got settled into the bottom and we were sitting pretty.

  

Going through the original Bahia Honda Flagler RR bridge.  They took a span out to allow sailboats in.

Anchored with US1 behind us.

After we got settled, we headed into the park to walk around.  Five hours at sea, oh my, we must get moving about!  :-)  Both times I have asked if we need to pay a park fee, they ask 'How did you get here?' I say by boat. 'You just staying overnight?'  Yeah.  'Don't worry about it'  There's usually a donation box they we wind up putting money in.

I knew there was a trailhead that we hadn't visited the last time we were here so we opted for that since it was afternoon already.

Beautiful original tropical hardwood hammock that most of the Keys looked like before development (or overdevelopment, if you prefer).  However, the first damn sign we see on the trail head is pointing out the POISONWOOD tree.  Yeah, don't take that name lightly.  Way way way more toxic than poison ivy.  Metopium toxiferum if you want to Google its fun filled facts.

 Immediately, my husband (very allergic to poison ivy, have no idea what this would do to him) freaks the hell out.  'WHY? WHY WOULD THEY HAVE A F*CKING POISONWOOD TREE ON THEIR TRAIL!!' 

Well, it's supposed to be a native nature trail full of original plants, my dear.  (City boy)

Once I got him calmed down, and off the parking lot and back on the trail-I really believe he thought the tree was going to attack him-we continue on our lovely journey.

Mid trail you pop out on the beach--pretty is it not?
(more about the little island off in the distance)

 

 

 

 

 

 So we made it through the trail with no attacks by the flora and fauna, and in time to meet our peanut gallery.  We refrained from any witty comments, just smiled and said, yeah, we were having problems with our windlass.  To which peanut gallery looked at us like we were speaking Martian. (Yeah, I thought so, f*ckers)

 Clouds moved in so no sunset pics.  Just a good Elysium eye view of our anchorage.

New boarding ladder

I'm just going to sit here, drink a glass of wine and post random crap for the next hour.

Are ya in? 

We got a new boarding ladder built for us. Super sturdy and with a full rubber backed bar to brace against the boat instead of two points.

The scratching and gouging has gone way down, the other one was crap.

Added feature is that it folds up and is secured flush with the lifelines.  Nothing to get tangled in or trip over.  Love it.