by Jen
10/11/2009

We are steadily working to get the mast ready for re-stepping tomorrow morning. Today we plan to install the rest of her chainplates and finish up the new wiring of the mast. I have updated the SmugMug page with a new gallery: Painting The Mast. Check it out!

Annapolis is great! We have nicknamed her "Good Luck Town." It seemed that we were going through such a string of bad luck in Deltaville last month. But here in Annapolis, everything is going extremely well! I don't want to jinks the last few days here, so that is all I will say about that for now. Once we are home again, I will elaborate on how great it has been!

The shot above is my view this morning as the sun is rising to warm Anastasia's quite chilly cockpit. I am wrapped up in Maxwell's Gran-daddy's wool blanket, loving every minute!

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by Jen
10/04/2009

This photo was taken of our beautiful Chesapeake Bay. There is a small rainbow peeking out on the left side of the horizon.

Check out our two new galleries on SmugMug, "Haul Out at Mobjack Bay Marina" & "Pulling The Mast."

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by Jen
09/11/2009, Deltaville, VA

Ok. I know...we live on a boat. And yes, that is a great and wonderful thing. However, it is our experience that EVERYTHING on a boat is TEN times more complicated and harder to reach. We are proudly Do-It-Yourselfers!! But I think that they should call it Do-Youreself-In-ers!! Each task seems to try our patience, strength, and my contortion-ism more and more. Our goal of leaving the Chesapeake Bay at the end of October still stands and is faintly coming into sight.

The list of projects is still long enough to consider it a steady work load for the coming weeks. The unexpected mast predicament has obviously put a bump in the road that we cannot ignore before we depart. We plan to head to Annapolis at the end of this month for it's repair and installation of all new standing rigging.

We had briefly entertained the idea of having the mast and boom repainted in Annapolis while the rigging work is performed. I said briefly. The quote was over FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS! The cost is not the paint, it is the labor. No thank you! I have done the research and I feel completely comfortable in our ability to paint both pieces ourselves. In fact, we have already taken the boom off of the boat and started sanding. I will be sure to update with photos of the project.

Next week we are being hauled out at Mobjack Bay Marina in Mathews for a new bottom job. What is that you say dear faithful reader? Why yes, you did read correctly in a previous entry that we had painted the bottom just before putting Anastasia in the water in May. Unfortunately, the paint we used was faulty and we have dime sized barnacles growing on our bottom. But not to worry! The incredibly nice Petit Paint representative paid us a visit to confirm the fouling bottom and GAVE us two gallons of premium bottom paint and picked up the haul out bill. Of course we will be the work crew to remove the old paint but that is a given for a Do-It-Yourself crew!!

So many other little projects are going on each day. As I write Maxwell is hooking up the replacement faucets for our galley foot pumps. I wired a reading light over the starboard settee, we re-bed some of the port side portholes and on and on.

We love our new Seagull water filtration system! Thanks for the insight on that Team Prudence! I highly pass on this recommendation to anyone.

Hopefully next week we will also have the new bimini and dodger installed. They will really transform her look. I cannot wait!

I'll leave you with some progress shots.


New fuel filter.


Engine compartment storage before.


Engine compartment storage after.


Old faucet removal.


Original plumbing. This boat was built in Taiwan 27 years ago.


Finished faucets!

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by Jen
09/01/2009, Deltaville, VA

Recently, I have been up the mast twice. Check out our SmugMug page to see the beautiful photos I caught.

I promise to update on what we have been up to for the past two weeks very soon! We are just so busy and have a shotty wireless connection!

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by Jen
08/21/2009, Deltaville, VA

That is our little interior thermometer pictured above. I took this shot yesterday afternoon while the temperature inside Anastasia was still climbing! Last night was by far the hottest night so far aboard Anastasia. We had two fans blowing on us, where we usually use one, and the sheets were still damp with sweat. It was to say the least very uncomfortable.

Yesterday overall was a very productive day. Maxwell worked on installing our new house bank batteries. They look charged and ready to give us power whenever we need it.



After his research he decided on four Group 27 deep cycle marine batteries instead of two 4-Ds which were much more expensive. We have a grand total of 460 amp hours.

I worked on varnishing the forward hatch, painting the inside of the cowl vents and finalizing our Defender order. The hatch, if you have been reading our past blogs, is the one we disassembled because of a leak. Check out "So Much Going On" to read that entry. It is looking so beautiful now. Once I am finished with the varnish I will post a photo.

We found out that Defender has an outfitting program. Once you get to a certain dollar amount of product, you receive a discount. Well we have found that they already have the lowest prices (most of the time) and usually buy from them anyway. But every little bit helps! So we have been compiling our list of needs for a few days now and sent it off yesterday. Some things on the list are a new liferaft, cradle and hydrostatic release, an AIS system, Seagull water filtration, spare water and bilge pumps, rearming kits for our new Mustang PFDs, and much more. Hopefully it will all arrive on Monday. Christmas in August!!

One other thing that I learned in this process is that West Marine will honor Defender's prices. Of course it has to be the exact same item. This will be convenient down the road for us because in Deltaville there are two West Marine stores. So if we get in a pinch for time and need a part fast we can still get it at a great price!

Update on the mast saga: We have tracked down the manufacturer of the mast. It is an Annapolis Spars product. Currently we are waiting for them to get back with us to let us know their opinion of what needs to be done. Hopefully we will hear back from them today.

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by Jen
08/14/2009, Deltaville, VA

The lead photo is not related to the story below but it is an awesome shot of the thunder storm that passed by the other night.

As I said in the title, Yesterday was a good day. We have been away from the boat for a few weeks spending much needed time with family. To a special someone, we love you and are glad you are feeling better and we are looking forward to your help with the long list of projects.

We have never been able to open the starboard side water deck fill valve since we have owned Anastasia. So we removed it, soaked it in PB Blaster for a week and still it would not open. It just so happens that all of the beautiful bronze fittings on this boat are so rare that no convenient boating supply store like West Marine or Defender carry anything of the sort. Well they do carry deck fills...shiny stainless steel, average looking ones that are a different size than the full-of-character bronze one we removed. Which would force us to cut a larger hole in our teak decks for it to fit. This simply would not suffice. So I set out to do my research. I knew that there had to be some hidden bronze foundry somewhere still creating these parts. I was right! Spartan Marine Hardware in Georgetown, Maine. They had just what I needed at the perfect size, shape, and yes, it is in bronze! Here are some photos of the process.





This is the original deck fill once it was removed.



The deck and hole have been prepped!





New deck fill!!!

Once we had installed the new deck fill it was time to clean out the tank. Our assumptions were that the tank was empty. To our surprise when we opened the access plates in the top of the tank it was about half full. The water was still clear but very stinky. To clean out the tanks and hoses we read online about a "shock treatment." Per the instructions we drained the old water then refilled it with clean water and 1 cup of bleach for ever 10 gallons. This bleach treatment needed to stay in the tank and the hoses for at least 8 hours to kill any bacteria growth. This morning we flushed the tank with 5 cycles of clean water. I don't plan to drink this water until we install a filter but it is much cleaner than what we started with.





The tank was pretty dirty on the outside too. After some cleanup it looked great.

At this point the success rate was pretty high. That great "I have actually accomplished something today" feeling was flowing through our veins. This lasted until today. Today was our rigging survey. We felt that it was important to have a professional inspect the mast, boom, stays and shrouds to make sure that everything was in working order and not in need of replacement. Straight away he got to climbing the mast. Here he is high aloft.



Things were going well. He started at the masthead and made some minor suggestions, all of which we can fix ourselves relatively inexpensively. Then he worked his way lower to the spreaders and that is where it all goes south. Check out this closeup shot he was kind enough to take with my camera.



Apparently this is really bad. In fact once he got back down to the deck his words were "lets stop here." Over time, how long we do not know, the spreader has been pulling back creating a depression in the mast itself. This depression is a serious problem possibly degrading the entire spar. What we are potentially facing is a mast removal and overhaul. This was not on the aforementioned list of things to do.

At this point, we are weighing all of our options, doing research and pursuing second opinions. However, it is not a very settling feeling for someone to tell you that the strength of your mast may have been compromised. Today is a bad day.

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