It's 10:00 pm and I sit across the "salon" table from Louis...the heavy-lidded, dog-tired stare he's giving me doing absolutely nothing to curb my " I-just-finished-my-1st-coat-of-varnish" enthusiastic jabber. He gives me a knowing look while I wonder aloud if those slight varnish over-runs are going to mar the smooth-as-glass surface of my recently sanded wood trim. "What", I innocently ask, thinking that Louis, the Woodworking God, is about to impart some secret pearls of wisdom to me, his Varnish-Virgin. "What are you thinking?", I eagerly prompt him.
"Help, I'm talking and I Can't Shut Up" he responds, momentarily crushing my puppy-dog enthusiasm. But only for a moment. His comment sends me into hysterics as I realize it's right on the mark - I'm in one of those "Jabberin' Janet" kinda moods that Louis found soooooo adorable when we first got together. I try to contain myself and quietly begin my new blog entry. The moment would be much better portrayed, though, if I could truly capture the essence of his exhaustion via a photo. I grab my camera and try to pull one off, but he just looks pissed (go figure). The 2nd attempt gets me a shot of the bottom of his foot, put forth in a "talk to the hand" kind of way, and for some reason this just sends me into more hysterics. "Are you on drugs or something", he asks. (I do get a little smile out of him when I show him the photo, though")
The boat is engulfed in silence as I eventually go back to my blog-typing and Louis sits there, pondering the next day's tasks, no doubt. A loud "WHAP" breaks the silence as he goes for his 10th mosquito kill of the evening. "Missed him, the fucker" he says.
More silence (him) and out-of-control laughter (me).
He gets up to bring our dishes to the sink and dryly comments, "Boy, that was a rippin' dinner". He's referring to the lukewarm, dry, chicken wrap we just ate. It was the other half of our lunch we saved so we wouldn't have to bother cooking dinner. For some reason this just cracks me up more, and on I go with the hysterics. I really must have inhaled some varnish fumes today!
Maybe, though, I'm just in a giddy state because my CRAP-O day ended so wonderfully! After spending hours and hours this afternoon scraping and sanding off the oil sealer I had so meticulously applied the day before (because it didn't harden...bummer) I got my 1st coat of varnish on and, I have to say, it looks GOOD. Plus, there's a full moon out!
So, all-in-all, life is good!
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Our friends Dave and Lilka decided to paint the interior of their house a while back. A buddy of theirs wisely told them, "you can't afford to paint". Puzzled, they asked their friend what he meant. He explained that once you paint a few walls, all the other walls look so dingy that you just HAVE to paint them. And, then, of course all that fresh new paint makes the living room carpet look really old and dirty, so you have no choice but to rip it out and replace it with bamboo flooring. Now, next to your "brand new living room", the kitchen really begins to look outdated, and while you rip into the kitchen you might as well tackle that rewiring you've been meaning to do. Of course, the bathroom is right above the kitchen, so if you're going to be bustin' into the ceiling maybe you should do that bathroom expansion you've been thinking about....and on it goes (and on they did!)
Boat projects are a lot like that. We started with a lengthy "to do" list which included standard maintenance items like painting the bottom, varnishing the wood and waxing the boat. But next to that newly-sanded wood was a really ugly white caulk joint that would look much better in black. And beyond that clean, new black caulking were some bungholes that needed repairing (so, that's where that term came from!). And you know that waxing we were planning on...it's not quite doing the job, so maybe we should rent a machine and apply rubbing compound to really polish that fiberglass. Oooh - that looks nice and shiny now, but that gloss brings out the imperfections even more! Maybe we need to wet-sand the entire hull to get rid of those color blotches......and on it goes.
So, we've decided to forgoe sailing this season and instead spend the next few months working on Scappatella....NOT! But it's easy to see how people spend year after year working on their boat and never leave the dock. You really can get too anal about all this stuff!
Anyway, enough about bung-holes and such...back to painting the bottom - although at $400 per gallon, maybe we really can't afford to paint!
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For any of you couples out there who are thinking of joining us on a (sigh) romantic vacation in the Caribbean sea, a word about pole-dancing may be in order.
On our boat, there are two cabins: a spacious aft cabin (ours) and a not-quite-as-spacious forward cabin (yours). Yours, except for right now. Since the aft cabin is currently in the "sanding zone", we've been sleeping in your bed, so to speak. And your bed is, well, "interesting".
It's what is called a "v-berth" which, for once in boaty-speak, is exactly what it sounds like. It's basically a v-shaped cabin at the bow of the boat. Picture how a boat narrows or v's at the front, and you'll get the idea. Your feet are at the narrow end, and the berth widens out substantially as you move "aft", where your head rests. It's standard on monohulls, and is actually a pretty spacious "2nd bedroom" for a boat our size. But there's one quirky thing about our v-berth: there's a pole running vertically down through it! It's actually a piece of 3 ½" pvc pipe set just off center, creating a "big person side" and a "little person side". Our anchor chain runs down thru this pipe into an anchor well under the bed. "Why the heck did they design it that way", you might wonder? They didn't. It was a (smart) solution implemented by the previous owners for a common problem many boats deal with: as you haul up the anchor with the electric windlass (a motorized anchor-puller-upper) the chain piles up into the anchor locker and eventually jams. Then someone has to go down below and "tickle the chain", pushing the chain further down into the well to un-jam it. Usually, it's just a hassle but it can actually be quite dangerous if, for example, the winds change and you need to leave an anchorage in a hurry! Or, of course, if the pirates are bearing down on you and your weapons have all been checked in at customs.
Anyway........where was I? Oh yeah, pole dancing. Well, let's just say that the "sport" of pole dancing takes on a whole new meaning in our boat...one which I think may require a lot of practice! Unfortunately, it also brings up terrorizing memories for Louis of his "bachelor party gone bad". If you haven't heard the story, ask him (gently) one day.
Bottom line: if you come for a visit with your sweetie, you're bound to have some laughs as you "learn the ropes"!
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I like that word: "crap". It can completely convey your point or feeling, without using more colorful (and negative) words which I wouldn't want to put in our blog. Yesterday we each had that kind of day. Louis was patching gelcoat (the fiberglass surface of our boat) and I was chemically stripping varnish (the picture actually shows the heat gun phase - that's actually the "fun" part of the job.). Anyway, Louis mixed up this very potent, toxic batch of white gelcoat "goo", mixing just the right amount of brown and yellow coloring to match our cream fiberglass. He had just finished patching various dings all around the boat when a wind came up and knocked the boat cusions off of their storage spot. He grabbed them (so they wouldn't fall in the gelcoat), dripping his tub of goo all over the place, and stepping in his patches in the process! Grrrrrrr! After cleaning all of that up, he waited. And waited. And waited. It seems he didn't put enough hardener in the gelcoat, and it wasn't "going off". (He was, though!) So....back to square one (or square minus-one, actually, as he now needs to remove the goo, mix up a new batch of gelcoat, try to rematch the color, and do the entire process over again! Crap!
Meanwhile, I was stripping the wood with a chemical stripper to get the varnish out of the crevices in the wood which remained after the heat gun step. I carefully taped all the edges where wood-to-be-stripped meets wood-not-to-be-stripped. Since we couldn't find the $50+ per roll "solvent-resistant tape", I used the standard 3M blue tape. I put several layers of that on, and then went over it with duct tape (my goal being to keep the stripper from stripping the good wood). Well, you can guess what happened. The stripper ate the tape and bled a little, peeling up a bit of the finish from the "good wood". Crap! Plus, it was a friggin' mess! Gooey, dusty, caustic chemicals dripping all over the plastic protectant, and me in the process. I had to shut the hatch to work on it, so I was sweating up a storm through my glasses & dust mask and could barely see...this stuff sucks! The good news is that the "good wood" I damaged is actually an already-damaged area we had decided not to tackle this time around. So, it's not a pristine area or anything. More good news: having learned this lesson, I will not be using stipper in hatch #2 (in the photo), where the beautiful pristine wood IS.
Anyway, that pretty much fit our definition of a "crappy" boat day! How was your day?
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If you know me very well, you'll know by this picture that I must be getting a bit tired by now from all of this woodwork! I rarely eat fast-food - like, once a year at most. And when I do, it's almost always an In-and-Out burger (hey, those are pretty good for you, right?). So for me to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken - well, it's just not normally "in" me. Well, tonight it was not only in me, but I suggested it! And, man, was it good...Louis and I inhaled most of a bucket of Original Recipe Fried Chicken (they didn't have extra crispy) while watching a pretty stupid Denzel Washington / Angelina Jolie movie. A great ending to an exhausting day of deck laying, caulking and varnish stripping!
Our great night was followed by a very fun day! Now, if you know Louis very well, you know he's a "worker". And he doesn't like to play games. (I'm not talking about the head-trip kinds - although thankfully he doesn't like those either!) Anyway, today we were invited for brunch on "Meow", a neighboring Catamaran in the boatyard. Her owner, Mel, invited us and another couple to eat enchiladas, drink Mango-mimosas, and play Mexican Train (a dominoes-type game). We spent all of Sunday afternoon - from 1:00 to 6:30 or so - hanging out eating, drinking, laughing and playing Mexican Train! Two firsts in a 24-hour period: KFC for me, and a day OFF playing games for Louis. You KNOW we're tired!
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Well, today we got some awful news: 3 good friends of ours were involved in a serious accident back home and 1 of our friends, Dennis Colbath, didn't survive. We are heartbroken. Dennis and his partner, Steve, are 2 very good friends of ours who were hoping to visit us this year on Scappatella. Several years ago Steve and Dennis joined us sailing in Mexico on "Basta" (Doug Nichoson's boat) for 10 days. This photo was taken in Ballena Bay-? in the Sea of Cortez, where the 4 of us were clamming, trying to avoid the killer crabs that kept attacking our feet. This trip, like many other times with Steve and Dennis, was filled with laughter and great memories! Dennis is - was - a fun-loving, smart, sweetheart of a guy and we will miss him very much. Bob and Linda, our other friends who were involved in the accident are ok, thankfully, although each will have a 3-month healing process from broken ribs (Linda) to a fractured vertebrae & broken clavicle (Bob).
I flew home as our "Caribbean emissary" to attend Dennis' memorial and support our friends. Louis stayed with Scappatella, keeping her safe and continuing the work that needed to be done. It was strange, but very good, to be home again. And I'm so glad I came home - it was good to spend time with Steve, Bob and Linda, and to be among friends while we all shared stories of times with Dennis and collectively mourned his passing. A few days later we continued that process, but in addition celebrated the inauguration of President Barack Obama! A day marked by intense sadness coupled with hope and excitement.
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New Year's Day we headed down to Scappatella...excited, and a bit apprehensive, to climb aboard. Apprehensive because we left her for soooooooo long...we've heard some horror stories involving theft, mold, water damage, and the like. We opened up the hatch, stepped inside, and all seemed ok! No funky smells and our systems were powered up (we'd left a solar panel hooked up to trickle charge our batteries while we were gone). Looking a bit more closely, however, we discovered a thin layer of mold over all of the wood and in a few more spots. Bummer! But luckily it hadn't done any damage (heavy mold can destroy finishes on wood), and it was pretty selective about what it grew on. Also luckily, we had put all of the linens, pillows, bedding, etc. in air-tight bags, so at least that stuff was still clean! Still, it took 3 days wiping everything down with vinegar to get rid it all but, finally, Scappatella was clean once more!
Once the basic stuff was done, we got to more serious tasks: ordering sails! Yup, we bit the bullet and ordered a new mainsail and a new foresail (genoa) for Scappatella! Our sails are over 20 years old, so it was pretty much a necessity, even though it dented the pocketbook quite a bit. Then, Louis began working on our decks -repairing and replacing some of the teak decking, and I started working on the "brightwork". With a name like that, you'd think I was working on the stainless, right? Nope, in boating, brightwork refers to the woodwork - go figure! Ours was more aptly called dullwork, as it had been let go of late. The process so far has been: cleaning the fiberglass surrounding the teak of previous varnish stains (duh...should have done that later, I learned); heat-stripping the old varnish off of the teak (my new favorite tool!) and finally, chemical-stripping and hand scraping the remaining varnish that wouldn't come off with the gun (this part sucks big time!). I have about 3 days into this phase, with about 3 more to go, I'm guessing. Then I have to make repairs, sand the wood down, apply 3 coats of sealer, and finally apply 8 - 10 coats of varnish (1 coat per day, sanding in between each coat). It sounds pretty daunting, but I'm excited to see how it looks a the end! (And, no matter how it turns out, if you visit Scappatella it would be a good idea to rave about our new "brightwork"!)
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Well, Louis and I are back at it...living in the boatyard in Curacao, working on Scappatella. We had an awesome summer following our 1st season sailing: reconnecting with friends at home, a river trip on the Main Salmon, a very fun holiday season, and the highlight of our year - a trip to Italy in September to celebrate the wedding of our wonderful cousin, Roberta to her very charming husband, Andrea! And wow, what a wedding it was! From the setting (Chiesa di San Rocco, 1649) to the food (family and friends spent weeks making all of the appetizers while the dinner was a handmade, multi-course affair at a charming "agriturismo") to the incredible people (the Tognolonis, Maineris, Boninos...and many other "cousins")...we had an amazing time!
I really reconnected with my "roots" in Italy, and Louis and I particularly loved the time we spent hanging with my family in and around the medieval town of Toirano, my grandfather's birthplace. We swam in the Mediterranean sea with Roberta and Andrea; toured Franco's beautiful garden and olive grove; and picnicked Italian-style (homemade pastasciutta, garden-tomatoes, wine, and limoncello) on the top of the mountain at St. Pietro, where my grandparents first met. We enjoyed many incredible meals together with "The Family", and I learned how to make gnocchi, salsa verde and boudino from cousins Tina and Marisa, and homemade gelato from Andrea. We also visited "The 10 Italians" we met on a boat in Barbuda last year, who treated us to a tasty outdoor traditional "Piacenzan meal"...very fun! And we met up with Tony and Hilary from "Miss Charlotte" (other yachties we met in the Caribbean), who had recently bought a place in Tuscany. They made a fantastic dinner for dinner for while we swapped adventure stores, and the next day we all explored the beautiful town of Sienna. Finally, we spent 10 days with Stefan and friends exploring the Verdon River Gorge in the South of France, hiking to huts in the mountains of Munich, drinking many "masses" of beer at Octoberfest, and, of course, eating lots of wonderful food. We were blown away by the generosity of all of our friends and family...what incredible hosts they all were!
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So, after an 8-month hiatus, we arrived in Curacao on New Year's Eve at 8:30pm - 24 hours after we left! We met a few interesting people on the plane, among them Bart, Karen and their 2 kids. They invited us to watch fireworks and ring in the new year, so around 11:00 we met up with them and Bart's sister, Esther, and watched the fireworks display from the top of this little hill in Curacao.
It was AMAZING...everyone in Curacao buys fireworks for New Years. And I'm not talking about the little Pinwheels and Piccolo Pete's we grew up with. In Curacao, there was a store on every street corner selling full-on, professional-type fireworks! The sky was lit up all around the island (we had a 360-degree view), and the noise was deafening........1000-foot strings of M-80's going off all over the place. It was very cool! At midnight, we all toasted with champagne and eventually headed to our apartment...a great way to ring in the new year!!
Does this sound a bit like a war zone?
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04/29/2008, Curacao Marine Boatyard
There are 3 types of unwelcome boat visitors: weevils, roaches, and rodents (not in that order). Unfortunately, we have now had them all aboard Scappatella. Fortunately, though, we've managed to catch them at very early stages so we've never had a real "problem".
The 1st signs of today's visitor were little black turds in the dinghy - either from a large mouse or a small rat. "How the heck did a rodent get in the dinghy" we wondered. We're currently anchored outside the boatyard in Curacao, having spent the day yesterday sailing over here from Bonaire. We hadn't even been ashore yet. I've heard of rats swimming out from shore in places and crawling up your anchor line. That would have to be one burly rat...ugh....I sure hoped that wasn't the case. Later that afternoon I noticed a few very neat little holes chewed through the garbage bag we had sitting up on the foredeck. (We usually stow garbage in the anchor locker until we can take it ashore.) Bummer. That confirmed we had an unwelcome "guest" aboard Scappatella. Even worse, we're getting ready to put the boat on the hard, and if we didn't catch him by the time we left we'd be in real trouble. In addition to eating your food and such, rats and mice can wreak havoc in a boat by chewing up your wiring, leaving you with a huge, expensive mess!
I looked in the anchor locker, Louis checked the dinghy, and I searched inside the food cabinets. No little black turds. I put out a couple of glue traps we had on the boat and continued searching below. After a bit I heard Louis yell - a sense of urgency to his voice - "Sweetie, he's in here...bring up some gloves; this could get messy". Louis had found him hiding in the anchor locker - I had apparently missed him. He had him trapped under a coiled up hose and had already given him a good whack by the time I arrived with the gloves. He put them on and finished off the poor little guy by giving him another couple of whacks and threw him overboard. Turned out to be a rat, and not a very cute one at that. He must have snuck onto the dinghy when we were ashore in Bonaire, and had quite a wild ride over here, towed behind Scappatella in 5' swells!
I guess it's a bit weird when offing a little rat can make your day. We both felt a bad killing him, but I have to say I was pretty damn happy at the end of the day!
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