06/11/2006, Pt. Richmond, CA
Me working on the main sail up in Elizabeth's shop!
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Comments [1]
06/11/2006, Pt. Richmond, CA
At the end of our first week at KKMI I met Elizabeth who lives on her boat in Marina Bay, in fact on "D" dock where we are. She approached me cause she recognized Whisper's Echo. She is the best thing that has happened to me in a while!! Turns out I had admired her stern to bow boat shade cover before I knew it was her boat. And then find out that she owns the Canvas Design shop right there at KKMI.
I told her that I had purchased a heavy duty sewing machine and was doing all new canvas for my boat, and then she did the most amazing thing ... she says "bring your machine up to my shop you can set up there and sew". Wow! That was an offer I couldn't refuse.
Elizabeth took me under her wing and has been showing me the ropes of working with canvas. I don't think I could have done near as well as fast without her help and guidance. Your the best Elizabeth!
So far I have completed both the staysail cover and the mainsail cover and if I may say so, they both really came out great! I've done the forward hatch cover and the butterfly hatch cover and am working on the cockpit awning and should start the dodger Tuesday or Wednesday.
Working with canvas has proved to be a lot more challenging than lighter fabric and then add the volume of fabric you are working with, well I can tell you I had more than a little trouble with the mainsail cover and am very glad that our main is not one inch bigger than it is!! (Elizabeth is getting ready to start sail covers for a 65' sailboat! Ouch that main is going to be twice as big as ours!)
And in between all the sewing I have been doing, I have been on the boat helping out when I can. In fact I went up the mast on Thursday to run the lazy jack lines thru the pulley's at the spreaders.
I did really good, and maybe next time I go up I may even be able to work with both hands instead of having one hand with a death grip on the mast! I couldn't even look around until just before Rick started to bring me down as I was afraid that I would get more nervous. Actually I did really great, and I get to repeat the experience some time really soon as the rigger left the protective cap on the HF antenna and it will have to come off. That trip will take me all the way to the top and I will get to test out the 3 mast steps we had installed up at the top. I told Rick this time he will have to take pictures, cause no one will believe I did it!
Well it's late and we have another long day tomorrow.
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06/10/2006, Pt. Richmond, CA
We have been working hard and there has been a lot of progress. But, as with everything else we have done on the boat, it is taking longer than expected. Right now we are hoping to be finished with the yard services by sometime next week and back in our slip at Marina Bay. Course I wouldn't bet any money on that :=)
So, after the mast was removed it was time to bring Whisper's out of the water. The procedure can be a little frightening - watching your home being lifted out of the water and carried around like a toy, but I must say here that KKMI has probably one of the best crane operators ever. I have been watching him move boats around since we arrived and am in awe of how easy he makes this task look, and there are some REALLY HUGE boats at this boat yard.
Once the boat was out of the water we had some good news as it turns out we will not have to replace any of the thru hulls or the cutlass bearing. So besides the fairly routine bottom sanding and new antifouling paint the biggest job was the installation of the new instrument sensors.
Of course we could not use the hole where the old sensors were - so the project was two fold 1) remove the old sensors and plug the holes 2) cut new hole and install the new sensors. Installation required pulling the floor up in our forward hanging locker and after the new sensor was in Rick and I took over and had to cut another hole to run the cable thru the center of the boat under the floor.
Rick spent his time getting the prop cleaned up and that was quite a job as he did pretty much all by hand with scraper and razor blade... after he had finished the job we saw one of the yard workers cleaning a really huge motor yachts prop and using some kind of acid he just spread on and wiped off...oh well next time!
After a more than a week on the hard, she was ready to go back in the water. I made a video of getting her back in the water and will post that soon I hope to our .Mac site.
Once back in the water we spent another week before getting the mast back up on the boat just this past Tuesday. Unfortunately, I really messed up and not only did I not have an empty tape for the video camera, I had left my still camera in the car and it was too far away to get. Stepping the mast happened very quickly and no one, especially me wanted to pay for any delays in getting that job done.
We are currently tied up next to the engine shop and Thursday we began the work on the engine. What a fun job that has been for Rick. No really .. He is enjoying learning all about our engine and has been working with the mechanic Andy for two days now. And me you say . what have you been doing all this time while Rick has been slaving on the boat? Well . I will save that for my next entry, but I have been very busy as well I can tell you that!
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