I have moved the website to an independent web host. You can find us at www.svsanddollar.com

I'm back to updating the website because I've had more time to work on the boat and we now have an estimated time for departure. Come over and see us at the new site and read about it there!

Regards,
Lori

I have forgotten how much physical labor HURTS! Ugh. Both Michael and are so sore. We did get a lot of work done and are happy with our progress. We haven't been pushing it like crazy, only working 5-7 hours a day with a couple days off as recovers. We don't want to kill ourselves or burn out the desire to work on it.

Both Michael and head back to work tomorrow. We have about 1/3 of the deck left to strip off, basically from the cockpit back, which I am ok with. We have been pulling up the old deck core with a chisel, wonderbar and hammer and it's grueling work. We have also started sanding the bottom fiberglass layer of the deck to allow for a nice smooth base to place the new core onto.

I am so happy to say the refit is back underway into what we hope is full swing. I love my job and since I only work 3 days a week, I have a good portion of time to work on the boat. I was able to schedule 8 days off in a row and we spent the majority of the time working on the boat, the deck specifically.

The Kelly Peterson's have a deck that was filled with chunks of wood. There is no problem with this except they drilled a million holes into a perfectly solid deck to lay down the teak. So our deck was soft in spots and during the purchase survey it was noted it had to be replaced.

We tore off the top layer of fiberglass and, yes, it had to be replaced. Parts that felt strong were wet and delaminated, so much so that I could pick it out with my bare hands. The worst part was chipping off the bottoms of the blocks, it is not a job for the feint of heart!

2014 was the year we began one of the big projects on the boat. We were living outside of Portland and I was commuting to a hospital in Salem, a 75 min drive one way. I worked nights, which was horrible on me and our family life. I am not meant for nights! We did however, find some time to get up to work on Sand Dollar.

We bought an Onan generator from the 1940s for cheap. Since there is no power where the boat is at, we needed something. The generator let us start sanding the bottom. We got about half done by the end of the year. We were hoping this wasn't such a long job but the boat had 3 layers of bottom paint and that stuff is stuck on HARD! Will keep working on it next year.

In November I took a job in WA, only 45 minutes away from Sand Dollar! We have rented an apartment and hope this will be the last place on land that we will live. Nice thing is it is only 10 minutes away from the hospital. I can get by with one tank of gas a month when before I would go through at least 5. The expectation for this move is definitely high!

Time for another update. So much has happened and we have started getting back refit on track, thank goodness.

2013 involved graduating from Nursing School with my BSN in Colorado and rather than licensing in CO, we decided to make the move to the west coast to be closer to Sand Dollar. We left our daughter in Brighton to finish her degree and keep an eye on our house. I admit, I think I read the parent manual wrong...aren't the children supposed to move away with the parents left in the house? Hmm, I think I will have to research that...

In July when the move was over we were so excited to finally get to work on the boat. The cover was already built, and the boat kep dry all winter but we had to build a way to get up into the boat. First thing involved building stairs. They went up well and our Golden Retriever go to go on the boat for the first time! We had to build him a ramp into the rear cabin because the stairs are just too steep for him.

We made little progress on the boat this year because we were living about 2 hours south in Oregon, but at least we aren't 1500 miles away from her!

Michael headed off to Washington today with a Uhaul trailer full of boat stuff. I am thrilled because this is another step closer to the water for us. Of course, moving the boat was big, but this is actually moving tools and supplies to resume the refit.

We have been storing the supplies and pieces in our garage since we brought Sand Dollar to Colorado and cleaned her out. We have so many interior teak pieces, system parts, project totes that it took up the majority of our garage. Now that the majority of the stuff is gone, I will organize what is left into 'take', 'sell', 'donate' and 'leave' piles. Then whenever he (or I) go to WA again, it's all ready to go.

I know I haven't exactly been keeping up with the blog, but school has been taking up the majority of my time. Now that I'm on break, I have a few minutes to write this up. Next year...wait...I guess it's actually THIS year... things should change because I have only one semester to go and I'll be done. Then, it's the national licensing exam and I'll be a registered nurse with my BSN. Hooray!!

Now it's time for the yearly update...there has been HUGE progress. Not so much in the way of refit, but we got Sand Dollar moved to Washington state. That in itself is huge, trust me.

Michael prepared the site last summer when he was there so it was ready for the move. We put a request up on the Uship site and to be honest, I wasn't exactly hopeful. I had looked the year before at comparable moves and they were well over 10k!! Thankfully, we got a bid from a shipper who lives not that far from us in WA and gave us a MUCH better price. We also got another bid that was from a shipper who asked me, get this, if you could rent trailers for this size boat. He had no CLUE about sailboats let alone how to move a boat this size. No way was he getting anywhere NEAR our baby.

On July 30 the shipper we chose arrived to pick her up. We had arranged a crane service to lift her and things went relatively painlessly. It took about 4 or 5 hours from the time the shipper arrived to the time he left. Pretty darned good turn around. I have loaded files into gallery under '2012 Move from CO to WA'. I especially like the one of her heading out of town.

Michael followed two days later and passed her in eastern Oregon. He had time to get to the property and get the stands all set up ready to go. It was an exciting time for us even though I wasn't there because I had to work. Michael's brother came to help out, and just see the boat.

The unload was uneventful and once that was done it was a slow process getting the quanset thingy set up. Michael and his brother would spend weekends working on it and eventually (the beginning of Sept) it came together.

So now Sand Dollar is waiting for us to begin her refit in earnest next year. When he heads over there next, Michael will be able to take a lot of the the boat stuff out of our garage and move it into the conex. Our plan is also to move to WA or OR next summer of fall (depending on the job situation for me) and start working on her on the weekends...finally!

So, keep an eye out for updates, especially next fall. I am so excited to be back on the water, I can almost taste it!

PS
I have started some boards on Pinterest about projects and stuff for Sand Dollar. If you're interested, you can follow me at http://pinterest.com/lorisails/

It's been a long time since I did an update, so I thought I'd better do one.

Michael finished the Pueblo job and we finally got back home to Brighton with Sand Dollar only about 10 minutes away from home. But, Michael is again working out of town, this time in Washington state. Now, it may seem to be a bad choice initially, but it's actually a good thing. Michael could be moved to take over the Western coast so he is starting to work over there to get to know the customers again.

We have family property there and just had a huge fabric quanset thingy shipped there. As well, we just got a conex put there, so we have a place to keep our tools safe. The quanset thingy (shed) is fabric and is about 70' by 35'. It is perfect for Sand Dollar! Since the shed just got there, Michael hasn't had a chance to set it up. It rains like crazy over there so he won't be able to set it up until spring. Then, the plan is to build a lift inside the building capable of taking Sand Dollar off a trailer. It doesn't have to move, just lift Sand Dollar off the trailer and then down onto her stands.

We hope to have her moved to Washington late next spring or summer. Then Michael can work on her year round. I won't be there anytime soon since I am in school full time in Colorado and hope to start the last two years of my nursing school in May. But, once I am done... it's off to Washington for me.

Well, that's a small update for us. We haven't given up the dream, just taking a different route for a while. And, everything I do and buy I always run it through the 'will it fit on the boat' filter. It's never far away in my mind.

Well, I thought I should update this since I was looking at the site and realized its been a LONG while since I last did an update.
Here's where we stand right now.

We had to move Sand Dollar again from Bernie's place (long story). I think that was what got me depressed and hadn't updated anything. We have a friend who allowed us to put it on his property - 10 minutes away from our house!!! That's great, BUT... Michael had to go work in Pueblo on a job and hasn't been home since August of 2007!!

Now you see why nothing has been done on the boat.
We are hoping to be back home at the end of the summer this year, and we're going to get some work done. Our biggest project is that deck. We have to cut it off and get it sealed. Of everything we have to do, that is the only structural thing left. She can sail after that. I still want the starboard gas tank replaced but we still have the port side tank. We have the possibility of some jobs coming up in Hawaii and we may actually sail Sand Dollar over there and live off here while there...our moorage would all be paid. Gotta love it. But its a long way off and so much to do.

We hadn't had a chance to get to the boat with commitments, but Michael took the next week off so we could get some uninterrupted time working on her.

The first thing we did was get the table area back up. We buffed up the table leg and Michael recut the V below the table between the benches. We got the table put up, but couldn't find the pieces to attached it to the wall so we used screws instead. You can't see them, and they do work well but I have got to find those pieces.

Michael wanted me to research water pumps for a washdown. We have Michael's laptop with wireless capability and it works great for times like these.

While I was researching, Paisley cleaned out the port lazarette to get it ready to work in and paint. Michael is going to rework the propane system. As you can see by this picture the wires were cut and another attached openly. Not good to have open wires next to your propane tank.

At evening approached Michael wanted to find out why our starboard galley, cabin and forward head lights were out, but Paisley's starboard berth light worked fine. We had to laugh, here we were working on the lights in the dark. Nothing like perfect timing.