I Love Mr. Clean

 

• We are not going to be angry at the person who put the camera where it does not belong. We are just going to be grateful that we still have the camera and the photographic evidence of the wonders of the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.
   Bad scratch sadly upon our hull...
  
  But wait! Mr. Clean says he can clean it!
  
  A little bit of effort, and...
  
  No one knows about my infamous docking tragedy! Yay for Mr. Clean who is now my boyfriend because I puffy heart love him forever. 

All That and a Side of Sweet Potato Fries

You may recall that I previously mentioned an "inglorious docking manuever" on our eventful outing on Ceol Mor. Well, I wasn't the only one to have a bit of a tussle with a dock. Apparently, the previous owners decided to take the boat out for one last sail before we transferred the title. It seems that they found 42 feet of boat a bit much to handle as well as evidenced by the deep scratch along the port side hull. My screw up was on the starboard side and I would like to add, was quite a bit smaller in scope.

Here is the damage report- Starboard side 2 feet of intermittent scratches, fender rub Port side, 5 foot long deep scratch. Normally I would post photos of the damage but somebody (who shall remain nameless) left the camera out where it could be easily pilfered. Next week, digital camera shopping!

Since our hull has been painted with Awlgrip which is notoriously finicky about which products to use, my first thought to clean up the hull was using the recommended polish Awlcare. Well, no one had any Awlcare in stock and the stuff is ridiculously expensive. So I put on my thinking cap and had a light bulb moment- Magic Eraser!

The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser has worked on everything in my home- flat finish painted walls, shower glass, ceramic tile, perfectly. I thought that I had nothing to lose so I thought I'd give it a shot. Mark was dubious as to whther or not it would work and whether or not it would damage the finish.

The Magic Eraser not only worked, it worked easily and efficiently leaving no evidence behind. No one but Mark and you dear readers would ever know about my bone headed docking manuever. Hurray! I should point out that our hull is white. I do not know how the Magic Eraser will work on a dark painted hull so if you are trying to hide evidence of a bash up, do a test area in an inconspicuous area before taking the Magic Eraser down the hull.

Now we are ready to clean the hull, the properly polish her up with Awlcare after her haul out.

Owning a sailboat doesn't mean you will actually SAIL

While I was busy escorting Maura off to the piney woods for a fun filled week of horses, S'mores and swimming, Mark was busy working on the boat. His good friend Bill Blizzard keeps his lovely boat Moondance at the same marina. (The photo of Maura and Mark on Maura's first sail was taken on Moondance). Bill happened to be at the marina on Sunday and was able to take the time to lend a hand so that Mark could take Ceol Mor out for a spin. Bill is an accomplished sailor and it was good for Mark to have a mentor to further his sailing skills. Other than a near grounding in what proved to be a bit of non-worrisome sludge, they had an uneventful little sail out in Galveston Bay and by all accounts, thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

 On Tuesday, seeing as how we were sans children Mark and I decided to take Ceol Mor out for a bit to practice manuevering under power and sailing a bit to get used to Ceol Mor's size, which is quite a bit larger than what we are used to and yes- size does matter. We removed all of the covers, checked the fuel and oil and prepared to take off. Here is Mark preparing to leave our slip, on our boat, for the first time alone.

• 
  Doesn't he look happy? A man with the boat he loves, about to go sailing with his AWESOMELY COOL WIFE on a perfect day with winds out of the south at 10-20 mph. No clouds on the horizon and 6 hours of sunlight left. Perfect
• .
  We managed to nudge Ceol Mor out of her slip with only a momentary bit of panic from me. I was acutely aware at how much larger Ceol Mor is than anything I had sailed previously as we approached the boats moored up behind us. 42 feet is a lot of boat. Everyone assures me it will get easier but I am a big chicken. The sailing doesn't scare me, but the parking does!
• 
  Mark handled Ceol Mor beautifully, got her pointed down the channel and off we motored towards the bay. As we turned into to the primary channel, I noticed the engine sounded a bit...off. I questioned Mark about this. I should have known by the way he said " we're fine" that something was off. Mark has a way of becoming rather terse when under stress and I noticed he was very short in his response. All the same, he kept Ceol Mor pointed towards the bay and since I have infinite trust in his superior mechanical skills, I figured he would mention if there was a problem so I continued to watch for oncoming boat traffic, debris in the channel, etc.

• I waved as the new owners of the very little Island Packet I had so wanted to purchase motored smoothly past us on its way to its new berth, just 4 slips down from ours on the next pier over from ours. I was feeling a bit wistful for the little IP. I think Ceol Mor sensed my longing for the little tug because it was at this moment that Mark said " We're going back" and began to turn the boat around. I turned my head to ask him why when I saw this:
•  
• Let us speak briefly about things you do not wish to see pouring out of your companion way.
  1. Water
  2. Smoke
  That about sums it up. Smoke coming out of your companion way is bad. Water pouring out of your companion way is worse so we should all be grateful and thankful that it was the lesser of two evils.
• 
  I immediately stuck my head in as far as I possibly could to offer what assesment I could to Mark without pulling a Sylvia Plath in all of the diesel fumes. "The good news is there don't appear to be any flames. The bad news is, we now seem to be gathering a bit of water in the cabin" I told Mark. Mark was cool as a cucumber as he carefully eyed the temperature gauge and motored as slowly and carefully as he could back to the marina. I was offering up prayers to any and all dieties, spirits or powers that be that we manage to get Ceol Mor back to her slip in one piece so that we could assess the situation from the safe position of her berth, rather than in the middle of the channel. I am not certain which one picked up the hot line, but I was feeling grateful as we neared our marina.
• 
  The smoke from the exhaust seemed to gather in its intensity as we made our way back. This was the longest 20 minutes you can imagine as we glided by in our smoking hot boat (HA!) past the other sailors going out for an evening sail.
  
• We once again, passed the little, non smoking IP with its new owners snug in its new berth. *sigh* After an inglorious docking manuever ( Mark did fine, I am the reason Ceol Mor now has a skid mark on her starboard side. Again 42 feet is a LOT of boat), we managed to get her tied up and assess the situation. We are down one exhaust pipe. Apparently, the exhaust pipe decided it was time to retire and blew out in spectacular fashion.
• While were underway with an open exhaust line, the water intake for the engine cooling continued to do its job, intake water. Unfortunately, at this time the bilge pump which we had already decided needed some companions decided it wasn't going to work solo and retired as well. That explains the water in the cabin. Here's a photo of me perfecting the fine art of manual bilge pumping. Fortunately, the manual bilge pump works GREAT! 
  
  
  After such a stressful outing, Mark and I did what any prudent Old Salt would do in our situation. We ran to the pool to cool off and get the smell of diesel out of our nose and off of our skin. Then we had a dinner at a dockside restaurant with scallops, fish and copious amounts of adult beverages.  Nothing soothes the bruised pride that sailing provides quite like a good rum, except maybe two rums.
  Coming up next week- diesel engine exhaust repair and bilge pump installation 101! WHEEEEE! Owning a boat is F-U-N! I almost wrote some different letters after the FU...

Lyle Lovett - If I Had a Boat

Ceol Mor is officially, really and truly ours today. All that is left to do is to sign the paperwork, which we are doing in three hours time. YAY! Oh...wait...its the beginning of hurricane season. EEK! Hopefully, having had Ike hit last year we should be statistically safe from a direct hit for another 5-10 years.
I've been singing this song all weekend. It perfectly sums up my mood just now- enjoy.

Fore Cabin Inspection

Mark is not only an engineer by profession, he is an engineer deep down in his soul. Sometimes this can cause friction as I am more of the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants MacGyver type. Mark is more of the Type A, precision- is- mandatory-and-necessary type. I have to say that Mark's meiticulous nature is a huge boon when you are planning on living on a vessel at the mercy of the sea.

Yesterday, he began doing a complete inventory and inspection of the fore cabin. 3 hours later, we have a very thorough mapping of all the wiring, plumbing, storage and construction. 3 hours for the fore cabin alone. No, I did not accompany him as he works best alone. Knowing this is true is one reason we have such a happy marriage.

Here is what Mark discovered and his refit plans for the fore cabin:
The wiring in the front cabin could be a bit tidier.It's not awful or in bad shape, but tidying them up will give us more storage space and on a boat, every inch counts!
The ac compressor low temperature tubing in the fore cabin needs to be insulated to prevent condensation drip from mildewing the bunk.
The electric windlass needs to have a dedicated battery closer to the windlass as the power is too far away, resulting in power loss.
The fore water intake line is useless and not plumbed to the water tank- we can plumb it or just not use it. At this point, we are a bit undecided.
Mark is forcing me to say that "the fore head discharge and ac intake lines are an abortion" which may be true but I am writing this blog, not him, SO...moving forward
The fore head is still a waste of space to us and will be used for extra storage. (still don't know why people think 2 heads on a boat is necessary).
Seacock has not been maintained and needs replacing
The reading lights will be upgraded to energy efficient LED lighting.

This is just the beginning. Next week, Mark will move on to the saloon, followed by the galley and nav desk, followed by the aft head and cabin. Then it's on to the engine room! Then the cockpit and rigging followed at last by our anchoring system. I have absolute confidence that in time, we will have the most perfect Nassau ever. I am rather proud of Mark's efforts, sometimes his need for precision drives me nuts but the end result is always worth it.
Me, I just want to look at interior upholestry choices, lighting options and the new countertop materials for the galley. Every once in a blue moon, I'm a total girly girl. At least I know not to pack my Jimmy Choos !

One of the many that got away

Having learned more about yacht design, construction and safety than I ever wanted to, I quickly figured out a cardinal truth of purchasing a cruising yacht- there is no one perfect boat. One of the other truths I learned is that taste is subjective.

After amiably going along with Mark in pursuit of a boat that I thought was too big, too poorly planned out, lacking in storage and just hideous on the interior simply because Mark thought the boat had "proper yacht lines", I felt that it was my turn to pick the next likely candidate. When Mark's "proper yacht" failed the survey in spectacular fashion (proving that Engineers can be swayed away from reason by the heart just like everyone else) I put forward my dark horse favorite- The Island Packet 350.



I heard all of the naysayers- who were all sailing MEN by the way- they are too slow, they are fat, they're known as Island Piglets, they are ugly boats, they are not manly, blah, blah and yet, I loved this little can do boat and still do.

Mark pointed out that she was slow as molasses and couldn't point into the wind for love or money. I pointed out that when we went out for a sea trial on her, the winds were blowing, the rain was coming down, the seas were choppy, rough and building all the time and yet, the little Piglet just wallowed around happily in the rough while maintaining her course. This was a point in her favor as I think being comfortable at sea in a storm is of huge benefit.
Mark couldn't complain about the interior. There was more usable space in this little 35 foot boat than in the 44 foot boat we had just surveyed. More than adequate for a family of 3 to be very, very comfortable for a very long time.

Mark was also horrified by her lines. "She looks like a trawler! Like a fishing boat! Like a tugboat!" I failed to see how this was a bad thing. I thought she was charming, adorable and reminiscent of my favorite boat of all time- a little boat who just knew there was a big wide world out there for him to see...

I think this explains why I loved her lines so much. I didn't find her ugly- I found her whimsical and sweet. I didn't see her as chubby and slow- I saw her as steady and sure footed. She reminded me of Scuffy the Tugboat, which was a favorite book of mine when I was about 3 years old. Ah nostalgia.

In the end, Mark was willing to purchase her because she was indeed "fit for purpose" but I just couldn't buy a boat that Mark didn't love. Any boat would require a huge commitment of time and resources and it just didn't feel good to ask Mark to make a commitment of this magnitude to a boat he didn't absolutely love.


For all you IP owners who take the ribbing from people who just don't get it, feel free to turn to me for a sympathetic ear. I get these boats, I really do.

And to you- the little almost ours IP that I would have named Muc Dubh and loved for many years- I hope you find a family to take you on adventures out in the wide, wild world. I really do.

The B Word

Blisters. Ugh. We have known since the survey on May 5 that the S/V soon to be officially named Ceol Mor has cosmetic blistering on her hull. A lot of blisters...a whole mess of the boat pox. I could go into the long and lengthy explaination of the different types of boat blisters, the theory on why they happen and the various techniques used to correct them but its much easier to just tell you to GOOGLE IT!

The conundrum we face right now is complex and we are undecided as the best course of action to take just now. Since these seem to be only cosmetic in nature, there isn't the huge push to get the boat out of the water and dried that there would be if these were blisters that penetrated the gelcoat.

So. Do we sail her a bit for the next month or so, getting to know her and what her other needs might be before putting her in the yard for 2-3 months for repair or do we put her in the yard immediately and put off sailing until September?

My gut instinct is to schedule a haul out and lay up for her in July, sail her a bit for the next month so that any additional repairs or equipment installations can be handled at the same time as Ceol Mor's bottom job. Decisions, decisions... we could speed up the process by having her hauled now, giving her hull a bit more time to dry out before starting the blister repair. It IS rather humid just now and that will slow down the drying process. July and August should be quite a bit drier.

I hate these kind of decisions. I need a crystal ball to see what the weather will be doing in August. Anyone have one handy?