Living Aboard A Sailboat

Boat Chores

Finally, Florida started holding up its end of the bargain for 2017. Gorgeous blue sky and mid 70 temps for the weekend. This motivated me to get out and do some boat chores.

The first was figuring out why the knotmeter wasn’t registering. I recently found it located in a locker that was screwed shut (instead of fixing the broken latch they just bolted it shut). I unscrewed it and with one hand over the hole in the boat (that was pumping in water) pulled it out. The paddle wheel was blocked by a growth of shells. As I was breaking them out, a baby crab popped out and scampered across the living room floor. As I was stuck holding the water back, I never did find him.

The next project was to take down the stanchions (the poles that hold the wire railing around the edge of the boat) and polish them. They were getting rusted after all these years. As the stern rail will soon be replaced the rusted sanctions will stick out.

Before

boat chore - stanchions before

After

boat projects - stanchions after

I’m not sure if I’m going to put them back up now, though. The deck feels larger without them. After the accident repairs happen I’ll do a couple daysails and see.

I also did my first epoxy and fiberglass repairs. Just a few bolt hole fills. I’ll do more next weekend as I have to replace some of the headliner in the salon to get ready for wrapping up the interior paint job.

Also finished up the teak trim in the V-berth (I had run out of wood to finish this up a couple months ago).

 

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