And The Work Continues

So many things are going on all at once with the work on Renegade that I’m not sure where to start. I know had I kept up that it wouldn’t be so difficult to try and play catch up. But that’s the story of my life and I guess if I sat around doing nothing all day then I would feel bad about it. That’s not the case at all for Dirk or me right now. Even the other tenants of the marina have taken note and stop by several times a day to see the progress, make small talk or ask if we ever take a break. Also since we are very close to the restaurant we have many people walking docks, looking at boats and it seems they always have questions about what we’re doing and where were heading. I don’t mind at all because I remember Dirk and I did exactly the same thing in the past.

Ok, back to the task at hand and that is to fill you in on what has been occupying our days. We still have been scraping and sanding the decks in preparation of re caulking. I usually do the scraping and pulling out the old caulk and Dirk follows up with the sanding and caulking.  Boy I tell you that caulking is one messy business and we decided to tackle a small area together one day. Due to the drying time you must pull the tape off at a precise time. Not too soon as you will drag the mess everywhere and not too late as you start tearing your tape apart as it is drying under the caulk. All the while the wind is blowing and you have wet ribbons of painters tape blowing about threatening anything you don’t want to get it on, which is everything. You end up getting it stuck all over your hands which in turn gets all over everything you swore you didn’t touch. We found a product to remove it from our skin which works great but it has pumice in it and on the tender flesh of the arms and legs you leave nasty red patches. We have about concluded that if you end up stepping in it that there are several days needed before it wears off.

We just about bit off more than we could chew one day and pulled out lots of seams to re caulk. Before we knew it the sun was beginning to go down and we had a few lines to go. So I went below, grabbed a flashlight and we finished it up in the dark. Can't imagine what the neighbors were thinking then.

 I had taken off to pick up another load of our stuff from my sister’s home and left Dirk to tend to task without me standing over him telling him how to do it. He ended up finishing the sanding on the back deck and got one half of it coated with TeakGuard. It looks wonderful and we can’t wait to make further progress on the rest of the decks. If we could only keep the birds off the mast. We have an osprey who has basically claimed our boat as its. The only bad thing about that is he/she brings her fresh caught fish, some of which I am very impressed with, and preceeds to pull it apart to eat it flinging what it feels inedible to eat all over our decks. To boot, It ends up pooping on the deck and for the life of me I cant figure how this stuff goes through them without killing them. The fragments of fish bones with sharp edges litter the deck and are pretty uncomfortable when stepping on them.  So birds, please spread the love around and visit some of the other boats in the marina. And also, please stop using me as target practice. Its not even funny anymore, its just a given...If Im outside on the deck Im getting pooped on.

Looking down on the back deck showing before cleaning and TeakGuard and after

Continuing on, I have just about completed scraping the entire cabin top minus the side decks and once we know we will have several days of nice weather we will knock that out. Its gonna be a full day of pulling caulk, sanding the seams, and taping, and another full day to re caulk. Dirk did get the top of the bow sprit done and the teak looks as brand new as the rest of it does.

Platform on top of the bowsprit before



Same platform same day after a bit of cleaning and TeakGuard applied



I have also been scraping the areas that will be varnished such as the hand rails, dorade boxes, and decorative teak pieces.  As I had said before, the cetol that I’m scraping off is layers and layers deep. It is about 1/8 inch thick in some places and is gummy and sticky. The color of it is really ugly too and it hides the beauty of the teak underneath.

Dorade Box with layers and layers of Cetol all cloudy, cracked and ugly



The back Transom with some progress made on the right side

I also started scraping the back transom area in hopes that we can remove the old name and finally re name the boat. I have since found out that I need a nice calm day or two to do this as standing in a bucking dinghy just isn’t the easiest thing for me. I spent one afternoon hanging on so hard it took my fingers on my left hand 3 days to quit tingling and have complete feeling again. I finally gave up after being soaked from water splashing over the sides and being so tossed around I felt like I was at some bar playing on the mechanical bull. But it was fun uncovering the wood carvings that had so many layers of paint and varnish on them. I need to decide what I will do with the carvings as there are two nice long pieces at the bow of the boat I would like all the detail to stand out on. Paint the details? Stain them? Hummmm

On the rainy days we have our projects that we have been tackling on the inside. When we first looked at Renegade we noticed that under the port settee there were what appeared to be two bar stool bases that support the settee in the down position. Raise up the settee seat and it becomes an extended bar top. While digging around we found the inserts to the bar stool bases but they had no seats on them. Dirk found some scrap lumber in the marinas second chance shelf and we found extra material in another cubby. Off to the fabric store, and I bought some foam for the seat and some quilt batting for extra cush. A couple hours later we had two seats installed and ready for use. We had decided to pull the big bulky table from here to open up the space so this bar makes a great place for us to have our meals when not on the deck.

A few materials including, some old wood, extra material, foam and batting

The settee with the bulky table removed



Left side of the setee with the bar top up



Final product with the bar stools complete

Dirk’s indoor projects consisted of removal of 5 8D batteries and replacing them with 4 8D AGMs and one group 27 that will be a start battery for our 4k generator. We originally had 5 8 D’s and decided that 4 should be enough if we put the solar power on before we start to cruise. The surveyor originally noticed the batteries bulging in the survey which is never a good sign. We thought that we could live with them while on the dock attached to shore power for a while. Dirk however noticed they were getting very hot and hardly taking any charge at all. We thought it best to go ahead, bite the bullet and spring for new ones. It took several guys to load them onto a rolling cart the dock master had. He and Dirk had them pulled from under the salon floor and put them on towels so they could be drug to the front berth and hoisted out the hatch using the main halyard. At 165 lbs each there was no way anyone could lug them up the companionway. From there they were swung over the boat and lowered onto the dock. The new ones were installed the same way and after doing that chore Dirk was whipped for the day. Can’t say I blame him.

Three of the batteries under the floor, you can see just how big they are with Dirk in the photo

 

Three of them installed and ready to get back to work


Dirk also removed the old huge dinosaur of a television that we had in the salon. When they installed it they had to cut into the closet behind it as it extended through the bulkhead into the closet and took up some nice space.  Once he had it finally free we found that it wouldn’t fit through the doorway and we ended up removing the forward hatch and heaving it up that way. We ended up donating it to the marina lounge although they don’t have cable here someone is trying to fish up an antenna. At least we are rid of it and we ended up getting a nice 24 inch flat panel and putting it on a swivel in its place. So now all the entertainment factors are taken care of for now.

The new entertainment cabinet, with the X Box DVD player and stereo

A biggie item that we have been dealing with this week is the rigging. When we purchased Renegade there was no documentation of how old the rigging was and the person we bought it from had no idea either. So really there was only one thing to do and that was to assume it was original or close to it. There were several places where we saw wear and a couple burrs on the cables. We originally had thought that this is something we would have done when the boat was on the hard in the boatyard and we could have the experts handle it. When we were quoted the price Dirk decided to do some research on cost for materials and doing the job himself. It would be a big job with many trips up and down the mast but for the price we were gonna save in labor it was basically a no brainer. He elected to go with swages on top and the new Hi-Mod mechanical fittings on the bottom. He premeasured the lengths he would need, adding a bit for error. The cables came back to us pre cut to the approximate length, swaged on the top so that Dirk could insert them into the spreader bases and once run he could cut the extra off, add on the Hi-Mod fitting and tension the cable. He made several trips leaving the top of the 60 foot mast for last. There were two cables here and it took him about an hour to get them done. He and I were both happy for him to be on the ground once again. So the main mast is done and he has the mizzen mast left which if the weather plays nice can be done next week.

All the pretty new rigging coiled and laid up on deck

That small black item at the top of the mast is Dirk

 

I zoomed in and Im sure he had to force that smile

And believe it or not, our list continues on with some new toys that we purchased. Well not really toys but necessities that are, new to replace the old. Renegade came with a nice dinghy, nice in its day, but today it hangs like a wet noodle just about folded in two from the davits. She holds air about as well as those cheap beach floaties after a hard days use. So since she has sat deflated for so long all the trim pieces have come unglued and are hanging about. Dock master here said that it is one of the saddest looking dinghies he had ever seen. We concur….And to top it off the engine that sits proudly on her is older than Dirk and I. By now it’s considered an antique; just wish someone would pay an antique price for it. It’s a 1957 Montgomery Ward 12 horse engine and with just a little tinkering Dirk got it up and running. We keep trying to sell it with the condition; you must take the dinghy also. Hummmm, any takers?

She holds her age well huh?

The old and new, the good, the bad, the ugly

So seeing as we will need a reliable dinghy and engine, which is our car after all when we are cruising. We decided to purchase a 10’ 4” hard bottom AVON dinghy. And to go along with that we got a 15 horse Mercury engine. In the past we had the 9.9 and it did great getting on plane with just Dirk & I on board, but if we were loaded down with laundry, groceries, or another person, there was no way.  It’s a bit skinnier then our last one but it has a nice compartment up front that will house the dinghy anchor and chain

A purchase we made last week was a spur of the moment item that we knew we would need and the opportunity opened itself up to us so we jumped on it. There was a nautical flea market in the parking lot of the marina we are in and of course we had to go. Lucky us, no driving. George who runs Cortez Yacht Sales was selling a practically new engine lift and with us planning on a 15 horse we knew we would need something to help get that sucker on the engine mount on the back rail. Dirk got it mounted to the deck and we got to try it out yesterday. It also breaks down so that when we are sailing and wanting to use the mizzen we just pull off the upper section and the boom is free to swing.

The new engine sitting on the engine mount with the engine lift attached

There are also rumors of new canvas and stainless in the works but this post is too long as it is and I’m anxious to get this posted so that story will have to wait. Before I go though, here is the latest photo of Capt. Butters checking out the bow sprit, man that makes me nervous….but he seems very comfy there.