One Year Later and the Boatyard Marathon

One Year Later

Wow! It has been over a year since we left our jobs behind, handed the keys to our home in Missisauga to the new owners, filled the storage locker at the condo, disposed of our automobiles and moved on board Polar Pacer. Time really does fly when you are having fun. We have met an amazing array of people and made some very good new friends. We are still enjoying the experience and are not planning on giving up the lifestyle anytime soon.

A year living on a boat sounds like a long time until we meet people like the Swiss couple on Roi Soleil who have been travelling the world and living on the water for 37 years. Now that is a long time. We have grown accustomed to living in a small space with minimal possessions. In fact, we have disposed of many of the things we had on board when we started the trip as we realized that we just did not need them. Our shopping experiences are usually limited to those things that will be used up (beer, food, propane) or are replacements for items that have broken (Tom's camera - twice) or worn out (flip flops, bathing suits and boat parts). Souvenirs tend to be items that serve a purpose on board or take up very little space. I have collected postage stamps since I was eight years old so that works well. As we use the salt and pepper shakers almost every day they were an appropriate acquisition.

Pewter images of blue crabs bring back memories of the Chesapeake. The salt shaker is stored on the stove next to the burner to keep the white stuff flowing.

Polar Pacer has proven to be a comfortable and reliable vessel although we came up with a list of changes that we think will make her a little more user friendly. Some of the changes are cosmetic like fresh varnish on the teak while others are functional like a hot water system and a shower on the back deck.We have had a number of requests for technical information on the upgrades we have done. The list is pretty long so  I will spread them out over several posts. If there is something specific you are interested in let us know through the comment feature on the blog.

The Boatyard Marathon - June 14 to July 31, 2010

We started out with a combined wish list/job list of 139 items and narrowed it down to more things than we could reasonable expect to accomplish in a six week time frame with a budget considerable higher than what we could sensibly afford. We were hauled out of the water at Schroeder's Yacht Systems in Deltaville, Virginia on the morning of June 15 with a spreadsheet of 79 top priority 'to do' items.

We are fortunate that Polar Pacer is just over 15 feet wide and can fit in a regular travel lift. Newer catamarans are much wider and have a harder time finding facilities that can accommodate them.The guys at Schroeder's are very careful with our home.

We were anxious for the boatyard marathon to begin. The sooner we could start checking things off the list the sooner we would be back in the water to continue the adventure.We were just a bit jealous of our friends who had continued to head north en route to Maine to feast on fresh lobster but we were also excited about the improvements we had planned for Polar Pacer.

More than one person had warned us about the heat and humidity in the Chesapeake during the summer. Our first purchase from Home Depot in nearby Gloucester was a window style air conditioner that Tom installed in one of the hatches with a blue tarp and lots of duct tape. Thanks to Liz and Chris for the loan of their car for that shopping trip. 

It turned out to be one of the hottest summers on record with many days reaching temperatures over 100 degrees and most of the others in the 90's. We would have not slept much without our Zenith.

We have ordered most of our supplies using the internet and they are delivered by UPS directly to the boatyard. There are also some suppliers in town ( including two, yes two, West Marine stores)  but nothing is within walking distance and we are mostly relying on the kindness of strangers to drive us around. There is an Enterprise car rental location in the next town but that can get rather expensive.

There is no need for an alarm clock to make sure we get an early start to our days. The boatyard crows are up with the dawn and their early morning treetop arguments are loud enough to wake the dead.  They seem to appreciate the cooler morning temperatures as much as we do.

They also like to admire themselves in the port lights.I have not seen so many crows since I was growing up in Saskatchewan.

There were several sewing projects on the list. There is a large painting shed in the boatyard that is not seeing much use that became a workshop for many of our projects. It worked well to set up the sewing machine with lots of room to work with large pieces of Sunbrella.

The problem with sewing without anywhere to sit is having to spend a lot of time standing on one leg.

This piece became a large awning that drapes over the spinnaker pole from the mast to the inner fore stay. It covers the entire cabin top and provides shade. It has a long slot at the front edge to accommodate the inner fore stay and loops of polyester (UV resistant) webbing on all four sides in order to tie it in place. There are rod pockets at both ends plus two more aft of the fore stay that we can insert poles into to give it more shape.

Our diesel cans are starting to show the effects of being out in the sun day after day and needed to be protected from the UV rays.

If the sun can do this to plastic imagine what it does to our skin without sunscreen.

All dressed.

The dinghy chaps that I had used as my practice piece when we first purchased our Sailrite sewing machine

were showing some wear and tear and we identified a few design flaws that needed to be fixed.The Sunbrella material and polyester thread are holding up well against the UV rays. Other projects included Phifertex panels for the cockpit enclosure for more air flow and shade, a foredeck bag for the staysail and new dryfast cockpit cushions.

Have a seat.

Tom's biggest project was to build several fiberglass units. He made the shapes using core cell and a hot glue gun, added layers of fiberglass cloth and epoxy, faired them with Awl Grip and finished them with Brightside  paint. 

A new propane locker and one of the back deck lockers with a fresh layer of fiberglass cloth and epoxy.

The new storage cubby for the helm station with a coat of Awl Grip fairing compound. It will be sanded when it is dry.

Ready to be bonded into place then painted. The raised compartment at the helm station makes space for a six gallon hot water tank. The new helm seat will be positioned on top and I will no longer need a stool to see where I'm going when I'm at the helm.

One of  two lockers being bonded to the back deck using epoxy and thickener. They will give us space to store the fishing gear and snorkel stuff plus a shower system.

With all the new pieces installed the cockpit got a fresh coat of paint.

The list goes on. But more of that another time.

Life in the boatyard is not all work and no play. There are enough people who like us, are staying on their boats as they work on them and appreciate a break in the routine of sanding, painting, and repairing or replacing various broken bits. One such diversion was a movie night where we watched the latest version of Alice in Wonderland. 

If you have seen the movie you'll note the significance of Jabberwocky as a backdrop.