Progress On The Boat and Gracious Gifts

I've not written in awhile and need to catch up with all the great things going on with the boat. I have about a week's worth of information to share, I'm sorry this is so long but I hope you enjoy. I'm sorry I don't have photos. I do have some but I can't get my computer to read my camera once again. I am buying a card reader this next payday.

I have started helping Eddie with his boat, cleaning the interior and exterior. I will also be doing his woodwork. He wanted help and wants to pay me better than when I worked for Charl. I was happy to do it. I enjoy working on boats much more than in the office. It keeps me active and the boats look nice. I have found it hard to make time to do it but I am wanting to. So far I cleaned the interior last week and I scrubbed the deck this week. I tried getting some of the marrs off of it as well . Dennis had told me about this stuff called "Bar Keeper's Friend". He showed me a stanchion he used it on and it cleaned right up to a shine. So I got some and tried it on the mars on the fiberglass. Worked like a charm! Amazing stuff!!

Randy also asked me to clean his boat and open it up once in awhile. He is planning on selling it. He said I could take it off my debt for the dinghy! Wow, things are working out sooo nice.. We feel so blessed and spoiled by the generosity of everyone here at Serendipity... It truly is a Serendipity.

We have done a lot to the boat the last couple weeks. The rub/toe-rails are on and varnished with one coat so far. The hand-rails are also mounted and just need plugs in the screw holes.

Brett primed and painted the cockpit. What a difference it made! It needs another coat or two but it looks better than it did.

Last week we mounted the windlass and the cleats Mom and Dave had bought Brett for Christmas. Dennis called the new cleats, windlass and chocks "jewelry" for the boat. I thought that was cute. Brett also mounted the bow pulpit to the wood at the front of the boat. He also installed hinges and a latch for the anchor locker door. Everything looks beautiful in its shiny stainless steel sparkle.

We found out that stepping the mast onto the boat has been moved up our priority list. We made a list of things we needed to do to get the mast put on the boat.

Finishing the cockpit was one of the biggest priorities so we could get the mast on the boat. We got the truck/camper ready for travel to the storage unit. Brett had not started the truck since January and we were worried about its performance.

It took me about an hour to put everything away that had accumulated during these last 4 months. As we were getting ready to leave, Eddie came over from his boat and gave us some marine supplies he had lying around. He gave us a brass kerosene lamp, bumpers for the dock, several small sanders and much more. We couldn't believe the generosity of the people here we've met and become friends with. I promised Eddie I would clean up the brass kerosene lamp and show him it before we mounted it in the boat. It was so cool to get these things from Eddie and Dennis and others. We feel that these gracious gifts are now a part of our boat and our hearts will remember each person every time we use the item or look at it.

We went to storage and grabbed the teak floor boards and slatted seats for the cockpit as well as a bunch of other gear to mount to the boat. We ended up grabbing all the hardware for the deck, the teak and all the lifelines. We looked them over and discovered that there were no bases on the stanchions. We flipped through pictures and looked at the boat. Brett decided the stanchions had been embedded into the hull.

I resisted this theory as the lifelines would be too short. Dennis remembered stanchions with bases in his "magic" storage shed full of boat goodies. He, graciously again, offered us the stanchion bases for us to have. They were just the right type of base we needed! We looked up in West Marine catalog and found new bases to be $70 each. We needed 8 and couldn't believe that Dennis had what we needed. We gladly accepted them and Brett set to work at prying them off the old stanchions. We were able to mount the bases onto the deck using odd and end bolts and three different methods of embedding them into the hull.

The cables of the lifelines were in excellent condition. I am borrowing Tom and Dana's idea to spiff up the lifelines by wrapping white duct tape around the old cables. It gives them a clean, bright appearance and softens the feel of them. I didn't even know their lifelines were wrapped until they had told us.

While we were mounting everything, I struck up the conversation again about the paint for the boat. We thought for days and decided that white really is the best color for Benevolence. Her lines and her contrasting, striking wood colors would really be set off by white. And then Brett let me pick a color for the pinstripe and bootstripe that I couldn't believe. I decided the small stripes should be dark purple-Eggplant! NO ONE has purple on their boats. They don't even make the color for boats! I am going to mix navy with red to get the color for the stripes. Brett actually liked the idea! I even hinted to re-making the dodger, bimini and covers in the Eggplant color. He liked that too. Then I got carried away and mentioned purple fenders for the sides of the boats! LOL. He didn't say much about that.

So I think we're picking White with a dark purple stripe for the boat's color. I'm excited. They even make Sunbrella (marine, outdoor quality fabric) in Eggplant. She'll be really beautiful White. I didn't want to do white because it was so common but her lines really do beg the classic color. The Purple Heart wood rails will really "pop" with the white hull, too.

This weekend, we've been working on the mast and mounting the lifelines. Brett got the stern pulpit mounted and the port side of the lifelines mounted. I cleaned off the rest of the tape on one side of the mast.

Earlier, I had added up our finances and discovered that we could step the mast in about three weeks. This was helpful motivation for us to get done what we needed to. Today, I cleaned more tape off the mast and then we figured out what we needed to replace the rivets in the main halyard track of the mast. The external track was popping off! We counted and found we need to do about 200 new rivets. Brett's hand will get tired! ACE didn't have enough so we are ordering them online. After we get the track re-bedded, we can sand and paint the mast. It will be almost ready to put up after that. There was one piece of hardware that Brett needs to re-make. Someone had not used stainless steel for a "spreader tang" and it was all rusted. So he took it off and is re-fabricating it. Then Charl will weld it for us since it is stainless steel. We also have to get the chainplates drilled at a machine shop. We need 1 HUGE hole of 13/16" in each at the top and then Brett will drill 6, 1/2" holes in each one.

Today, Eddie came over and offered us his older Icom VHF radio which is extremely nice. The only thing he wanted for it was for Brett to install his new one!! Whoa! What a generous offer! Then he offered something even nicer. He has a multi-media computer that is much nicer than this one and is offering it to me if I give him this one so he can fix the monitor. He has a lot of computers and wants to share the nice one with me.... I can't believe it... I am trying it tomorrow to see if I like it.

Since Brett went up Tom and Dana's mast a few weeks ago, several times, he has had many of the marina people ask him to also go up their masts. He went up one briefly to run a line through a block and the boat-owner gave him a quart of his famous, Canadian maple syrup! Sweet! Someone else has asked him to go up their mast as well. We'll see how it goes. I think he is planning on doing it tomorrow. We are also helping Eddie get his new radar and VHF radio installed.

I had my writer's meeting last night. Didn't want to go but always glad I do. I just brought my last blog entry to it and it was a disaster. I don't write very well but I am determined to try. I meet with Sharon Ragle (a writer who sailed around the world), a very nice gal, Kalaya and Truda, my boss here at the park. I haven't worked on my book in awhile, been focusing on the boat more.

After the meeting, about 1030pm, Brett and I went outside so he could smoke a cigarette. He had been very upset with the day. On top of it, the electrical went out in most the camper last night. We were talking when we heard movement on one of the boats. I asked Brett what it was, and he said that our marina neighbor who was staying on his boat that night.

Now I don't think I have ever explained the guy next to us. He ownes a smaller boat next to us that Jose also owned in addition to our Wauquiez. Jose had lived on it and sold it to this guy before he left to England. (Long story). We met him and found out quickly that he was an alcoholic. Always was drunk. Only came to the boat for nights he was fighting with his wife (girlfriend?). We haven't had too much of a problem with him except he was throwing his cigarettes butts into the water and we complained to Dennis about it.

He quit doing that but we kept our distance from him. Well, last night, he decided to come out of the hatch half-way and... PEE! He peed from the hatch all over his boat and on the finger dock between us and him and on our lines. I asked Brett, "Is he peeing? Is he... peeing on OUR boat?!"The guy looked over at us in the dark and then slowly stumbled below deck. Brett took a flashlight and headed down to the finger looking at where the guy had been peed. Indeed, he went to the bathroom on our lines and it splashed onto our boat. Brett was furious and stomped up to Dennis' house at 11pm at night. Supposedly the guy had been warned before about peeing outside in public! So they told his wife that they had to leave by Sunday. We contemplated moving our boat last night after that crazy scene!

It's funny, Brett said, "Some people shower us with gifts and others shower us with pee." hee hee. Yikes!!!

But all in all, we are feeling so blessed by everything with the boat. This seems truly meant to be for us to be on this adventure.

Well I am sure there is a lot more to add but I've taken Benedryl for my allergies and am drugged up now, not able to type. LOL

I hope you are all doing well. Love you.

Kyla