A Day Off

If you haven't heard yet, we are officially floating again after almost 2 weeks in the boat yard. Even though we really didn't enjoy our time in the yard, we are pretty happy we got some important things taken care of. Namely, our steering woes fixed. It's a great feeling knowing that our boat will now go where we tell it to go with no questions asked. No more clunks, no more freezing up, and no more wondering if we are going to make it to the next port before we have to make an emergency rudder with a door, some zip ties, and an oar (I had it all planned out just in case).

While we were living in the yard on dry land, we even took care of some other little things that have been on our list for as long as we've had the boat. That's over 10 years kids. For over a decade, our floor has been in a serious need of being refinished. It's been an eyesore and a source of dismay that has never magically just gone away. I would think that if we just stared at it long enough, it would take care of itself, but it didn't. We finally had to do something about it. So for 2 days we sanded away 35 years of abuse, dings, dents, grease, and grime, and now have a floor that we won't let you ever stand on. It just looks too good. I'm serious. If you ever come visit us, you are staying outside in the dinghy while I lay on the floor and admire the beautifully glowing teak and holly.

From the yard, we drove the boat straight to the Berkeley Marina to take a day off to decompress. Removing the rudder and fixing our steering woes was actually a bigger and more time consuming job than we thought it was going to be. And throwing in a handful of other projects to make use of our time in the yard didn't really help matters. We were pretty frazzled and fried by the time we got out of there. When we got to Berkeley, we both decided we were taking a day off. No boat projects, no walking, no anything for one whole day. I was even making huge plans for a nap. It's a rare thing for us to take a day off and it's an even rarer thing for us to take a nap. But it was going to happen.

When we got to the marina there were just a couple of things we needed to do before we could take our day off and enjoy a big, long, juicy, nap. The first thing was to scrub all of the grime from the yard off of the decks and the cockpit. It's amazing how much filth collects on the boat. All of the sanding, grinding, and painting that was happening on the various boats in the yard seemed to send a cloud of junk straight to us in our corner of the yard. We were in a filth collecting vortex and the boat was disgusting. 3 hours later and after lots and lots of scrubbing, it was nap time.

But no. Since we were in the yard for about a week longer than we anticipated, our water maker was long overdue to be run and flushed out. Before the nap and day off could happen, the water maker need to be exercised. Running the water maker isn't a big deal. It's flipping some switches, turning some valves, and pulling some levers. It's magic and it makes clean and clear drinking water from the sea. But when a high pressure hose suddenly blows and sprays salt water all over the place, that day off and juicy nap is put on hold a little bit longer.

After cleaning up the unwanted salt water wash down, the next step is obviously trying to find a place who can make us a replacement hose and a spare for later. After spending a couple of hours on the phone with various places that couldn't or didn't want to help us out, it was time to take a break and finally get to my long overdue nap.

Again, no. Why you ask? Well, our battery charger just decided to give up the ghost. It died. And power onboard is kind of a big deal. We have solar panels, so if there is sun, the batteries stay charged. But when there is no sun, if we have to run the generator, or if we are tied to a dock and plugged in, we need the charger to work. And now it doesn't.

As I was complaining to Brenda about how I had just installed the battery charger not too long ago and that I couldn't believe it had died on us already, it dawned on me that I installed it over 10 years ago. Ugh. Time flies and I guess nothing lasts forever. No nap yet because now I needed to order a new one to replace the dead one that had faithfully been serving us for a little over 10 years.

Since our day off wasn't working out too well, we decided to go for a little walk. I needed to get off of the boat and take a break from things breaking. And what do you know, Berkeley, California is a nice place to spend a little time. There is a happening downtown area with tons of great restaurants, the college has a beautiful campus to roam around on, and there are spots right on the water with a perfect view of the San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge. If it weren't for all of the walking, I would have thought visiting the city would have been part of my planned day off.

After roaming around town and getting some barking dogs (feet = ouch), we made our way back to the boat. I had a phone call right before we got onto the boat so I sat down on a bench at the top of the dock while Brenda continued her way home. About 20 minutes later, after I finished catching up with a good friend, I hopped on the boat and heard 10 words come from Brenda's mouth that I always hate hearing. “Do you want the good news or the bad news?”

It's never good news. Even though she asks the question, I promise you, it's never good news.

“Give me the bad news because I know you have nothing good to say.”

She gives me the good news anyway. “The good news is our bilge and our engine room has been cleaned with all of our water.”

“What??? Why would you decide to clean the engine room and bilge on our day off?” I ask.

“Well, I didn't decide to do it. The pipe fitting that connects to the water heater blew while we were out walking, so all of our water sprayed out of the broken fitting. It hosed down the engine room and ran down into the bilge. But the good news is the engine room and the bilge are now clean!”

“Hooray for good news.” We can't seem to catch a break. The never ending joys of boat life mean no nap and non-stop fixing stuff. Ugh.

And on a side note, I just had a friend call who said I forgot to post our latest videos on the blog. So her you go. Episode 11 and 12 are down below. They are extremely intoxicating.