Right or Left?

That was it.  "Right or Left?"  That single question was the extent of our planning for last Saturday's sail.

Around 3:15 we looked around. It was nice.  The tide was in our favor for leaving the dock and the wind was light, but from a good direction.  The last time or two we'd left the dock, we'd had to fight both.  We decided to take a last minute sail.  You know, a couple hours out then glide on back into our slip, thanks to the conditions.

We started by removing this plug and installing the speed reading thing.  (Ew.)  

Getting out of the slip was a breeze.  The easiest exit we've had in ages.  Apparently, when it's a stress-free exit, I have a stress-free sail.  We're also getting better at stowing things below (thanks to lots of industrial/removable Velcro attachments and museum putty stuff) which keeps us both from stressing about whatever is rolling around below when we're stuck in the cockpit.

Cruising on out into the Wilmington River - hoisting the sails.  Here's where I asked - Right or Left?  

We went right (usually choose left) and cruised on by some tiny little houses...

The breeze was light, but the sun was out, and there really weren't too many people out for Labor Day weekend.

We eventually got on over to the bridge in Thunderbolt - I KNOW we clear the bridges, but we still end up holding our breath a little each time. 

And here's where I breathe again.

Loads of cool shrimp boats in the area.

A quick snippet of Bonaventure Cemetery

Bridge number 2 of the day ahead.

This one is a draw bridge.

Notice the left fwd side doesn't actually open here.  ?!

Butterflies in the belly on this one.  

This is why you take sails down to go through a bridge - one big gust with sails up and we'd've been dangling from that sucker.

From the other side.

 About 20 minutes after going through the draw bridge we realized we didn't really have a "plan".  We looked back and there were some light rain showers - but we couldn't tell which way they were headed.
  We talked a bit about how far we were from our neck of the woods - and then hashed out how long it would take us to get back there.  It was almost 5pm, so we figured we had about 3 hours of daylight left.  We hated to call and make the guy open the draw bridge again.  I went below to check out our chart of the area so we could try and get an idea of how long it would take.  We've cruised the waters for years in our power boat - but I wanted to see an aerial view.  I understand things much easier when I have a visual.  Turns out we don't actually have a chart of where we live...  Who knew?  I have a chart of the ICW, but we were about to mosey on out to the outside - and we don't have a paper chart for that.  Using our massive experience, we determined it would take us right about 3 hours to go out the Savannah River, into the ocean, around Tybee, in Wasaw Sound, back up the Wilmington River, and back to our slip. Even though the leg from Wasaw to our slip takes a minimum of 45 minutes...

Here we are cruising on around Tybee.

Look at that gorgeous sunset.  From our boat.  In the ocean.  No where near our destination yet...

Still in the ocean.

We got to Wasaw Sound sometime after dark.  Without a Qbeam.  It's a tricky inlet to say the least, but we DO actually have experience with it and know that our chart plotter is very accurate here.  It was a slow 4 knot day.  As we cruised on up the Wilmington we were able to watch the fire works from the boat.  We finally eased on into the slip at 11pm.  The dogs were about to explode - in fact one of them did on the dock.

So what did we learn?  We ordered a Qbeam and it's already on the boat.  I'm going in search of a detailed local chart of the entire area this week - not just the ICW.  And today?  Today we turn left.

Trailer, uh, Boat Trash

We don't have a trash can on the boat!  How crazy is that?  Sure I could buy one of those tiny little flip top jobs from the store and find somewhere out of the way (?) to put it, but it would be full in no time, then what?  We end up just recycling the awful plastic shopping bags that we have way too many of (because I always forget to take my reusable bags to the store with me...).  I just tie one of those suckers to a random door knob and we stash our trash in it.  Very classy.

Note trash bag plopped on stairs waiting on the next trip to the marina dumpster.

Solution time!

Early on, I was stashing one of those classy bags in the forward starboard lower cabinet - just under the silverware drawer.  It's an odd shaped space with random things plopped in it haphazardly.  Because the bag was just plopped it there, it was a pain in the ass. You had to open the cabinet then find the opening in the bag.  Not a huge deal - unless you are cooking under way and trying to do that on a rocking boat...  But check out that rail right there - just under the rail that the silverware drawer rides on:

This empty rail is intriguing...

Clorox wipes, rubbing alcohol and Gatorade - makes sense together, right?
Notice the lack of clearance he's pointing to where the door and slider meet.

 I started scheming and decided a "ring" of some sort that could ride on that rail just might hold a trash bag.  I took measurements.  I slid a perfectly sized cutting board into the slot (yeah, it would make a good storage spot for a cutting board, too, but this boat needs trash storage!) Then I dragged Mark over to discuss my idea.  He's pretty good at shooting holes in my plans - which can be a downer, but he's usually right.  Just don't tell him I said that.  When he said the plan was actually feasible - and that he'd whip it up for me, I knew I was onto something.
Mark's current project is building new companionway doors (later blog on that) out of white Marineboard.  Turns out Marineboard is pretty easy to work with and looks fabulous.  And we have quite a bit at the condo.  So he went to work making adjustments. Mark took the left side of the slider off and shimmed it out a bit to create clearance.

Here he's reinstalling the shimmed slide.

 He asked me to sketch out what I was wanting one morning when I was heading off to teach yoga.  I whipped out a detailed blue print (I drew a rectangle on the back of a note card) and when I came home there was a magical trash ring!

 It slides right onto the slider.

Uses a regular sized trash bag - no more tiny grocery bags that shred!

It was sized perfectly to the opening - which actually turns out to be a little snug.
We brought it home and he cut it down a tiny bit.  Should work perfectly now.

I love this.  Such a tiny thing makes such a huge difference!  It is currently my favorite change to the boat.  I'm pretty sure it will drop to 2nd place as soon as those swinging companionway doors replace the wooden stackable doors (the same doors that have given me numerous bruises and tried to rip off one of Mark's toes...).  But for now, I'm a happy girl!

PS. - I still don't know what that slider was originally for.  A cutting board?  A custom trash bin?  Or maybe I'm not so original - just psychic, and this is what was meant to be here.  My Google research couldn't turn up anything.  Do you have a B393?  And if so, can you tell me what is really supposed to be here?

Off the radar.

Lori enjoying a bit of seasickness on the bow.

We're still here - I promise!  We went for a sail Sunday - and thankfully dragged a couple of friends along.  It was a bit of a booger getting the boat out of the dock.  All the other sailors keep telling us "of course that's the hardest part!" but I say it's time for a bow thruster.

As soon as we got into the river, the wind was not cooperative.  It was pretty choppy and we only got up to about 4 knots.  We usually hit 7-9.  I hear that's fast, but what do I know?  I know 4 is slow - that's what I know.  It was still a blast - the girls were able to relax on the bow while the boys did the manly sailing part.

Luna bruised me in the shape of a moon.      
She's creative like that.

School has started back - thus my slackassedness at blogging. This semester I have a management class online and some other class that has to do with banquet stuff.  You know, which fork goes where, proper serving etiquette, etc.  As soon as he said we get to learn about wines/wine pairings, I was hooked.  I'm easy.  Just offer me wine and I'll take whatever class they throw at me.  Except Intro to Computers, which I'm trying my darnedest to get out of.  It's going to take a lot more than wine to get me to pay someone to teach me what a monitor is.  (That is apparently the subject matter of Chapter 1.)

The Small Things - hinging the bench

Sometimes it's the small things that are really annoying.  And let's face it, we don't exactly have a "Project" boat, so we're able to make those small things a priority.  When a small, annoying things gets fixed - it's big!  One of the annoying things was the top of the bench in the salon.  It's a good spot for me to brace myself when I'm cooking underway (yes, I do cook underway!)  But if you know me, you know I can't stand certain textures - whether it's food or fabric, I'm just picky.  The fabric on the bench is some sort of velvety non-sense.  It catches on your skin, is ugly and completely wrong for a water environment.  In addition, to get to the pot/pan storage inside the bench, I have to remove the cushion, remove another lid, then rummage around to find what I'm looking for.  That means I also have to stow the cushion and stow the wooden lid while cooking underway...

Bench in it's original (to us) configuration

The velcro doesn't really work anymore...

Here's the plug-style lid you have to remove

This shot just gives you a better idea of where the bench is (yes, we still have the table down low and use it as an ottoman)

I was surprised at how easily the bench came up - once all the junk was removed

I was also amazed at how much the salon opens up without the bench.  Tempting to remove the bench entirely, but we have grand plans for that bench - and it's some of the best galley storage we have.

Mark took the wooden lid off and added hinges.  It took two sessions - turned out he needed the router to remove a bit of the lip on the back of the lid in order to get it to close/open properly - and of course the router was at the condo.  He got it finished up and it is a great improvement.

While he was working on his project, I was fiddling around with our existing cushions.  We got a bargain on a large amount of scrap IZIT (faux, buttery-soft leather) that I am going to use to recover the salon cushions - and anything else I can get my hands on!  I took the cover off of the bench - it has a zipper down the back, unlike the rest of the sofa cushions.  You won't believe what was under it

Why?!?  Why would anyone cover the matching cream bench with that ugly, nonmatching blue?  (no offense to those of you that like blue velour...)

And here's an updated pic of the galley/salon - starting to get cozier.

I am keeping the cover though - it'll be a nice template/reference for the new covers I'm making.  I like that it's zippered and has muslin as a backing.  I've got quite a bit of muslin on my hands from the hand-dyed fabric I sell in my etsy shop.  I plan to use un-dyed muslin, but I could always jazz the boat up with some tie-dye...  I also like the piping.  I've been researching cushions and have learned to make piping, so we'll see how it goes.  I think it would be a nice design element to have a contrasting piping on the sofa - but it will also add a lot of work/room for error, so we'll see.  

I also opened up one of the MANY cockpit cushions that came with Luna Sea.  Those are closed cell, I think.  But they are drying out some, so I'm torn on whether to reuse the foam or buy more.  From the prices I've seen, I'll likely cover the existing foam in that buttery soft IZIT and keep on truckin' with those cushions.

Off to the boat!  We're hoping to sail today - the weather's not been cooperating, so we'll see.  Happy Sunday!

No more busting me arse.

So the boat is a little high-sided.  And I'm a little height-challenged.  That makes for a lively event every time I go to exit or enter the boat.  Some neighbors let us borrow a small plastic step stool until we could get/make our own steps.  That resulted in me stepping off the boat, onto the step, and immediately busting my butt on the dock.  Did I mention I'm also graceless?

We've had rain out the yingyang lately, so we figured out which projects we could work on in the condo and the stairs took priority.  

We cheated a little and picked up pre-made risers.  

Then cut to size and attached the stair treads.

We used a spacer to make sure they were all somewhat even.

Mark is a nerd.  ♥ 

Then attached the back legs/supports.  Contrary to previous photo, floating stairs are not practical.

These suckers are heavy.

Best part?  A ramp for the dogs!

The ramp has wooden pegs that fit into the appropriate hole, depending on distance.

And a peg that hooks over the toe rail to keep the boat in place.

 They work great.  We didn't have the dogs with us, as we didn't really plan to hang out all day Sunday.  We'll have to get them trained on their next visit!  Libby has already jumped off the boat onto the dock twice.  That's a long way for a wiener!  Hopefully she takes to the stairs easily and doesn't attempt any more flying escapes.