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Neighborhood Tour

Our land neighborhood is much like an RV park, especially now that a large houseboat sits in front of us- Bridget’s boat. Hauled for a quick bottom painting, she’ll likely be out several weeks. The bottom needs more than a quick scrape and paint. The thought is that the bottom is constructed from the wrong type/grade of aluminum and will need more than a lick and promise to get it ship-shape.

Houseboat “Carpe Diem” is moved to our front yard

Three boats down off our port side, sits Cambia, a 40’ Dean catamaran with major delaminations; but that boat is at least 18 years old. Her owners have been living aboard on the hard for a month and hope to go back in- “soon”. On the plus side the work being done is top quality. Jan and Dick have cruised and lived aboard for 16 years and once this work is complete they will be selling Cambia (loosely, Spanish for “change”) and re-inventing themselves as dirt dwellers once again. So many years, so much knowledge gained and they’ve been extremely helpful to us since we got plopped on land.

“Cambia” getting all spiffed up

A week ago we met Mark- a soon-to-be cruiser. He will be retiring from the fire dept and by the time s/v Gypsy is ready to go he hopes to have convinced his girlfriend that a great cruising experience can be had in a 28’ monohull. Absolutely… and she’s a beautiful Westsail double-ender with enough wood trim to keep someone busy enough so that they are glad the boat isn’t bigger. The other night we met Susan who wanted to ask some questions. While our situations and boats are quite different, when you hear the call of the wild (whether it be wind, water or whatever) and answer it; you are changed. No longer can you say, “I wish I’d done that”, because you did do it.

S/V “Gypsy” – freshly painted and ready to splash Friday

S/V Zanabe caught our attention- seized by a U.S. Marshall and locked up behind a fence. – oooh that could have been poor Ortolan’s fate. The 80’ ketch was built and launched in Argentina in 1977. Back then she was smaller; two subsequent overhauls have lengthened her and made her super spiffy, complete with state-of-the-art electronics and lord knows what else. She’s being foreclosed on a 1st preferred ship’s mortgage in a Providence, RI court. You can have her for yourself; she’s offered for sale by Ocean Super Yachts- can you guess? Only $2.8mil- fence not included.

S/V “Zanabe” all fenced in- so sad

S/V “Zanabe”: under arrest

Windermere is a Cape Horn 65 (only one guess as to her length). She spent the winter in the Bahamas, making many of the same stops we did; only she had her share of engine troubles. A tow up the Cape Fear River to Wilmington, SC must have been pricey, not to mention long. We both gave Bahamian shells to Rose at the marina store here, for her granddaughters.

M/V “Windermere” sits in the spot we occupied last year

Papa II appears to be sans owners at the moment and the marina crew worked on her briefly. We heard a boat with that same name during our time in the Exumas; could be the same one. How many Papa II monohulls exist?
And then we have Ortolan. She’s looking better once Russ decided to work on her a bit after all. His audition for The Blue Man Group was not successful so he’s resigned himself to Lead Project Worker Bee while I accepted the role of Queen Bee. One of the yard workers offered this description: “you must be a nurse; following him around, handing him things.”  I was thrilled when Russ caved in and agreed to have the yard sand Ortolan and he’d paint. We paid for two hours and supplies because all that could be done was to tape and sand one section of the stbd bow. The power sander takes off too much paint though.

Russ takes a break from his Blue Man Group audition

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Much longer and we’ll grow roots

Today is day seven on the hard and marks the longest amount of time we have spent on land since Oct 2010. We’re pushing hard to get it all done and make a hasty retreat to water before the dagger boards put down roots. In many ways being on the hard is not much different than tied to a dock; the boat even sways just the tiniest bit but enough so that I notice it. We have a view of the marina and other boats; the front view changes daily as boats are hauled and some even go back in.

Our expansive view of the yard and buildings

Our refrigeration is a small (“the cube”) dorm fridge and our freezer is “running” on block ice. We buy either a bag of cubes or a block bag nearly every day. Below the freezer is an open area where the draining spigot is located. Several times a day I open it up and drain the accumulated water into a bowl, tossing it down the sink drain. Now, you might ask where does that go?  This time around it drains right on to the pavement thru a hose we attached to the exterior thru hull opening. Luckily the slope is away from us. Last year we placed a flexible bucket under the sink drain and dumped it out along the edge of the grass.

Galley sink drain land adaptation

Our two holding tanks cannot be emptied until Ortolan is back in the water, therefore we use them judiciously. The marina bathrooms/showers are very nice and only a short walk; good for a leg stretch. The other afternoon I walked in and found several women gathered around another who had, laying serenely by her feet, what I described as “a rug come alive.” Bridget is a nine-month old tan-colored Bouvier des Flandres and was so calm and watchful. We all oo’d and ah’d while Bridget’s owner described the breed; within a few minutes we all wanted one. Click this link to Wikipedia to read more about these hard-working, loyal and intelligent animals.

With a minimal amount of correct temperature refrigeration the food supply has been whittled down to bare bones. Russ biked a couple of times to the local Shaws and that keeps us going for a few days each time. Dinners are the most difficult; lunch and breakfast were easier to provision for.  I don’t think Russ is going to want to look at another ham and Swiss sandwich for quite some time. The nearby Town Pizza will deliver; looks like we will be calling them soon. Laundry; what’s that?  No washer and dryers here and the marina doesn’t have an official loaner car and probably doesn’t want their errand vehicle away for hours. For those who are chanting “do it by hand”, well that’s possible on a very small scale only. Don’t get me started on the lack of water and drying space; the cockpit has been taken over by every tool and boat maintenance/supply item we own as well as cans of paint, a box fan, electrical cords and shoes. Miraculously, we can find what we need in all the controlled mess.

Oh yes, the work. Pretty much only me doing a few odd jobs, mostly just to catch some beautiful September sunshine. 🙂

Lori hard at work cleaning the metal fittings