03/24/2009 12:26:16

It's been chilly for a couple of days, but Sunday JoAnne and I were able to get out and clean out the interior of the boat.  We made ready the cushions and deck (carpet... ick, I like blue, but why put carpet in a boat? Haven't figured that out yet....)

She did the vacuuming and I had cleaned the cushions, and their covers, and recovered them myself because, man that is some heavy foam they put in them.  Oh well...

I still have a table to build.  The old one was damaged, even broken.  It needs to serve as the flooring as well to form a bed area where you would normally sit to eat inside the boat.  So, probably this weekend, since I'd like to get it accomplished before we leave in April.

I haven't written much lately, being busy with other things - but figured it was time to put a new entry into the blog.

So we head out on the first weekend of April for San Diego.  We chose the "San Diego Sailing Academy" - and though I couldn't find much about them, and they were more expensive that pretty much everyone else I had heard a couple of good things and very little bad about them.

The one thing I liked it one instructor for two people, and they seem to specialize in couples so this suits my wife and I.  Being a former instructor I will be probably somewhat less 'critical' of certain things, but will be writing both a blog entry here, as well as a review of the school and training we receive.

Over the winter I've done quite a bit of 'piddly things' in the boat, removed the old overhead and painted instead of replacing it with wood (and carpet, yuk!).

I also replaced the bow running lights.  The old stuff simply fell apart when I started to examine it, so I replaced the front with LED lights.  I've picked up a 55 Watt solar panel and a 100 W charge controller and have all the parts to build a full, twelve circuit, fused electrical panel.  Probably a bit of overkill for this small boat, but I want to be able to add a few circuits, to include a couple of radios (Amateur) as well as control all the lights separately.  I've already drawn the schematics, and a layout in Visio, but have yet to start drilling the panel to mount switches.  Probably do that after we put the boat in the water for the first time.

We also raised our sails up and looked them over.  The jib needs repair.  There's a torn ring.  I'm going to cut out the ring, sew in a patch and simply do without the ring that was there.  If we keep the boat more than two years, I'll replace the sails.  Otherwise, they will be fine for a couple more seasons.

I also cleaned the bottom as best I can reach for now.  Doesn't need paint, amazingly. 

The other thing to do this week is replace the lettering for the state registration, and put my state sticker on the boat. 

JoAnne has been working on figuring out how to 'build a bed'.  So far, we don't have a mat for the forward berth and not sure we will have one very soon. Foam is expensive.... so we will come up with something to get us through this first season with the boat.

We will be back from school after the second week of April.  The third week, I hope to put the boat in the water for her first sail since she came out of Blue Mesa. 



We're planning an "official, traditional naming ceremony" since the boat appears to have never been named on any forms, papers or by the three previous owners.  My family has been invited, as has the previous owner if he wishes to come, and a couple of friends.  If nothing else, my wife and I will have a nice quiet fun time of naming the boat, and sailing her that afternoon.

A couple other notes.

We purchased a new GPS unit.  Haven't gotten it in the mail yet, but hope to have it before we depart for San Diego.  It's a Garmin Colorado 400C and looks like a pretty good unit.  Has coastal charts and can add a memory card and other maps - so we will be adding some inland maps later on.

All in all, this has been interesting, learning as much as we can before we actually step aboard a boat and putting ourselves in the hands of a hopefully, competent instructor to give us the hands-on, on-the-job-training we're going to need - basically giving us the confidence to take our own boat out on a lake (not the ocean yet!)....

Next entry should be when we get back.

Thanks for reading all!