Pensacola FL Sailing Blog - sailingnightwatch

Yes, I was gone, but not sailing. Family wedding in St Louis. So let me continue with my blog.The galley was in pretty bad shape. There was a large space where a Norcold upright frig was meant to stand. There was also a large hole where the stove was to be. The paneling behind the stove was in need of replacement as well as the aft bulkhead. The counter tops were gouged, burned and dented. On top of that was an accumulation of 15 years of dirt and grease.While in the yard we took delivery of the frig and stove which took up space in the saloon. I replaced the paneling behind the stove. On the shelf over the cabinets I built an shelf for a microwave. Removed and replaced all the laminate. Beefed up the counter where the stove gimbals were attached. Rewired and install new ac and dc plugs for the refrigerator. The sink was of a size that my wife loved and we could not find a replacement, therefore it got a major cleaning. The size is such that we can totally immerse a large iron skillet for scrubbing. We also replaced the faucets on all three sinks. The plumbing had been completed in the yard with the exception of final hookups. Electrically, we replaced 2 light, 5 ac sockets and an exhaust fan. Which had been stolen.

It’s Sunday and the wife is going out of town for a week and did not want to go sailing because she had laundry to do etc. There are disadvantages having your boat as your home. Sunday was a sailing day you dream about. South wind about 12-13 knots, only puffy fair weather clouds and warm temps. I was sitting around the pier feeling sorry for my self knowing that somebody would come along and ask if I wanted to come along. 1 hour passed, the 2ed hour is passing fast and no offers. The owner of the dock is out working on his yard and it is time to plant a seed. “Perfect day for sailing”, I say. I explain the demise of my plan for the day, as he continues to perk up as he looks around at the weather again. “We should go sailing,” says he. Allll Right! The answer to a prayer.A neighbor left about this time with a boatload of friends. An he invites me. When it rains it pours, but I had a ride. We are sailing. It was every bit as beautiful as I had expected. Ran west about 10 miles and came back. Three tacks all the way. After a week of that, one could get bored. But, it was in the 90’s; one would not want to work to hard.We get back about cocktail time. The wife has hers and is headed for the pool. Just in time to handle lines. Later in the evening, she admits it was a beautiful day and she should have gone sailing. She is one of these people that must finish any task completely before she allows herself to have fun. I, on the other hand have set priorities for my life. They both start with “S” and they are done before anything else. Sailing being the first. Gee, I said that. I am getting old. May need to rethink that. Priorities.

The forward stateroom was our laboratory. I had to replace paneling, build new cabinet doors, make new molding, and put up the new strips over the hull. We tried different urethanes. Built a cabinet for the air handler. And there was a forward head that needed everything. Because of the experimenting, the room was finished first with the exception of the 2 louvered doors.The aft stateroom was done with the exception of the wood strips by late January. The main saloon/galley area was the next project.

Finally sailing, more or less. Still ridiculously hot and humid. Heat index at 115. But a nice 10-15 knot wind out of the south. Out we went, but only for about 2 hours. It turned really dark to the north. We monitored someone on the radio that was talking to someone with weather radar onboard. They said the storm on the radar was not just red but purple. That’s enough for me, we headed in.This was the third storm to just pass us to the east (about 2 -3 miles). As is normal for these hot and humid afternoon storms, there was a lot of lightening going on. Always worries me with my 60 foot lightening rod we call a mast. It did rain a little bit, but not enough to water the lawn. At least we got some nice sailing in for a little while. The boat had not become attached to the bottom of the canal with growth, but is due a scrubbing.

The aft stateroom had the closet conversion that was complete. The tops of the closets and lockers had been finished with pecan paneling. Through the years this had gotten wet and delaminated. With the ports over these two areas I felt it would be impossible to eliminate that possibility. If we have the ports open and rain surprises us, there are the last ports per side to closed. We therefore laminated the top surfaces. I also put new laminate on the sink surface.I tried to sand at least one side of a room per day. That did not include molding and doors of any type. There are 6 drawers and 7 cabinet/closet doors and 2 full size walk through doors. We did that kind of work on weekends. The flat surfaces were done with a belt sander and an orbital sander. Because of the dust, I did them by myself during the evenings. I wore a heavy-duty dust mask so long I thought the ring on my face had become a permanent feature. I would hang plastic over the door to the room I was working in. This helped to keep the dust at a tolerable level in the rest of the boat. I also spent a half hour before going home vacuming and dusting the boat.

After the wiring it was time to sand in earnest. The house had been for sale for a couple months and we were getting a few lookers, but no legitimate offers. If someone came along with a real offer, we could end up living in a construction site.The majority of the work on the inside was the refinishing of the wood, and some upgrades to the decor. The wood is pecan. It is a light wood, only slightly darker than maple and has a beautiful grain running through it. At sometime in the boats history, someone decided pecan did not look nautical enough. With out sanding off the varnish, they applied a teak stain over the varnished wood and then added a coat or two of varnish. The stain did not take to the original varnish evenly of firmly. It could be scraped off in places with your finger nail. On vertical surfaces both the stain and new varnish had sagged. In places you were able to see the light wood work underneath this new finish. I find it hard to imagine the previous owner paid for this work. Remember the term sweet equity. We are beginning to get to that part. See the picture below when my wife is first looking at the boat. The dark stained wood is evident.

By the 4th week out of the yard, the AC was operating. It was January and even though this is Florida, it is the panhandle and it does freeze. The rest of the ac wiring was complete and major items were being installed. These included the stove and new propane box, frig and microwave.

The last time we were out we did something we do not do enough and something I rarely see others do. Practice man overboard drills. With us, the one most likely going over the side is me. The person with the least maneuvering time at the wheel is my wife. We went out in the lagoon near where we had been anchored and over goes the man overboard pole.A word of caution. Take the flag off. It makes it hard to see, which is good practice, but it also makes it harder for others to see. Several years ago we were practicing and another helpful boater saw the pole and us trying to maneuver and called the Coast Guard. The other boater goes into help mode, he goes wide open towards the pole as I am about ½ way through doing a Williamson turn. I am not paying a lot of attention to the radio, but in the back of my mind something says that there is a real emergency and it is near me. I start looking around and see the other boater beginning to slow while heading for the man overboard pole, mike in hand telling the Coast Guard that he does not see anyone in the water and there may be a drowning.The Coast Guard was not happy with me. I do not know at what point they go into scramble mode, but in my mind I was seeing million of tax dollars being spent on scrambled helicopters, cutters and God only knows what else. The chief of the watch said he understood what I was doing but said I needed to be more careful. Therefore no flag. The poor helpful boater will probably never again involve himself trying to be helpful. I hope not.

The weather around here could get the weatherman asassinated. Beside the dog days of summer, there have been 50-60% thunderstorms forecast. That is not abnormal. During the summer we normally call them I-10 storms because they are caused by the sea breeze and build around the interstate and north in this part of the panhandle. You see them, they are there and you do not pay them much mind. This year we have also had thunderstorms lurking off the coast. We are surrounded! I have never been one that gets mentally frozen and can not make a decision. This year, I have probably lost a couple good sailing days because of my not making up my mind. Last Saturday was the same scenario. After dinner I am out on the pier kicking myself for not going out. True, both the wife and I got projects done that needed to get done after being out of town for a week. Still, why are we here…? To sail.On a dieing breeze we motored across the ICW to a place on the Beach called the Boardwalk. It is full of shops and restaurants and bars. This was a one hour evolution. I launched the dingy, showered and asked the wife if she was coming along to get a bushwacker. “No, but bring me one.” So I went and had 2. Also brought back 2.We had anchored about 100 yards off the beach and equal distance between 2 large beach bars with good sounding bands. When I returned (10:30) I sat in the cockpit listening to the music thinking they will stop at midnight. The only thing that stopped at midnight was the wind. Did I mention it is the last weekend in July, that the day had thunderstorms in the area, that when they dissipate in the evening, the moisture goes straight to my body. And the music goes on. When we go to the boardwalk, we usually come back to the boat and re-anchor about ½ mile east. You can still hear the bands, but it is greatly muted. Sleepable.Well I did not re-anchor. Lazy. 12:30, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00 I go to bed, the wife says it was 2:30 when it got quiet. She also mentioned the wind had died, don’t touch her, she had her own sweet to lay in, why did you decide to stay here, I’m never going to do this again.Could have been worse, there was room at the pier and we could have tied up their. At 2:30 all the people from the bars decide to walk the pier and look at the boats caring the last call drinks. You can party for a couple more hours.We got up to the same weather forecast, plus no wind and already in the 90’s We got back to our slip by 11 am. We put the boat to bed, grab a couple beers and went to a friend’s pool and discussed my misplaced spontaneity.This week the weatherman has a new line. All those thunderstorms off the coast are getting together to do something tropical. Well if it does not have rum in it, I am not interested.