Winter sailing, projects and guests

November 2015 was not good for sailing. Every week when we had time to go to the boat the weather was not favorable. Actually not favorable is putting it mildly, there were small craft advisories issued every other day it seemed.

So if we are not able to go sailing I guess we work on more boat projects. We removed the broken and rusted out hot water heater.  The bottom of it was crumbling and in pieces.

Now to shop for a new one, but really no rush. When we spend time on Nepenthe we have not had a need for one since in our marina we have nice showers available. Unfortunately though we can not get just the standard hot water heater. Our engine does not have fresh water cooling, instead it cools with sea water.  So our hot water heater has to work with sea water. Just our luck, the sea cooled hot water heaters are more expensive. So like I said no rush.

And then another weekend with no sailing, so another project. We removed the pressurized alcohol stove/oven. It was assumed from day one that it did not work and we did not want to try it. We hear unsafe things about alcohol stoves and really don’t want to test any theories.

The ideal thing in it’s place would be a propane stove. But at a cost of $1200.00 and the need to install a propane locker in the cockpit to house the propane tank which would take more money and skill that we do not have at this time, we decide that it was not an option for us at this time. Instead, I put Brian to work on his carpentry skills. He is becoming, if he already is not, a jack of all trades. At home in the garage he built a cabinet to house our new toaster oven and induction cooktop. I was there to help him and hand him the tools as he needed, so I earn an assistant credit. (haha)

We used the old alcohol stove for measurement and used the gimbal brackets which we took off of it.

We were at the boat this week and once again the weather not good for sailing, so we start looking around. Oh this can be trouble. We start looking at the walls in the head. They currently have the original wall paper on them which at this point is 35 years old. A previous owner at some point thought they would try to paint them, but clearly did a poor job. They completely avoided the area around the outlet and you can see through the paint in most of the other areas. Brian has been bothered by it since day one.

So what we did next was not a planned project.  We removed everything that was attached to the one wall. There was a mirror that we both felt did not fit well in the space with a very thick frame that seemed to protrude into the room. We also removed the towel bar and tooth brush holder. Looking at the now bare wall we ask if we should just repaint it but there are lots of holes and we wonder how it will look.

So we begin to look at how easy the wall paper will come off, and we begin to peel the edges. And once we started peeling it was like a party. We went to town and ripped it all down.

Wow, what a difference. Now how do we get all the sticky glue off of the wood?

Brian is extremely happy the wall paper is gone. Me, kind of a neutral feeling. I felt that now we have an unfinished wall that we have to do something with. So the discussions begin about how to and what to do with this wall.

Always a pleasant part of our weekends and time spent on the boat are the sunsets. The skies are never disappointing. Our marina has a full boat yard. This is sunset looking over the boat yard.

It’s early December and it is time for the St. Petersburg Power and Sailboat show.  Certainly not as big as the Miami Strictly Sail boat show but still a chance to see all kinds of sailboats. You always get a beautiful view when it comes to boats on the water.

 

We love catamarans and our goal is to some day graduate to one. The disappointment about the St. Petersburg show is the lack of Catamarans.

It’s mid December and we finally get to go sailing again. Ahhhhh how nice. Beautiful weather and good wind. My smile says it all.

We had guests on board with us. A friend from Colorado’s daughter was in town for a Walt Disney World vacation with a friend of hers. So we took a day out of their week and got them out on the Atlantic Ocean. Dolphin sightings that day were plentiful. Brian and I had trouble distinguishing the squeals of the girls from the squeals of the dolphins.

Of course, having guests on board means less work for us!

Who is driving the boat? Auto pilot is such a wonderful thing. It really adds to the relaxation of sailing.

Enough fun and play time and back to work. You can never have too much fun but just as everything else, it must come to an end or at least be put on pause.  The cabinet that Brian built for Nepenthe is now stained and finished and we took it to the boat and installed it. Placing the toaster oven in it’s designated place and the induction cooktop on the top. He made a shelf in between for storage of cookware.

And it gimbals just like the stove did. We like it.

Of course we had to use the toaster oven that very evening to see how it worked. Nothing fancy, we had frozen appetizers.

On Christmas Eve we got to go out sailing. The conditions were not ideal to go onto the Atlantic so we headed south on the Intercostal Waterway. Our first time going so far south on the ICW. Heading south we motored the entire time, enjoying the view of the houses with their own personal boat docks. Heading back to the marina going north we had the wind at our back. We put the jib and and and got some sailing in.

The dolphins were all out wishing us a Merry Christmas. They were swimming right along side the boat with us, playing and jumping. We find that sometimes there are more dolphins spotted on the Intercostal Waterway and around the inlet than out on the ocean.

We enjoyed walking around the marina to see the few boats that were decorated for Christmas. The area had a Christmas boat parade and we really would have loved to participate but were not available the day it was scheduled. Maybe next year. We think it would be fun to decorate the boat all up in lights and be in a parade.