Captain Dave, Phil and Tim making good time

I heard from Captain's girlfriend, Louisa, yesterday.  They are making good time - at 20N 69W (though I thought they would be further north myself).  They are 775 mi to go til at NY harbor.  Everything is going well, and Louisa will hear from Captain Dave using the satellite phone on Friday.  She said they expect to get to NY Harbor by May 5 or 6.  It was good to hear about them and know that everything is going smoothly since they have been underway.

On a side note, having a open house on Sunday during the Maple Festival that is being held this weekend.  It'll be 1230 - 230pm so that people will still be able to drive as at 3pm the parade starts.  We are so close to Chardon Square that this is a consideration.  Last showing said it was beautiful listing, so hopefully they will decide after looking at other houses that they want mine.

Phil Still in St. Thomas

Hi everyone,  

This trip isn't going as planned.  They left St. Thomas Tuesday, but then the autopilot stopped working and a part broke that attaches the main sheet to the boom.  They turn around after 30 miles from the marina, and went back.  The weather wasn't good - very choppy  so that Phil got sea sick.  (He hardly ever gets sea sick and has bought bonine and been taking it before he goes to bed to be prepared for when they leave)  Captain Sherry has decided to fly back home, and expects to leave tomorrow.  Captain Dave has found another person to crew, who should arrive tomorrow - also having problems with the refrigeration system - part should arrive tomorrow. Best that the refrigeration problem happened now and not when they were underway.   Phil has a another cold, but the good news is he had eggs over easy for breakfast and ribs for lunch.  The current plan is to leave on Saturday.  Also good news is that Captain Dave is very generous and lets Phil call me using his cell phone (doesn't cost any minutes on his plan), so I've been able to talk to Phil every day.  

Other good news that Phil doesn't know is that someone is scheduled to look at the house Saturday @ 1130am.  I'll be working Saturday, but am off tomorrow, so hope to finish painting the ceiling of the back patio. 

It's a busy time - The Grand River Yacht Club is having a Wild West Murder Mystery Potluck Saturday, so Katie and I are making me a costume.  Katie was great in cutting  out the fabric pieces for the dress, apron and bonnet patterns. We have spent the evening each sewing on separate sewing machines.  I've been sewing on the Viking and Katie on my Pfaff.  I have the dress done except for making buttons and button holes (have to use the Pfaff for that).  Katie is working on the apron - and is almost to the point of gathering the skirt onto the bodice. A few more steps after that and then there is the bonnet to make.  I'm going all out!!  :)   

Phil doesn't expect to be back now until May 9 or 10 at the earliest.  Time will tell.  I guess this is good experience for him and an exercise in being adaptable.

Phil in St. Thomas - Bon Voyage!

Phil called me this morning.  His luggage arrived at the boat last night at 930pm.  They routed his luggage on American Airlines thru Miami so that it arrived in St. Thomas about 830pm  yesterday and they delivered it to him at the boat.  What a relief!

They are getting ready to cast off this morning.  Just waiting to be checked out by the Marina.  Their plan is to sail NW until they get to Cape Hatteras area( they expect to take 5-6 days and be about 200 miles off in the Atlantic Ocean).  Then they will point directly towards NY City as much as the winds allow.  Typically the winds will be coming from the NW once they get that far north, which will be on the nose.  That's Captain Dave's problem.  Lets just hope there aren't any storms.

One cool thing on this boat, is that the settees have a slide out that makes the bunk 4-5"wider for sleeping.  Really cool Phil says.  I say - can we do something like that on Changes for the Port Settee?  Phil says a lot of work we'll see.   Well it was worth a try right??

I will not hear for Phil for about 10 days while they are at sea.  I'm glad that I could talk to him 3 times since he left.  Bon Voyage!  Safe travels!!

Phil in St. Thomas

Phil left this morning to go to St. Thomas to crew to bring back a Hinckley 42' sailboat.  He got there ok, but the airline lost his luggage, so we hope that it will be delivered to him in the boat tomorrow.  They were originally gong to leave tomorrow morning, but will be postponing departure by one day.

Phil, Katie, and I were busy this weekend painting the front porch, and the wood on the back patio.  We painted the vertical and horizontal 2 x 4's Saturday - as it was in the 70's.  Today I started painting the wood overhang and under the gutters.  When that was done, I started on the ceiling and by late afternoon had half of it done.  

We also had the Grand River Sailing Club Cruising meeting, so we are all set up for a great summer of cruising to Port Stanley, Erieau, and other great places on Lake Erie.

Phil preparing Changes

Phil decided to go down to where "Changes" is on the hard.  He brought his trailer full of things(water hoses and what not) to work on the boat but forgot to bring the cordless drill.  Figures that with all the stuff that you need to get the boat ready to go in the water, he forgot that.  This is when Phil really misses the Suburban.  use to be he could put everything int he suburban and keep it there until he was all done.  Harder to do that with the open trailer.

He was able to wash Changes and found that there are some stains on the red paint.  He's working on deciding what to use as the Awl Grip paint products don't get all the stains off.  Phil needed the drill to remove the sole (floor) so that he can varnish it.  He had removed the shelf that he had made in the quarter berth and has modified it to fit the ham radio on it.  While it was out, he varnished it.  Phil also got some aluminum bar stock in the mail to make the  arm that attaches to the rudder for the under the deck autohelm.  I'm sure there is a proper name for it, but I can't think of what it is.

Won't be long until the boat goes in the water.  That will wait until Phil gets back from his trip transporting a Hinckley 42'  from St. Thomas to Albany, NY.  The captain Dave Block, expects it to take about 9 days going at 6 knots/hr.  Then the boat will go to Erie, PA.  WE have to get him to the airport at 430am, so it's going to be an early morning.  Phil says all I have to do is get up - I can sleep on the way to the airport (1 hr drive), drive the car home and go back to sleep.  I may do that as I've been up at 4:30am 3 times this week.

Our friends Jack and Sue are back from their winter on the catamaran.  It was great to see them at Capps Restaurant on Tuesday.  Hope everyone is well.

Phil to Detroit

Phil is going to Detroit, MI tomorrow to pick up the improved rigging that got fixed at Offshore Spars.  They had to inspect and refurbish the navtec rigging and replaced one cracked end.  He hopes to get there by 11am - pick up the items have lunch and return in time for us to go to Capp's Restaurant.  I know that Phil was happy with the price that he paid, which was cheaper than getting new rigging by far.   He is all prepacked - and ready to go, just like the staging when going on the next leg in a journey.   Saturday, Phil worked on descaling the Yanmar diesel 2QM20  with the Rydlime - was pretty black he said when using his pump - that moved the liquid very slowly.  Today he started the engine and pump out more black liquid out and then it started to run clear.  We'll see how it works this summer as we were having problems with it running hot.

Realtor Openhouse

Well the realtors had their open house today from 11am - 2pm.  Phil didn't wake Katie (she sleeps in late like most teenagers) so she was still asleep when they came.  Someone did visit the house this afternoon (both Katie and Phil were out) and liked it except for the carpet in Katie's room (needs to be replaced) and the back patio (needs to be painted).  Didn't say all the work was done on the house.  So we'll see what happens, but I'm encouraged that they showed the house to someone today.  Now we need an offer.

The front porch and basement door

No pictures for today's projects - yet.  A week ago or so, I ordered a new door to go in the side entrance into the house into the basement.  I think this door was there when we move in in 1973.  It came in a few days ago and Phil put it in today.  Now we have a new door - it opens very easily and looks good.  No window, as we have a motion sensor light switch and if have too much light, it doesn't work.  Phil plans to paint it white.  I had ordered a white door, but turns out their white is cream colored.  Still need to put weather stripping on to keep the cold air out but that's a minor job.

I also worked on scrapping the loose paint off the floor of the front porch.  I had the shop vac in use as I used a paint scrapper.  Luckily, I didn't have to do the whole front porch, but from the door to the steps and around the edges.  Phil is planning on replacing some of the wood that has dry rotted.  We will have to wait until it's >50F for 3 days before we can paint so it has time to cure

Next project is to get the 3rd floor bedroom and sewing room ready to be shown.  I signed the papers to list the house with  Linda DiPietro of Keller Willams Realty.  She sold Phil's last two homes.  Tuesday is the day when the realtors view the home.  I hope they have their boots, because they are predicting snow, and with us being in the heart of the snowbelt, I'm sure that we'll get some.  Katie plans to spend the time in the library, since we all have to be out of the house.  I'll be at work and I don't know where Phil will hang out.  Maybe at the library too.  Wish us luck that it sells quickly and close to our asking price.

Here are pictures of my sewing room.  I will have to clean up a little more.   Much less items in there before we got this far.  I had a colleague from work come this afternoon so that I could help her with making a quilt for her new granddaughter, so the table in front of my pfaff 1473CD sewing machine is cleared off now.  Maybe I'll take another picture tomorrow when I get the rest of it cleared.  The lace curtains are a new addition.  I took them off the dining room windows and use them in the sewing room.  I'm happy with the results.  The rocking chair was a gift from my mother and sisters, and makes a very welcome place to rock for me or my visitors.

Pictures of the living room.  the Valence in the 3rd picture is a new addition and is on the living room, dining room and kitchen windows.  What a bargain - I bought these a few years ago on clearance at Jo Ann Fabrics and had just enough to do many windows.  Wish I had some more.

Katie repainting the corner in her room.  the story behind this is:  Phil and Katie painted the corner that covers the chimney - we didn't paint this when we painted her room.  I was at work and they couldn't find the matching color, so used the color paint that I used over the fireplace in the living room.  Looked better than the original color, but Katie and Phil didn't want to repaint her entire bedroom.  I later found the matching color in her room. So yesterday, Phil edged the area, and Katie filled in with the roller.  She also touched up the other walls, so now her room looks much better.  Picture will be forthcoming when her room is in better shape.

This is the first floor bedroom - ready to show.  The realtors come on Tuesday mid day to look.  I would like to put up some simple valences.  The quilt is one that Rachel and Katie along with friends Robin and Lindsay Cryer made when they were between the ages of 11 - 8 years.  They sewed the blocks into strips and I sewed the strips into the quilt.  They signed their name and ages.  We made 2 of them that are similar.  One for Rachel and Robin and the other by Katie and Lindsay.  

The top picture is the stairs after being sanded and varished.  Pretty good job.  Thanks Phil.  The rest of the pictures is of the first floor bedroom before picked up for showing house.  Look for next post.  Most of the stuff on the bed is sailing items.

Making our new Feruke (Awning)

At the end of our vacation in July 2008, we spent Thursday and Friday at Grand River Yacht Club making a new feruke (the white awning) for "Changes".  Our old blue one like the cover that goes over the forward hatch, was getting pretty well worn,  so we decided to use the old #1 genoa sail instead of buying sunbrella fabric.  I sat on the floor using my Viking Sewing machine that has low gear. Phil assisted by helping to move the fabric along as I sewed.  It was definitely a job for two and Phil got really good moving the fabric in time with how fast I sewed.    

The top 2 pictures show us laying out the old one feruke on top of the new one so we could trace it onto the sail fabric.  We improved the old feruke by cutting it big enough to have 12+" of fabric to hang down on the port, aft, and starboard sides and 4" that hung down on the forward edge to protect better from when the sun goes down.  We also have plans to take the extra sail material and make detachable panels that can hang down attaching using the same hardward we used for the tan mainsail cover.   I also wanted some fabric handing on the forward part of the awning, so that we could hang some more fabric there in case the sun was coming down directly over the bow.   An additional improvement from the old feruke was using a zipper to attach the 2 big separate pieces aft of the end of the boom that went around the topping lift and using extra fabric to provide reinforcement about same topping lift.  Now that we have used it a few times, we are really glad to put in the zipper instead of using velcro.  We like having the white fabric - get a lot more light in the salon.  It is water proof, but we found one morning, that the underside can have heavy condensation with high humidity.  We bought some chamois plus at the Cleveland Boat Show, which we think will be better for absorbing the moisture than towels. You can see a couple views of the finished product in the last 2 pictures. 

Another project is to add SS (stainless steel) plates under the lifeline stantion bases.  The stantion bases have a small area on the inside of the tow rail pushing down on the fiberglass deck.  The force on the small area causes jellcoat cracks.  With the added area of the ss plates this problem is fixed.  As part of the job I designed a screw driver holder using a lead brick that I have as shown in the top picture.  To make the stantion bases look there best, I primed and painted them flat black.

It is Springtime and I am working on Changes to get her ready for the coming season and to have her as ready as possible to go South to saltwater.  The first job is to change the bottom paint from SR21, a paint for only fresh water to Vivid, one that will work in both fresh and saltwater.  The color is red as shown in the pictures.

Daffodils Anyone?

We had so many daffodils that we used many plastic grocery bags loaded into a wheelbarrow so that we could sell and give them away.  We were pretty successful and here are a couple pictures of the new plant grouping.  The daffodils are done blooming to Katie helped me to tie the greenery so it looked nice but still would be able to build strength in the bulbs.  It's been a hard winter, so I hope that the plants have survived.  Time will tell.

We had to do some sailing to take a break from the house.  Here is a picture of us on Changes with Katie.  Last summer was a good summer sailing.

Above are pictures of the flower beds surrounding the house.  As you can see, they are a little overgrown and doesn't improve the curb appeal - so we worked out taking out extra plants and putting them in a wheel barrel for anyone that wanted them.  Then we went to a nursery to pick out plants.  We found a nursery that made a plan for us if we bought most of our plants there.

These are pictures of my family, top picture is my mother and her brother, Dale. The color of the paint on the wall is close to what it really is. Then Phil, my niece, Heather and in the foreground, my daughter Katie.  I have included these pictures so that you can see the walls after they were painted.   I painted the wall above the fireplace a different color than the walls for added interest.  BTW, the quilt above the fireplace is appliqued cala lilies that my other made.  The wood stove is inserter into the fireplace - and really keeps the house warm.  Phil made the green wood box to hold the firewood we burn.

April 2008 - what a job!

Phil is helping to remove the wallpaper from the stair well up high.  As you can see, it was quite a job - We rented a steamer and it helped a lot.  I am afraid of heights, so not able to stand on the board to get these high spots.

Here are some more pictures of the walls with the wallpaper removed.  Top 3 are various parts of the upstairs hallway.  The bottom one is in the living room behind where the TV is.  I was able to do this while Phil visiting his daughter in Los Angeles, California.

I finally figured it out!!  Here is a picture of the corner of the living room after I removed the wall paper.  More to come when I have a chance.