I guess I could call this “What did YOU do on your weekend Part 2″ but it was a few weekends apart and I don’t feel like changing the title of this post now… So ya…
This weekend we (or rather I) decided that it was time to get back into the swing of things with reno’s on the boat in a big way. As a result we made a HUGE mess since the first step was to remove everything from below the deck of the pilot house (our utility room) and either throw out what we don’t need/want, store what we need for later but not now, or repack what we need soon. It resulted in us getting a LOT of space back overall which was fortunate since I was stuck in that area most of the weekend framing up where some walls would be going to finally seal off the utility room from the rest of the boat.
And just to give some context as to where this is here’s an old image I made up to help explain the layout.
Basically all this work was being don in the grey area below the pilot house on the port side where the stairs lead up into the pilot house from the galley and on the starboard side near the stairs into the cargo hold. This week we hope to get the framing completed for the rest of the wall on the starboard side for the inside of the outer wall so we can go ahead and throw up some nice maple plywood with some hatches and some pot lights to light the stair well. I’ll post more as time goes on.
So although this is the 3rd year I’ve been at the Toronto Island’s Jeannie and I have very rarely (if ever) participated with the events that go on on the islands themselves. It’s usually because we’re busy or our schedule for not being on the island doesn’t line up with theirs (either we’re up north at my parents, or out with friends, or just… out…). So this year we had a bit of luck and earlier we participated (sorta) in the Toronto Island Marina’s “Christmas in July” celebration (we literally got back to the Island’s the day of the celebration so we just had enough time to plug in our wreath from normal Christmas for the judging… Good thing I hadn’t taken the wreath down from Christmas eh?). We got an honourable mention!
Any ways this past long weekend I had a whack of stuff I wanted to get done on the boat (My next post will be about that) since we were going to be hiding out on the island away from Caribana going on at Toronto city side (turned out to not be as apocalyptic as we had initially anticipated traffic and wave of humanity wise). When one of our friends on the island mentioned to Jeannie (and someone else mentioned to me earlier in the week) if we were going to participate in the Gala. We decided to go to the first night at least and check out the other nights if we weren’t too tired from all the work we were going to do on the boat. Turns out that the first night is a play done to music (provided by a local Dixie band) followed up with everyone that went there participating in a “lantern parade” through Wards Island and ending with a bonfire at one of the beaches with fire dancing along the way… Ya. There was a lot going on.
SO like I was saying the party started off with a Dixie band playing and started shortly afterwards:
The play was about how this was the year of the anniversary of the war of 1812 and specifically how we had the help of the British and local native people push the US back (represented by a guy on stilts that vaguely looks like Uncle Sam waving a huge American flag). What was kinda funny was that some people were booing “Uncle Sam” there and a few other people they knew were Americans (in a playful manner not malicious no worries). The first photo there shows some of the lanterns people made.
Next up we all joined in a parade through the homes of Wards Island and then out to a sort of mini “volley ball beach” for part 2 of the play I guess. Which included fire dancing and some singing by the locals.
The fire dancing was pretty cool really. Lots of fire being flung around on hoolahoops, staffs, and sticks etc. The singing was ok but very quiet because of how far away we were. Oh well. But it was very nice sounding.
Next after that we all went to the beach where they started the bonfire!
During the bonfire a canoe came over that was shaped like a dragon and had a rather large blowtorch throwing blue flame out it’s mouth. They also set off paper balloons into the air. Most of them hit the lake but 1 of them made it quite far… Like to the point where everyone there went very quiet because we were worried that it’d crash in Toronto or Billy Bishop Airport. So ya. That was fun.
Overall it was a great time with a few friends there and loads of nice strangers (to us any ways) all hanging out talking and carrying on. The water by the bonfire was nice to walk in to cool off from the day as well and the moon was pretty awesome to look at since it was a deep red and nearly full on the horizon.
I can’t wait till next years!
We didn’t make it to any other events that weekend (dances, bands, dinners, drinks etc.) mostly due to us being super busy on the boat or because of the torrential downpour we had later on in the weekend but next year we’ll definitely attend again.
Note to self… Bring a better camera instead of my cellphone.
As a friend of mine pointed out a lot of my posts tend to be along the lines of “Wow. I haven’t posted here for a while.” so here’s another one. Although arguably it’s not without good reason.
Not last Saturday but the Saturday before (May 26th) I got married to Jeannie (there are a few photos of her on this site already)! So ya. I figure that’s a pretty good reason to be a bit late with this. Some guys may be saying “Pffft. I got married and I had like nothing to do!” ya. Well I decided to take the path less walked (as normal) and discovered a whole new world in stress (oddly normal as well). Since Jeannie was busy with classes and everything I had to do a LOT of the planning for the wedding itself. While this was a really neat experience I can honestly see how being a wedding planner is a very lucrative business. On the other hand I did get to see a whole area usually left to the “women folk” and possibly explain how the phenomena of “bridezilla” comes into being. I won’t go into the details here since it’d end up being one of those “tl;dr” (too long; didn’t read) posts. But ya. Needless to say if anyone is getting married and the person handling most of the planning seems to lose their mind don’t freak out! There are a LOT of little things that are nerve racking for ridiculous reasons and it just sorta gangs up on you! I may do a more lengthy post on our wedding soonish. But I’d prefer to have more photos about that first.
Quick note as well Pathfinder was moved over to TIM and I have yet to put that post up (again busy). Not very exciting fortunately but I wasn’t at the wheel at all this time since I had the stomach flu. So ya. Mostly manning the “rail” if you know what I mean.
So ya. I’ve kinda lost some steam with the renos on the boat lately. I find it’s very hard to pick it back up especially with everything going on as of lately (wedding planning, work, weather causing fantastic migraines etc). So nothing lately to report in that area. Even the stuff I have planned isn’t exactly “glamorous” either which may be what I tackle this weekend (through hull fitting, some battery stuff). But whatever. I also have another project I’m trying to get out before the summer season starts so that is also taking my time. I’ll elaborate a bit more when I have something to show for it (hopefully by next week).
Not this past weekend but the one before we finally got to install a new staircase in the boat down into the cargo hold… This would in fact be the 3rd system put in so far but it is the last. Lets go over the systems I had (sadly I have no photos of them).
The spiral staircase that was originally in the ship. I’ve always wanted a spiral staircase so when I was looking at Pathfinder for purchase it was a major selling feature for me… Until during our trip back with it we discovered how truly terrible undersized and thrown together spiral staircases are. Everyone on the trip ended up sliding down them or nearly through the railings when we hit a wave. Even better was that the top hand rail on it was in fact a plastic tube. Not exactly safe. So we cut that right out first chance we got at TIM and replaced it with…
A very steep stainless steel staircase with narrow steps. This worked out quite well for over a year. Except that it was VERY steep and the steps were a improperly spaced (each step was a bit too far away), so at the end of the day when you walked up and down them a lot your legs and hips were killing you. Also when taking laundry up and down the stairs it was literally like scaling a mountain at times. Which lead us to…
Custom polished stainless steel stringers (a stringer is the side beams of a staircase). These were made out of Barrie Metal and Welding for us after we carefully measured the space it would go into. Once they were completed they stayed at my parents place until we were ready for them on the boat (2 weekends ago). And here they are!
The stringers side on of the new staircase.
Right now the steps are pieces of 2×10 spruce. Later on they’ll be replaced with mahogany.
That corner of the cargohold also acts as material storage for paneling etc. Eventually we may be building a laundry room there by walling it in possibly.
These steps are incredibly comfortable to walk up and down. The neat thing is that although they look thin and they do flex a bit when you walk up and down them a bit they’re strong enough to practically park a car on. I also have to modify the hatchway a bit since my head nearly hits some metal on the way up and down the stairs. I’ll be doing that after I finish a through hull fitting to fill the water tanks. I’ll do a post about the water system and all the hookups once I get that all done.
So as I eluded to in the last post I had been very busy over December and January. What have I been doing? Well when Jeannie came back she saw this in the galley.
The wrapped sink stares into your SOUL!
Dishwasher says “LIFE IS FUNNNNN!”
Which when unwrapped (as the captions suggest as well) turned into these!
Nice eh? K helped me out a lot with the cleaning and sadly I didn’t take a photo of the rest of the galley since we had put in some new chairs (New to the boat anyways) and organized the starboard side counter. It has REALLY opened up the space in the and it’s quite nice now.
So one might ask what the hell took me so long to install these. Well lets go over the task list of getting all this installed (this is the summarized version as well just to tell ya).
Install and hook up the hot water tank
Wire up the hot water tank (110Volt)
Install the water pump for water pressure (12 Volt)
Hook up the tank and pump to the manifolds installed earlier (Centralized water manifolds are WAAAAAY easier to troubleshoot and maintain. All houses should have them.)
Hook up the through hull to be used for gray water pump out into the lake
Create an anti-siphon valve system (I’ll have to take a photo of this to show everyone the madness of what I ended up building. This is to ensure that if the gray water manages to force out all the air and the 1 way valve breaks for some reason that the lake won’t try to drain into the boat)
Attach the pump out pump to the anti-siphon system
Attach the pump to the gray water collector tank
Curse at European wiring for being backwards and rewire up the sensor to the gray water tank
Run waste lines up to where I wanted to install the dishwasher
Run a water line to where the dishwasher
Run 110Volt power lines with GFI’s to the dishwasher area, hot water tank, fridge and the back of the cabinet so we don’t need to use extension cords.
Wire up the dishwasher
Try to cut the holes needed in the deck for the waste water, hot and cold water for the sink (this took days alone thanks to the military grade steel I had to try to cut through. I literally destroyed brand new drill bits in this processes. As a side note Milwaukee drillbits are designed to drill through butter and that’s it.)
Run all the hoses and pipes needed for the sink.
Ya. That’s the extremely summarized version there. I didn’t even cover all the stuff I had to get out of the way of the pipes just to run them. So ya. FUN.
Anyways life on board has drastically improved with running water alone now and the dishwasher has made everyone in the marina very jealous (BWAHAHAHAHHAHAAHA!). So at least now we have fancy schmancy running water inside the place now.
Next post I’ll post pictures of what we did family day weekend with my parents. I’d make that post today but frankly I forgot to take photos. Awesome eh?
So no I haven’t disappeared entirely what I was doing was being very busy over the past month and a bit. One reason I wasn’t posting anything was that I didn’t want to leak all the work I got done on the boat since that was basically part of the Christmas gift to Jeannie (and myself if truth be told). Another reason is that our internet connection on the boat currently is crap so getting a consistent connection is difficult at best. I DO have a solution for that but didn’t want to implement it while Jeannie was away otherwise we might have decided to Skype while she was long distance and then I wouldn’t have been able to surprise her with THIS:
Not the most flattering photo but this is me with a mustache that took nearly 2 months to grow. All this to freak out Jeannie when she got back from NY! Sheesh. The things I do.
So ya. Since I basically decided to not shave since she left that ‘stache took bloody well forever to grow. Jeannie says I kinda look like Guy Fox… My sister agrees. Although I kinda wish I had more photos of during the growing process since I went through the “Pervert” stage followed by a long spell of “Drunken Homeless Bum” stage with this facial fuzz. Anyways I shaved it off the night she landed since Jeannie wasn’t too sure about it (I think she was just trying to not be negative with this ‘stache I hath wrought) and I personally hated the damned thing. So ya. That was fun. A post with photos of the boat will be forth coming once I get some more photos.
We moved the boat! We’re back at Pier 4 for winter again.
I piloted the ship out of TIM (thanks to Mitch giving me guidance on how to handle the ship) so now I’m no longer called “Swabby” by Dad.
The best news is that on Halloween I asked Jeannie to marry me and she said yes.
So now we have to come up with some wedding dates etc around all of our busy schedules, while I’m still working on the boat, and while Jeannie is studying for her exams. Whee! I’m back to being silly busy… Wait… I never stopped being silly busy. Oh well. A change is as good as a rest they say.
Here is a map of our path. I took it out at TIM and headed straight across to Pier 4. Right where there’s the circle is where Mitch took over since the wind was starting to play tricks with us and so I got on the ropes to help creep us along the walls with the ropes (special thanks to Shane as well for helping with the lines despite his hangover from the night before. )
After our motor across the harbor and when we tied up Dad gave me an official Pathfinder Captains hat as he had said that I’d only be captain when I had taken it out myself and docked it. Well I didn’t get to dock it but I did undock it and get it almost all the way there myself which is good enough. Next year it’ll be easier to learn since we’ll have proper instruments and what not to help us. And who knows! We might have the wedding party there! Go for a cruise with the families. Time shall tell.
Hey all. Just a quick note here on the distinct lack of any updates lately. I do have a lot of posts in the works but I’ve been either too busy to finish them or frankly too tired after all the work. With how some things are going lately I’ve also been left a bit angry, upset or tired which I’ve learned through some experience is a bad combination to write do any form of writing as those moods do creep out through the writing.
So just a quick list of what is in the pipe:
Another captains log entry from my original trip
My recent trip to NY, DC and Buffalo
Boat work progress
Ya. In other words I have a load of posts lined up which I’ll try to break up so it’s not 1 huge post. But I’d rather do it when I’m not frothing out the mouth at times.
Again I have failed in updating my blog in a timely manor. Saying that I’ve been busy is kinda redundant at this point, regardless though here’s the much awaited update including more pictures including a few of the interior!
In case people are missing the title reference here’s the YouTube from “A Muppet Christmas Carol”
Anyways turns out that this heater is crazy efficient at creating, well, heat. I can actually make some rooms 30 Celcius easily. The cargo hold for instance can keep VERY warm with 1 heater (ok the HUGE one) going on low. Both Jeannie and myself can now effectively LAUGH in the face of cold! HA! HAAAAAA!!! Well until what happened yesterday happened. Thanks to a migraine we didn’t come back Sunday night from up north and we were only able to make it back yesterday thanks to Jeannie driving all the way down. When we got back after some shopping for some parts for the boat the Webasto was off (We knew this’d happen as a result of not enough fuel in the reserve tank since we didn’t top it off before we left on Sunday). When I went down to the engine room to rehook up the fuel pump (I had taken it off because I wanted to reseal it all and mount it on a shelf) I noticed that radiator fluid was everywhere, we had a new leak. Near the bottom of the entire system we have basically a T section so we can drain the entire system if we need to or want to, the fittings that were holding the valve in earlier were leaking a bit so I had tightened them, which apparently caused it to leak more. ALSO there was a leak in the connection between the Webasto and the T itself which was new. So while migrained up and now stoned on Tylenol 3 (I had taken it before I went to fix it thinking that I only had to top up the fuel, then I could take a nap) and with the help of Jeannie we drained the system, fixed the connections, recharged the system and got our heat back. FUN! But it wasn’t stressful really. Maybe I’m just now used to this sort of crisis happening or perhaps I’m just like “Meh. I can handle this biznitch!” So ya. THAT was yesterday.
Interior wise we’ve been busy doing stuff. I’ve literally worked in every section of the boat at some time or other over the past few months. We cut the last of the metal out of the bathroom for headroom in the shower area, I’ve started on the buttress on the port side (We have no other term for it really. Basically since a boats walls curve we built a section of wall straight out like a shelf 1/2 way down then from the front edge of the shelf we build straight to the floor. In the space behind there we can put things like electrical, plumbing, the heaters etc.), reorganized the bow area, worked on the galley a bit (we have a cabinet area in there that we just need to finish securing this week. Thanks Dad!), and electrical for all the fans etc.
The headache is coming back so I’ll leave you with these pictures.
The manifold system to distribute the heated glycol around the ship. Although this looks complicated it lets us isolate any problem areas really quickly and it’s saved my butt a few times already from wasting too much glycol.
This is where the Jackson Pollock art is on the wall there. The bottom pipe blew straight off and pumped it everywhere. Notice how it’s all double clamped now. The heater on the left is the big one and basically the only one we run on low to heat the cargo hold entirely.
The entrance to the head (bathroom). The toilet isn’t hooked up yet but it’ll have a push button computer beside it to operate the flushing. The grill there houses another small heater that we have yet to use at all. But it’s good to have spare heat right?
The cargo hold in more of its entirety.
Inside the head. There’s the shower base and the toilet setup. We have to finish the ceiling first before this is hooked up but we wanted to see what the place would look like. The sink will be going where this photo was taken basically.
The ship straight across is Andy’s vessel one of our various neighbors living on board this winter as well.
These neighbors are really fowl. Some are just ducky though.
The ducks sleep on the ice a lot of the time. Right now there is no ice so they’ve been sleeping on the docks mostly.
So ya. That was fun. A post with photos of the boat will be forth coming once I get some more photos.
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