136 days and counting....

I know it's been some time since I last posted an update. With the weather being as it has we have not made too many trips down to the marina and the boat. In fact our marina bill came this month with a note attached saying "come visit your boat, its lonely" Wonder if she put a bug in their ear. We did go two weeks ago and check on her making sure the bilge was still dry, run her engine for a while and run the heat for the weekend to dry things out. The air is just damp, but I have to say, knock on wood that we don't have the nightmare mold problems I have heard of from other people when a boat is unattended for a while. After much research and speaking with other boaters Dirk ordered the wind generator. We decided to go with the 12v Air-Breeze Marine Deluxe Stern Mount Kit.

It includes:

The Air-Breeze Marine12V wind Generator

e Marine wind generator control panel

Hardware mounting kit

Tower kit with 9 foot brushed anodized aluminum mast

Two 8 foot stays &

4o feet of #10-2 marine grade wire.

Although it took a nice bite out of the cruising kitty it was something that has been on our list of must haves. It should be here this week and we have a 3 day weekend coming up so hopefully we can make some effort to get this project started. So many things to do and there only seems to be more projects creeping onto the list. I know the list will never be done but hopefully we can knock a good portion of them off before this summer. I hate to think we spend the entire summer trying to cram projects in between all the other stuff we have to do. My counter indicates that we have 136 days till retirement. Yikes!!!! When are we gonna get this and all the million other things done?

In other news, our friends from s/v Conch Clipper are still in Marathon waiting out this weird cold weather. Many projects and other things are keeping them busy, but I'm sure they are itching to get moving onto the Bahamas. If anyone reads the other blogs I have listed on my site I have one for Galena along with Conch Clipper. Bill from Galena has traveled to the Bahamas many times and when Dirk and I first got this cruising dream into our heads his blog is one of the main ones that inspired Dirk and I. Well he was in Marathon along with our friends from Conch Clipper and they happened to run into each other. They sent me a pic which I thought was nice.
Above and below are photos of Ron & Sonja with Bill of s/v Galena
Well not much else to report. Hopefully we will get some nice weather during our 3 day weekend and we can get some headway made. Until then....

What we have been up to

Happy New Year everyone. Dirk and I decided to spend the week at Tybee Island with our good friends Mac & Margie. We headed into Savannah early evening to spend some time with friends then headed back out to Island to bring the New Year in. At midnight there were fireworks off the pier which was cool but it was very chilly, well downright cold out by the beach.
A very good time was had by all and it will be a memorable time for us. The next day at noon they had a Polar Bear plunge. Our host and several friends do it every year and tried talking us into giving it a go. I think the only people giving it a go were the die-hards and the people who lost that 2 am drunken bet with a friend. As you can see from the photo below there were quiet a few participants who were willing to plunge their perfectly warm bodies into the 40 something degree water.

They were off and running after the conch was blown, but it didn't take long for them to start heading out. Reminded me of a penguin getting out of the water the way they fly straight up and out. I guess that's one way to begin the new year.....Well life here at the ole home front hasn't been too terribly exciting. Christmas and New Years are past and we find ourselves still counting down the days till true retirement. One hundred and 69 more to go and I feel like they will continue to gain steam and barrel down upon us quicker then we realize. When I think of what we have to accomplish its a scary task but one I think we can endure. We have started ordering and receiving our cruising charts which is making us that much more anxious to get out there. So many places we want to visit in the Bahamas we are beginning to wonder if we can get it all done before having to move south for hurricane season.

Tybee Time is getting a few late Christmas gifts this week. We have ordered the Engel 40qt freezer/refrigerator. It can run on 110v A/C or 12v D/C and will be mounted on a bracket in the "garage", aka the vee berth. I have heard many good things about the Engels and looking forward to having a freezer on board for keeping meats and more importantly ice cubes.

We also purchased the Magic Bullet for the galley. I have heard good things about it from other cruisers and figured I would give it a try. I do love cooking and this thing, well it seems to do it all and on top of that It comes with four drinking mugs that have colored lips that you can make the all important frozen sun downer in. It seems like it will take the place of the chopper, coffee bean grinder, and blender that I was planning on bringing on board and yet it is very compact. Its not 12v but we do have the generator to run it. We are also still reading up on and trying to decide which wind generator and solar panel were gonna put on the boat. We will let you know what we come up with when we decide. We are also looking at getting a new dinghy and outboard, uuuuggghhh, money, money, money. But the way we look at it, that's our marine car. We need to have one that we are comfortable with knowing it will get us from point A to B, we shall see what the captain says. Getting anxious for warmer drier weather to get here as I want to begin doing those small unfinished projects that I left hanging this fall. Figure that by the end of January our visits to the boat will become more frequent again. Can't wait....

Just touching base

Since we put Tybee Time back in her slip a couple weeks ago we have only gone down once to stay on her. Rainy cold days really don't afford you much time to get anything done other then seeing how comfortable the settee cushions are from laying on them all day watching TV. Well we came to the conclusion that they aren't at all comfortable for say company staying with us and having to sleep on them or better yet, us having a movie marathon day due to bad weather. So this of course is put on the ever growing list of things to do. Other then a lot of lazy lounging getting done, we spent some time with our friends from Conch Clipper Ron & Sonja. They are lucky enough to be heading out this week to cruise the Bahamas for the winter. I have added a link to their blog site under the list on the left so check it out. I have asked Ron to try to keep the blog updated with lots of pics and Dirk and I have sent them out as scouts to give us information. I enjoy reading other peoples blogs about the places they go and things they do, yet so many of them really don't go into too much detail. With Dirk and I leaving next year details is what we crave. So from now till next June we will be living vicariously through them and hope to be receiving many wonderful tales and information. I am so excited for them and can only imagine the feeling I will have when its our turn.

Tybee Time going back into the water

I thought I might add this short video of the boat being put back into the water.

Tybee Time is back in the water

Wow, here it is close to mid November already. Seems like time is flying by here lately, which is fine by us as the faster it goes the sooner we are outta here. These past several weeks have been busy for us as we have been trying to divide our time between home and boat which require a two hour drive in between. Last posting we had spent time in the boat yard doing some much needed work on the hull, which in the end we are very happy with. As far as our first boat yard experience goes we are in general very happy. Communication was fairly good considering the amount of persons involved, and we were e-mailed photographs of the work in progress. We had some fiberglass work done on the rudder and had the keel joint re-done also. Here is a pic of the boat blasted and ready for work.

Once the glass work was done, the boat had five coats of barrier paint and then two final coats of blue Trinidad done. We decided to go with a hard paint rather then ablative this time for several reasons and was told if we decide to switch back it can be done easier then if we had gone ablative and decided on hard later on. Here she sits with one of five barrier coats on.

Boy, we still can't get over how much shine we were able to give the ole girl. On Friday the 7th we headed back down to Panama City to have the boat splashed. We got there around lunch and found our girl in the sling waiting for us to inspect her.

We also wanted to be left in the slings once we were in the water till we could check out the thru hull work that Dirk had done. No leaks, that's a very good sign. So off we went heading back to the marina, Dirk kept going below just to re-check his work for signs of water. It was all good and we made it back to our slip without any excitement. Saturday was a major clean up day as the boat has been sitting in a dusty, sandy boat yard. The boat yard did a decent job of hosing off the boat topside for us but its never done to where we as owners want it done. So Dirk worked outside as I tackled the inside taking the time to wipe all surfaces down. I also managed to put another coat of varnish on my topside teak I have been working on. Monday we took off out of the slip so that we could shake the sails out and enjoy the breeze. We had anywhere from 5 to 14 knots of wind so it was a pleasant but chilly outing. We are happy to report that we have actually gained some speed with the new bottom job. Once we got back to the slip I decided to tackle the stair project. Our entry steps were not the prettiest but they have to be functional as to provide an anti slip surface. Last thing you want to do is bust your rear going below decks. This is the present look of the steps with anti-skid paint. We purchased some low pile rubber backed runner carpet from our local home improvement store. I then used double sided carpet tape on the top four sides and one strip under the step. After measuring and cutting the exact size for the top I left extra to go underneath the step and then using a heavy duty staple gun, attached it. I chose the low pile carpet because I feel once we begin cruising any sand that finds its way past the door mat will hopefully be caught here before it makes its way onto the wood floors. Our cat Butters also has his favorite perch which is the top step, and I will be able to vacuum his hair from this much better then a higher pile. Plus, It's not just practical, I like the way it looks. In other news Dirk and I got our first chart of the Bahamas so that we could start planning. Gosh there are so many places we want to go, and that's just the Bahamas. When most people think of the Bahamas, what comes to mind is Nassau and Freeport. Like me, they don't realize there are about 700 Islands and Cays, pronounced Keys to explore. So we have our work cut out for us trying to decide how to spend our time there before we will have to head further south for the following hurricane season. 224 days and counting till Dirk's done with work and we can move onto the boat. We have a tentative date of Oct. 13th to cut the dock lines and head out, but as we all know that's a date subject to change. We can always hope though.

Tybee Time is at the boatyard getting some TLC

Well two days after returning from the pirate fest in Tybee Island Georgia , Dirk and I had just enough time to un-pack, wash clothes and re-pack to head to Panama City for the week. Tybee Time was hauled on the 17th for some serious TLC from Dirk and I, and she was also having a bottom job done. Dirk brought Tybee Time through the bay and up into the bayou for his first "single handed" adventure. I drove the truck over and waited for his arrival. Here he is as he pulled her into the lift area.
Below is a photo of her fresh out of the water. We were both surprised at how clean her hull was. Dirk cleans the bottom as often as he gets the chance. After the hull was pressure washed we took a look to see how she looked. When we first had the boat surveyed a year and a half ago the surveyor noted that the boat had what he called chicken pox. Very tiny blisters on the bottom side. We thought at the time it was a big deal but he informed us it shouldn't be a deal breaker as many boats especially older ones can have that. "Keep an eye on them and tend to a few each time you have the boat hauled and you should be fine." We had expected a few of them to have grown over this time period but were surprised to find the bottom looked the same as it had at the time of the survey. Now I know there are people who have their preference to bottom paint and so not all people will agree with our choice. We decided to go with a hard paint rather then an ablative paint this time. Dirk did his research and looked at pros and cons for both and felt this would be the better option for us. Besides if we decide to go back it should be no problem" This is a closeup of the bottom and it shows how thick the layers of old paint are.


After much consideration we decided if we were gonna do this we would do it right, so we elected to have the bottom sand blasted, five coats of barrier paint and then the blue Trinidad as the final coat. Just a wee bit more then we expected to pay, did I say wee bit? Gulp......Takes a bite out of the cruising kitty but that's how it goes. So the guys park us on the other side of the yard and the whole weekend we just about had the yard to ourselves as they were closed. It was a beautiful weekend with high 70's during the day and 50's in the evening which made for nice sleeping weather. It was just a little un-nerving for me as I have never been on the boat while it was on the hard. Knowing that the only thing keeping us from falling over was those 3 stands they had propped on each side of the boat. Friday evening Dirk was already up to his elbows with work. He wanted to get the most out of his time off work. We purchased a finishing system called Poli Glow, and its claim is that it can take old oxidized fiberglass and make it shine once again. It comes with a liquid prep that you dilute and it removes stains and oxidation. The key is to get the boat an even color. We purchased the additional de-oxidizer that comes in a powder and its put onto a wet sponge and rubbed on the boat. Here is Dirk hard at work on Friday prepping the boat.


You can see by this photo how dull the finish is. I call it battleship grey

Here Dirk is applying almost the last of six coats recommended.

Here is one side complete. I have to say we are very happy with the results. Now we will see how long the finish holds up. It states to wash it down with the liquid prep and re-apply a couple coats once a year.

We never have seen the boat shine like this before, and for the price we cant complain. Now we can't wait to see the final product with the new bottom paint. This project took about two days and I have to admit, Dirk did most of the hard work on this. I did however manage to get the teak off the companionway to begin stripping and refinishing that. I had started it last fall but did not get it all done. Summer was just not the time to do it so I'm hard at it again. I also managed to do some interior organization and hang our new sign we bought at the pirate fest. It hangs on the door to the bathroom, how fitting. The blue sign on the bottom was there when we purchased the boat. Dirk also managed to find time to install the new salt water foot pump and faucet for the galley sink. When we start cruising I want to conserve my fresh water and have heard it is just fine to wash your dishes in salt water and give them a fresh water rinse. This project went surprisingly well considering we had to run a hose from the engine compartment, thru the bilge, and up under the sink. Why is it that when anyone works on their boat it always looks like this on the inside.

So with good progress made we decided to head home on Tuesday and give it a rest. The yard was sandblasting two boats beside us and we had to have things closed up in order to keep some of the dust out. Also I wasn't going to get any varnishing done unless I wanted to go for that textured look. I know I have a major wipe down and clean though when it goes back in the water.

Tybee Island Pirate Fest

For Dirk & I, Tybee Island Georgia has many meanings. Not only is this the place where we met, it is the place he proposed to me. Dirks best friends live on the Island so we like to think of Tybee Island as our second home. This place has such a charm and is different them most coastal cities. This place has yet to be too commercialized and has such a homey feel. Basically when you come here you are on Tybee Time. This was the reason we named our boat Tybee Time. When you are on board, you are in fact on Tybee Time. No hurries, no worries, no problems. Dirk and I decided this year to attend the Tybee Island Pirate Fest. Lots of folks walking around in pirate costumes consuming large quantities of alcohol and basically saying nothing but aaaaaaarrrrggghhhh. Here we are ready for the pirate parade to start. Aaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhhh..... How fitting to find this sign. Living on Tybee Time..... And of course we had to do the tourist thing. Here is the Tybee Lighthouse, my knees know for a fact it has 178 steps to get to the top. As many times as I have been there I had never gone inside. Unfortunately the weather really didn't comply all too well for us, but none the less, we had a great time. Tomorrow we head down to Panama City and on Friday the boat gets pulled. Dirk and I will work on it all weekend and then Monday the yard will start with the bottom job. I have now added a photo album and its located on the upper left side of the page. I will add additional photographs as I find the time so keep checking back if interested. By the way......252 days and counting......