Spring projects

The optimist in me says we are done with snow and ice for the season. That tidbit of information means Cupcake's crew won’t see winter again until December 2019. I can’t describe how happy that fact makes me feel. Not a fan of the cold. Or the ice. Or the snow. Or the not-sailing.

Yesterday Ellen and I got onboard and started moving on some projects that need to happen before the end of April when Cupcake gets hauled to the boatyard for the water maker installation.

We decided to go with a composting head, so after not nearly enough research we bought an Airhead at the Maine Boatbuilders Show last weekend. Yesterday we pulled all the nasty nasty old plumbing off the boat in preparation. I can’t wait to be free from stink and clogs and leaks. Not to mention becoming a law-abiding, non-discharge kind of citizen. The photo of the removed hoses and valves does not do justice to the unpleasantness of the task. Every hose was disgusting to see, to touch, and to smell. Every hose clamp was either covered with brown rust or dried poop or both. Our anti-siphon valve had been allowing a fine mist of aerosolized fecal matter to spray all over the bulkhead in one of our lockers for about a season. Lovely.

The other exciting springtime step is that we wound and set the ship’s clock. It runs for a week at a time, so we committed to getting onboard at least weekly to get stuff done and to wind the clock this spring. If everything goes according to plan (and really, what doesn’t go according to plan on a boat) the clock will stay running until the fall of 2019 when the boat is hauled at the end of our adventure. That’s pretty exciting stuff. (The brown on this bulkhead is just teak. Don't panic.)

Busy busy

Let's see. I've been a busy sailor the past few weeks. Got a used winch at one of those marine salvage places (oh my goodness are those places fun AND depressing: so many wonderful parts, so many dead boats). Rebuilt it so now it is ready for duty on the port-side cabin top where it will help out with the mainsail reefing.

May 2018 update: I didn't like the look of the pawls in the winch when I got it apart, so I parlayed it (and some cash) into a pair of healthy Harken 16 self-tailing winches.

And yesterday Ellen helped me get the boom onto a pair of sawhorses so I could figure out the lines that run inside. Man, off the boat the boom seems enormous. Working from the initially-inexplicable jiffy-reefing diagram I found on the Isomat Spars website, I figured out how to rig the lines for two reef points. It's a neat system, hopefully it will work smoothly because it will be really wonderful to be able to reef from the comfort and safety of the cockpit.

Making sawdust

So there's not a ton of work I can do aboard Cupcake when the weather is cold. Instead, I've been picking away at little projects I can take care of in my workshop. 

It may seem like a small thing, but I finished a little spice rack for the galley. It holds 10 jars, is made of teak and cedar, and it gets the job done. Side note: the cedar is from a tree I cut and milled myself. Very Little House on the Prairie.

The other little project I wrapped up over the weekend is an innovation of which I am very proud. For years I've wanted a way to have a vise aboard the boat. But I didn't want to take up a whole lot of space with one and I didn't know how to mount it so I could have a stable platform and still move the vise around when I need. 

This year I realized that a traditional bench vise was big and cumbersome, even a small one. So I got this drill press vise and mounted it on the underside of a storage bin lid. This lid is the one that covers the space where the refrigerator compressor lives, so the space taken up by the vise is otherwise wasted. I'm hopeful the trip will go so smoothly there won't be a need to use the vise, but now I've got one if it's needed.

(The extra holes in the lid could be seen as a measuring error. I choose to think of them as a different mounting option.)

Bleak

On Sunday Ellen and I dropped the new fabric for the cushions off at the prison. Moss wasn't available but wanted to see what the prison looked like. You can see from the picture that there is not much in this world more bleak and dreary than a prison in the winter.

In Maine, February lasts for at least two months: February and so-called March. So settle down, lay in a good supply of firewood, and spend this time studying the navigation charts because there is not much that can be done on the boat. (WeatherUnderground is predicting 10-12 inches of snow on Wednesday.)

Moss wants to talk about choosing the fabric so I'll leave that to her. What I will mention is that our first boat (Cupcake) was a 1960s Pearson and its upholstery was period-correct vinyl. Our second cruising boat was a 1970s Tartan (Cupcake) and it had period-correct brown plaid. This Cupcake had period-correct blue velour but we are shaking things up with 1990s-style ultra suede. ULTRA suede. Like suede, but much more ultra.

Courtesy flag

We are starting to collect gear for the trip. Here's Moss with the Bahamas courtesy flag. It's nice to think that a year from now the flag will be flapping in the tradewinds. Today it sits in a box. The weather is cold and snowy here.

Prison bound

Yesterday Ellen and I got all the cushions from Cupcake's cabin off the boat and into the truck. This morning we delivered them to the Maine Correctional Center in Windham for new upholstery and foam. The cushions were original to the boat (that's 32 years of getting sat upon by sailors) and have lost some of their bounce. Also, they all have buttons sewn into them and those buttons catch on bathing suits. It's never a good time to have your bathing suit yanked by an old button. 

So we will have fresh cushions in a month or so. It's interesting to consider that the upholstery is being done by people with almost no freedom to go where they like. But the cushions (as well as the boat and crew) are privileged to roam wherever in the world we desire.

First post

Ok, in the interest of getting something started on the website and blog, I'll jump right in. The first picture is from 2016 of the Cupcake Cup (annual dinghy race we host in Freeport). Gratuitous boat shot.

The second picture is the mattress for the v-berth. It's got the mattress pad that Ellen tailored to fit the triangle. She also sewed up a fitted comforter, two sets of cotton sheets and a third in flannel. The flannel isn't exactly what we need for the Bahamas, but it will be a treat on chilly summer nights in Maine.