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Dreaming of Davits

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There are few things our boat didn’t come equipped with, and davits was one of them. A lot of boats have really nice custom stainless steel davit systems off the stern to hold their dinghies out of the water. Not a big deal though, this just means we get to hoist the dinghy up onto the bow when we want to take it out of the water. To us, its a luxury we don’t need right now. It would cost a pretty penny to fabricate a custom davit system for the Mary Christine.

Of course we had to do a couple exploratory fishing trips when we first bought our new vehicle, but then we had to get it out of the salt water ASAP. Even just a few days floating around in this marina was enough for sea life to start growing on the bottom. The algae was super slimy and there were tiny little barnacles starting to grow.

First we had to rig up a makeshift 3-point bridle to provide a little extra support instead of just using a single D-ring for the lifting. Next, we hooked up our main halyard to the D-ring hooks and started to winch the dinghy up out of the water along the side of the boat. The dinghy is roughly 110lbs (with the aluminum floor boards in) so having that winch makes it way easier to raise it up.

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A little soap, water and couple of deck brushes took off a majority of the slime.

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Up Up and Away! Peter got the dinghy up and over the lifelines while I helped guide it into position on the foredeck. That thing looks frickin HUGE when its up in the air!!

We found an old tannish brown sail cover at the used marine trading store and it just so happened to be long enough and wide enough when opened up all the way to cover our massive 12′ tender. It may not look pretty and some of the edges are a little torn but it’ll do the job!! It was only $20 and it will help protect the PVC from the wicked UV rays that we’re going to be in for a long time. Without some sort of protection, the PVC just doesn’t last very long at all, so we’ve been told. For now, our camo tie down straps will be holding it down. We’ve taken her out in 20knot winds this past weekend and didn’t have a problem at all with the cover coming loose. It’ll work until it doesn’t work anymore ;)

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(Did anyone notice we’re getting closer to the waterline? :) After we fill up the fuel tanks and get all the provisioning before setting sail to the Bahamas we should be sitting right at the dark green stripe!)

Bilge Deep

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Have you ever seen a really dirty bilge? Have you ever been inside a bilge?? Well, some of you have had the pleasure of partaking in bilge maintenance, but for those of you that haven’t, let me tell you…

Our boat was built in 1980 and it unfortunately needs a little more TLC than some of the newer boats out there. Since we have been running the air conditioning quite a bit lately, the condensation created is around three gallons per day and it all travels down into the bilge. We decided to clean the bilge for one of our first maintenance projects to get rid of some of the mildew and old ‘funk’ that has been in there for a while.

Peter wanted to get right down there and get the dirty deed over with, but alas, his muscles are just too big!! He can reach farther than I can but he just couldn’t reach all the way down to the lowest point of our bilge. We tried using gargantuan tweezers (one of those tools we kept for the one time we might really need them!) but just couldn’t get them to grasp the rags and sponges well enough. Kitchen tongs weren’t going to work either.

The best access panel for the lowest part of the bilge is in our aft head. I decided to see if I could somehow reach father than Peter, maybe just by flexibility, and it turns out I could actually fit my head AND shoulders all the way INSIDE! Getting in there was one thing, getting out was another. I discovered arm leg and back muscles that I didn’t know I had. While hanging into the opening in the head, my torso was twisted out into the aft cabin and I hooked my feet up into a cubby on the front of the bed for leverage. Peter was trying to be a good helper but with my whole body in the way he couldn’t shine the flashlight where I needed it to go. I couldn’t use a headlamp either because I could barely fit my head in there. Turns out headlamps can also be worn around your neck and angled upside down so when you are inverted into the abyss of your bilge with no room for a helping hand you can still see what you are doing.

Bilge Deep and upside down is just one of the new ways we are discovering to keep us flexible and burn some calories while living on the boat. It’s hard work, and it’s never done but the trade-off sure is worth the effort!!