Another Week at the Boatyard: 11/7/2021 – 11/14/2021

Hello friends! You can watch our latest YouTube video here.

Last Sunday we had a few adult beverages with brunch and ended up watching movies in between naps the rest of the day.

Luckily, we were much more productive on Monday! We headed to the boat first thing in the morning. Ray was able to install our replacement faucet in the port aft head (our original faucet had rusted beyond repair), and I was able to finish wiping down and lining the starboard cabinets with new non-skid shelf lining (a sailor’s best friend!). 

We also took off all our saloon cushion covers (you’d be shocked how hard it is to do so), and brought them back to our Airbnb for a much needed wash. 

We spent Tuesday running errands- we went to the hardware store (twice), stopped by Lowe’s, and got all new pillows at Bed Bath and Beyond. We also spent some time at our storage unit, sorting through and throwing things away.

Wednesday morning we checked out of our Airbnb and moved into a rental property owned by the couple we met at the boatyard last week. Their place is in Satellite Beach and they just finished renovating. It’s been so nice to be in a place with a fully equipped kitchen and comfy beds! We’re loving it so far. 

Thursday morning we realized we had just over a week to get Sabado ready to go back in the water since we’re taking Thanksgiving week off from boat work. So, we headed to the boat around 9am with a long list of things we wanted to accomplish, but all of that went out the window when Ray noticed our bilge was full of oil. 

Turns out the used oil container we had stored in our forepeak had leaked. So, Ray spent the rest of the day sopping up oil and deep cleaning the forepeak and bilge. Both of those spaces only have room for one person at a time, so once Ray got set up with all the supplies he needed, I was able to start on another job- washing our fenders. 

Sounds simple, right? I thought so, until I started. You see, when we were on the dock for a month before hauling out, we were in pretty nutrient rich water. That, combined with the warm weather, led to an insane amount of growth- not only on the bottom of the boat, but on our fender covers as well. We let them dry out before storing them for the season so there’s no mold, but the barnacles/seaweed/worms that had grown during that month hardened. Long story short, washing the fenders was like scrubbing cement out of a towel. 

It took me a couple of hours to make my first pass at all of the fenders, and they were still nowhere near clean. I decided to lay them out to dry overnight and try again the next day. 

Friday morning we went back to the boat, it had rained (just my luck), so I pushed my fender project back another day. Ray was feeling the aftermath of spending hours contorting himself into small spaces to clean up oil, so we decided to take the day off from boat work. We stopped by the grocery store on the way home and picked up a pumpkin pie and some whipped cream and spent the rest of the day relaxing. 

That evening the owners of the house we’re renting invited us out for drinks. We ended up chatting for hours about boat work and future travel plans. They’re a lovely couple! 

By Saturday, we were ready to start putting the boat back together. We sorted through a few piles of stuff and brainstormed some organizational options before deciding to head to Target in search of some storage containers with dividers. We encountered our usual issue though: the dimensions we needed were nowhere to be found. So the hunt continued, we went to Home Depot and still had no luck. We ended up having to drive 45 minutes out of our way to a Bass Pro Shop and are essentially repurposing some fishing tackle containers to store Ray’s tools. 

The goal today is to put the salon back together and make some progress on organizing the forward cabin (where we keep all our tools and spare parts). I’m also going to make a conscious effort to remember to take photos for these blog posts since I’ve clearly been slacking- it’s a lot easier to remember to take pictures when we’re sailing somewhere beautiful! 😉 

Anyway, that’s all I have to report! I hope you had a great week. ❤️