a chill in the air

woo, got down to 35 deg F last night.... our first taste of chill on the boat. It was kinda nice though. Seems like winter is taking so long to set in that I was happy for some sorta cold weather. Our pellet heater has been delayed for anyone wondering how that is going. The new word is that it will be here tomorrow! I hope so. We are freakin geeked for that thing, haha!

recap of the months previous

After a wonderful summer on E dock, we moved in toward shore on B dock. It was a very bittersweet moment, but here we are, next to our winter neighbors. It feels good to have a new view of the city, but very sad because this marks the last time we'll take the boat out for the season (probably, anyway).

In light of the move, I wanted to post a review of the season in pictures, beginning with the winter boat show.



Justin carving the sign for the name of the boat. This was when we were still living on land.

We took quite a few trips out to the marina where the boat was docked, not knowing that this same marina is where we would be staying ourselves.


This was one of our first encounters with the lovely pug, Jack.


This is how the boat looked when we bought it....shrink wrapped with a plywood door.


We spent one of the last evenings of April on the boat...it was our first night aboard! That night, we cut holes in the top of the shrink wrap so we could stay up for awhile to see the amazing view of the city. In the morning, we woke up bright and early and took the rest of the shrink wrapping off, so we could start moving our things in.


A week or so later, our boat moved to its new slip - out on the end of E. The cormorants were spending a lot of time on the docks. I imagine the water was cold and they were warming up.


Sometimes, we got bored...


But that was before we started taking the boat out to the islands, Salem, up the river, etc.


And then we got engaged...(well, that night we did...)


Jack and Jess came over for taco night...mmm...tacos.


We went to Spectacle Island with my parents.




Somewhere along the way, the cat learned how to take pictures of herself...


Now, we are on B dock and getting used to having so many neighbors. The great thing is that a bunch of our neighbors have liveaboard dogs. Meet Salty:


The view from our new slip.


Now we just have to hope we can stay warm and dry this winter. Wish us luck!

-Jenny

Winter Prep part 1

Not a lot has been happening here. My classes seem to be attempting to suck all the fun out of life.

The marina has began hauling out all the little fishing boats and pulling all of us bigger liveaboard types in toward the docks closest to the boathouse. Winter prep is in its beginning stages. It is kinda fun. I think we will both enjoy the winter aboard.

We will be at dock B21, not that many people reading this have a clue where that is, but just so you all know :)

envy

I often think that we have hashed out a perfect life that puts us on top of the world. We both love living on the Fitzcarraldo. Every once in a while though, I'm reminded of ways to dream of even more adventure and wonder.

A couple from our marina, Dmitri and Natalia, set sail for the Virgin Islands today. I happened to be around when they left and snapped this picture:
They will be back in the spring, but what an awesome 6 months they are about to have. Even they aren't sure where they are actually going. Just going.

-Justin

Slow and steady, that's the way.

I'm glad we have so many small projects going on at once. We really can't afford the large projects (electrics, engine rebuilds, haul out---you know, the important ones). But in the meantime we have enough little projects to keep more than busy. Jenny hadn't worked on the curtains in a few weeks due to all the other stuff going on in life, so it was nice for her to be able to get a few new ones sewn up today.

post

Lack of posts for about a week. Had a death in my family so we had to fly back to Michigan. Bummer....

In the meantime, the tiles showed up and they look sweet. I can't wait to install them. I'm behind on homework though from our out-of-town time. Could be a while before I/we get to install them.


Still waiting on the pellet heater to arrive. But we bought pellets! (yes, we're that excited). Hopefully soon. It is getting chilly here (and they begin metering electricity in November) so I'll definitely get that installed right away. If anyone knows a cheap website to order 3" stainless pellet vent pipe please let me know, hehe.

-Justin

boat improvements

After a busy summer of having an insane amount of company (for a couple of months, we had someone visiting every weekend), Justin has gotten the itch to work on boat projects. I am feeling bad because my curtain project has come to a halt, but I hope to get going with it again this week and have them done soon.

When we first moved onto the boat, there were a couple pieces of wallpaper on the sides of the boat. I immediately tore them down, but that's as far as the project got. The wood underneath the paper was gross and flaky. Tonight, when I got home from work, Justin had sanded and restained this piece of wood, and it looks incredibly better.

Before:


After:


Also, we are attempting to get rid of the laminate look with the galley counter, the table, and everything else we can. Justin came up with the brilliant idea of turning the laminated boards (behind the watermelon as seen in the photo below)...

And sanding/staining the other side. They are currently drying, and look amazing. I'll update a photo of them when they're finished.



The other project with getting rid of lamination is that we ordered some tiles for the countertops, which should hopefully be coming in any day. Justin was so excited that we had ordered them, that he immediately ripped the laminate off the top boards in the galley...he spared me the actual countertop, so I'm still able to cook, but he's incredibly excited to get going and fix up the counters. They were his least favorite thing on the boat, I think.


This is what the tiles look like. Technically, it is "caribbean sea green" but they look awfully blue to me. Either way, I like how none of them are really the same color, and I like that they're from recycled materials.
The last thing I wanted to post about was the other large item we have on order...a pellet heater! This thing should keep us warm in the winter. One of our friends was able to get us a great deal on this, and in the end will be saving us a lot of money. A 40 lb bag of wood pellets is $5.00 and we should be able to make a bag last 1-2 weeks. We plan on supplementing our heat with electric heaters, and will only use the pellet heater when we're home, but it should be great.

The other plus side to this heater is that it actually will burn wood, coal, pellets and "other solids", so if there ends up being a low supply of pellets in our area, we'll be able to heat up with other things.


Hopefully, the winter will be nice and cozy and warm.

-Jenny