From Single to Double in the Galley

Our original single-basin sink in the galley.
A little caulking romance.
Casey brought me to meet up with Matt while he was working on the new sink install. Looks like he found Kaleo to be pretty relaxing amidst the minor construction. The original single-basin sink in our galley was too shallow & small for any real dishwashing so we went on the search for the right double-basin. After months of research & an exhaustive search for an affordable option, we finally found one on eBay that fit the bill.

After a few weekends more than planned Matt got the old one removed, the counter cut out & the new one in place. In between all that, he managed to add fresh and salt water spigots (for greater water conservation), a new sprayer faucet, and plumbed all the necessary hoses. A now we have a fully functioning sink and an experience Matt hopes to only do once.

If Only They Could All Look Like This

It's official. Today marks the LEAST amount of money we've spent at West Marine to date. That's right, the decimal is in the right place ... we spend a whopping $0.39 on 4 fasteners for the shower install.

Sailors Like To Be Clean Too

We spent the weekend getting a few new parts installed for liveaboard necessities. For some reason the former owner removed the shower system, but no worries Matt was able to install a more space and water efficient design that works perfectly for us.

Electric head install complete

This weekend's refitting included Matt running wire from the breaker panel to the flush pump to power our new electric head.

Productive & Fun Labor Day Wknd

Deciding where to mount the manual back-up pump.
Installing the waste hose.Helping our marina neighbor load up his dinghy to be repaired.
Family stopped by for a fun visit and brought BBQ lunch for the crew.

Labor of Love

We spent this Labor Day weekend with one of our 1st major refit projects aboard Kaleo. September is dedicated to all things plumbing so we started with upgrading our manual-only toilet to an electric / manual back-up, Lavac. The 1st step was to have the holding tanks pumped out and rinsed followed by removing the old toilet. The greatest challenge was engineering a hose run that involved an electric pump, a manual back-up pump and a downhill run to the tank - all within the confines of the space below the v-berth.

We're happy to report that with the help of Christie's dad, Craig, the install was a success within "plan a" and without any sacrifices. We now have the convenience of an electric head with a manual back-up in case of power failure.

Visiting the Fam

Our Seattle weekend continued as we started Saturday with a visit to Pike Place for breakfast at The Crumpet Shop and to pick up some flowers to bring to Matt's mom.
We then hit the road for a 5-hour road trip to Coeur d’ Alene to visit the family and celebrate Ken’s birthday.
Before heading out for Ken’s birthday dinner, he and Matt reviewed the test companionway doors and talked through their final design. We’ll leave the materials and plans in his good hands to be built. He even offered to build us an overlay for the bathroom countertop from some scrap granite he’s collected. It means a lot to us to have his craftsmanship aboard.
The boys taking a break while dad takes Jeff’s new bike out for a spin.

Productive Seattle Weekend

We took full advantage of a long weekend in Seattle with a date night staying at The Edgewater and seafood dinner at Elliot’s, a refitting gear quest across some premier and cost-effective suppliers, and a visit with the family in Coeur d’ Alene.

• We started our sailing supplies’ gathering with a visit to Fisheries Supply (think Toys-R-Us for boaters). There we picked up epoxy (marine glue) for the companion way doors that Matt and his dad are building, our new electric Lavac Marine Toilet and some electrical wiring for the toilet pump. Through Matt’s exhaustive research, we chose a Lavac for its unparalleled reputation for simplicity and longevity among blue water cruisers. Earlier in the week, we ordered the necessary hoses from Defender Marine Outfitter.

• We then marveled at all the other treasures there and even picked out new LED lighting fixtures (but that’s in our October budget & refit plan so we jotted down the part #s and headed to our next stop).

• From there we headed to Crosscut Hardwoods to pick out some teak planks to build the companionway doors and a shower bench.

• We wrapped up a productive day with a romantic dinner at Elliot’s on the Bay and a nice night at The Edgewater.

Amazing Day

The crew woke up to a great, yet hot, day with nice 12-15 mph winds. Some defining moments from Saturday:

• Started with a hearty breakfast

• Matt watched his wedding band slip of his freshly sun-screened hand and go kerplunk in the murky, muddy water at the slip! We assumed it was gone forever and made peace with the loss.
• Discovered new marina neighbor, Steve (who Christie coincidentally had met while running boat errands a few months ago and who happen to have bought a Pearson 365 that we looked at before buying our beloved, Kaleo!)
• Our surveyor (who we highly recommend if you need the best) and sailing friend/mentor, Drake Epple, stopped by to say hi. It's always a treat to see him and we look forward to him joining us for a sail soon.
• Explored the treasure trove, Boaters Resale Shop of Texas, near our marina
• A great sail in the Bay with enough heel to make us all a little nervous, spotted lots of jelly fish hanging out and kicked back with lunch, fun chats and discovered our new favorite sailing channel on Pandora
• Saw a freshly sunk boat just outside of the channel with the captain still aboard and coast guard just arriving
• Jeph spotted a net to which he suggested dredging for the lost ring. On the 6th shot, Jeph nonchalantly announced, "this is the one guys", Matt said a little prayer and the next thing we knew, Matt was spraying water through the mud to discover his ring the net! The pictures show Matt's excitement and amazement.

• 

• The guys spent the rest of the afternoon fitting the test companionway doors while the girls took a nap below in the cool A/C.

• We had a great dinner at Skippers, and then we went for a night motor (our 1st time to leave the slip after dark & navigate out of the channel). It was also our 1st time to see ocean phosphorescence lighting up the waves light underwater fireflies!
• Deck Schwab RedBeard even entertained us with a little recorder performance.

The Net

Today the first parts of our data network arrived, two Furuno FI-50 displays. These will be the primary displays for critical information in the cockpit.

The one on the left is a three-line digital display that will show water depth, speed, water temp & various other bits of navigation data. The one on the right will show the wind speed & direction relative to the bow of the boat. This will be great because right now we have to look at the windex on the mast to tell what direction it's blowing, which makes for a sore neck by the end of the day.

The workbench is coming together

I got the garage cleaned out from the move and am building a workbench. That way I can "work" on Kaleo while in Dallas.

First projects slated to hit the bench: rebuilding the watermaker and building companionway doors from teak.

Dinghy Decisions

I inflated the dinghy in the garage this afternoon to see what this little boat is all about. The dinghy is the like the car is to a house. It is our means of getting to shore from the boat when we are at anchor. Kaleo has a draft (in water depth) of 5' 6" so she can't pull up to the shore unless there is a slip. In fact, in our slip she sits in the mud at low-tide.

So the dinghy will be our means of getting around the neighborhood when we are our cruising. The one that came with the boat is a West Marine 8-footer. The decision I am trying to make is, hard or rigid-inflatable dinghy?

We are going to take the dinghy back down to the boat and give it a try for a few months. No doubt this decision, like so many in cruising will involve lots of research, lots of differing opinions and ultimately just going with whatever works out.