Archive for August, 2008
As Tammy mentioned in a recent post, we were sitting at the Royal River Boatyard preparing to get the bottom painted. During this stay in the Royal River, I planned to get a lot of maintenance done to Gypsies. With the help of a fabulous computer software program by SeaKits called the Marine Maintenance System (MMS), I have been putting together an exhaustive maintenance schedule for Gypsies. This schedule has about 75 or 80 maintenance items across all the ships systems. I have done about half of them but still have a long list of ones that exceed my current technical competence. Alan Dugas, who owns and runs the Royal River Boatyard, agreed to let me have one of his top mechanics, Ryan, to help with the maintenance.
My plan was to do basically every piece of maintenance needed on the boat before we leave. This does two things; one, it gets Gypsies ready for the trip and two, makes sure that I can do all of the maintenance in the future. This has been, and continues to be, a mammoth undertaking but one that has been a lot of fun. This boat that we have is an incredible piece of machinery that was well cared for by its former owner but was not used much in the last year that they owned it or the first six months that we owned it. The maintenance has been a great way to be sure that all of the systems are operational. We have had to replace a few things but not much.
So, beginning on Wednesday, August 6, Ryan and I began the maintenance process. Ryan’s mission was to teach me how to do the rest of the maintenance items (he drew the short straw!). We spent 7 working days on this process, working on the John Deere engines, the Westerbeke generator, the Wesmar bow thruster, the Maxwell windlass, the Naiad stabilizers, the ZF transmissions, the Hynautic engine controls, the Capilano steering and even the shafts. We removed and cleaned heat exchangers, flushed the fresh water cooling systems, replaced raw water impellers, removed rocker arm covers to test valve clearances, and more on the engines and the genset. We replaced all the underwater zincs and even replaced the seals in the bow thruster and the shaft seals on the main shafts. We drained and replaced the gear oil in the windlass and bow thruster. In short, we did just about everything that could ever need to be done to the major ships systems.
Working with Ryan was one of the coolest things I have ever done. I learned a lot and found out that I really enjoy doing this kind of work. Ryan was fantastic! He is not only incredibly knowledgeable but is great at explaining things so that an amateur like me can understand. Ryan is an engineering officer in the Merchant Marine on a break between postings so is very well qualified to do way more than I asked of him. His pleasant disposition and eagerness to help me made the task all the more fun.
Gypsies in the Palace is now ready for her journey. Now that she knows that she is loved and well cared for, she will do us right!
August 20th, 2008
If you read the last blog entry, you know (and if not, I’m telling you now) that we are planning on leaving from Kennebunkport for the grand adventure to the little latitudes on Friday, August 29th. Since we are embarking on the dream of our lives, we want to kick it off in style and see as many of our friends and family as possible before we become skype and email acquaintances off in some distance part of the world where it is always warm! OK – I need to rub it in a little. So we are having an unofficial bon voyage party on Sunday, August 31st starting around 3:00 p.m. at the Wentworth by the Sea Marina in Portsmouth, NH – it’s only about 5 minutes off Route 95 and there are plenty of inexpensive hotels close by in Portsmouth which we recommend because this could get ugly!! Our amazing musician friend from Key West, Scott Kirby, is going to be playing on the deck so we’d love to see you all! Please shoot us an email or give us a call if you think you will be joining the party!
August 5th, 2008
As unbelievable as this seems to me, in less than one month (yes four very short weeks), the adventurers of Gypsies in the Palace will be leaving their homes in Kennebunkport and Manchester for parts unknown down in the little latitudes. What started as a “grand bar scheme” (thank you Scott Kirby) while we were on vacation down in St. John over a year and a half ago is actually fast becoming a reality. Excitement and panic are starting to merge as we all realize how much more we need to accomplish before we actually head out of the Kennebunk River for the start of the grand adventure. When we left work at the end of March (or February in John’s case or June in Colleen’s case – she was a late bloomer), we thought there would be plenty of time – wrong!! We all have our lists – to do, to buy, to bring, to sell, give or throw away, to call, etc. – you get the picture and yes, they all have to get done before we leave the dock!! I’ve come to believe that my lists are wizard lists (as in Harry Potter) because no matter how many things I cross off, my lists continue to grow each day instead of becoming shorter. But we’ve sold many of our possessions – house, cars, furniture – you name it so there’s no turning back from here. Ready or not, we’ll be throwing off those dock lines in Kennebunkport on Friday, August 29th – of course, mother nature permitting. To go cruising and have fun, you need to give up any notion that you are in control – mother nature controls all and you only venture forth with her permission and good wishes – get used to it!
Right now I am writing this from the bridge of Gypsies while watching the sun set over the Royal River in Casco Bay and while enjoying a sundowner (cruising speak for a frosty cold beer) – life is good! Doug and I steamed Gypsies here from Kennebunkport today for some final work and maintenance. What a fun trip – relatively flat seas and only on and off rain which for us just means moving from the flybridge up top to the enclosed helm station below. We managed to avoid the gale force winds and heavy downpours we saw on the radar – thank you mother nature – today she was benevolent. Lets hope that continues! Colleen just got here and John we hear is on the way – good thing because as our chief morale officer, John is in charge of drinks!
“Have I told you how much I love this boat?” is often heard on Gypsies – but it’s true. We couldn’t have picked a better boat for this life we are soon embarking on but even she needs a little TLC before we put thousands (yes thousands) of miles on her. So we don’t spend every waking moment of our adventure scrubbing the abundant barnacles and sea life that we hear accumulate on a boat’s bottom at an alarming rate in the warm latitudes, she is getting fresh anti-fouling bottom paint. Since Colleen and John need to sleep at night in the forward berth, Gypsies is also getting a seawater wash down so we can wash the anchor each time we haul it thereby getting rid of all that wonderful growth mentioned above. If you’ve ever smelled dried seaweed, you understand and I’ll say no more. While Gypsies is here at the boat yard, she will be getting some other last minute tune-ups and maintenance so hopefully once we set sail (ok – fire up the big John Deere diesels but setting sail sounds more romantic and adventurous), she’ll be kicking up her heels and ready to go!
Tomorrow while they pull Gypsies out of the water to do the paint, the four of us are off to an all day first aid/CPR course. As we’ve already found out, personal knowledge of first aid can be very important when at sea and nowhere near a real doctor. Yes – we’re all fine, just a little lost blood! Seriously though, its just one more thing we need to learn to be self sufficient out on the water – one more thing we never really thought was too important when we lived in Boston among the best hospitals in the world. When we are in Grenada and I get stung by a jelly fish or step on a sea urchin (because you know it will be me!), I want someone to know how to stop the pain with more than a bottle of rum (although that will be part of the cure too I’m sure) or to pee on it.
August 5th, 2008
