Progress

Progress

No mold!  Barbara was first into “Submit” and found no mold.  This was the first time ever there has been none.  She’s a happy lady.  Those of you who read about our visit to the boat last year will recall that we found the interior of the boat to be covered in black mold when we arrived.  A friend who had seen the inside thought we would take one look and junk the boat.  He didn’t know Barbara well enough yet.

Work on the boat progresses.  All lifeline stanchions and lifelines have been reinstalled.  A new replacement wind generator has been installed.  Toe rail bolts and other through deck bolts have been tightened and a couple re-bedded to eliminate tiny leaks.  The engine heat exchanger has been cleaned and reinstalled.  And the list goes on as other odds and ends are addressed. 

One issue is some water in the fuel tank.  The tanks were virtually empty after having been reinstalled subsequent to repairs.  However, the fuel fill cap on deck was not tight and water found its way to the tanks.  I pumped out as much as possible but I fear some remains and will rear its head at the most inopportune times as the boat moves about after launching. 

The new-to-us motor home has been great as our boatyard residence.  We’ve been allowed to park it near the boat and have been quite comfortable.  It seems huge to us after Bev.  We are spending a little time addressing minor issues as we find them.

My current goal is to have the boat ready to launch by 26 January.  I want to be able to check her out before heading south.  We need to be in Palm Beach, Florida, by 6 February to retrieve our granddaughter from the airport.  Depending on weather and route the trip could take as much as 7 or 8 days.  Having a grandchild join us on “Submit” is a treat for us.  We hope she enjoys her stay.

it only took 3 weeks

It only took 3 weeks, but we have arrived at Submit.  

Today we will climb on board and see how she faired, but first let us tell you about our last week on the road. We were anxious to get out of the freezing weather, even though we now had heat on board. 2019 greeted us with a temperature of 9 degrees and frozen water as well as blowing snow. The next two days were freezing rain and flooding. It rained hard enough that visibility was poor and that made it hard to miss the bumps in the rough road. Not the most fun driving conditions.  

Day four finally smiled on us with sunshine. We smiled back until we discovered our own flooding. The carpet was wet under two different windows, but worse than that, one of the basement compartments had flooded. Many of our books were water logged and trashed. One is still drying us on the dash.

We have had some fun, of course. We spent a couple days in Pensacola visiting friends. Some let us borrow their van to pick up parts for Bev’s replacement (still looking for a name), others let us park in their covered RV spot.  Good conversations and yummy food.  

In Texas we had to stop at a Buckees again. Buckees truck stops are way more than a truck stop and are notorious for extra clean and fancy bathrooms. And dozens of fuel pumps.  And all the treats in the world, such as fresh made on site fudge and barbecue sandwiches and honey glazed nuts and …..   We didn’t need anything, but a visit is always fun.

We enjoyed the Lafayette Science Museum. This is a well designed, hands on museum. Some of the displays were above Barbara’s head, but she enjoyed most of it and even learned some things. Reggie was amazed as he ‘swam’ in the virtual reality ocean 

Unfortunately, Barbara had a Jonas experience and was stuck in the whale’s skeleton.  

The other educational stop was the Infinity Science Center 

near Stennis Space Center. We watched a 3D movie about our solar system and well as a movie projected on a globe. We were buckled in for a virtual rocket launch. We walked through a model of a space station experiment module. The last experience was a virtual trip in a submarine. We were suppose to use joy sticks to navigate and fix a leak in an oil well. We had no idea what we were doing and left a little disappointed with that event, but overall it was fun.

The other two fun stops were at Harvest Hosts. It is an organization of wineries, farms, golf courses, etc which provide spaces for RVs at no charge. Our first experience was Brushy Creek Winery. Once we were settled in we went for a wine tasting. This is a very casual winery where we just sat and chatted with the owner and some of the locals. All the wines are made from Texas grapes. We tasted some new varieties and left with yet another box of wine, except this box had six bottles it.  

Hurricane damage was in evidence along I-10.  Even though we were not on the coast, there were downed trees and signs everywhere.  Residences destroyed by falling trees, roofs and outbuildings torn apart.  Several sections of forest had nothing left but snapped off stumps of all heights.  They  resembled fields of stalagmites.

Our last stop was at another Harvest Host, the Tallahassee Antique Auto Museum

 The gates close at 5 and we were not going to make it until 5:30, so we called to cancel. However, as luck would have it, they were staying open until 7, so we were able to get in to the grounds for our free overnight stay. In the morning we spent a couple hours touring the museum, looking at an amazing collection of dolls, Steinway pianos, knives, guns, jukeboxes, canoes, motorcycles, outboard motors and, of course cars.  An no stop in the south is complete without Elvis

First night at the boat yard, view out our front window 

we enjoyed our first sundowner with a beautiful sunset 

and catching up with some of our boat yard friends.

Bev faulters

We enjoyed the Denver Museum of Nature and History.  We have been thinking of trying to take Submit to Cuba this winter and found the museum was showing a special exhibit for Cuba and also an Imax movie about Cuba.  They made us wonder why the US is so intent on prohibiting relations with Cuba after 50 years.  The people and country are most interesting.

We did indeed have lunch with the nicest man in Denver, Kevin and Katie.  They took us to the oldest restaurant in Denver, The Buckhorn Exchange.  It is about 125 years old and was issued the first liquor license in Colorado.   The restaurant can double as a museum and the lunch was very tasty.  We made an additional visit into the museum and then spent a second night on the side street in front of the museum in Bev.

12/27 saw us traveling southeast on hwy 287.  Our trip as far as Springfield, Co would have been uneventful except high winds again caused Bev to try to fly.  I thought the awning was secure but mother nature proved me wrong.  I found a spot with a little wind break from an old abandoned house and old equipment and outbuildings, and rolled the awing in as well as I could in the cold wind while standing on the ladder recently purchased in Billings.  From there, we crept into Lamar and I did a better job of securing the awing while parked in the middle of town, using it as a windbreak.  On we went, then, to Springfield, Co where we spent the night on a snowy icy side street hiding from the wind and cold. 

The cold morning of the 28^th found us wondering if we would take up semi permanent residence.  Bev was frozen in and didn’t want to leave.  She finally rocked free and on south we went in below freezing weather and snow all around.  We were making good progress, crossing into the Oklahoma panhandle.  All this flatland country is enduring a substantial cold spell.  Storm warnings are out.  Shortly before the Texas border, Bev said she just couldn’t go on.  Her transmission acted like I had shifted into neutral at 55 miles an hour.  I pulled over and stopped to check transmission fluid.  Fortunately that could be done from inside the warm motor home.  Transmission fluid was fine, so we started out again only to find we had just reverse and first gears.  The transmission would not shift to a higher gear.  We traveled a few miles on this major truck route at about 15 miles an hour, driving on the shoulder when cars or trucks approached from the rear.  We stopped just over the Texas line in Kerrick, a town of about six houses, a few other buildings, a school which had been closed for several years and some nice sized trees.  What to do?  For just such situations I had joined God Sam’s roadside assistance plan which covers RVs.  I called them and a helpful young fellow started to work trying to help us.  He was directed to try to find a shop within 50 miles which could repair the transmission.  He called every shop he could find, which was darn few.  Many were closed for the holidays, particularly on the Friday before New Years.  He only found 1 shop which could do the work but they would not be able to even start on it for two weeks.  He then was given permission to check farther afield.  A shop in Amarillo, 100 miles south of us, could do it later that afternoon or first thing in the morning.  He then had to arrange a tow for us.  However, Amarillo was being hit with a storm and no towing company would come get us and then tow us into the storm.  He finally called us to tell us there was nothing they could do and call back in the morning and he hoped we had enough food and heat to survive the night.

As you might guess, the time from when I contacted them to when he told us to call back in the morning took 5 or 6 hours.  Meanwhile, I’m thinking about investing possibly relatively big money into transmission repairs in a 30 year old motor home with other issues.  I start shopping online for a possible replacement.  Being the cheapskate I can sometimes be, and knowing we are not going to be using the motor home too often until we give up Submit, I was looking for something used but worth having yet for not huge cost.  I found several around Amarillo assuming we would be towed there someday.  I broached the subject to Barbara and she spent a few moments looking around her little portable home with a sad eye.  What would we do with her?  Trade her on something else?  Donate her to the Boy Scouts? Sell or give her to a junk yard?  Spend whatever it would take to repair her and keep going?

It turns out there was to be a hero in our future.  One of the possible motor homes was relatively close by.  I began emailing the owner to find out about it.  Turns out it was just 22 miles away in Keyes, Oklahoma.  The owner was out of town but headed home that night.  I explained our predicament and he agreed to pick us up the next morning and take us to look at the motor home he had for sale.  It turned out his father also had a motor home which they had just decided to sell but had not yet advertised.

We had a brief showing of our hero’s motor home and also looked at dad’s.  Each had some appeal but we decided to take a short test drive in Jarrod’s (our hero) motor home.  It seemed it would work for us but we still had to deal with Bev.  Jarrod agreed to take Bev in trade and even gave us a modest amount for her against the sale price once I assured him he did not have to deal with retrieving Bev.  I would bring her to him.  The deal was struck and he returned us to Bev.  I drove Bev the 22 miles back at 15 miles an hour.  We had been hoping to take some time to see the country, and we sure got a good look at miles of flat, snow covered country.

It took much longer than we thought to move out of Bev into her replacement, and we were surprised by how much “stuff” and Submit materials we had loaded into her.  There was hardly enough room in the bigger replacement motor home.  When finally we were done with the move, we spent time with Jarrod and his oldest son, 8^th grader Jace, going over Bev and her history and condition.  I think the transmission repair may just be a vacuum issue and a modest repair.  Then perhaps Jace can sell her and split the pot with his dad (or keep it for himself).  Wherever she goes, we hope her next owner will also love her.

Goodbyes were said to Jarrod and Jace and Bev, and Barbara and I were away in our new-to-us motor home.  By the time we arrived in Stratford, TX, 42 miles down the road, Barbara was frozen ( I was turning blue and my feet were numb!) and I was very cold.  There was no heat.  In addition, there were several other issues which had cropped up.  I texted Jarrod that we were coming back.  We shivered our way back to Keyes.  Jarrod and Jace showed up and parked us inside grandpa’s heated shop.  We were able to plug into shore power and used space heaters to warm up to spend the night. 

Bright and early the next day, Jarrod and Jace showed up to help  us.  Jarrod would take us to his dad’s motor home to look it over and take it for a test drive.  He would help us iron out any problems with his motor home if we wanted to keep it or we could change to his dad’s.  There were things we liked about each one but decided we would keep Jarrod’s if the problems could be fixed. It took more hours than any of us expected.  The deal breaker was having heat while driving.  We came up with a fix for the problem and a road test confirmed Barbara could be warm.  The final significant issue was 4 dead batteries which supply the “house” with power.  The nearest batteries were in Amarillo, 120 miles to the south.  We were headed that way and could get by with generator power in needed, and Jarrod and family were planning to be in Amarillo New Years eve for a holiday and for Jarrod to pick up his corvette race car.  Jarrod would meet us in Amarillo and replace the house batteries.

We are off again!  We make it to Dumas, pronounced locally as DOOmoss, Texas.  We had been looking forward to visiting that town because GasBuddy told us the price of gas there was $1.69.9 per gallon.  And it is!  But now we drive a diesel! $2.49.  We put $100 fuel in the tank, decide we are tired enough and it is getting late enough that we’ll spend the night of the 30^th there, in another Walmart parking lot so we could do a little shopping.  The house batteries did not charge up so we ran the generator through the night to power the furnace to keep us warm.  The diesel generator is very quiet and parsimonious with fuel.  We slept comfortably.

Today, New Years eve, after a breakfast with farm fresh eggs from Jarrod, we head south to a Sam’s club in Amarillo.  They have the necessary batteries.  By the time we arrive in Amarillo, the sky is blue, the sun is shining, the fields are clear of snow, the wind has died down and it is beginning to be comfortable.  Jarrod arrives and so does the cold front. We get the new batteries and Jarrod installs them.  Then we do a little shopping so we’ll have red wine for our New Year’s eve dinner.  We say goodbye a third time to Jarrod and find a place to park for the night to wait out some of the bad below freezing weather.  An hour later Jarrod comes by to drop off a few items he forgot to give us.  Dinner is tasty and the wine goes down easily.

Barbara thinks a couple comments about the replacement for Bev are in order.  Bev was 30 years old, no slide outs, gasoline powered, 31 feet long.  The replacement is 13 years newer, has a slide out for the bedroom and one for the living/dining area.  It has a much bigger side by side refrigerator freezer, a washer/dryer and two tv’s we do not know how to operate.  It is 37 feet long and has a Caterpillar diesel pusher engine.  It seems a little like a mansion to us.  We hope it will take us down the road for a long time with little trouble.  Since Bev’s license plate was BEV360, perhaps this one should be BEV720 for Bev the second time around.  This one is not yet named.  Suggestions appreciated.

Our special thanks to Jarrod.  He saved our bacon.  As one would hope, he worked hard to address issues with the motor home.  However, he went above and beyond.  He helped us deal with Bev and made every possible option available to us.  He took time away from visiting friends to help us.  He treated us to visit to his man cave.

And he was relentlessly cheerful throughout.  Thank you Jarrod!

Bev is on a Roll

Here we are on Christmas day parked outside the Denver Museum of Nature and Science waiting for it to open at 9am.  We are hoping the local police will leave us undisturbed for the night.

We’ve been on the road for a week and have gone 1000 miles from home.  However, we have actually traveled farther.

Travelling with two women of a certain age can have its issues.  Bev has been the recalcitrant one.  Perhaps Bev requires a slight description.  I purchased her on a whim without consulting Barbara.  1988 Winnebago Superchief 31RQ for $3500.  She started right away and I drove her home and parked her where Barbara was forced to see her every day.  Barbara refused to even look in her for two weeks whereupon she pronounced Bev to be “not as bad as I thought she would be!”.  We’ve done a little work on her since then.  By the way, her license plate issued by the state of Montana is BEV360, so she became named “Bev gets around”.

Starting our trip, the first stop was a short 37 miles down the road to a tire shop to have dynamic wheel balancers put on the front axle in attempt to eliminate a major vibration.  No luck. 

Then we went on to Frenchtown, MT to see cousins and handle some business.  Afterwards we went to Costco in Missoula, Mt to buy new batteries for Bev in hopes the furnace would run all night to keep us warm.  From there we went to dinner with grandchildren and then on to kids and grandkids house where they allowed us to plug Bev in for the night.

Next day we headed south, again with a stop at a tire shop a ways down the road to have dynamic balancers added to the rear axle to cure the vibration.  Again, it didn’t work, and while leaving the tire shop Bev gave us new worries about brakes and engine stuff.

Friends in Hamilton, Mt let us stay in their driveway for the night and I plugged in at their garage.  I did not notice until morning that I had not turned on the breakers in Bev so we used none of their power over night.  On the bright side, the batteries took care of us. We had made it about 180 miles from home.

Next morning, the local Chevy dealership said they would take Bev and try to fit her in and check out the brake and engine problems, oh, and yes, the headlight control switch problem. Meanwhile we hit the local Ace hardware store where we bought a hook for Barbara’s bathrobe and some cleats to keep the window blinds up.  I installed those while waiting for the verdict on Bev.  The light switch was made functional if you hold it just right when using it and no other problems were found.  Another night was spent in our friends driveway with the power hooked up correctly.

We had planned on traveling south on US highway 93 but weather always dictates a cruiser’s route.  A snow storm arrived over night which convinced us to tack back 50 miles towards home, then east.  The bonuses of this included lunch with grandchildren in Missoula, and, after another stop at another tire shop, on to Bozeman, Mt where we surprised children and grandchildren for an early Christmas.  Next morning, Bev went to yet another tire shop in hopes of fixing the dreaded vibration.  No luck.  However, while waiting, I studied the manuals for the refrigerator which had quit working and the wiring diagrams for the motor home and came up with an idea as to why the refer quit.  It proved correct and after a trip to the auto parts store to buy a $6.99 12 volt breaker and opening up part of the dashboard to install it, we have cold.  Given how cold it has been for days, you wouldn’t think that would have been important to us but it was.

We left Bozeman early on Dec 23^rd after deciding to head south by way of Denver.  All was going well until Livingston where we were hit by the notorious high winds.  Bev decided to try to take flight by unrolling a large portion of her 17 ft awning at highway speed.  Why it did not tear is a mystery.  It just flapped and banged against the side and roof until we could stop and get it rolled back in.  It did the same trick several more times before we stopped at a Home Depot in Billings, Mt and bought a ladder so I could go up and secure the awning.

After securing the awning and taping some leaky windows, we headed more southerly to Sheridan, WY.  We had a delightful overnight in a Walmart Supercenter parking lot.  Sam Walton knew RVers would spend money if they stopped and we did.  New non-skid area rugs replaced the dangerous old ones and we now have storage containers/bowls. 

Christmas Eve had us traveling from Sheridan to Wheatland, Wy.  However, I’m not sure how I did it but we missed the I25/I90 junction in Buffalo and ended up in Sundance, Wy before noticing.  This necessitated not only many extra miles but a bunch of back highways, sometimes very rough.  We began using the gps map system to help us get to Wheatland.  At one point, it took us on “the shortest route” around a town by back roads and under railroad tracks where we barely fit.  I guess it doesn’t understand we are a 30 year old motor home 11 ½ feet tall.

We arrived late at the only rv park open around Wheatland and were barely able to find room at the inn.  Our spot was level gravel.  It did have electricity available.  Across the street from us they had a nice laundry,restroom,shower facility.  The showers cost 25 cents for 30 seconds water. 

After showers, we hit the road south again and are now in Denver.  We’ll visit the museum in the morning and then have lunch with the nicest guy in Denver.

We are thinking we will head next through Amarillo and Dallas.  We are hoping the weather will be warm enough by Amarillo so we will be able to at last fill the water tank.  Bev was not set up for winter use so water and water lines would have frozen if we had already filled her.  It will be nice not to have to live with water sparsely provided by jugs.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

early to bed...

We finally managed to get three coats of paint on her and she is very shiny!

The white you see now is the reflection of boats nearby.

We plan to add a 4^th coat but decided to wait until next visit and concentrate on items necessary for putting her to bed.

Yes, she is back in storage.  We arrived January 12^th and left her on March 18^th, a little over 9 weeks, and worked on her almost every one of those days.  She is getting whipped back into great shape.  She has been mechanically and structurally sound, but having her look good is a real treat.  We kid ourselves into believing that if someone was passing through the boat yard looking at sailboats, ours would be at the top of the list of the boats they wish they had.

We have a few more projects on our list for next time and then launch and play.  Tentative plans are to head back to the Bahamas to places we have not yet seen and perhaps other islands, also.  We are in hopes a granddaughter may join us for a while.

We made it back home in 4 days thanks to the 4^th day being a little over 900 miles of driving.  Now we will prepare our other sailboat, Cal 27 T/2 “Knot Ready” for the summer sailing season and make sure the guest rooms are ready for whoever may come visit!  Yawl come! (sailing humor)

11 march 2018

Meet Albert, the sneaky alligator. 

He laid here most of the morning. I think he was contemplating his next adventure. As you know, we don't have alligators in Montana, so I don't know what their habits are. I'm learning.

There are often fishing boats in the little inlet at our boat yard. They have been catching bass this year. When we hear splashing, it is a perfect reason to take a break and watch them haul in a fish. Much to my surprise, one of the fishermen hooked Albert. It took a good while for the fisherman  to get him up to the boat, take a picture and cut him loose. My eyes were wide open, the guys in the boat were quite casual.

About a week later, I was working in the cockpit and kept hearing loud scratching and banging noises around the boats tied up behind us. I looked and looked, but didn't see anything. Then it happened again. Still nothing seen. The third time I looked up, Albert was on the stern of one of the boats and just sliding into the water.  That evening at sundowners, I asked if that was unusual. By the wild eyes and dropped jaws, I guess it is. Those people who are living on their boats are now more cautious when they go out to their cockpit in the mornings.

   

We were shown an orchard close to the boatyard where we are able to go pick grapefruit, oranges and tangerines at will.

Such a treat for us. They take it for granite here. I guess we do the same with our apples.

Oh yes. We have also worked on Submit every day. We spent over a week sanding her, first with 40 grit then 120 grit then 220 grit.  At one point, Reggie grazed his leg with the 40 grit, which he said hurt a little, but not as much as smoothing with the 120 and 220!

The goal was to have three coats of paint on the hull by today. However, it has been too dry, too windy or too cold. One morning it was colder and drier here than at home in Montana. We have only managed to get one coat on her. After all the sanding, we considered renaming her Old Paint, as she looked like an appaloosa horse. After the first coat, she looks like she has the measles. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the spots fade without too many extra coats. Time is running out.

We weren't idle when painting wasn't an option. Reggie reinstalled the heat exchanger and transmission. I got a few more items cleaned up and reinstalled, one of which was the table. It had split apart and was water damaged. With Reggie's constant assistance, it is now glued back together, sanded down and re-stained.  We just have to add a screw to the bottom of the leg and it is done. We also put down new flooring in the galley and dinette. 

Barbara was excellent at holding down the floor pattern.  That was finished today. Tomorrow and Tuesday look good for painting. Keep your fingers crossed.

5 March 2018

Look what we've done to our boat ma
Look what we've done to our boat
Well it's the only thing
That we wanted done half right
And it's turning out all wrong ma
Look what we've done to our boat!

Reggie, The Sandman, is bringing the dream to life.  

(still haven't figured out how to keep the pictures from rotating when importing to the blog)

Prepping the hull has been a major job, but we are almost ready to start painting.  The prep and paint will take at least 14 complete passes over the hull.  All of the prep work has fallen to Reggie. Barbara piddles along with little jobs and tries not to interfere with his work. Never happens. He always has to lend a hand.

Thankfully the rub rail removal was relatively painless. We were concerned about removing the machine screws and their nuts thanks to layers of paint on the nuts and tight spots, etc., but had little difficulty.  After prying the old teak off in sections, old sealant/adhesive scraped off fairly easily.  About 70 holes were first countersunk to give a larger clean contact area and then filled with thickened epoxy.  The decision has been made to not replace the rub rail.
 

Occasional sundowners and visits from friends keep us from becoming jaded.  Anyone is welcome to come distract us for a while!