Front Windows..... DONE!

After church today I went to the boat and spent a few hours sanding the exterior fiberglass around the new windows. Then I applied 2 coats of marine paint and I have to say, THEY LOOK GREAT!...










Tomorrow, Leo is meeting me at the boat to help me tune my rigging...
It looks like we are getting to a final finished state....

We can't wait for holidays!


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The Windows Are FOUND!!!

I have to say that even though the new windows for the boat got lost in shipping, the efforts of Mike (the claims manager) at Maritime-Ontario freight was unbelievable!  He was like a bulldog.  Here I am a once only customer who in the grand scheme of things doesn't even cause a blip on the screen of freight life, he NEVER gave up searching for my lost skid...  It was finally found in Moncton, New Brunswick and I went to Brampton yesterday (Friday) where he personally took the time to get them loaded into my Jeep.

So off I went and last night and today I got them installed:

 This is how things ended on Friday night:

 This is what they look like at the end of the day (Saturday):

Tomorrow I will give it one last sanding and paint the front of the pilot house and we will be the proud owners of great looking new windows....

I need to say THANK YOU to the folks at Bomon in Laval Quebec as well, for all their effort and kindness through all of this...  Hopefully, production wasn't too far along and they can stop production on the new windows....

One last project completed yesterday was the instalation of a Hummingbird Fishfinder/depth guage.  After our depthguage crapped out last week, Shelley decided we should have a backup depth guage, so she went to work and found this great unit for a very reasonable price...  It only took about 4 hours to install...

My Wife is Really Smart!!

It's true... The other day when we were working at the boat she noticed behind the open door of the workshop, there were two towel bars built into a recess. They are really strong and meant also to be used as a handhold...

We had no intention of using them for towels or a handhold, so she wondered if we added a length of bungee cord, maybe we could use the space as a place to store canned goods....
With a little effort and about 30 continuous feet of bungee chord, we now have this awesome storage space that holds approximately 50 cans!

We also had a problem with the depth gauge this weekend and tried to use our Go Pro Camera to check the sensor...  A great idea except the bay where we keep the boat was so filthy that we were unable to see even inches in front of the camera!  It turned out to be a bad wire, so all is well...  However, SOMETHING has to be done about the Hamilton/Burlington Bay.... what a cesspool!.

Our weekend ended with a nice barbecue and catching up with old and new dock friends...

Today we found some great storage containers for our DVD movie collection. For the last 10 years we have been collecting DVDs and now have more than 1000 titles. These include many TV series that we have never watched. When we start cruising we hope to begin to watch these movies and TV series over the years that we travel... The DVDs themselves have been removed from their cases and are in paper sleeves and take up very little room. We are not avid TV watchers, but we decided that while we have funds we could save up a great collection to watch when we need to be very careful with our funds.... Our rule has always been, NEVER to spend more than $5 for a movie and never more then $10 for a TV season... So far we have been successful!

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First Sleep on the Boat Together...

Last night Shelley and I stayed on the boat together for the first time since the re-fit... It was a little cool, but a great night... This morning we cut the material for our new dodger then Shelley went to work... I stayed and got a few more jobs done... With Mike D's help we replaced the for deck light which mysteriously died since we launched... It was working right after he launch but its seems to have died since then...


Today I also got a few other small jobs completed including a 0 gauge wire with a stainless steel and lead weight attached to a main mast shroud and ready to go overboard in a lightning storm...

Tomorrow after work we hope to get off the dock for a night and find someplace close to stay on the hook till Monday or Tuesday....


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A Frustrating Week....

Last week we got great news from the company in Laval Quebec who were making our new front windows. They informed me that the job was complete and they were shipping them on a skid via Maritine-Ontario Freight-line Company.

So on Monday night the skid left Bomon in Quebec and on Friday last week they still had not shown up.

So I called Friday morning and they assured me that they were out for delivery that day... By 3:00 they had not arrived so I called M-O back again... This time they told me that the driver couldn't find my location.... I then told them I would talk directly to the driver... In the mean time they changed their story and now the skid was back at the warehouse....

So I drove to Brampton Ontario telling them that I would pick it up there....

At 7pm after searching their warehouse they admitted that they, in-fact had no idea where my windows were....

Disappointed, I went home and cancelled the help I had on Saturday to install the windows....

It is now Tuesday, and today The people at Bomon told me today that they were starting production on a new set of windows... Thank you, Thank you!

Now to be clear, the claims manager at Maritime-Ontario has been nothing but helpful... and my hope is that they will make good on their mistake...

I'm just really sad that of all the things they could have lost, it had to be a set of windows that are custom made and one of a kind that can't be replaced easily...

Hopefully, in the next few weeks we will see this all come to a happy ending...

In the mean time, I got a few other small projects finished on the boat. I was able to replace the solenoid on the gas line for the oven, I got the macerator pump working, and I added a small drain on either side of the deck that will allow the last bit of water drain off the deck now that they are 1/2" lower since the teak was removed...





I also added clips for the boat poles that will make them easy to get to in the event I need them.




The last project was a really neat holder for the deck washdown hose... I acquired a 2 foot section on PVC 8" field tile drain... what a great way to store the hose...


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The Last Sail Cover....

Yesterday I finished installing the mizzen sail and it's sail cover...  We are officially ready to go sailing!
We just need some time off and time together to do that... It seems like Shelley has hours at her part time job every day lately and weekends together seem to be out of the question...  So I guess I will have to settle for getting some small jobs done while I wait for our vacation time this year when we plan to sail up through the Thousand Islands and the St. Lawrence River.

Here is the installation of the final sail & cover:

Here are some pictures of our interior shot with our new Go-Pro camera:

The aft Cabin:

 Aft head:

 Galley:

 Nav. station & lower helm:

 Main salon: (Note the admiral with her glass of wine)

 Starboard Cabin (mid-ship - scuba shop / storage):

 Port Cabin (mid-ship):

 Fwd shower:

 Forward head:

 Foc'cle (workshop)

 Main salon (with table down):

So there you go, Blowin' Bubbles, ready to go....  Now we just need to finish up our responsibilities here, then we can set sail for whatever we find out there.....

A Few More Jobs...

Yesterday and today I got a few jobs done...
I replaced the faucet in the forward head:

I scrubbed the deck - which was way harder than I thought...:




And today I installed the first of two "Mack Packs", which are a lazyjack and sailbag product out of Florida... They are wonderful:


A very productive day. On Tuesday evening we hope that our mizzen sail is back from the sail maker. If that happens we will try to install the other Mack Pack....