We’ve now been at Burnt Store Marina for a week and we really like it here. This Marina is very different from our east coast experience in 2017. This Marina is very relaxed and there are lots of live aboards here, so we don’t feel like we are all alone. We have some boat neighbours – Ron is on our starboard (right) side. He is from California and has been in Florida for 6 years. Our port (left) neighbour is from Spanish, Ontario and his son will be visiting soon. There are other people on our dock, including a young family who are getting ready to head to the Bahamas.
Boat jobs are continuing. Unfortunately, we’ve had some additions to our list since we launched. Both of our heads (toilets) had leaky handles (now fixed!), we had a problem with the propane system, and our fridge stopped working! Mark has fixed the propane and we are just waiting for the part for the fridge – luckily we had the freezer as our back-up (with a minor issue!).
We have about 3 more weeks here before we head back home for Christmas. Lots of work to do but we are looking forward to seeing everyone!
Our gated community entrance – pretty fancy.A little bit of Christmas inside the boat. We have more for outside – pictures to follow.We have many osprey in the Marina (and they poop all over the boats but chase the smaller birds away, who poop more!).Mark is working on the fridge/freezers! It’s an awkward job.After going to way too many places, we finally found the parts for our propane system!
Well you can probably guess from the title that we have launched and moved to our temporary home, Burnt Store Marina. It’s now been almost 3 weeks since we arrived in Florida and lots has happened in that time. We’ve worked harder in our retirement than we did while working – well physically anyhow.
Our bee situation has been resolved with lots of effort on our part (and a lot of wasp spray). We spent about 3 days hacking away at the hive inside our mast. Mark cut more holes in the mast so we could get a bit better access to the hive. Using some pieces of our old stays, we poked away at the hive until we felt pretty good about the amount of material we’d removed from the mast. The mast was lifted into place on Tuesday, Nov. 20 and when it became vertical, a very large mass of hive fell out onto the ground- yippy for us but not so much for the guy holding our mast. He had beehive all over his shoes!😊
I think I’ve already mentioned that we are replacing our rigging. Mark removed the chainplates (long stainless steel plates that connect the stays to the boat deck) and we took them to the St. Peterburg’s rigger we have been working with to have them recreated. This was supposed to take about 2 days and instead it took 2 weeks!!!! We had to drive up to Clearwater on Tuesday morning to pick up the new chainplates and then install as many as possible so the mast could go back up that afternoon. And of course, it rained – the only rain we’ve had since arriving in Florida – when the deck has holes in it where the chainplates go. But we made it and both the main and mizzen masts are still standing 😉.
So what’s next – we have more rigging to do. The mizzen mast rigging will now be replaced and there are a few rigging parts on the main that need to be replaced. Our new solar panel needs to be installed – very exciting! We also have more boat jobs (the never ending story for a 38 year old boat!) that we will pick away at until we head back home for Christmas. Lots of fun!
It sure is great to be back on the water and living aboard again. Happy days. 🌴⛵️⛵️🌴😁
New carpet in the main cabin.Lifting the mast into place.Hard to just stand and watch as the mast lifts slowly into a vertical position.Ah man – beehive all over my shoe!!🐝This is what fell out of the mast. Check out the swarm of bees trying to get the last bit of honey.Almost there. Unfortunately the wind keeps twisting the mast away from the hole.Nice dark clouds as the mast finds it’s way home!All ready to be hauled to Charlotte Harbor Marina to be launched!Goodbye J&R Boat Storage. Won’t miss the bees or the stinky smell.
Got to stop at the stop sign!Heading down the road to Charlotte Harbor Marina!Crimson Kathryn has been transferred from the trailer to the travel lift and is heading for the water.
Almost in the water.On the dock. Happy boat and happy sailors! Pops some bubbly – we sure did!🍾⛵️🌴
It’s hard to believe we have only been here for a little over 1 week! A lot has been accomplished in a short time but we still have a ways to go. Our launch date has been moved to Wednesday, Nov. 21 – we just couldn’t get all of the rigging pieces together for our first launch date.
Mark did a great job removing the chain plates from the boat but we are waiting for the new ones to be created. It only took us 2 days to make the new stays for the boat – some are completed but some are waiting for connector pieces. We’ll finish these ones once we have all the parts.
Our bee situation seems to be under control – I decided that we needed to be more aggressive with these guys so we bought some bee/wasp spray and taped up the entire mast. All holes were plugged and taped and it seems to have done the trick. We’re now working at scraping as much of the hive out of our mast as possible – not easy! The mast doesn’t go back up until Nov. 20, so we have some time to continue our battle!
This bee invasion has created quite a mess inside our boat. I have cleaned parts of this boat that I’ve never cleaned before. I’ve washed the little drapes and the cushion covers (thought they would follow apart or shrink, but they didn’t and they look great), plus washed virtually every surface (some much pee poop!). The floors still need to be done but I’m waiting for the installation of the new chain plates to complete this job.
We’ve met some really nice people at the boat storage. It’s a much nicer atmosphere here than on the east coast (we were working in a marina that was mostly power boat for rich people – no one was around). We met a couple from Boston area who are selling their boat and just getting it ready to move up the coast to Sarasota. We met another couple who have an older Whitby 42 (that’s pretty cool) and we’ve compared notes! The yard has been really good to help us with the bees and other things.
The Airbnb we are currently living in is very nice. Lots of room and fairly close to the boat. With the delay of our launch, I had to find another Airbnb to stay in for a week (our current place was booked) and this one is even closer to the boat!
Well, I’ll leave you with some photos of our work over the last week and a photo of Caroline’s art installation at the Warehouse. They had a (maybe) final show last weekend (Nov. 10 ish) that was very successful.
“Free Falling through Anxiety Clouds” an installation by Caroline Popiel!Look closely for the swarm of bees under the mast! YuckThe bee guy is setting up to power wash the hive.Mark helped to power wash the bee hive in the mast.Bees will not pass!!! Time to play hard ball.This impromptu bench was the envy of the yard!. We’re working on our new standing rig.The new stay cables – we’re keeping it all in the car (easiest place to store all the stuff).We quit early on Sunday (Nov. 11) and headed to the beach. Looks lovely but smells bad – Red algae is causing lots of trouble for parts of Florida.Another lovely, stinky beach shot. 😊Sunset on Remembrance Day 2018. Lest we forget.
It’s November 6th – Election Day in the USA and we’re back in Florida working on Crimson Kathryn. It’s been over 15 months since the boat was hauled out and placed on the hard and we have a lot of work to do in the next 2 weeks. Launch date is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 15!!
Over the winter and summer, our main mast was infested with bees. Mark came down in February and June this year and noticed the “wasps” buzzing around but unfortunately the yard believed the summer heat would drive these pesky bugs away. Well they were wrong!! The pesky bugs were (are) bees and they have built a terribly large hive at the top of our main mast (inside of course). So, job #1 – get rid of the bees. To do that, our main mast had to be pulled and a bee keeper was called in. The bee keeper removed the main bees but that didn’t get rid of the nest. Mark and I noticed immediately on our first day here that the top of the mast was buzzing with bees. The bee guy was back today and spent 3 hours power washing the top of the mast (with some help from Mark). We’re hopeful that the hive has been destroyed and the bees will leave!
Next up – replace all the rigging on the boat (now that’s a big job when you have 2 masts). Mark has been working hard to remove all of the chain plates (metal fittings that connect the wire stays to the deck of the boat) because new ones need to be created using the old ones as templates. We will be picking up all the cables and fitting for our new rigging on Thursday.
My main job is to clean up the boat. We have a fair bit of mold everywhere because the boat has been closed up for so long. But the main mess is bee poop and dead bees!!!! Yes, the interior of our boat is littered with dead bees and poop (which looks like yellow spots and drips). It’s pretty awful, but easy to clean!
Our plan so far is to work on the boat in Florida until mid December. Once the boat is launched, we’ll be moving to Burnt Store Marina (not far away – further south and closer to Fort Myers) where we will continue to fix things up. We’ll return home for Christmas and then head back to the boat in early January. After that, it’s time to head back to the Bahamas. That’s the plan!
Crimson Kathryn on the hard with main mast removed.Main mast resting horizontally with bees buzzing around.The main cabin is quite the mess.That’s bee poop! It’s everywhere!Just a few dead bees. I’ve sucked up hundreds of corpses and there’s still more.The bee guys are back! YippyMark lends a hand to power wash the bee hive away!
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 