Problem Solving

Keegan decided to tackle the problem with our leaky faucets this week. Successfully replacing the bathroom faucet he headed to the kitchen, but after three hours of frustration he tabled the project until this past weekend. 

The challenge with the kitchen faucet was that the washers under the unit were behind a deep sink, inside of a cupboard that is about 12"W. Fortunately, Keegan has an enthusiastic wife and with determination I wedged myself into the cupboard to inspect! Sadly, no amount of prying, turning, cussing or dremeling would convince the rusty, old washers to free our faucet. 

We would no be bested!! We would not fail! Time for problem solving! Sawzall to the rescue. Thanks to Tradewinds and to our dock buddy, Jonathan, we powered thru the faucet, separating its head from its body. Sometimes all you need is a big power tool to solve your problems!

Faucet....fixed!

Heading in for inspection!

Dremeling!!

Sawzall to the rescue!!

So loud! Keegan solves the problem!

Conquered!

Happily installing new faucet

YAY!

Weekend Guests

We welcomed our first brunch guests to Malabar last weekend. Keegan cooked up eggs benedict and mimosas for our friends, and local liveaboards, Chris and Monica! We were also able to celebrate Chris' birthday!

Sunday brought us another special guest in our friend Natalie. We spent the day tidepooling at the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve and, of course, filling her with pizza and sugar before returning her to her parents. Thanks for a great weekend!

Keegan Cooks for our guests



Table set!

Chris and Monica!

 

Aloft

Our first major project here on Malabar is to replace and renew the standing rigging. For my land lubbers reading, the mast attaches to the keel, then rises thru the interior of the boat, thru the roof of the boat and into the air. At two different heights there are horizontal bars called spreaders, which spread the wires away from the mast. There are also thick wire cables that run from the top, middle and lower portion of the mast called shrouds. There is also one that goes from the top of the mast to the front of the boat and the top of the mast to the back. These are here to lend support to the mast when out sailing.

Our shrouds are original 1979 pieces of wire, so for the sake of safety we are replacing the lot of them. And for 'fun', we're doing it ourselves. This process has to be done in stages, so we began by removing the four lowest shrouds. Keegan loosened the connections at the bottom of the boat and then it was time to head up. With harness on, I was attached to the main sail's halyard (rope that pulls up the main sail) and Keegan winched my butt up that mast.

Keegs works on the shrouds

What we found was not what we expected, but after a bit of discussion, and yelling, we came up with a Plan B. Happy to report that the shrouds are at the riggers as we speak and the process will continue this weekend! Yay! A big thanks to Matt for his excellent photography!

Moving to Malabar

After one action packed month of preparation we have finally moved to Malabar! As it turns out, this has been one of the easiest moves we've ever done. The benefit of moving into a small space is that you can't bring, well, anything. All furniture, bikes, etc. were sold on Craig's List so, three loads in the Yaris and we were officially on board!

On Sunday, many of our wonderful friends joined us for the christening of s/v Malabar. Keegan removed the vessel's old name on Saturday and our new lettering was pressed into place 24 hours later. With a few words to Poseidon and the gods of the wind, plus a bottle of champagne, and we have ourselves a home!

Keegan Removing Old Name

Keegan Cooking Breakfast

Erik lounging

Christening Party

Good Friends!!

Champagne for Poseidon

To Malabar!

Welcome Home!

To Things That Go Right

The moving countdown has begun. As we are selling most of our possessions, life in our apartment has gotten a bit strange. We haven't had a dining table in weeks. I sold all of the storage and shelves last week and nearly everything out of the closets. Our life is in literal piles. Our sofa, chair and ottoman will all be departing this week, which will mean picnic dinners on the floor, instead of the sofa! YAY picnics! But all of this means that we are one step closer to making our move to Malabar.

Boat projects have been, tricky. Keegan has replaced the lifelines so it is no longer a danger to walk around the top sides of the boat and installed two awesome solar lanterns so that our cockpit has lighting after dark. I finished most of the new cushions and our new mattress, which has made things much more like home aboard Malabar. BUT (there is always a but) we discovered on Saturday morning that our batteries were not charging. AND, that the refrigeration was not working. *sigh*

I'll admit that this pushed me just a little bit over the edge. We've been working so hard with very little sleep the last two weeks and the thought of moving onto a boat without refrigeration, or lighting for that matter, was just enough to provoke my first boat breakdown! I'm pretty sure that was destined and after about twenty minutes of weeping in Keegan's arms, it was back to work to solve the problems!

BUT, (don't you just love buts?), this is a blog about the things that go right! Right? Keegan again comes to the rescue. After climbing into the lazarette (the seat that opens up in the cockpit) and disassembling the electrical panel my dear boy discovered that the battery charger wasn't broken as we suspected, but the wiring on the panel was just completely mislabeled. Hooray for Engine Instruments, which actually means battery charger. Better yet, with the batteries charging and AC/DC functions all in motion, the refrigerator works too. See, a good cry fixes just about anything.

New Cushions in V-berth

V-berth

Galley

Galley

Grand staircase

Starboard Settee

Port Settee

Cockpit cushion

New lanterns