One Year Since We First Glimpsed Midwatch

One year to-the-date from the day we first glimpsed Midwatch and five weeks from first arriving with the kids to move onto the boat, we put on the second coat of bottom paint and are discussing a real launch date. It has been a very interesting five weeks, and for that matter, year. We have definitely had some real ups and downs but I have a feeling they will be small hills and valleys compared to what we are about to experience.

The past five weeks has been very educational and a lot of hard work. We lost at least a week of work to Hurricane Sandy and Bob has managed two consulting trips in that period as well. Whether we could have managed the task a lot faster had it been warmer, dryer or without the kids is a moot point but we still ponder it. We also hold no regrets, and quite a bit of relief, that we were safely stowed, on land, for the big storm.

In the past five weeks we (mostly Bob) have spent a considerable amount of time preparing the bottom for bottom paint, that specialized paint that keeps the critters from growing on your boat and making it look like one of those sailors on The Flying Dutchman in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. During the June/July boat-work trip with Bob’s Dad, the two of them had good luck in that a professional paint-removal company was working on an adjacent boat and we snagged a great deal on a bottom blast. This left the bottom stripped to a lower ‘barrier coat’ and revealed all her scars and strengths.

Bob has painstakingly drilled out all the little dings, bumps and cracks, filled, epoxied, sanded, epoxied, sanded, epoxied and sanded, and sanded, and sanded. The kids’ questions kept it all in perspective,

     “Why is Daddy making holes?”

     “So he can fill them back in again.”

The second project that demanded time and a whole heck of a lot of mental energy was replacement of a cutlass bearing. Due to the age of the boat, the threads in the shaft tube were somewhat stripped which prevented installing the new bearing housing, correctly. The last installation had been altered to make it work leaving a lot of corrosion and stripped threads. After much panic, consultation with the multitudes and consideration of the problem, Bob tackled it with more confidence than I could have mustered and he is nearly done the repair and installation; and left it so that it may be done considerably easier next time.

In the five weeks since we have been here we have actually had a lot of rainy, windy and cold weather. I was told by several people that we were having January weather. The time spent inside, however, has not been wasted. If you think of the boat as both your car and house, AND that you need to be able to fix, or at least Jerry-rig, anything that breaks while at sea, becoming thoroughly acquainted with the boat’s ‘systems’ is a must before departure. Considering I call myself a ‘Systems’ engineer, I am very slow at catching on compared to Bob, who is on his hands and knees crawling through the nether-regions regularly. This hound-dogging has been fruitful and turned up both positive and negative surprises. Probably the most labor-intensive system modification we have undertaken is the wastewater system, which, fortunately for me, I understand a little better than the electrical system. Bob started, with a lot of help from his Dad, by removing the 35 gallon, aluminum holding tank, designed to hold toilet waste and flush water composed of seawater. Seawater combined with urine makes for a nasty mix and by the time we finished looking at all the hoses, valves, fittings and a through-hull, we realized the only reusable part of the system was the $200 toilet. We debated for weeks but finally decided we were willing to try a composting toilet which did the following for us.

1.       We were able to use the system immediately, while the boat was on land, no flush water required;

2.       the space where the holding tank sits becomes available for storage, something that is invaluable when four people are living on a 35-foot boat AND need to bring along things like guitars, fishing rods and sewing machines; and 

3.       we avoid the long-term cost of pump-outs.

I realize there are negatives, removing the ‘compost’, emptying the urine bottle regularly and the pure size of the unit which is about four times the size of the traditional unit it replaced but so far we are thrilled with our choice and are learning a lot about its operation, all while still on land. These things we have learned include:

1.       Check for condensation in the vent hose regularly, the mass in the solids unit starts getting a little sticky if there is nowhere for the water to go; 

2.       The kids had NO problem adjusting to its use and frankly, we are 10,000 times better off than when we had to climb up the companionway, through the cock pit, over the rail, down the ladder, down the stairs, across the parking lot and into the bathroom and reverse… every time Finn says he has to go poopy. Of course, you repeat the whole process four times before he actually goes!

3.       DON’T try and buy coir (dry matter for solids composting) from Amazon!!

We have now made it to the engine and fuel system, where neither of us feel comfortable, but had the good fortune of having the guy next to us have fuel ‘cleaners’ here yesterday and they took a look at the fuel for us and hauled it away and cleaned out the tank as best they could. At least this will give us a clean start on one of the most notorious methods for engine failure, bad fuel.

Given the one-year-milestone we just hit, I asked each family member two questions including what have we accomplished in the past year and where will we be one year from now. The responses were lackluster but telling of personality. Finn’s response to where will we be in one year…”We’ll be Super heroes!” That, of course was followed up by a loud rendition of the John Williams 1978 Superman theme. Gotta love it!