Sole Redemption

Sanibels Sole (or floor) was in need of some attention. As our splash date approached and it became more clear that everything we wanted done at that point wasn't going to happen, we thought that maybe we could finish the interior once we were living aboard. We soon had visions of living in a 240 square foot dwelling with a floor that you couldn't walk on. Well needless to say the vision was not pretty and we decided to push the splash out a month and get the interior of Sanibel shiny again. Now that the rigging, gelcoating, painting, nonskid, epoxy work, rewiring, plumbing, engine installation  and carpentry is more or less done (oh, what a satisfying sentence to write), we knew we could tackle the interior brightwork safely. You may know we have been working on all the teak trim on Sanibel, which has turned out great, but, the monkey has been the floor. The boat had flooded at some point and the water sat 4 or 5 inches above the floor for a long time. The teak was water stained and basically black. We attacked it  with non toxic Home Depot orange stripper we call "sherbet". Then, Bar Keepers Friend that has oxalic acid in it and really brought the color back. Here are a few pictures of the fun we have been having:

Diesel Dilemma

One of the first things on my to do list once we got Saninel to the boatyard last year was getting the engine running. The diesel had never been installed, it was just resting on the stringers when we bought the boat. Actually it was rusting on the stringers due to a bad leak from the cockpit floor. The engine was suppose to have zero hours on it after a full rebuild, but nearly a decade of sitting in the

boatyard had took its toll on the beast. The injectors were just balls of rust, the starter was full of rust sludge, and the rags hanging out of the exhaust ports were wet and probably whisking water into the head. Despite its dismal appearance I went forward trying to get it running. I reassembled it with new injectors and starter, mounted and aligned it and to my surprise, it started.



I haven't been able to test run the engine as much as I would have liked since then, but its time to come back alive has come. I recently installed the control cables, fuel tank and wired it in. After some priming and starter time, she fired up. She would start and stop now but I noticed some drips from the fuel injection pump. Actually, four different drips. I promptly consulted with my friend Google on the amount of drips in a gallon and found at least six different answers, why, who knows but none looked good for our fuel efficiency.

Well, next step was to find a rebuilt injection pump. $1225.00.(Which is what we would probably take for Lorie's entire car) Or they could rebuild mine for $725.00. "Oh, okay" I said, "cool, and do you sell rebuild kits?"  Well, yes. $25.  I'm not a gambling man but I will throw down 3% and give it a try. To be continued.

Checkin' in

Dear Friends and Family,

Here we are checking in once again.

Jimi continues to remove teak from Sanibel to bring home, so I can strip, sand and varnish it. All the striping and sanding is done thus far and we are preparing space where I can begin varnishing. This is going to be a lengthy process. We think he has removed everything he is able to, which means everything left will need to be done at the boat. The ladder still needs to be painted with varnish.

 My amazing Jimi took an old teak table top from another boat and made it in to a swim ladder. It hooks over the edge of the boat and allows us to climb down into our dingy or up onto Sanibel. It's amazing - check out the picture.

Still amazing - he also took an old mahogany door from a 50s Chris Craft and made it into a shower pan for our shower. He slightly con-caved the middle with a circular saw and sander, drilled a large hole for the drain, covered with epoxy and WA-LA - a beautiful mahogany shower pan. He's like a proud papa.

I did a little more sewing on the mizzen sail cover. We spread the genoa sail out in the front yard and scrubbed both sides with scrub brushes, soap and water. It looks like an entirely different sail when it's clean. Lol.

Jimi painted two of the original light fixtures and re installed them; both are for the saloon.

We continue to sell things on eBay His motorcycle was picked up last week. The trailer still sits in the front yard - no takers or even lookers. We have not listed my car yet, but we will soon.

We have great great news to report and I am super excited about it. Jimi purchased a used device called SPOT Messenger and paid for an annual subscription to its service. What is SPOT? SPOT is high tech; it receives our position from GPS satellites and then sends that position to the SPOT satellite, which then reports our location to the internet, Facebook, text message and email.

Jimi has been working on upgrading our blog to represent our future adventures with Sanibel. Check out our new look and all the new goodies. Included is a SPOT map page (mentioned above), so you will always know where we're at. Here's a link to the map page: http://dogbonegraphics.com/blog/?page_id=2589 Theblog is still a work in process.

Jimi is still working on bits of the electrical still. Here is a picture of him wiring the engine panel in his office. He is NOT making a bomb - LOL.

39 days till we put Sanibel in the water. 70 days until we move aboard. As much as I want to, I'm not sure if I can officially say it's getting down to the wire yet. We still have a lot to do. Jimi is worried about getting everything on Sanibel done, whereas, I'm worried about the piles and mounds of stuff in our house that will have to be gone through and cleaned out. It's all a little overwhelming at times.

Until next time!

Love everybody,
Lorie & Jimi

We can see the finish line

Dear friends and family,

Hello hello. How is everyone? We are doing great. Busy little beavers, we are.

Sewing the V berth cushions went very well; they are finished. We've fitted them on Sanibel and they look great. Here are some long awaited pictures of all the cushions. I've made some pillows for the saloon also, but did not take any pictures of them.

We sewed the sacrificial on the genoa sail. It was a challenge to say the least and was most definitely a two person job. We're not finished with it yet, as we have to figure out how to do the corners and make the pockets. It took both of us working between three and six hours a day for five days to get this much done. The genoa sail lives on the bow of the boat. In a triangular shape the two sides we worked on measured 41 feet to the top and 20 feet across the foot. This thing is huge being the largest sail on the boat. The sacrificial  protects the sail from the UV rays when it is not in use and rolled up on the forestay.  Once we complete all the sewing, we have to figure out a place we can stretch it out and wash it.

I have stripped all the old varnish off the interior doors (there are 4). The next step is to sand them and then apply six coats of new varnish.

I began sewing the cover for the mizzen sail. Since we don't have a pattern, Jimi will take it to the boat for fitting and bring it home, so I can sew the next bit. This process will take place until it is complete.

Jimi has sanded the lower portion of the hull, aka bottom paint. This is a nasty job because it involves sanding overhead and the paint is very toxic. Without it, we would have lots of animals growing on the hull, even oysters. For about four days he came home completely blue. I told him he looked like a smurf. He said he'd rather be refereed to as a blue man. Ha ha.  He has braced t
he interior floor, which previously had some bounce to it in areas. He build the battery box. He has installed both toilets with sanitation hose and the holding tank. And he closed three thru hulls. For some reason there were too many holes in the hull and Jimi says "holes in boat....bad".

Molly brought a baby bunny to us one evening last week. Jimi set it free in the front yard. The next morning Molly brought it back in the house. We felt it may be hurt, so in an effort to save it's life we researched and made a natural rabbit habitat for it until we could be sure it was ok. Later that same day, after searching our yard, another baby bunny was found. We brought it in to be with it's sibling and then we went about our business. About 11:30 pm that evening we checked on the bunnies to find the second one had died. And the next morning the first one was dead. I felt horrible thinking we had done something wrong. But Jimi assured me we had not. That same day Molly brought us a third bunny. Jimi immediately took it to a nice grassy field and set it free, where hopefully it survived.

So, there we are. That's all for now. 56 days until we put in and about 87 till we are full time live-a-boards.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi

The countdown begins

Dear Friends and Family,

A few more weeks have passed and we've gotten a few more things done.

First, we were fortunate enough to have guests over the Labor day weekend. Juraj from Colorado came to visit for 5 days and Melody came out for 4 days with her daughter, Summer. We did all the usual things like hang out at a couple of different beaches and go out for dinner. Juraj helped Jimi on Sanibel one morning and they spent an afternoon on Lemon Bay with our dingy. Jimi took Summer's senior pictures. We had a wonderful time; it's just too sad that it goes by so quickly.

Now on to business: Jimi began working on the plumbing. We now have both fresh water and salt water available to us in the galley. We also have two working toilets that flush to the ocean. He will install a holding tank to be used when necessary. It is on order and should arrive shortly. The drains to the vanity sinks are hooked up, however, we are waiting on the pumps for the water delivery. We will not have a pressurized system on board. Going back to old school, we'll have to work for our water with hand pumps. The aft shower will be the exception having a pressurized system from the hot water tank, which is heated by excess power from the wind generator when the batteries are full. No energy wasted. :-)

Though most of the electrical is done, there are still some very important items to be addressed. Jimi continues to work these in as parts, etc. are available.

I have completed both the saloon and cockpit cushions. I'll now begin on the forward berth.

Now for more fun stuff: We played hookie a week or so ago taking our dingy out to Lemon Bay and into the Gulf. We found a somewhat secluded island on Stump Pass and spent a few hours exploring and swimming. As usual we saw lots of dolphins and some manatee.

It was fun. We went to Calico Jacks to listen to a friend's band play while we played pool. And Sunday we went on a 7.5 mile bike ride with our folding bikes. I have to mention all the animal encounters we came across - a snake that I nearly ran over, which turned out to be a non-aggressive and non-venomous corn snake, a couple of bunny rabbits, a tortes, the no need to mention endless amount of geckos, several different species of birds including a cardinal, and dragon flies playing 'chicken' with my head (I won every time). The sign says the area is an alligator habitat, but we didn't see any of those and in fact this is the first time we've seen any animals other than geckos on this trail. We were in awe of the array of wildlife we came across.

One week ago Jimi listed his motorcycle for sale on Ebay. It's bittersweet for him with many mixed emotions on the issue, but the bike sold on Sunday and now we await the buyer to pay for it in full and make shipping arrangements. We also listed my father's trailer, which we used to move out here with, on Craigslist, but no bites yet.

I visited the eye doctor a few days ago and was told I should consider bifocals. I refuse to admit I am that old, therefore, I will continue as I am. Lol

An unofficial countdown has begun: as of today roughly 11 weeks until Sanibel hits the water and 15 weeks until she becomes our full time residence.

We love hearing for your guys and hope everyone is doing well.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi

There's no place like home

Dear Friends and Family,

There's no place like home. In my case I have two homes and can always say "there's no place like home" and mean it. I arrived home last Saturday night around 9:30pm. Jimi put me to work right away on Sunday...lol, not really. We had to do a few things to prepare Sanibel for the hurricane. Since he used the actual anchors to tie her down and one of those anchors was anchored in the middle of the road, we tied a bright red gas can to it, so no one would drive over it.

We also removed the solar panels and tied down any other lose items. Later that evening the hurricane turned away from us and headed West. It's always better to be safe than not, right?

I've stayed home these past few days working on home projects to do with the cockpit and saloon cushions. While I was out of town, Jimi ordered the fabric for the cockpit cushions and the other night we found fabric for the saloon cushions. Jimi ordered special thread which will be used on anything not inside the cabin. We are waiting for that to come in.

Jimi says the electrical is almost complete and he has a good handle on it. He's having trouble with the battery chargers. He's purchased two so far (we only need one), but none of them are working.He continues to troubleshoot trying to figure something out. He wired up the wind generator and the solar panels. Both are producing plenty of electricity for our needs, even on cloudy and calm days. The refrigerator is wired in and working as it should. All of these little things he gets done are exciting for us. To finally knock something 'complete' off our list, as simple as it may seem, is such an accomplishment. One thing at a time and one day at a time.

He's about ready to begin working on the plumbing: sinks/faucets, drains, toilets, water tanks, sewage tank, the water heater, and misc.

We have roughly 3 months to go. I'm sure I've said it before and I'll say it again "it's going to come and go quite fast". We've got to begin clearing the house out. We have things to sell on ebay, decide what we have room for to keep and haul off the rest. This will be a part of my home projects.

An alligator had made a home in a ditch just a few blocks from our house. We unsuccessfully tried to get a picture of him a couple of times. As soon as we drive or walk up, he scrams. Finally on the third attempt Jimi snapped this picture.

Here is a  picture of our new dingy.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi

Long overdue

Dear Friends and Family,

I know..I know, it's been nearly two months since I've written. And where are we, you ask? As I sit down to write this email I'm not really sure; it's been so long since I''ve written and I haven't been home, so to give you much detail is difficult. I do know we've been busy (uh mostly Jimi) and I just can't believe how quickly the time is going.

Jimi continues to work on the electrical. It's not completely done, but it's getting there. The mess of wires in the engine room is beginning to take shape and look organized.

Jimi has hooked up the steering. He has begun poking through some of the plumbing. After testing the toilets, he discovered that one of them needed to be replaced, so he ordered a new one,

Jimi attached the wind vain to the mizzen mast. I'm not sure if it is hooked up yet.

He also designed and built a small cockpit table.

We measured, cut and glued all the cushions for the cockpit, and saloon. We'll now be able to order fabric and I can begin sewing them.

We finished the varnish work on the teak on the deck and adhered the graphics giving Sanibel her identity. Pictures attached.

I received my TEFL certificate in the mail, which was exciting. Even though I finished the class in April, finally receiving the certificate gave me closure. I took the final test for the young learners class and received a passing grade. Now I await the arrival of that certificate.

Jimi successfully tested his homemade hookah rig consisting of a 12v automotive air compressor, watter hose, 1/2 of a snorkel and some odds and ends.Successful test yesterday of my homemade hookah rig. He said it  worked great to 15 ft but didn't pump enough O's for 25 ft. Still, will be good for boat maintenance and maybe a lobster.

I flew to Nebraska to visit my family on July 21st. My parents are the only ones that knew I was arriving. It was a pleasant surprise to everyone else. I have kept myself very busy attending the Harlan County Fair, moving Jennifer to her new residence, helping mom paint the spare room in her house, reading, watching the "Tudors" series, and working on many craft projects. I'll fly home in just over a week on August 25th.

Both my Aunt Thea and mom have surgery's in Kearney this Friday. Between Dad, Marie, and myself, we'll tote them to Kearney and back home again.

Jimi has had some visitors while I have been away. I am sad to say I missed friends Spartek and Zana, who were there for a day or so. They toured Sanibel and went for dinner. Friend, Matt Williams spent a week with Jimi helping him on Sanibel and touring the area. Jimi found and purchased a dingy for Sanibel. Jimi and Matt have had it on the Gulf testing and playing. I hear the stories of how much fun they are having and can hardly wait to get home to go for a ride myself.

This gives you a brief update for now. When I get back to Florida, I'll get back in to my two week writing schedule.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi