Death of a Rainforest!

When we originally purchased Scout our thoughts were to 'save the teak decks'. They were the remnants of an old growth Malaysian rainforest that deserved our attention.

We must have been on drugs!

It took about one day of assessing what was going on under them and the decision was made to remove the teak.... How hard came that be? We were about to find out.

Nice looking new Fein Tool !

Rolling padded butt chair !

How are we going to get all this black shit off?

Count the holes!

More holes and look what the teak worms did!

Maybe we shoulda saved the rainforest...?      Nah!













Bilge Babe

Old boats stink. There's all that nasty oily shit that rolls around under the floor boards while the boat is closed up for long periods of time. Throw in the holding tank, old sanitary lines and a little diesel fuel and that ode d'boat permeates everything and is there to greet you every time you come on board.

Just look down there.

25 years of nasty! We gotta clean this mess up.  I got an idea. Let's rent a commercial hot water pressure washer.

Now the fun part. Ever been in a confined space with a pressure washer? ...spraying oily bilges?  Man o'man I was not looking forward to this when a volunteer came forward.

                                                                      Bilge Babe!

Is that true love or not? Laughing and smiling...this gal's a keeper.

This went on for 3-4 days until nothing but clean water came out of all three bilge compartments. What a trooper!

Thanks to Bilge Babe all the bilges have been washed, scrubbed, dried sanded and painted. Boat smell? What boat smell.  It's been gone for two years.

I love you Bilge Babe.



Coming home at 70 knots!

Out of the water and in the sling for a quick bottom wash before coming home!

As it was getting late in the day we needed to get a plan. That's me and the Evans boys from EMI trucking making a plan.
Let's load the boat, get all the measurements, order the permits and start down the road. Julie and I are going to head for the house and the Evans boys are going until dark, spend the night somewhere east of St. Louis and come the rest of way the following morning.
Good plan....we get the boat loaded and get ready to  head out.....'Oh by the way, call me in the morning when you get off the interstate and I'll lead you in. My road's a little tricky'.

I'm glad these boys were country boys. They took the last 2.3 miles in stride and were laughing when they pulled up to house.

Because of the 2 inch rain over night we needed a little 'tractor action' to get Scout positioned where I wanted her.

The hydraulic trailer was self-contained and we were able to position Scout, raise the trailer, place the blocks and jack stands, lower the trailer and drive out from under Scout. Pretty slick.

I can't say enough good things about EMI trucking. Family owned and operated. Treat you like you like to be treated.
They'll be back in the next few months to do it all over again.....I hope.
The above pictures were taken in 2008...it's uhh..2011.











Bringing her home.

The easiest part of buying a boat is writing the check. Once the paper work is done the work begins and now it's time to figure out how to get Scout home. Cruising down the Ohio River and up the Mississippi was an option ....except Julie and I were both still working and.....the Ohio River was in flood stage. Next choice was to find a place to haul Scout out of the water, find a trucker with an appropriate trailer and come home at 70 mph instead of 7 knots. I've dealt with truckers most of my life so I actually enjoyed the process of finding one with a hydraulic trailer and a truck big enough to haul the boat and small enough to get down our road and into our drive. Next a place to haul out the boat. Well, that wasn't hard. Only one place in Louisville that would touch a boat this size and they didn't have a travel lift. They used A-frame trailers. OK...(I'm going to learn something here.)..."Can I schedule something for next weekend?". "Nope the waters too high and there's about 50 boats ahead of you when the water goes down".
OK....so nothing to do but pay for another months slip rent and wait for the water to go down.
The water finally did go down and I have to say everything went smooth and the yard was very professional.



Marine Sales and Service - Louisville, KY.

And just when I was sure the trucker wouldn't show - they arrived!

At this point it's late afternoon and I'm still holding my breath since morning. So far so good but we ain't home yet.

Peace, love and boats on the trailer.

Chip

The boat!...what we started with!

Four or five years ago Julie convinced me that we should start looking for a trawler and give up our evil sail boat. Sail boats are evil because when they heel they can spill your wine. They also have winches that need winching, masts that need climbing and being in the salon is like living in a cave.
A trawler on the other hand, does not spill wine, have winches that need winching, require a mast that needs climbing and the salon can have lots of windows with a nice view of whatever.
I still love sailboats but ....soon to be retired (at the time) and on a fixed income I wouldn't be able to afford to spill any wine. So, we began our quest for a trawler. Contrary to what you might have heard, size does matter. Especially when it comes to boats. Costs for owning and maintaining a boat goes up exponentially with size. With that in mind we opted to go with the small is better attitude when looking for a new boat. At 6'4" and 225 (+/-) I can only go so small and have adequate room to eat, sleep and stand up along with some other things.
Miami Boat Show here we come! ....we went and then we came home.
Whoa....this boy ain't gunna mortgage the farm for a boat....any boat. Maybe we should find a nice used boat.
On a trip to Seattle to visit family the following summer we slipped off to do a little boat shopping...or was it shopping for a little boat..? That's when we saw our first Sundowner 30 Tug. The boat was just back from an Alaskan cruise, sitting on a trailer on a broker's lot. We're thinking this might work so we made an offer....a low offer we thought. Apparently the owner thought so too because he didn't take it.
A few months went by and I found another SD 30 in Kentucky. Thought I'd better go look and I did. Julie was working so she didn't make the trip. Nice little boat, just like the one in the NW. Needs some work but that's ok because this isn't our first rodeo on fixing up boats. Give us something to do in our 'spare' time. Let's make an offer...a low offer. Well, there was some stuttering on brokers part but he said he would give a try. Two weeks later I got a call from the broker saying "Be careful what you wish for, you own a boat". (We actually owned several boats at the time but that's another story.)

Here she is as we found her in Kentucky.

Can you say teak? .......Can you say leaky teaky?

Can't wait to get Scout home and get to work. The trip home coming next.

Peace, love and old boats!



Champagne tonight! The Genset Lives!

When we purchased Scout the previous owner (po) told us he had a generator that he had taken out because it wouldn't run the air conditioner and it took up too much room. I didn't put a lot of 'store' in it being of much value and the boat deal was cut without ever seeing the genset. After several reminders the po delivered the genset to the marina the day we had the boat pulled and loaded on the truck for Missourah. That's when I first saw this little beauty.

Maybe...just maybe...I hit the jackpot.

When we got home it was stuck over in the corner of shop and soon buried under all of current boat projects. Where it remained....until yesterday. With plumbing and electrical work going full bore it was time to dig out little Mase and see if she'll fire.

I had removed the control head from the pilot house as I've run all new conduit for the electrical. Both the control cable and the 10-3 electrical cable had been cut off outside the genset cover when the genset was removed from the boat.  OK...splice 9 wires from the control head into the genset. Wait a minute.....whoever wired the 10-3 cable didn't read the same book I did....could this have been the problem? ..scary stuff.

Better check the water pump...looks good. Hook up a battery. Fuel in a clean salsa jar. Water in a 5 gal bucket. I think we're ready to go.

Lets push 'ON'.

There's life!....2 hours on the hour meter???? The dang thing looks new.... Yo baby!  Self bleeding electric fuel pump is cycling. I can't resist....'Start'......fired up on the first compression stroke...puking water out the exhaust...we're good to go....gotta love the little Yanmars.
But does it make electricktrisity?......you betcha!

We ran it until the hour meter clicked to 3 hours. Cool, quiet, water cooled diesel making 2500 watts and 18 amps. Just the ticket to charge the house batteries for the 3000 watt sine wave inverter.

I believe it's a champagne night.





I'm back after all these months.

I've got to better than this.

Boat progress has been back underway since late March and there is much to show and report.
The was however a little distraction in the form of a delivery from Ft Lauderdale to Barnegat, NJ.  The boat was a Passport 40; the Gulf Stream was awesome; it was a great trip and a welcome break from a long cold winter. Thank you Dave for giving me the opportunity and thank you Julie for the encouragement to take advantage of the opportunity.
I'm organizing all the pictures I have taken along the way and of the progress on Scout. I am going to keep this Blog current...I am going to keep this Blog current...I am going to keep this Blog current.

Things I learned this week: If you use an empty ravioli can to steal, it's not stealing.

I'll be back.