On the Grid!

Today was our big day on the grid. We made it down to the boat a little before 4:30 am.  For those of you that know us well, you know that generally we do not go anywhere at 4:30 in the morning.  Most days when we head out for a boat trip we usually get out of the house between 10 & noon.  This morning was different though, we had to be in precisely the right place at precisely the right time in order to settle on the grid properly.

Dave backed us out of our slip and ran us over to the grid as though he'd done it hundreds of times.  We tied off to the pilings and waited for the tide to go out.

On the Grid... waiting

Several years of slime and grime on one of the buoys.

A couple of hours later and we are high and dry!

The SHAD and NINE LIVES on the grid.

This was my first look at what was underneath the water line.  The Mussels were so thick I thought for sure we'd never get them off of there.  Thankfully I was wrong; they were really easy to just scrape right off.  The ones we couldn't reach with the scraper were blown off with the pressure washer.

Under the bow area

Under the stern; shaft/prop area.

We pressure washed and scraped for several hours.

Dave pressure washing the stern.

Port side.

Misty scraping under the bow.

Brenda topside and Misty scraping under the bow.

Jim and Dave trying to clean the muck off of the buoy.

Dave on the stern again.

Brenda pressure washing.

Starboard prop after cleaning.

Port prop after cleaning.

Looking down the starboard side.

We definitely expected to find rust under there but all in all we were very happy with the hull.  We'll probably have to take care of the rust under the bow by welding on new steel plates and we're not sure how we are going to tackle the rust issue around the lower "rail" (not sure what else to call it).

Port side under the bow.

Starboard side, under the bow.

Stern lower rail.

Port side, lower rail, stern corner.

After a long day on the grid we finally had to call it quits as the water started to come back up around us. 

Here comes the water!

A little more water.

And a little more...

And away we go!

Dave, Jim & Brenda in the wheelhouse.

Going on the Grid

So we've decided that since we're not hauled out in the yard yet, we'll go ahead and make the annual trip to Taku Harbor Memorial Weekend.  This means we're going to have to put 'er up on the grid and pressure wash several years of slime and grime off the hull.  This should be fun; ok, maybe not so much.  We'll be going on the grid around 4am Saturday morning and coming off around 5pm Saturday evening.  Stay tuned for pictures!

~Misty~

SCORE!!

We swung by the Juneau Yacht Club's annual member garage sale on Saturday and I scored these two fenders for $20.00!  SCORE!!  It's hard to tell from the picture, but these guys are huge compared to the ones we use on our smaller boats!  These will be great when we are rafting up with friends!

~Misty~

This Is Why We Are Still Waiting!

We took a drive over to the "boat yard" at Trucano's today to see if any progress had been made in getting the boats out of the yard that are in our way... No Such Luck!  There are 5 boats sitting up there where we need to be.  Just one of them needs to move, that's all!  At least I now know why we are still waiting!  Hopefully sometime in the next week or so there will be some movement.

~Misty~

The Big Reveal!

After months of waiting we were finally able to take off the Winter cover and got a good look at the SHAD;  by golly there really is a boat under there!  It took us several hours, and with the help of our good friends we were able to get 'er done!  This brings us one step closer to the haul out!

Tearing down the plywood front

Port Side

Port Side

Starboard Bow

Port Side

Bow

Starboard Bow

Frustrated!

Ok... so we're more or less ready to get the SHAD on dry land and take a look at her, but the yard is full.  There are a few boats that need to leave before we can be pulled out.  I hadn't really thought about that as I assumed it was large enough to accomodate many boats.  So we're waiting, STILL and we're a little frustrated!! 

The good news is the paint is here, zincs are available locally and we have friends to help us. Keeping our fingers crossed for a sound hull, speedy pressure washing and sandblasting and weather dry enough to paint.

If you're in the neighborhood and want to get dirty, give us a shout!

~Misty~

Deck Boxes Painted

We're getting closer and closer to getting the boat pulled out of the water. Our order of paint has arrived in Juneau and should be delivered to the yard in a day or two.  Hopefully we'll be pulling her by sometime next week.

Dave and I spent the afternoon sanding and painting the deck boxes.  We'll be removing the winter cover this week, so everything that is going to be exposed to the elements either needs to be re painted or removed from the deck.  The boxes will get another coat of paint tomorrow, then the cover comes down Tuesday. 

Small box

Large box

Still Waiting

Spring is finally here!  The thermometer is reading 51.8 degrees outside and it is staying lighter later.  We'll be pulling the SHAD out of the water in a matter of weeks now;  the anticipation is killing us!! 

There is so much to do to get 'er ready for the haul out.  Luckily we have many friends who have volunteered to help us with this enormous project.  I'll be posting pictures of the haul out process and what has been now dubbed the pressure washing/scraping/painting extravaganza.

Gee... if you're not busy beginning the first Sunday in May, look us up... we can use all the help we can get!!

~Misty~

Curtains are now finished!

We finally finished the curtains for the wheelhouse and captain's bunk; they didn't turn out too bad!

King Crab....It's what's for dinner!!

The Golden/Brown Commercial King Crab season is underway in Southeast Alaska.  We were lucky enough to score a couple crab from a Commercial Fisherman friend last Friday, so we had some close friends down to the SHAD for a Crab Feed Extravaganza!

Still steaming!

New Mugs...

Dave and I found these while shopping yesterday; had to have them since they match the curtains!

Pics From the Harbor

-3.3 tide this morning when we got up.  I'm so glad I didn't have anything to haul up or down the ramp this morning!

This guy hung out on the mast a couple of boats down from us last night.  We would have never know he was there had he not made some noise.

First Overnighter on the SHAD

Dave and I made it through our first overnighter down at the Harbor.  We've had to put it off twice in the last couple of weeks due to illness and injury, so we were pretty excited to finally make it happen.  We started the evening off with a cocktail hour and barbeque with some close friends.  As always we seem to eat better on the boat than we do at home!

Used the shower for the first time; I'm going to have to figure out how to speed things up in there as we only have 100 gallons of freshwater on board  This will be fine when it is just the two of us, but being that we're one of two boats from our group with a head I can see that water going quickly.  Hopefully before the summer we'll have an additional 100 gallons lashed to the bow.

Woke up this morning to a -3.3 tide.  The ramp was at a very steep incline; I'm glad we didn't have much to haul back up to the truck!

We're looking forward to a couple more months of "camping out" down at the harbor before we take 'er out for a cruise!

~Misty~

ARRGH....The Pirate Curtains Are Done!

Dave and I worked on cutting out the curtains last night and I was able to sew them all together  this morning.  We headed down in the blustery wind storm and got them all hung up today!  Now we need to figure out what we're doing with the wheelhouse and bunk windows.

Got water?

We finally got the water running again after Dave rebuilt the water pump; luckily it was a pretty minor fix!  We now know that there is heat tape for the water lines and that they definitely need to be plugged in as soon as it starts getting cold out!  We're learning a lot about owning a larger boat that is moored in the harbor as opposed to the small ones we have in the yard at home! 

Now that the water is running again, the head is usable, there is hot water and I'm able to wash dishes down at the boat instead of taking them home.   Our next big milestone will be our first overnighter on the boat next week if I get the curtains done in time.

~Misty~

February 17 Pics Of The Frozen Harbor

Daytime pics of the frozen harbor

Baby it's Cold Outside

View from the stern of the SHAD... Lights reflecting off the ice in the harbor. The temps in Juneau have been well below freezing and with the windchill downtown the temps have been below zero. The walk to and from the boat tonight was brutal!

 

Cabin Fever!

What do you do when you can't take the boat out?  You stay at home and plan where you will go when you can take the boat out.  Have I mentioned that we've got CABIN FEVER?!!

My "big" Christmas present to Dave this year was Nobletec Navigation Software for the boat.  He was finally able to get the software loaded up and has been charting out trips all over Southeast Alaska from the comfort of the family room.  I now know how many hours it will take us to get to most of the communities in SE.....again, have I mentioned the CABIN FEVER?  We're counting down the months until we're able to get out on the water, that's for sure!

~Misty~

Found out something cool!

I found out last night that the young girl, now a grown woman, who christened the SHAD back in '58 is still in Juneau and owns a boat that is moored on the float behind us.  I hear that she enjoys cruising to Taku Harbor also and I'm hoping that we'll connect with her out there sometime.  I'd love to ask her why the name SHAD was chosen and find out if she knows any of the history of the vessel. 

~Misty~

Carving on the table

Eagle Carving on the galley table

Going Live!

Ok, I guess it's time to go live with this thing!  I hope you all enjoy it!


~Misty~

Waiting

Seems like all we're doing now is waiting.  Waiting for spring to get here so we can haul the boat out to the yard at Trucano's.  We'll spend a week or two in the yard pressure washing, sand blasting, painting and welding on cleats and other accessories.

We can't wait to see the boat without its winter cover on.  I think the reality of the size of the boat will finally hit us when it's removed and hauled out on land.  It's going to be HUGE!

We're slowly stocking the boat with non perishables, dishes, pots and pans and everything else we'll need to be able to just jump in and GO!

Waiting... waiting... waiting... IS IT SPRING YET???

~Misty~

Winter... things freeze... UGH!

Ok, so we've had the boat since October.  It's winter in Alaska, it snows, things freeze....  You'd think that as an almost 40 year old woman I'd remember that kind of stuff. 

Part of the joys of owning a boat that remains in the harbor year round is that you have to go down to the harbor once in a while to check on it.  The first two weeks of December I was on my own.  Dave was out of town attending to a family medical situation and I was tasked with checking on the boat while he was out.  No problem. Every other day I headed down to make sure it was still there, relatively snow free and that the heater was still on in the galley.  I made it through the two weeks without a hitch.  The first week of January Dave heads back "down South" for another week and a half and Juneau's weather gets cold and windy.  I checked on the boat a little less than I probably should have, but things seemed fine when I was there.  Dave gets back and notices that water in the sink isn't coming on. Hmmm... maybe we have a frozen pipe somewhere. 

We spent last Sunday down at the boat and it didn't take long for us to figure out what the problem was.   Dave hooked up the outside water to fill up the water tank and I went into the galley to put together the tv & dvd player.  Pretty soon I heard water running into the engine room.  Sure enough, a stream of water was coming into the engine room from a hole in the bulkhead.  Some valve thing had frozen and popped off and water was coming into the engine room.  Think Titanic, but on a much smaller scale.  Needless to say I'm freaking out at this point.  Water coming in is never a good thing.  Dave, calm as ever, told me to turn off the spigot on the dock. DUH! We spent the afternoon watching a movie and bailing out the engine room.  Fun times... fun times.

~Misty~