All new plumbing, plus 2 new sails

{{ First off, sorry about the many different fonts used! I am aware of the formatting issues & that's one of the reasons there's been such a gap in our posts. I will be making BIG changes to the blog soon, hopefully before the next post! }}

Where's the floor??

Y'all may remember a few weeks back, I shared a photo on IG/FB about not having a floor in our boat, due to Joe starting our plumbing project. So just a refresher.... We decided, or rather the boat decided, the plumbing needed to be redone, after taking the boat down to Galveston, recently. Our boat had all copper tubing, and the previous owner had not moved the boat in 10 years...it was merely a floating condo.  As soon as we actually started using the boat, we developed water leaks, everywhere!! We thought it was imperative that we make the necessary improvements, sooner, rather than later....ergo, no floor! 

Assessing the situation...

 Hubs worked really hard at removing all the copper pipes from the boat! The photo below, shows just a small portion of what was removed.

Boats & copper don't go together!

This is how we spent many, many nights...working beneath the floor. And with no stairs to board the boat, it got pretty interesting getting on/off the boat. Wish I had got a picture of that! =}

We spent a Saturday afternoon finishing up our project of re-plumbing the boat. Yeah, running water is one of those essentials that you don't want to live without for too long. And for us, we'd already been without it for a week, so it was time to get'er done!! 

Another Home Depot run...3rd times a charm! The crap part of doing boat projects is, all the grunt work & errands I get to run. The good thing is, it's really close by....the bad thing is, it's really close by. 

I didn't get the faucet I wanted. All of the bases on the pull-down style faucets, are too wide for the area we were installing it in. And after five trips to the Home Depot, I didn't care anymore. We opted for a stainless steel one to prevent rust and with that option, I really only had two choices, unless I was willing to pay $300 for a faucet....and I was not willing to pay $300 for a faucet! It's by no means fancy, but it is functional, and it is way better than the one we originally started with. 

New galley faucet

So after almost two weeks of no running water, we are now back in business! You never know what modern day conveniences you take for granted until, you don't have them!

New Pex plumbing....

New Pex plumbing...

Now we can easily identify each water supply line & which tank it goes to.

And as an added bonus..... Guess what we found underneath the v-berth? Two new sails!!! Granted, they are a good twenty years old, but they have never been out of the bag before, so that's still new, right?? 

This one is my favorite...only one letter off from being my name!! ;)

Plus, a storm sail, I hope we never have to use

Can you guess what project we're now working on? It's coming up, in the next post!

How did we ever live without a dodger?

Our beautiful new dodger & cover!

Seriously, having a dodger makes all the difference, when you live on a boat!! I don't know how we survived on our last two boats without it. That's not true, I know how we did it, actually. With our second boat, we knew we were not keeping her for a lifetime and since you don't really make that money back, we thought we'd just wait until we bought the forever boat, before we really started throwing money around.

Without the dodger

The dodger, sans cover

Now that we have all new canvas on the boat, the rest of it is really looking drab! Time for me to start back up on the teak, and get the rest of the trim looking as nice as it does around the cockpit area!!

More recently, I have been working on creating a design to go with our boat name. You may remember the t-shirts I designed last year...we both liked the design so much so, that I have now started branding everything on the boat, from, t-shirts to coolers to cups....

Irie t-shirt design

It has taken some time, since I am not exactly a tech savvy person, much less a designer, but I have figured out a way to use my design, from the shirts, and keep it going throughout all other items on the boat...

close-up of the new & old YETI tumblers w/my design decal

Y'all know how much I love my Seafoam Yeti, right?? Well, when I heard they were bringing back the seafoam, for a limited time, you better believe I was trying my best to figure out a way to get rid of the used, brown one we had picked up from the resale shop and replace it with a much prettier color! As luck would have it, Joe told me he wanted to sell the big one (the downtown-doo-doo-brown one) and get a smaller-ish one, that fit better. So we did! And, now our back porch looks a lot better.....

Matching YETI's on the back porch

close-up of the new Tundra 35 w/my design decal

close-up of the Roadie 20 w/my design decal

Continuing with what has now become our "unofficial" boat colors...at least for the exterior (and maybe a little in the interior too).... I finally convinced hubs to hang up the hammock he bought me, for Christmas! Ahh, so relaxing....It is my new favorite spot on the boat!! I even got my first sunburn, over the weekend, from laying in the hammock for too long, but it was worth it!!

Chillaxin' in the hammock while Joe is installing the windlass.... I call it supervising ;)

February Recap....

Aside from all the work we were doing on the boat, we had a couple family visits and then just to mix things up a bit, I had bronchitis for about two weeks. Ugh! Luckily, I'm back to feeling like a functional adult, again! Needless to say, February was a busy month for us!!

We did have our jib sail professionally washed & restitched. And, you can watch the video clip over on our Facebook page, of us putting the sail back on.

As you can see in the images to the left, it was a pretty big task folding it up on the dock. Then the middle photo shows it spread out on the floor at the sail loft. 

A different kind of ice pack, but it works just the same!

So, sometimes you still smack your head! And in those instances, you put a nice cold can of Coke on your fresh new head wound!  Both, Joe and I, have hit our heads more times than I care to remember! Or maybe, we've knocked our heads so much so, that we can't remember! Ha!! 

Remember how I was saying in my last post, how I was so happy I didn't have to crouch down to walk through our hallway? Yeah well, you still need to duck when you walk through the doorway of said hallway. At this point in time, the words, 'stupid boat' usually come out of my mouth! But I don't really mean it, I mean, not to the point where I want to move off of the boat. It's just like anything else you hit. You're not gonna blame yourself for not paying attention, you're going to blame whatever hurt you! Right? That's not just me, is it?!  

Look at that beautiful teak trim! ...{patting myself on the back} :)

I finally finished the teak work around the cockpit and it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself!
I am using a product called Awlwood by AwlGrip. This is my first time using this product, and refinishing teak, for that matter, but so far so good! I am really liking how easy it is to work with! When we first heard about this product, the reviews were a bit confusing, the people that (you would hire to) refinish teak, said they didn't like it, but the boater's that had it on their teak, were very impressed by it. We quickly learned, that it wasn't at all that it was a bad product, quite the opposite actually. People that refinish teak (usually with varnish) don't like Awlwood because they are losing business over it. You see, varnished teak, typically has to be redone annually to keep it looking pristine. Therefore, they are pretty much guaranteed, a repeat customer. However, the Awlwood lasts up to 5 years before needing to be refinished, hence the dislike. I, on the other hand, have really enjoyed seeing the progress, which is good, because I have a lot more teak to do....here's hoping it continues to be a fun-ish job!  

New memory foam mattress in the aft cabin!

We invested in a real mattress for the aft bedroom....No more sleepless nights!!! Most boat beds are not the same size as typical mattresses, which means you have to have a custom bed made to fit. However, we got lucky with this one, because it is essentially, an extra long full. We went up to a local mattress store and bought this memory foam mattress for almost half the price of the custom made ones. They only had the regular full in stock and said they could order the extra long one, but we chose to just get the regular length, so that we didn't have to wait a week, for the other one to come in. Plus, it is a lot easier making the bed when you have a little room to maneuver.

Looky Looky what we're getting! 

And, here's a little preview of what you'll see coming up in the next blog post! I am so totally stoked about this add-on!!!! :)
I can't wait to show you the finished look! Yay

Projects a plenty!!

We've been on our boat a little over three weeks now and we have been super busy tackling the project list! As you saw from the video I posted earlier this week, we have already started stripping the teak trim around the cockpit. Still have a lot more teak trim to refinish, but you gotta start somewhere and this is where we're starting. 

Slow & steady process

All sanded and ready for the next step...

Pretty & clean

Here hubs is applying the first coat of Awlwood primer/finish...

I've spent a lot of time getting to know our teak. And so far, I can say, I enjoy it!! Of course, this is my first time redoing it...I'm sure that will all change after the 6th or 7th time I have to do it. Who knows?!? Maybe not! 

Another improvement that we have had done is, we had four hatch covers made, as well as the companionway cover below. 

Canvas being installed

Next up on the continuing canvas projects will be, getting a new Bimini & dodger, and eventually interior cushions!!

We also wet sanded the old name off of the transom, in preparation of adding the new name to her! I wasn't able to get any photos of this job being done, because well, I had one hand on the boat for balance and the other hand holding wet sandpaper and sanding the boat, all while standing in a floating dinghy!!! I tried to convince Joe to take photos/video, but instead he jumped in the dinghy with me (almost making me fall into the water) and started helping me sand....good thing too, because painted on names are a pain to remove & I needed all the extra elbow grease I could get! 

Before w/old name

As you can see, it's still faintly visible! So, we'll have to do some work on that before the new name goes on. 

Old name {mostly} removed

One of these days, we will get ourselves a GoPro so we can fully document our projects. But for now, I hope you enjoy reading, because all these projects are using up every cent we have and there's no money left for fun things, like a fancy camera. ;)

One boat, two boat, we got a new boat!!!

Sea Trial Day with our new boat!

Here we are on the sea trial day, with our new {to us} 1983 Endeavour 40'!!!

As you can tell, hubs is over the moon excited about the new boat, as am I!! I told him, "I'd like to think this photo shows his love for me, but I really think this photo shows the love between a man and his boat!" To my surprise, he responded with, "it's the love of a man that has a wife that lets me live on a boat!" ....yeah, he's a keeper!!! ;)

Enough of all that sweetness, let's get to the real reason you're reading this! 

We got our new boat the Wednesday afternoon before Christmas! (Whew, just in the St. Nick of time there Santa!!) We unloaded all the things out of both of our cars onto the boat on Thursday and then left Friday morning to drive to Fort Worth to spend Christmas with both of our families! Hubs really didn't want to leave his new boat, right after getting it, but neither of us wanted to call our mom's and tell them we wouldn't be home for Christmas, after telling them both, "we would be there for Christmas!" So, off we went for a few days...  

So, what did we buy? We went with a 1983, center cockpit, 40' Endeavour sailboat. For you non-boaty people, a center cockpit simply means, the helm {a.k.a. the wheel}, from where you drive the boat, is located in the center of the boat. Unlike our two Catalina's, that were both aft cockpits. 

The benefits of a center cockpit are mostly interior, giving better access to the engine and allowing for a bigger, roomier, aft cabin! Exterior wise, the center cockpit means you sit a little higher out of the water, which is good for both visibility and more likely to get sprayed by crashing waves! You'll have to remind me of that last one being a good thing when I post about how soaked we get!! 

Here's the layout in case you're not familiar with the Endeavours.... 

What are the differences between this one and the other two? 

• 1st boat: 30 foot long and had a beam of 10' with 5'8" headroom. Vberth, quarter berth, 1 head. 

• 2nd boat: 36 foot long and had a beam of 11'6" with 6' headroom. 2 cabins, 1 head

• 3rd boat: 40 foot long and has a beam of 13' with 6'6" headroom. 2 cabins, 2 heads

Is this boat, our forever boat? Only time will tell, but I do know that, the more time we spend on it, the more we like it! And, I do see us going cruising in this boat!! 

She needs a little love and attention on the outside, but the inside teak has been well taken care of and was just recently varnished! 

We even have a hallway!!! And the best part is, I don't even have to duck or crouch down to walk through it. Hubs has to tilt his head, slightly, but that's really the only spot. The rest of the boat has 6'6" headroom, so that is something we both appreciate, since we are both tall. 

The other major upgrade is that this boat has two heads (a.k.a. bathrooms). She's a two cabin, 2 head, layout, with plenty of storage and can sleep 8 comfortably, before we have to send anyone outside, to sleep in hammocks!!

Now for some more photos....

Starboard side of the boat

Port side of the boat

Navigation area | looking down the hall to our cabin

Hallway with control panel, engine room access, & more storage

Aft cabin | closet/storage

Aft cabin | bed

Aft head

Vberth | there's much to be said about this part of the boat, but for now, let's just call it the garage ;)

Forward head

Port side settee

Starboard side settee

Each settee folds out & makes a full-size bed

The galley

Closeup of the galley

The cockpit | albeit, somewhat messy

The aft deck | or what i like to call it, the back porch ;)

We still have a little settling in to do, but we are mostly moved in! Besides, I just couldn't handle keeping our blog readers in suspense any longer. So, now that you've seen our beautiful boat & disorganized cockpit, what do you think of our new digs?? Let us know in the comments! ;) 

Happy New Year & thanks for following along on our journey afloat!!!