#15 Refit!

(Reese took the photo of the Northern Lights, visible here in Knoxville recently.)

When you redo a house it’s a remodel. When you redo a car it’s a restoration. When you redo an apartment it’s a renovation. When you redo an old piece of furniture it’s a refurbish. But when you redo a boat, it’s a refit. Probably because on a boat, nothing fits. Every new part you buy has to be cut, bent, resized or modified in some way before the dang thing will fit. That’s what we’ve been doing this last month or two, a bunch of re-fitting. I’m enjoying it, I like the feeling of getting something accomplished, of seeing progress, and of solving little problems all day long, but man, the re-fitting seems endless. I take a part to the boat, try it, figure out what I have to modify, take it home, modify it, repeat, and repeat, usually a couple of times before it clicks into place or does what I want. Fortunately I’m always going back and forth to the boat so I just haul stuff with me each trip.

And when I say nothing fits, I mean even me. I can’t fit into a lot of the places I need to fit, so I’ve been contorting myself into small places with many sharp edges that keep it interesting. My arms are about a foot too short and my shoulders won’t compress enough. My cuts, scrapes and bruises attest to my efforts to fit where I shouldn’t. Boats were assembled and built while in two pieces, the hull and the deck, and once they are together, good luck reaching that one place you need to reach.

Even so, we are making progress. Believe it or not our to-do list that was three pages long is down to about half a page. As I’ve said before, we managed to buy a very well maintained boat and so a lot of our projects have been for convenience or aesthetic reasons, not actual boat maintenance. Which is a whole lot more enjoyable, I can tell you. Cheryl is a great help, she belittles her contributions but without her this wouldn’t be any fun at all.

We’ve had the boat out as well, but those days are coming to a close as the weather cools off. We have some interior work to do while it’s cool out, Cheryl says some of that carpet on the walls has to go. We’ll put some kind of wallboard on instead. She’s mentioned something about countertops. We both enjoy being on the boat and tinkering with all these projects so that will all be fun. We have reverse cycle A/C so we have forced air heat, which makes it comfortable to hang out on the boat when it’s cold outside.

So here’s a list of most of the last two months of things added, fixed, modified or otherwise attended to:

We’re taking a break from all this next week when we travel to Joe Wheeler State Park for the AGLCA rendezvous. That will give my cuts, scrapes and bruises a chance to heal up! Hope to meet some people and learn a lot. Amazingly, at my high school reunion I discovered than a classmate, Dana, and her husband Dennis have already done the Loop and enjoyed it so much that they recently bought another boat and are doing it again. Another coincidence is that both Dana and Dennis are also retired pharmacists, with a boat named “Pharm Life.” Nice!

Don’t miss Cheryl’s comments after these photos.

Here’s some before and after pictures. The upper helm instruments:

Replacing the acrylic in the hatch. Sent it to HatchMasters who did a great job.

Trying to reach the impossible.

Added several computer fans to the fridge to help it cool better. I put one on top of the condenser to supplement the one underneath it, then added four two-inch computer fans inside a vent to exhaust the compartment.

Out with the old. One of the neighbors liked how the old one matched my shirt.

In with the new.

Cheryl’s Perspective:

Well, Butch may call it “refitting“ the boat, but I call it “working” on the boat. That’s all we seem to do. Butch is in his glory ripping out what appears to me to be vital boat parts, drilling holes into the very fiberglass that keeps zillions of gallons of water from seeping inside, throwing out anything that doesn’t fit the one project he’s working on at the moment even though I can think of multiple uses in the near future, climbing a 16 foot ladder torqued at an obtuse angle that certainly is not OSHA approved then asking me to hold it so he doesn’t fall (plan B – please jump toward the water when you start to fall), asking me to hand him tools by name (color, length, and shape are now working better for him), and ordering things from Amazon. He’s ordered so much from Amazon that they recently sent him a Christmas wish book. I’m sure he’s currently working on his list to share with Santa. Could it include an obnoxious boat horn? What winter travel plans do we have? Anything within reason but his first stop must be the boat salvage yard in northern Florida – aargh.

My contribution to it all – I’ve changed out the front entry rug four times, contemplating a fifth, and have managed to sneak six pillows onto the bed. His max is two, but he’s been so engrossed with his reupholstery work that he hasn’t yet noticed the extra pillows. Will he read this?! I am continuously working on a new countertop request. Since Butch doesn’t see it as a priority – he’s not often in the kitchen – I guess that will be my request from Santa this year. Wish me luck.

All the work and disruption have not kept us from enjoying visits from friends on board. MoonShine has become a retreat for our friend Bob who hides out there when the housekeepers are at his house. We always enjoy his company and look forward to the day his wife Georgia can join in. Best wishes to Georgia with her knee replacement this week. Max is a regular. We love Max. I especially enjoy when he agrees with me that the countertops need updating. Diane came into town from Michigan and we enjoyed dinner and a sunset cruise with her and our friend Brian, who brought delicious homemade wine. Our friends Dave, Janet, Wendy, Craig, and David joined us onboard for pizza, drinks, and a cruise on the river. It’s always fun spending time with them and they weren’t too embarrassed that MoonShine proudly sports a University of Michigan flag. Mark and Diane joined us for drinks one evening. Although I’ve known Diane for quite some time, it was our first chance to meet Mark. He and Butch hit it off tremendously and we’ve since shared a delicious, homemade Italian dinner at their beautiful home. 

I am so blessed to have Butch in my life. I am always amazed at how he can fix things. He’s making this boat so much more comfortable and appealing for us to fulfill our dream of sharing it with family and friends. So, please come visit us even though the work on the boat isn’t complete. We’ll leave the light on for you!