We are getting there....

Well we are almost official boaters. We now have a spot at a marina closer to home. We are proud renters of a slip for the summer and dry storage for the winter at APG Edgewood area. We checked it out a few weeks ago and it is going to be perfect or us. It's off the beaten path both land and water and the marina has a few nice amenities that we can use.

It is about time

The boat is registered and insured

Mystery Marina revealed

Mike went to pay for the boat today and make sure she runs and was nice enough to send me a picture of the sign for Mystery Marina. Thanks for all the great work so far, Clarks Landing.

Mike was also heading down with a list of additional work that we wanted done. One task was to coat/paint the bottom of the boat, the coating is not something newer boats use, so they have a gel coating that has been sitting there for a while that they are going to give us to coat the boat, we only have to pay for the labor to have it applied.

Done at last

Boat is finished. Mike is going down tomorrow to pay the Mystery Marina for all their hard work on our boat. This doesn't mean we are finished with her and that she is in the water but at least the motor runs. This winter we are bringing her up to Edgewood area APG and will overhaul the interior.
Mike found a company online that has pre-made canvas for the boat, all we need is measurements. We are still thinking about the design of the interior but it will rock when we are done.
Although I have found a ton of stuff at yard sales this summer we are still looking for some gadgets. Fish finder/GPS is coming from points I have earned at work. Everything else will be bought/found as needed.

Update

With all of the weather we have had over the last two weeks we are happy to announce our boat is safe.

Yard sales are the place to be

The last two weekends have been a boaters paradise.

the first Saturday I went out on my weekly yards sale run and the fiat thing I come across is a life vest that will fit little Sophie next year, only $2.00 I get it. A few sales later I find the holy Grail of life vests for Jimmy, a scooby doo vest in his size. The sticker says $1.50 I can't pass it up. What makes it even better is when I go to pay they only charge me $.50 that is a deal that I can't pass up. Finally the last sale that Saturday I find 3 adult orange jackets brand new with the tags still on them for $10.00 for the set. This Saturday I was out with Melanie checking out the yard sales again. This time I found 5 boat bumpers that hang from the boat for $1.00 each. What a great real since they go for almost $20 each online ( I checked before I got them) we hit a few others and just before the rain started we went to the last one this time we we found 3 more boat bumpers almost brand new for $5.00 for the set. At the rate I'm going at the yard sales I should have the boat outfitted with almost everything we need before we get the darn thing in the water next year.

Not this summer

It has been three weeks since we dropped the motor off to Mystery Marina. Early this week Mike got a call from the service manager. It seems there is more wrong with the boat then we thought.  It is going to take 50-60 hours before the motor is in the boat.  That means we will not be able to get her in the water this summer. I think everyone is a little bummed about this news but at least it gives us time to get everything we need for her. Looks like Christmas this year is revolving around the boat and her supplies.

Boating safety

Found 3 brand new adult life vests today.  Also found a life jacket for Sophia and an extra special one for Jimmy-- it has scooby-doo on it. The last one is a kids vest. Not too bad for $15 at yard sales

Funny mixup

Mike got a phone call from Mystery Marina. The service manager was asking  if Mike was looking for a transmission for the boat. Knowing that we just dropped off the motor the service manager was confused. He started asking questions about the last owner of the boat. Since Turkey Point Marina was the last owner we knew it wasn't them looking. After a little more research from the service manager he found out there was another 1978 silverton in the Marina that they were working on.

Motor part 3

Mike took the motor down to Mystery Marina today. When he got there he was very surprised to see the motor almost completely removed from our little boat. The mechanic was very surprised to see how good the new motor looked. He told Mike that he could not have gotten a better deal anywhere around here. At the rate they are going it shouldn't be long before the boat is in the water. While Mike was at Mystery Marina he looked around at some of the boats. Nothing like our boat....ours was the smallest coming in at 26 feet. Guess that gives us something to look forward to :-)

Motor part 2

<p>Mike left Saturday with our dog Ginger at 230am and made it to CT around 7 to pick up the new motor. We now have a 2500 pound motor in the truck bed waiting to be dropped off at Mystery Marina. I think he is going to deliver it to them on Thursday. At this rate we should be cruising by mid August ...I hope.

***Update***
Mike took the motor down to Mystery Marina today.

Renaming Ceremony

So a friend told Mike that we needed check the Internet for the superstitious way of renaming the boat. Until we follow this ceremony we will not be talking about the name of the boat. The most that I see in this ceremony is that we will be needing several bottles of champagne.

**According to Capt Pat over at Boatsafe.com**
According to legend, each and every vessel is recorded by name in the Ledger of the Deep and is known personally to Poseidon, or Neptune, the god of the sea. It is logical therefore, if we wish to change the name of our boat, the first thing we must do is to purge its name from the Ledger of the Deep and from Poseidon’s memory.
This is an involved process beginning with the removal or obliteration of every trace of the boat’s current identity. This is essential and must be done thoroughly.
In purging your boat, it is acceptable to use White-Out or some similar obliterating fluid to expunge the boat’s name from log books, engine and maintenance records etc., but it is much easier to simply remove the offending document from the boat and start afresh. Don’t forget the life rings and especially the transom and forward name boards.

Do not under any circumstances carry aboard any item bearing your boat’s new name until the purging and renaming ceremonies have been completed!

Once you are certain every reference to her old name has been removed from her, all that is left to do is to prepare a metal tag with the old name written on it in water-soluble ink. You will also need a bottle of reasonably good Champagne. Plain old sparkling wine won’t cut it. Since this is an auspicious occasion, it is a good time to invite your friends to witness and to party.

It is usual for the renaming ceremony to be conducted immediately following the purging ceremony, although it may be done at any time after the purging ceremony. For this portion of the proceedings, you will need more Champagne, Much more because you have a few more gods to appease.Begin the renaming by again calling Poseidon.
The next step in the renaming ceremony is to appease the gods of the winds. This will assure you of fair winds and smooth seas. Because the four winds are brothers, it is permissible to invoke them all at the same time, however, during the ceremony; you must address each by name.

Of course, any champagne remaining will be the beginnings of a suitable celebration in honor of the occasion.
Once the ceremony has been completed, you may bring aboard any and all items bearing the new name of your vessel. If you must schedule the painting of the new name on the transom before the ceremony, be sure the name is not revealed before the ceremony is finished. It may be covered with bunting or some other suitable material.

Seek and you shall find

Mike found a motor today on Craig's list.  He sent the information to the Mystery Marnia and they told him it should fit. We are waiting to hear from the head mechanic to make sure it is compatible. If it is we will have to change the prop from right hand rotation to left hand rotation.

This is the old motor. Lots of work that needs to be done.

There is good news and bad news though.

The good news is that the CT motor is almost half of what it would cost to get a new one or even rebuild the old motor that is in there now.
The bad news is that it is all the way up in Connecticut, only 5 hours one way.  Mike wants to go up and get it this weekend. At the rate we are going we should have this boat in the water sooner than we thought.

The new engine in CT

Plug and play

Now we wait to see when we can get up to Connecticut to get our motor.

The move

Good bye Turkey Point Marnia
We finally found someone to work on the motor of the boat. Mike had them move the boat today. It is still over an hour away, and only about 10 miles from where it was, but I have no idea what Marnia.  I guess I will have to wait until it it running before I know where it is.

The Clean Up

So before we could even start cleaning or taking anything out of the boat we had some not so friendly friends to take care of.
YES we had hornets that Mike and Jeff had to spray to get rid of them. I was safely off the boat while they sprayed.

Mike supervising

Jeff taking a closer look into the bathroom

He quickly shut the door and found something else to clean up

WOW--looks like Jeff can clean

Mike showing Jeff how to use the bleach.

Yes I did do my fair share of cleaning the boat, so did Melanie and Rich. After 3 hours of cleaning the inside of the boat looked so much better.

After all that work she looks so much better.

So no matter how bad the inside of this boat was, the outside doesn't need that much work

Looking down from the steering wheel

The vinyl is still in tact

Steering wheel and control panel

The back of the boat.

Look close and you can see the black trash bag that is keeping the cabin that we just cleaned

closed up from the elements and hornets.

Did I mention that is was 98 degrees while we were doing this?

Oh the work to be done

So on Saturday (7-9-2011)  we, read this as Mike, Melanie, Jeff, Rich and myself all went back down to Turkey Point Marina to check out and clean up the boat a little. After loading the truck with everything that you could need to clean anything. We packed the truck with the generator, shop vac, brooms, bleach, buckets, ladders, and trash bags..lots of trash bags. When we got to the boat we knew the first thing was to get rid of all the trash---8 bags latter we were ready to vacuum and sweep.

Here are some pictures of the amount of junk that was left in the boat from the previous owner.

Lots of great nasty bedding to get rid of = 3 bags of trash

Looks like the previous owners had a dog

The table came with a tape measure and a new bag of socks

Jeff kept the socks

Melanie kept the tape measure

More nasty bedding

Under the green grass carpet was some great soggy floor boards. 

Those will have to replaced.

Since Rich almost fell through the floor that will have to be the first thing replaced.

The bathroom

The toilet was the only thing that was winterized

Bathroom sink and curtains.

The curtains made it into another trash bag.

Looking into the cabin from the door

Looking down into the cabin

This is the wood that needs to be replaced

And there were a ton of leaves that needed to be cleaned up

Welcome Aboard

Welcome to our project. Before I introduce you to the boat and the project at hand I should introduce you to the cast of characters.

Mike and Denise

Owners

Michele (Sister)

The Kids

(Nieces and Nephew)

Kyra who is holding Sophia and Jimmy

Melanie (life long friend--like a sister)

Jeff (life long friend-- like a brother)

Rich (Melanie's boyfriend)

Finally the reason I am blogging....the star of the show--- our boat.

1978 Silverton Flybridge

Mike found this boat on EBay at a great price. We knew when we bought the boat we were going to have to put some work into it, we just didn't realize how much. Now we are setting out in our adventure to repair, clean, and get this boat in the water.