A whirlwind move

In the past 12 hours I've turned over command of the Naval Oceanography Mine Warfare Center to my relief, packed the final items into our cars, cleaned the house like a mad woman, said a quick and sweaty goodbye to our dear friends, and headed north.  I'm wiped, have no voice, and feel this constant need to hurry up when all I want to do it slow down and relax.  But there's no time--Frank needs to get back to working during his busiest time of the year and I check into the new job on Friday!

You're going to do great, Kate!

The team that made me successful.

Loaded and ready to go!  On the road again!

This little car was packed!

Yard Life

The boat has been at Bay Marine for about a month.  The bottom was sandblasted and painted, a thru-hole replaced, prop cleaned up, intake strainer upgraded, and she was de-rigged for shipping.  We did as much of the work on our own as we could to save some money, but it's damn hot down here and we are still working full-time an hour away.  The work is done and she is ready to get on a truck!

The yard made quick work of the sandblasting job.

This was a timely haul.  The brass was so brittle I could break it with my fingers.

All new!

First layer of bottom paint is on.  A black coat goes over the blue so we have an indication when our ablative is wearing away.

De-rigged and in the slings for a final paint touch-up before her ride north.

PCS time...again.

PCS=Permanent Change of Station.  And in my line of work it happens every 18-24 months.  And as luck would have it, we are going right back to where we moved the boat from last year!  Whatever, not going to dwell on it.  We will use this as an opportunity to haul, sand, inspect the boat.  Today we moved the boat from our marina in Gulfport to Bay Marine boatyard in Biloxi, MS.  It was a nice day on the water with the fam, and wouldn't you know it?  A tropical storm is on the way!

Just a little bit of growth on the prop!

A few more projects

The hot mess seamstress was busy this year!  Once I finished the cushion rehab, I knocked out just a few more quick projects.

#1--Frankentank.  I don't know what I was thinking when I said "yes" to this one.  Frank asked if I could make a cover for the dinghy gas tank to protect it from the sun, could expand with the tank (as designed), and allowed access to the connections. Using scraps from other projects, this is what I came up with...

The mission.

Nailed it! Phifertex, Sunbrella, insulating fabric, and bungie cord.

#2--Master Bedroom make-over.  Ok, so it's not much, but I did go from that dark navy blue cushion a bright teal and made new, room-darkening, insulated portlight covers.

#3--Companionway cover.  I've made this before with just the insulating fabric and some dowel rods to stiffen it up, but this time I went fancy with marine-grade vinyl and some of my Sunbrella scraps so that it's sturdier and prettier.  I may have gone a little too heavy-duty on this version, but it's great for keeping the boat cool in the summer and warm in the winter.  Honestly one of the best ideas we've had as liveaboards!

Somewhere in there I also made some new pillows for the settee.  Suffice to say, I enjoyed having a table that I could spread out on and leave my work in progress on for days at a time.  I won't have that when we get back to the boat, but I will eventually have whole days/weeks to work on projects!

Cushion recap

While we were landlubbers I took the opportunity to give our cushions an overhaul. I kept the foam, but added polyfill for softness and went WAY put of my comfort zone by working with expensive Ultraleather fabric to fashion the new covers. This time, I also replaced the entire covers and even moved some zippers! Ultraleather was actually quite easy to work with once I got over the urge to cry every time I cut it!  It took about a month and a half to complete around work, sports, and vacation once I set myself to it, but I'm so happy I did it!

It sure was nice getting to work on a big table!

Hot mess seamstress.

K models the first completed set.

Patterning

I moved the zipper AND hid it on this one.

The cushion from hell.

Inner corners, outer corners, curves, and a huge zipper = cushion from hell.

So many curves!  The Captain's homebrew kept me going!

The curves came out alright!

A "test fit" in the living room.

Ta da!  I'm pretty pleased with the result!