Saturday January 31: The Case of the Missing Washer

Steve finally (after several months) decided it was time to hook up the cold water at the sink in the front head. He disconnected it some time ago when trying to determine where the leak in the water system was.

Sadly he lost one of the critical washers today. Couldn't find it anywhere - the boat was again a wreck. Off he went to Home Depot (across the street) and then a fast ride down to Specialty Hardware (about 5 miles). No luck at either place.

Back at the boat. Now what to do. Dive in and see if he can find it - possibly he dropped it over the side?? Fortunately, Sharon (from Stevedore) stopped by to see what the next project was. Steve replied that he was working on a faucet but he lost a washer. Sharon said "is it blue with white stripes?" Seriously? You're kidding, right? Nope - she said it's over here on the dock!! Sure enough! He's not quite sure how it got there (fell out of his pocket??) but it was great to find it - thanks, Sharon!!

Put the faucet together. Leaks. Try again. Still leaks. Mmmm.... seems to be a missing piece. No idea where that is either but it can be replaced with a piece of rubber gasket paper. It just needs some fine cutting with a scissors and a razor knife.

Finished product. And it actually worked. Who knows for how long but we'll take it :-)

In the meantime, the work on Guppy's cushions continues. I'm waiting for zippers for the 6 back cushions but can continue working of the 3 seat cushions.

Steve is a great help in marking and cutting these pieces. Once cut, I can sew the top of the cushion to the old bottom. This saves me from having to replace the zipper.

Two of the seat cushions are completed - one remaining. That's on the list for tomorrow. Before the superbowl of course!!





It will be nice to not have all of the sewing stuff sitting around. Once the covers are finished, I can pack them up and ship them off to New York to the marina where Guppy is stored. Or maybe we'll just fly back with them in May. We'll be flying Southwest and can fly 4 bags free!

The picture left will give you an idea of why it was time to replace the covers. Believe it or not this is material from the same bottom cushion. It is SO faded that it doesn't seem possible the material was originally the darker blue color.

The new material is about the same color of the original but it has white dots in it - even though the dots aren't really all obvious when the material is viewed from farther away.

This is the one finished back cushion cover that is finished. It had a zipper that I could just reuse.

Sadly I sewed it in upside down. Oh well! No way was I going to redo it :-)

I even got an early Valentine's Day present from Steve today: a heart shaped Boston Creme doghnut from Dunkin Doughnuts! Turns out there's a Dunkins near the Specialty Hardware store. Mmm ... I may find some excuses to pedal my way up that direction some day!

In the meantime, we continue to enjoy being here. Steve couldn't catch a Mahi-mahi the other day so we went to the Keys Fisheries for lunch instead - and a bonus of some fresh tuna for dinner.

And yesterday there was fresh hogfish and Bermuda Chubs. Steve and Gary went out fishing under the bridge again. This time was quite the successful trip until the winds returned again. Nice job fishing Steve and Gary!!


There is still plenty of bike riding. Often off to breakfast during the week - well, we call it breakfast but it's usually 9:30 or so until we actually get moving. Talk about easy mornings :-)

The grounds here at Banana Bay are so enjoyable - lots of flowering trees plus the usual assortment of palms.

Sometime I think we really ARE in paradise!

Tuesday January 27: The Stove is DONE!!

To really show the progression of change in the galley area, this is a picture of the electric range/oven that we installed in 2007. At that time the whole inside of the boat was ripped apart so we could move the galley from the port side of the boat to the starboard.

This gave us enough room for a small freezer as well as the usual small fridge that is the norm on these kinds of boats. Plus more counter space for Steve!

He was very happy with the arrangement :-)

Then he discovered induction burners! For more info on these burners, click here.

The finished look after the inside cabin area was completed is on the left.

Now it looks like this. Lost counter space to the new microwave/convection oven but a GIANT gain in the amount of cupboard space with the oven removed.
















One of our better project outcomes for sure :-)

Sunday January 25: The Tale of Material for Guppy

When we were in Cleveland in December, one of our goals was to find upholstery material to recover the cushions in Guppy.

Keeping in mind that this boat is going on 28 years old (but given that it's a northern freshwater boat means it's really been used maybe 4 months a year), it's not surprising that the cushion covers inside were ready to be redone.

Off we went to our favorite upholstery store. Surely we'll find something reasonably priced. We LOVE this place - foam stacked everywhere, rolls of material that you would swear have been in the store since it opened 40 years ago - often hidden behind 5 more rolls of material stacked in layers along the narrow aisleways.

Julie and Jim were game to come with us - just for the entertainment value :-) They were not disappointed! Steve was being buried alive in the foam and material that fell as he made his way to a back corner of the store. "I found the perfect stuff" was what I heard.

Really? And it actually WAS perfect ... great color .... 100% cotton velvet (not even made anymore) and $15 a yard (we needed 9 yards). Except - it was faded from sitting so long. A whole roll of it. Like 100 yards of it. No problem says Steve as he proceeded to unroll the material thinking that it would only be the outside few yards that were faded.

Boy was he wrong! Before long, he had the whole 100 yards sitting on the floor. The fading was on way more that a few yards but in the center there was actually some really usable fabric.

The owner made the offer: pay me for 2 yards (so $30) and take the whole roll! Done deal. Good for us, good for him.

Now to get it back to Julie and Jim's place.

First drag it out the side door and attempt to roll it up a bit. Steve rolling, Julie helping.

Next - attempt to stuff it in their car trunk. I don't know how but they managed to get all of it in and the trunk closed. Amazing!!

Once we returned to the farm with the material we were able to lay the fabric out to cut out the ruined part and keep the good stuff. Turned out that we ended up with about 30+ yards of good usable material! All for a cost of $30 - don't think we could have beat that anywhere :-)

To get it to Yesterday's Dream, it was packed into a suitcase (thanks Julie and Jim!!) and traveled with us to Newport and then finally back to Hollywood, FL.

It was now finally time to get this project going! First open the suitcase with it's 28 yards of material (duct taped for additional security on the plane).

Spread some of the material out to find the end, cut off 5 yards or so - enough to get started on cutting out the covers.

Next stuff the leftover back into the suitcase - adding weight as needed to get the suitcase to close again :-)

The suitcase lives in the front v-berth for now. Eventually we'll be able to get rid of it when the materials is used up. Of course Steve thought that since we had LOTS of extra material that perhaps it could be used to redo the upholstery on THIS boat! Sure - why not, right? It just takes time ..... We'll see how that goes ......

So I've spent a couple of days tearing apart the old covers from Guppy (sent from NY to Jacksonville in August) and then moved on using the old covers as a pattern to make the new ones.

The table is just about the right size and height at which to work. Four cut out yesterday - five to go.

Best thing ever? The electric scissors I ordered the other day from Amazon!!!!

Really makes fast work cutting and doesn't require any hand strength at all :-)

Steve is working on finishing up the stove rebuild - just one last trim piece to glue in place. Plus reattaching the handle and it will be a job done.

Pictures of the finished stove next time .....

Thursday January 22: A Day Off to Fish

Steve had been watching the weather - waiting for the right winds (rather the lack of winds) so we could head out to fish.

Yesterday was finally the day! Just looking out over the bay gave us an idea of the low winds that were to be around for the day.

Even the resident crane and egret found the calm water a good place to look for breakfast.

So off we went to the ocean side to try our hand at trolling for mahi-mahi - or anything else that would bite for that matter.

Randy and Cindy joined us for a day on the water that was almost perfect.

It was still a bit rolly as we were 2 miles past Sombrero reef so even though it's calm with little wind, there are still rolling waves around. The deep color of the gulfstream is always fun to see though.

But sadly, no fish takers for the rigged ballyhoo Steve and Randy were using for bait. Usually we can pick up at least a mackerel or barracuda. Not yesterday.

Finally, it was decided to just find a place to anchor and still fish.

Using the "hot spot" chart of fishing places, we headed off to a new-to-us destination after the first spot we anchored didn't yield any success.

At least they weren't skunked ..... Two Bermuda Chubs - plenty for dinner for the 4 of us. I told the guys no holding the fish at arm's length to make it look bigger :-)

All in all, a nice day - and it was great being on the water!

In the meantime the stove project is nearing it's end.

I found a maple stair cap that had a nice rounded edge to it. This will finish off the top surface.

Not sure if we'll use it as a cutting board or not but it certainly could be used as that. Maple is a very hard wood and ideal for cutting boards as the grain is very tight (unlike oak).

Three cuts and it was ready to put into position.

Two coats of cetol on all of the wood in the galley area really helps the new doors blend in.

Sadly, the good old hot glue gun failed us - one of the handles fell off already!

Two part epoxy will take care of that - but another day.

In the meantime, the winds come back tomorrow so I think we'll be able to finish this project off - and if not tomorrow, then the next or the next ....

We ARE in the Keys after all :-)

Sunday January 18: The Never-ending Stove Project

The door are on!! Well, at least for the time being. They still need to have handles added and of course a finish which will help the new doors to blend in with the rest of the cabinets.

Tomorrow the piece of maple for the cutting board will arrive so maybe by Wednesday or so the project will be deemed to be completed.

Of course this is almost exclusively Steve's project. I helped with clamps and holding wood as well as finding the starboard and maple wood on the internet. Otherwise, he gets the credit.

Not that I've been totally lazy but pretty much so - although I was shamed into getting something productive done the other day.

I finally took the picture of our former Cleveland harbor down (thanks to Becky for the picture!!) and painted the wall paper in the aft cabin. This will definitely keep the mildew from growing during the months of storage in the hot Florida summers.

Steve did manage to find a better way to work on the doors. Shade! What a great idea :-) I should have thought of it ......

Even though it took time to cut the doors from Craig's list down to size, it took even more time to finish putting them back together.

And then cleaning the teak. And then of course the hinges had to be put on.

Not just ordinary put-in-4-screws hinges but rather router out space on the doors and the frames to recess the hinges.

Fortunately our dremel has a small router bit but it still took an inordinate amount of time to cut out the 8 small spaces for the hinges.

Patience was the key here - good thing I wasn't in charge :-)

More gluing and trial and error fitting before Steve was satisfied with the results.

I think the most fun he had all week was when Cindy and Randy (from "I Think I Can ...") came over to watch the football games last weekend.

Gigit found the perfect place to sleep - using Steve's foot as a pillow :-)

Cutest dogs EVER (Cricket is their other little dog) :-)

Playoff games today .... not sure who to root for but I think Seattle and the Patriots. Wouldn't that make for a great Superbowl??

Thursday January 15: Making Great Progress

Monday started out as a great day - picked up the rental car from Enterprise and as is often the case, Sirius Radio was still active on the 2015 car we had for the next 24 hours.

I thought about just sleeping in the car - listening to Willie's Roadhouse! No seat warmers though. I must be getting spoiled - especially for a couple whose first "brand new" car was a 1967 Ford Falcon and then a 1974 Ford Pinto (later to be know as the 'catch on fire when rear-ended' car).

That's back when these cars cost less than $2200 brand new!!

Off we headed for the almost 2 hour drive to Homestead in search of Walter and the two teak doors we found on Craig's List.

He didn't get home from work until 7:30 so after we spent some time shopping, there was a welcome stop at Duncan Donuts for hot chocolate and a Boston Creme.

Perfect :-) Home by 9:15 - just in time to watch the second half of the Ohio State - Oregon football game. It was the Bucks over the Ducks - fun to watch for sure :-)

Using Rick's table and Randy's circular saw, Steve again measured, measured a second time and then cut the two doors down to where they would fit quite nicely in the space we had.

This involved cutting the doors narrower and shorter - all without losing the basic louvered look.

Hinges and handles will come from the doors under my desk area. Not a perfect match but with a finish on the doors I think it will be just fine!

Next was to make a cover for the burners. This will keep them from getting scratched or messed up from sitting the water pitcher, dishes or whatever on top of the burners.

We're using starboard - a plastic product that is easy to cut with normal tools. Should work fine.

The sides also needed to be cut so there was lots of measure, measure, measure, cut.

After staining the boards, the last step for the cover was to attach the top to the sides with small stainless screws.

The fit was perfect. And this after what became a long day of working on the doors and the cover. Amazing!!

A cutting board (actually a maple stair header) will finish the top front edge. This is ordered and won't be in until Monday so maybe we'll have the doors installed by then.

And it hasn't been all work - even though it seems like it sometimes!

Our new favorite breakfast place is now Porky's! We have been there so much that yesterday, the waitress asked if we were 'locals' - she could give us the loyalty discount of 10% off.

Told her were weren't really but would be around for the next 2 months or so. That was enough for her - so we have been decreed locals :-) Haven't lived anywhere long enough lately to be called locals - I kind of like it :-)

One of the best things is that Porky's is not quite 4 miles round trip on the bike - Great way to start the day.

Question: how do you make a rectangular cupcake tin fit into the round convection oven?

Simple - take a dremel and cut one end of it off! The 3 x 3 that's left fits perfectly into the oven now. I mean after all there's no need to give up having cupcakes or muffins just because the oven is now round :-)