Closing in on Repairs

Yea!!! The sides of the hull are finished!! Steve made a concerted effort to finish off the port side while the weather was still cool.

It looks SO good - especially if we follow our 10 foot rule (standing no closer than 10 feet). And truthfully it is really pretty good from even 2 feet away :-)

The biggest challenge left is the forward port railing - the front 12 feet of it.




So Steve was talking with Craig on Silent Faith a couple of slips down from us. They are from Stuart (about a 5 hour drive north from here). As it would happen, they are driving back home for a few days tomorrow.

And Craig has a buddy that can weld stainless!!! So they will haul our broken railing, have the guy replace the stainless steel support under the wood railing pieces AND bring it back to us!

Steve can then begin putting the broken teak together and finish fixing the railing. This was plan B - plan A didn't pan out for the place down here to just replace the entire forward 12 feet of railing with stainless. Oh well.

Time to start on replacing the front windshield covers that were blown away.

Sadly it was not an error free job but in the end all was well. A case of measuring once and cutting twice - which always make the job harder :-)

Steve used our new snap tool to press the snaps in. Way better than pounding the snap caps together.

We have borrowed George's snap tool for at least years whenever we needed to put snaps in. And every time I would comment that 'we need one of these' so this year it finally happened.

Found a really nice used on Ebay. It actually looks brand new. No more pounding snaps for Steve :-)







We also found a new control unit for our Malber washer/dryer combo on Ebay. The timing control for it has slowly quit working - one cycle at a time. It was getting to where soon it wouldn't work at all. I'm definitely too spoiled with a machine on board to go back to going to a laundromat!

There was a lady in NY that sold parts for it but apparently she is no longer in business. Plus I tried getting that part from her a few years ago - backordered and no idea when/if any would be coming.

So now we have a whole 'new' control unit for the whole machine!All we need now is some time to swap the new part in.

It wasn't work today as the weather and winds were perfect for dinghy fishing under the 7 mile bridge.

It was just Steve today and great success! He limited out for yellowtail snapper and had two nice mangrove snapper as well.

There was a 5 foot shark shadowing his fish throughout the day (not sure what kind) and getting quite a few!

Good thing he didn't fall out of the boat :-)

The excitement at docktails the other night was a tow boat US bringing in a sailboat with a side tow. It must have had a pretty deep keel (over 5 feet) as it was stuck for a bit just outside the markers.

A second try and it was in!

After seeing it in the dock, it appeared to have some "hurricane damage" along the sides. Haven't seen anyone on it since then .....

Tuesday Jan 16: More Cool Weather and More Work

Last visit to the physical therapist: the thumb is doing great - the scar is hardly visible already and the bones continue to grow together.

One last visit to the surgeons office in February and all is done - just over a year since the first set of knuckle replacements. An amazing difference from how this hand was in April before the knuckles were replaced with only one finger and the thumb working.

Having two good hands, I'm finally able to do some of the sewing. The cover on the fly bridge furniture and two window covers were lost to Irma so those will be replaced first.

Also on the list is a cover for the dinghy gas can. It sits on the aft deck and the sun is really hard on the rubber hose that goes to the little engine. A cover for it will help immensely.

Third project is to repair the canvas cover for the upper helm - also damaged by Irma.


Steve continues to work on painting the sides of the hull - again damaged by Irma. This is getting to sound like a broken record!!

He's doing great work and now has both coats of finish paint on the starboard side and the first coat on the port side.

This of course after sanding and priming both sides.

Being able to use the hard top dinghy of a friend has made this SO much easier than painting it from our dinghy. This little flat top is incredibly stable and by moving our boat around he can actually reach all sides of our boat without taking it even out of the slip.

The dinghy is actually another project that Steve has in the works. Although it remained tied to the back of the boat during Irma, several areas of the hypalon outer skin were worn through partway by it being rubbed on the swim platform. Two of the three inflatable tubes were leaking air. Not a lot but what good is a dinghy that leaks air, right?


Of course there was much consultation with others (fellow boaters with leaky dinghy issues also) until a plan was made.

First find the leak(s) by spraying a soapy water solution and look for bubbles to appear! Two areas were found - on to step 2.

Let some of the air out and pour sealing liquid into the two tubes that had holes. Fill both tubes with air and then roll the dinghy around to spread the liquid throughout the tubes. (Ideally this is accomplished with a couple of guys helping!)


Let it dry. Repeat on day two if needed (which it was).

Next to last step: clean the outside well with a cleaner and water.

Last step: finish with a coat of liquid rubber paint. The paint just arrived today so perhaps later this week for the final step.

When it was too cool and windy to work on the painting the other day, it was time to see if the starter we ordered actually fit. It's only 3 bolts but like everything on a boat, it's in a difficult place to reach.

Best way was for Steve to lay on his side to get the starter lined up and get the bolts in.

Yea!! It fit! It wasn't an exact replacement but was designed to replace the original and thankfully did just that. Figure out how the wires hooked up and done. It was my job to figure out the wires - based on pictures Steve thoughtfully took before removing the old starter. Not sure we would have been able to figure it out very easily without those pictures. Anyway, turn the key, engine starts and we're back in business!!

Now if it ever gets warm enough and the wind quits blowing enough that we could go out for an overnight ......

And yes it has been cold. And yes I realize that is relative to where one lives but down here mid-50's at night and low 60's daytime is cold! Fortunately we have a small space heater that I can direct right at my feet!

Plus Cindy (Love You More) kindly crocheted the softest throw blanket while she was stuck in truly cold weather in Ontario over the holidays.

Perfect :-)








There is still the occasional evening when it's warm enough that docktail gatherings happen. Life is good.

Friday January 5: A Good Start to the New Year

It was a very low keyed Christmas. Since we're actually celebrating in February in California with the kids, we enjoyed the evening in the company of folks at Banana Bay who for one reason or another decided to be in the warmth of the Keys rather than points north!

There are some really good cooks living here as was evidenced by the great pot luck dinner here at the point. Sadly I took no pictures :-(

It was fun to open the annual Franko Family Calendar - put together this year by Matt. Rebecca - who has done the calendar originally and for the past ??? years - decided to turn it over this year.

The result was great and up to the standard set by Rebecca so nice job Matt! So fun to look through each month and enjoy the memories created over the past year.


The weather for the week between Christmas and New Years was excellent. Perfect again for Steve to continue working to finish painting 2 coats of paint on the starboard side of the boat.

Having finished one side, he was anxious to begin the port side.

First sand the side (one day) and then the next day, prime the areas - which turns out to be most of the port side. That took another day.

In between, he decided to work a bit on the broken railing. Because the railing is so bowed at the front, there is a stainless steel support under the wood - which needed to be straightened.

Pounding on a flat concrete edging worked quite well :-)

We're still hopeful that we'll be able to just replace the front 10 feet of the railing with a stainless railing but it's undetermined if the stainless guy Steve spoke with a couple of week ago is going to come through. After all, it's the Keys. And now it's the Keys after Irma which seems to be a whole new ball game!

The manatee have been in quite a bit lately - especially a really small one! Saying a manatee is small means it's 4 or 5 feet long and weighs in at about 100 lbs. The average adult manatee is 10 feet long and weights between 800 and 1200 lbs.

The one in the picture is easy to pick out anytime it comes to visit. It's name is Three Toes or Three Fins - depending on who you ask!

For more info about manatees, click here.

New Year's Eve was a nice night here at Banana Bay. The sunset as I looked west and the super moon rising as I looked east!

It's wonderful to see how quickly the palm trees have grown back. These 3 had no leaves left at all after Irma. Now just 3 1/2 months later, they are looking great!

Steve couldn't stand it the morning he woke up and there was NO wind! Off he and Flint went to try to repeat the last fishing trip under the bridge.

But no such luck :-(

Lots of catching but all except one mangrove snapper were too small. Plus the chum bag escaped by cutting it's line! Without chum, it's almost a hopeless case to attract the fish .....

Next time ....

This past Wednesday, it was finally time to return to the Clinic in Weston to see how my hand was doing. It's been almost 6 weeks since the surgery so I was hopeful that it might be time to ditch this splint!

We took the opportunity to drive to Ft. Lauderdale the night before so we could see the newest Star Wars movie - 3D IMAX - it was slow at the start (my opinion) but the finish was GREAT!! Worth the price of admission :-)




The visit to the clinic was great as well. The splint is history except I have to wear it at night for the next month - which is very easy to do. The bones need more time to fuse even more solidly together so once that happens I won't have to worry about turning over in my sleep and bending the thumb the wrong way!

It's amazing to me to see what's been done! The nice thing is getting copies of the x-rays means just stopping by the radiology department, filling out a form and 15 minutes later I walked out with a CD of all of the x-rays taken since last January. I guess this is probably done everywhere but it sure is nice.

In the meantime, Florida has also been affected by the cold front which is taking it's toll up north. We keep an eye on the weather in Ohio and parts north as some of our friends are still up there for the holidays.

The trip to the Clinic Tuesday was one of the nastiest days we've seen in a while. Very, very windy, rain and temps in the 50's (I know, I know - we're just spoiled for sure :-)  ). But it's getting better each day .......