And the work goes on ...

Tuesday, March 28 -2006
We solved a few mysteries today.  We found the fuel tanks on the port side under the deck, behind galley walls.  I know, someone is reading this saying, "How can you buy a boat and not know this?"  and be somewhat legitimate.   This vessel had such a vague background, in the hands of a broker, and a seller didn't live locally anymore,  so information was pretty sketchy.  We understood we were pretty much buying "As Is". 

Scott has some experience commercial fishing along with being a builder, so I have confidence in his skills and our common sense to figure out what we need.  We've build three homes together so we are not afraid of a little hard work.  As we continue going through the boat we will discover what we need to know, get it in shape before launching. 

We continued to take the galley apart, pulled the fridge out of it's compartment and discovered it is a high end piece of equipment, AC/DC or propane capable like you find in most RVs.   It is now running, but we'll wait a couple days to see how it does and do some other wiring work behind there before reinstalling it.

We located the fresh water tanks and more fuel tanks behind galley walls on the starboard side along with the water  pump and heater.   It seems we have quite a large fuel capacity, nearly enough to get to Hawaii, but only 50 gallons of fresh water.  Any long distance cruising will require some water making equipment. 

It has been interesting to find out more and more about this vessel.  With our original goal only to be to find decent hull, even if we had to have it towed to Kodiak, we are realizing we have stepped into something considerably more than that.  We never expected engines, generators and galley equipment to be in such good working condition.   Different people stop by in the boatyard to talk, often saying that they had thought about looking at this boat, but didn't want to gamble on it.  They were often put off by not understanding the ferro cement, not sure if the mechanicals were any good, and most admitted they now regret not looking at it more seriously.   Others tell us how glad they are to see someone doing something with it. 

This boat sat in the boat yard for several years, so long, in fact, that the boatyard considered moving it out by the road and painting their name on it like a billboard!   When we go to the Gear Shed everybody wants to talk to us about it, ask about our plans, and say things like, "So you are the folks that bought the Mish Mish!" 

We have one spot that needs repair on the outside of the hull where water freezing in the bilge cause some damage.    

Scott started prepping the roof of the cabin to get ready to paint, repaired a few spots that were potential leakers, and I continued to chip away at the wood and epoxy on the deck.  I am finding it to be an entirely frustrating process - I wish it had failed completely, not in bits and pieces!

Wednesday, March 29-2006
We checked out all the bilge pumps (3) today, replumbed the galley sink drain  and hot water supply. 

More research at the Gear Shed about sealer and paint - this is going to be a big deal and more complicated than painting our house!  Just like aluminum boats, ferro cement cannot be painted with anything with copper content, so it looks like some sort of two part epoxy is going to be the ticket.

We found a commercial fisherman that worked a cement boat for several years.  He loved the boat, no problems with the hull, low maintenance and strong.   A crew member left the boat with the seacock frozen open.  At the end of the season, crew members run the boat to the harbor, dock, and jump off the boat without taking care of business!  In a hurry to get to the bar or home I guess!

Scott found out that he needs to be in Kodiak by April 17 for his job, so hopefully that will coordinate with our launch date.  The exhaust work needs to get finished up and good weather on the 13th and 14th.  We have our slip arranged in Kodiak so we know where we will tie up when we get there.

Thursday, March 30, 2006
No big surprises today, more work at projects already going.  The weather is really cold and windy and the forecast is not looking too good for a couple days.  That will slow down the paint preparation!

Friday, March 31, 2006
Oh yeah, snow blowing sideways.  We are hoping this is winter's last fling but you never know.  It is early to be expecting full out spring since we are in Homer after all!  Back to finding a project below decks.

Moisture and no heat has played havoc with woodwork, doors and drawers, so Scott has had some refitting to do.  Of course, you have to do this carefully or your repairs and changes could turn out to be blunders when things dry out- things that are too big/don't close now will be too small and won't latch when they dry out!

He adjusted the hatch to the head - this door is an example of the silly things that please me so about boats-  the efficiency of things that have more than one function!  It is positioned so that swinging one way it is the door to the head, swing and latch it the other way and it closes off the aft cabin.

The sole of the forward cabins was built with untreated lumber, so it has rotted and needs to be replaced.  While we have the dumpster handy we tore that out in addition to any other woodwork that we plan on replacing.  Stripping all this out gives us a good look at structure, holds and bilges which is a good thing, but it leaves us "walking the plank" laid over supports to get across those areas! 

Saturday, April 1-2006
No snow or wind today but rather cold.  The sun peaks out, then jumps back behind a cloud "April Fool"!  We got more interior work done, adjusting cabinets and the hatch over the engine hold.

Sunday April 2-2006
We moved aboard today from Alice's place.   We'll have to use our port-a-pottie, haul water for cooking and drinking and take showers at the laundromat.   At the end of the day I crawled up in my bunk happy as a clam!  It took me a while to quit grinning and fall asleep!

Cold but no precipitation, the roof Scott repaired dried out enough to get a coat of sealer and paint on.  Forecast for tomorrow is for more showers so we need to take advantage today to get what we can painted.

I went through all the paperwork we found laying around, manuals for various pieces of equipment, etc, and organized it all.   Good times for me!  A day spent with my labeler organizing something is a great day! 

I am realizing though how nice it will be to be tied up to the dock.  Every time we  get on or off the boat, everything we carry on or off means a trip up and down the 12' ladder that just barely reaches the deck.  That gets pretty old for someone like me- a little clumsy with marginal balance skills just recovering from acoustic neuroma (brain tumor) surgery!  One arm/hand for what you are carrying, one hand for the ladder.  How nice it will be to simply step off onto the dock! 

I started working on the front section that is basically a tool room with a chain locker.  Drawers and cabinets are overflowing with miscellaneous tools, supplies, parts, fittings, who knows what!  Some of it will be useful, some of it will get tossed into the dumpster.

Port and starboard side, still more buoys!

Monday April-2006
We set out to power spray, scrub and prepare for paint but they never delivered the water truck, so we had to change plans.  Scott worked on electrical - there are mysteries to be solved there!  The old fuse box is unlabeled so it is by trial and error to get that figured out - flip on the breaker, see if you hear anything, try a light - that kind of process.  After discoveries are made I whip out my label maker and get those buggers marked!   Scott also got our running lights and anchor light working.

Our rudder was frozen in position so Scott worked on loosening that up - the hydraulic guy is coming tomorrow a.m. to check the leak in the cylinder that we are expecting to need rebuilding. 

That 12' rudder hadn't been moved in 10 years!

My job continues as the go-fer, hold this, bring that, find this, find something else, then cook dinner.

And the work begins...

Friday, March 24-2006
Scott started going through the electrical system and did a lot of carpentry work today adjusting doors, rebuilding steps and access to the engine.  I kept hauling junk topside to be tossed when the dumpster arrives.  This doesn't sound like a lot, but it was a busy, productive day.

Saturday, March 25-2006
We woke up to a light snow this am.  It didn't last long and was melted off by the end of the day.  We've been fortunate with weather so far.  I kept pitching stuff "overboard" into the dumpster.  We started ripping the teak off the deck and that is proving to be a real pain.  Some places the adhesive epoxy did worked and held, which will cause us problems. 

By the end of the day we were cold and tired.   I headed straight for bed - not a peep from me nearly 10 hours later.  God bless Alice for the electric blanket on the bed, what heaven!

Sunday, March 26-2006
I had a hard time getting out of bed this morning, it felt so warm and comfortable, but once we got moving it was OK.  We headed back to the boat and decided the first project was making someplace to be able to eat. 

In sorting through piles of junk in the aft cabin we figured out that the support for the center section of a lower bunk could also be the dinette table top.   We went over to the local marine shop, Kachemak Gear Shed, found the pedestal leg we needed, Scott did his magic, and ta-dah! we had a table.   No more balancing our meals on our laps.  Funny how small things feel like a luxury! 

This picture was taken later, after we unpacked our personal things, finished cleaning, and set up the bunks - it all cleaned up nicely!

The rest of the morning and all day we spent melting and chipping ice out of the bilge under the engine.  This had accumulated from water leaking in for the roof above and the hatch being left open.  Scott spent the best part of the day on his stomach reaching under the engine with hammer and crowbar, then vacuuming with the shop vac.  He would hand buckets of ice or the tank from the vac up to me to dump over the rail.  Many trips up and down the companionway ladder! 

Later in the day I took a few buoys topside to sit in the sun and mark them with our new name - tough job but somebody had to do it!   My plan was to continue doing my stained glass work aboard in the tool room after we got the boat moved to Kodiak so I wanted to change the name from Mish Mish (which I didn't understand anyway!) to Sea Glass.    I know I fly in the face of tradition by changing the name of a boat, but I'll take my chances with Davey Jones and King Neptune!

Monday, Mar 27-2006
A beautiful day today! We got to the boat to make breakfast and discovered that our supply of 10 year old  propane had finally run out. 

After running to McDonalds we bought and filled new propane tanks and went back to work.  Scott pulled out more ice and opened up a couple more section of the bilge.  He found a bladder tank that at first we thought it might be our fresh water tank.   After opening it up we discovered our error - stinky waste tank!  Okay, so we are inexperienced, now we are literally green! 

Moving forward from the wheelhouse is a general living space that will eventually be our livingroom, or "salon" in proper terminology.  It is unclear what had been the intention of previous owners - some odd carpentry of walls, what looked like maybe the beginnings of a bench and bunk filled the space but nothing really usable.  Scott tore out the existing work, saving wood that we might be able to reuse, some of it nice sections of oak. 

I returned to removing teak on the deck - a project that is proving to be larger and more difficult than expected.

We cooked our first real meal aboard tonight - baked chicken and potatoes in our galley and ate our our new table!   What fun, and it smelled so good while it was baking!

OK, you bought the boat, now what?

I mentioned before - we spent all winter researching ferro cement, found some information, but we were far from confident.  Almost everyone we talked to had nothing good to say whether they really knew what they were talking about or not.  So many factors could be discouraging - a lot of work, unknown engine issues, no electronics or navigation, and we really didn't have a clue what we were doing. 

Our goal was to find a liveaboard, and the only way we could work toward that was the hard way, with a project boat that would need a lot of work, so here we are.  Put up or shut up!

We wrote the check, signed the papers - still not all that certain, but blundered ahead anyway.  Strangely enough, as soon as the check was written it became a lot less stressful.  The deed was done, the decision was made, now we just had to deal with what we had  done!

My sister's mother-in-law, Alice, took in a couple beggars and let us stay in a building next to her house that had a bedroom and bath.  It was more like her quilting shop area but it was a Godsend.  We weren't sure how long it would be before we could move aboard, or if the boatyard would even allow that.

Thursday, March 23-2006
Good news today, the mechanic put in a fresh battery and the  145 hp Volvo Penta  and 5kw Northern Lights generator started just like brand new!  They were stored well, the previous owner had put them to bed with every intention of working on this project himself, so he did it right!  I have a new found love for all things diesel!  Who would have thought such a miracle possible after sitting that long. 

The Dickenson boat stove lit up, propane cooktop and oven lit up all as if it had been used regularly - we finished burning up the propane on board that was probably 10 years old.  The only thing we didn't have success with was the Toyo cabin heater and refrigerator.  We'll investigate those issues later.  The mechanic told us the engine and generator were both high end equipment, worth nearly $16,000,  almost four times what we paid for the boat!   Our original goal was just to find a hull that would stay afloat, so this is all gravy to us.

I shoveled the snow off the deck, piled up junk, and tomorrow a dumpster will be set up next to us so I can pitch it all overboard.  I might start ripping the failed teak off the deck.  Our plan is to skip the fancy deck and paint the surface with a nonskid product.   If I don't want to be a slave to keeping house, I sure am not going to sign up to slave over a huge wooden deck to maintain!

We gained a little confidence with the good news today, and we are getting ready to carry on with some small repairs to the hull and paint.  This is only our first day but it was an encouraging day.  It will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings!

Love at first sight...uh,...

Wednesday, March 22-2006
We drove to Homer this morning, stopped to check in with the broker, then headed over to the boat in the yard at Northern Enterprises. This was the moment of truth. We had already made a small deposit to show our intent, but in reality we could still back out.

It seemed smaller to me than what I had imagined, and it was in a lot rougher shape than expected. I walked through, examining every little thing, not knowing or understanding everything there is to know about boat stuff, but I did know there was a lot of junk piled everywhere and a lot of doors and drawers that did not fit or close due to the cold and humidity.

  

Snow was piled on the decks, and the last person to be on board had left the sliding hatch over the companionway open so there was a pile of snow inside as well, warping the doors over the engine compartment. A canvas dodger had deteriorated and torn so it was rather dilapidated. Under the pile of collapsed canvas was more junk piled up - scraps of teak, broken gas cans, rusted tools, --dumpster class junk. Strips of teak glued to the deck with epoxy had come loose in many places warping and bubbling up. 

The layout was typical of most, I guess, the dining area & galley, head/shower in the aft cabin, wheelhouse just forward of that, general undefined living space next, then a cabin with four bunks, then finally a tool room and chain locker.

 

In the galley was a nice oven and stove top, refrigerator, sink - all in good working order. There were two benches configured in a dinette formation, but no table. The aft cabin was well built, some nice shipwright work done in oak, but the rest of the boat was rough carpentry and rotten floors. This landlubber had to learn that floors are "soles", walls are "bulkheads", and beds are "racks, bunks or berths". Oh well.

I could tell Scott was trying to keep a positive outlook, but was noticeably quiet until I surveyed everything. He knew I really wanted a boat. Everything was a mess, there was a guy living on it for a while and when he was fed up with the project he just walked off.  Junk everywhere!   I still wanted to go ahead with it, I could see possibilities even though I was wrestling with myself wondering if I was being plain stubborn or afraid that if we didn't do this thing right now we might never get this close again. 

OK, truth time - what I love the most are the portholes in the aft cabin!  Pirate ship stuff!  

I have no idea why the original name was Mish Mish, could be a name of an area in northern Lebanon, a clothing line, a collection of random items, there is a collection of fine art that shows up when searched, but who knows.

How it all started...

Hello, my name is Debra, and this is a story of a pair landlubbers (my husband and myself) and our adventures aboard the M/V Seawolf. With very little real knowledge of engines, absolutely no shipwright skills, and subscribing to the philosophy of "if you can't tie a knot, tie a lot", we blundered ahead anyway. Here's how it all began...

We started talking about buying a boat while visiting my sister in Haines, AK during the summer of 2002. A friend of theirs had his commercial crab boat for sale at a steal of a price, but the timing wasn't right, our money wasn't right, and in reality, the boat wasn't right either. It was little more than a pipe dream. The boat sold to someone else and we went on with other things.

We are always full of hair brained ideas, but the idea of living aboard had taken root and began to grow. I read a great book Escape from Someday Island, subscribed to Live Aboard magazine, and in general drove Scott crazy. Over the next few summers we spent many afternoons and evenings walking the docks, buying several boats in our minds, weighing the pros and cons of power vs. sail, old vs. new, project vs. turnkey. We looked at old seine boats, crab boats, steel boats, wood boats, fiberglass boats tugs, sailboats, even an old landing craft! In the end, we always came back to reality - we couldn't afford any of the ones that were remotely appropriate. I started searching on line for ideas and possibilities. I drove Scott crazy with my "look at this one" or "I found this..". It soon became clear that a project boat was the only possible option for us. We were short on cash but long on spirit, carpentry skills (for houses, not boats- big difference!) and enthusiasm.

On Alaska Boats & Permits website I found a 54'x16' ferro cement sailboat (no mast, no sail, no rigging of any sort), listed as a great live aboard project. It was 20 years old, had been in the water barely 10 of those years. I didn't have a clue what I was looking at, never even knew boats could be made out cement. I didn't mention it to Scott because I didn't know if it was even something to consider. The story behind her was that a father/son were building a boat to sail around the world, the dad had a heart attack, she was sold to a couple that was going to finish the work and sail around the world, they got divorced, sold again, the luster faded for the next owner, and then she sat the remaining time in the boat yard. It was 4 years later before we found out she was built by a shipyard in Anchorage.

A couple weeks later Scott and I were a his company picnic, and while eating, the talk soon turned to boats. Scott was telling the guys how we were shopping for a boat and another fellow (Tim) started talking about an internet site where he saw a great boat we should check out. As he continued to describe it, I soon realized he was talking about the same boat I saw earlier and decided I would show it to Scott later. We checked into that one and a few others in the area and at different points became interested and excited about each of them.

Eventually I nagged Scott into looking at the one I found on the internet and we decided to investigate it a little more seriously. The problem was it was in Homer, we were in Kodiak, and we knew absolutely nothing about ferro cement. We had no idea what the condition of the hull and even though the engine and generator were both very low time, we didn't really know what shape they were in after sitting in the boat yard for 10 years. Scott and Tim hopped on the ferry for Homer one Friday to go take a look. Later we made what we thought was a ridiculously low ball offer, to be surprised when it was accepted!

At this point, I still had not actually seen the boat - only the pictures posted on line and the few Scott took on his trip. When we called the boatyard in Kodiak to make arrangements to haul out for work we wanted to do, the yard owner wanted nothing to do with the boat and had nothing good to say about ferro cement. Pigs were going to fly before he was going to put that thing in his yard! Apparently other folks had put their boats up there, got discouraged, didn't know what to do with the cement and abandoned them, leaving the boatyard to dispose of them. Disposal of a concrete boat is no small thing apparently! This caused us to have 2nd and 3rd thoughts, our feet froze, and we cancelled the deal. It was late in the summer and nearly time for us to leave Kodiak for the season so the whole boat dream was put on the shelf. I was so disappointed about getting all revved up then shut down, I didn't even want to talk about it anymore.

Over the winter we kept thinking, reading, researching what we could find on ferro cement (there wasn't a lot out there!). We found one book written by someone considered to be the leading expert on the subject, but after all was said and done information was still sketchy. A lot was left to our interpretation, but eventually the dream won out and we made the offer again and it was accepted, again. I still had not actually laid eyes on this beast yet, but somehow I was convinced it was for me! I found one other person listed as an expert in this field and emailed him, but did not hear back. Scott and I headed up the Al-Can Highway for Alaska that spring, earlier than ever before on March 13, 2006, and seven days later we were on our way to Homer to see what we had done!

Tuesday March 21-2006 We arrived in Anchorage today, did a few errands, tomorrow we will head to Homer - then I will see this boat for the first time! The hotel we are at is very close to a shipyard where another boat is located that we also found on the internet, but had ruled out, so we drove over to take a look in person. It turned out to be a confirmation for me that we weren't overlooking anything by setting this one aside. It was a 42' steel schooner, nice, but doesn't really fit what we have in mind. When we returned to the hotel I checked my email and was surprised to see a response from my email requesting information from a leading ferro cement expert. It turns out that the man I tried to contact had passed away last fall and his widow was going through his things and found our communication. She passed along some contacts for us that might be helpful. I am so excited, I can't wait to talk to them. A friend of Scott's from his commercial fishing days, (Mike B.) lives in Anchorage and dropped by to see us for a minute. He has an friend in Australia that has a ferro cement boat and has sailed it around the world and loves his boat. This was one of the first direct contacts we have had that didn't make us feel like idiots and that we were making a huge mistake!