Let us 1st apologize for being a year between posting on the blog here. Time goes by so fast and we’ve been so busy making time go by even faster.

The season of 16/17 in the Bahamas was our best year fishing, diving, tennis and so much more, Arline went back to the states twice to watch Gwen and Cal for 9 days each time to allow Amy to do some Air Force reserve work and Jeremy to do some traveling for work. Blue and I stayed on the boat.

Cal and Grams snowman

This guy had an 8 ft wing span and was around us for a while.

I watched a 110 foot sailboat get set as a dive spot (AKA Sunk) and then dove it three times. Everything worked fine on the boat, the trip home and putting Kasidah away was easy.

The summer of 2017 was Jae Bee’s busiest and best to date allowing us to buy a newer van and leave a bit early that fall and budget some work on Kasidah. Traveling south we stopped at the kids and grandchildren and my family in CT.

Now to the present, fall of 2017. 

We did a lot of work on Kasidah this fall as we did budget for it and needed several big things done. We unstopped the mast by hiring a crane and help from some other boaters we had that thing down in 17 minutes. From the time the crane pulled in and set the outriggers to the point that I paid him,…17 minutes.

Gayle and Julia two of my best and favorite go to and fix it boaters, Trust them more than you can imagine.  

I think it was 5 minutes at this point with out set up,...we were so ready!

I watched another mast come down by the pros that took over an hour. We are keel stepped and the step at the bottom of the mast was in bad shape. It is a 6” piece of steel I beam glassed onto the top of the lead keel. “?” 

The shoe, boot, step that the mast sits on and was reused, and the old steel piece in the background.

This is the old steel piece and the new piece

After I bought a new tool and cut it out we had a new one made from steel again. A sister boat did the same thing this fall and we stopped to see his job, he had one made out of Stainless Steel. That cost him a lot just for the Stainless Steel pieces. I thought if this steel lasted 40 years I’ll just do that again and for an 1/8th the cost, yeah I’m fine with that. Since nothing is level or square on a boat for the most part it was very nerving for me to get the thing back into the exact same location, and how close did it really have to be.

Installed new mast step and fresh paint

Very happy with the out come of this big project

While the mast was down it was time to update the standing rigging. At 1st I was going to hire somebody to do it so I didn’t have to worry about how it turned out. But a few things changed my mind, the company I thought about using had a reputation for being over time and budget. I’d heard stories where it was promised in 2 weeks which turned into 6 weeks and a thousand dollars more, pass on that thank you. I started calling a few shops in the area that did rigging and talking to a couple of other boaters that had done their rigging over. Some went to using mechanical or swagless fittings. Swagless fittings are very strong and you can make them up on the boat.

Closer look at the new fitting

Swagless fitting on it's way together

Old Swagged and wire on the left New stuff on the right,
See the Difference 

 They are very expensive, you can reuse them at the 10 year refitting again. Or we could have a shop just make swaged fittings with new wire copying the old rigging. Again I’m pretty sure the old rigging was well over 20 plus years old, notably over sized for our boat and life style, so again I’m good with that. Best deal around was to drive the old stuff to the Fort Lauderdale West Marine, were we have a discount card as a business, and do the swaged fittings. To top it all off, it was a 2 day turn around, and the shop has it’s own cell number that they actually answered and texted with commits and notes. There was a question after we left the shop and I was able to take a photo of the questioned area and text it back to him. I did have to use 2 of these swagless fittings to make up at the 2 rollers for the head and stay sail. Problem solved.

We are very very happy with West Marine work, product, expertise, and advice as there were a few changes to the rigging that I wanted to and had to make, it would be very technical and boring, trust me it would put you to sleep. The fittings are bigger, the wire is heavier and it was all perfect.

During the time we waited for the work on the mast step glass work to cure and other things to come in Arline wanted some of the nice new peel and stick tile in the head and Galley to brighten things up. The bathroom was easy so we continued to the area around the sink in the galley. The only little thing was that the faucet is very close to the wall and we really couldn’t just slide the sticky tile behind it,…so the faucet needed to come out. I always wanted a newer faucet that had a little height to it so that’s fine.

Some of the crap that had to come out 

New sink area is really stunning 

The faucet was not coming out because the sink is very deep and the old faucet fittings behind were 40 years old galvanized to copper…so the sink needed to come out. Of course new fittings for the drain would dress it up too as long as the sink is coming out that’s going to be easy. Have you ever done a sink and know about the bolts underneath that hold it down to the counter, well there are two that were buried in insulation around the refrigerator area, so that needed to be peeled away, Oh I’m doing this now. To get at all these screws I had to also take off and out the Alternator of the engine, the engine raw water strainer, the fresh water foot pump, the fresh water pressure pump, the regulator for the alternator, I also had an oil change pump under that needed to come out. While I was under there the platform that the pumps are on was rotted so I cut that out and put a new one in place and then just put the simple tile up and put everything back together. We started right after breakfast on one day and finished around noon the next day,….But it looks frigging GREAT!!

We changed several other things in the cabin, a picture here and there, the mast is now not Brilliant White in the cabin, we went with a soft brown to blend in with the colors below, and some flowery stencils with birds on it. We got rid of the furnace or heater that was hanging on the mast, not having it there really opened the area, we replaced it with a small catch all basket. I re-worked a brass ships bell which I loved but lost 4 minutes an hour and nobody could sleep with it running so I removed the German movement behind the face plate and installed a battery operated made in China movement behind it for 9 dollars .

Simple stickers on the mast add a warm touch 

There was some rebuilding and painting of lockers, Arline had to spend about a week on the wood on the outside of the boat, oh and our new cockpit table. During the month in the work yard you settle into a pattern with other boaters working on projects sharing meals, cocktails, and there was even this tree of knowage where you gather in the heat of the afternoon, beer and rum brought out the best of answers. We felt we did a lot of projects on the boat in the amount of time we were there. Some boats have a huge full refit and have been working hard for a year. One project turns into another and it goes on and on. Others been there for years and years, the maximum time we know of is SIX years in the work yard on the same boat, they’ll never go sailing I’m sorry to say.  Several, no many boats in the work yard just live there on their boat pretending to work on the boat as it’s still cheaper than rent anywhere with free electricity and WiFi. Unfortunately that makes for a backup trying to get into the work yard.

Gwen and Pop Jon shaking it up. 

Indiantown Marina puts on a hell of a party week leading up to Thanksgiving with food, band, and beer on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday nights plus a big Thanksgiving Day Meal of course with wine and Beer and a small dinner music duet. It’s been a few years since we stayed for one o these weeks but with all the extra work on Kasidah we were there. Plus Amy and Jeremy with their new lifestyle of living in an RV came and stayed at the marina in and RV site for a week of parties. Cal and Gwen had a great time and it really was great for them  to see the marina and all the people we talk about and make Kasidah float.

Thanksgiving Day

Cal and Gwen at Lion Safari Park 

We have, as of this writing, moved away from the marina and started our trip to the Bahamas,..We're in the Bahamas and had an adventitious crossing,....If you call the motor quitting in the Gulf Stream an Adventure then hang on for the next post.