Getting Spray shipshape

Bill had a fairly intensive job over the past two years, and apparently is poor at multitasking, so Spray sat neglected 'on the hard' near the top of our driveway, inadequately covered by a tarp and inhabited by mice and squirrels.  By the time she was launched this summer she had mold and mildew issues indoors, and some wood rot areas both inside and out.  Furthermore the berth cushions had been left inside and these were moldy and mildewed.

So to make Spray habitable we needed to scrub down her interior, coat many storage areas with special mold 'encapsulation' paint, repaint exposed areas, and find and repair small areas of rotted wood.  Berth cushions had new foam ordered and covers laundered.  Curtains removed and laundered. The salon headliner was replaced with a new more sound absorbing type.  Soundproofing underlayment was added to the salon floor and 'beautiful' carpeting put over that (not so beautiful in Sheila's opinion).  And on and on.

 

Then we had to select what gear and provisions to bring along and try to fit it all aboard Spray.  I'm not sure why, but 2 people/2 dogs apparently need 4 times the gear as 1/1.

In all of this work, our different styles became apparent.  Sheila is much more thorough and methodical about these preparations than I (I would pack using a pitchfork), and I had difficulty being patient.  Nevertheless we survived the ordeal, even though it took 2 weeks longer to get going than I had hoped and even though we don't yet have a good place to store everything aboard yet (the forward stateroom is one big storage locker right now).

So we are finally underway.  Spray still needs lots of maintenence work, mostly on her exterior, and we'll be tackling that as we cruise.  Speaking of cruising, the next blog entry covers our escape from Castine.