Living Aboard Sleepy Dragon

Friday, May 5, 2017

Slowly but Surely

It takes alot to convert a boat to a comfortable liveaboard boat. Harthrob is a Searay 380 Aft Cabin. It was pretty much designed to set at a dock plugged into shore power or have the genset running. There are only two opening windows in the main salon and they only opened about 9". The port in the aft cabin only opened about 3". Clearly the builders expected you to run the genset if you were away from the dock. When you are living aboard you can't run the genset 24/7 so we had to make some modifications to be able to live on this boat year round in the Keys. The first thing we did was to install a small 5,000 btu air conditioner in the aft cabin. The little Honda generator that we have will run this unit at low idle. We had an unusual night last night in that it was dead calm and the mosquitoes were out in force (very rare for here). So I closed up the boat and turned on the AC. We had to turn it down I think you could have hung meet in there it was so cold.

Next I decided to make the center portion of the windshield able to open. Lots of boats have this feature. It took longer than I thought to do it, but it was well worth the time. The amount of air that comes in is amazing. Who knows maybe by the end of the summer all three will open.

Another project that I started on was access to the aft deck from the water. Since we live on a mooring we always board the boat from the stern after tying the dingy up to the swim platform. Originally there was a ladder that went 5' straight up to the aft deck from the swim platform. It was a real pain to climb not to mention bringing home groceries. I had seen a couple of boats similar to ours that had steps built to make it easier to board. I priced building the frame out of stainless steel and aluminum. $600 for aluminum vs. $1,500 for stainless. I made them out of aluminum. I am going to enclose the bottom of the stairs with starboard (plastic plywood) and that will be the future home of the generator, water jugs, and propane bottle for the grill. But alas it all takes time (and money).

Leaving Little Shark River on the way down to the Keys.

Almost to the Keys.

Ladder from the swim platform to the aft deck. I have plastic over the A/C to keep debris out of it while I was cutting materials on the aft deck above it. I have since painted it black so that it does not stand out as much.

New stairs replacing the ladder. Yes I know it looks messy with all the junk but when I am done it will look nice and be very functional.

Much easier to board the boat.

I just finished this project yesterday and it is so nice to be able to open up and get some air moving through the boat.

It rained today and marvel of all marvels it did not leak when it was closed. It leaked pretty bad until I shut it.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Let There be Light

One of the first things that needed to be done was to install solar panels for recharging the batteries. I am glad to say that job is now complete. I installed two 340 watt panels on the hard top and a Morningstar MPPT controller. I think this will take care of most of our electrical needs.

Hard top over the aft deck.

I love it when a job is finished.

The other day we were anchored near Islamorada and this floating Tiki bar with an outboard passed us. Life is rough in the Keys.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

I'm baaaccckkkk

We are back in Boot Key Harbor and loving it. It has been awhile since I posted anything but life has been busy and full. We brought the new boat down to the Keys a couple of weeks ago. We spent the first week anchored out up by Islamorada and then moved down to Boot Key Harbor in Marathon. It is so good to be back in Boot Key. Sharon and I both felt like we were finally back home once we arrived. It is taking alot to get the new boat into liveaboard condition but we are getting there. I am currently working on getting the solar panels mounted and wired up. It took me 4 years to get Walkabout fully liveaboard ready and convenient, and then we sold her. I hope it does not take me that long on this one. I have promised God, my wife, and myself that once she is done I will not sell her.

Anchored out close to the 7 mile bridge.

On mooring C-15 in Boot Key Harbor.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

New Boat

We just bought a new boat, well new to us. It is a 1989 Sea Ray 380 Aft Cabin MY. It is still in the Fort Meyers area. I hope to bring her down to the Keys in a week or two. We are having some work done on her before the trip down. I don't have many pics yet but will post some as soon as I get more.

Monday, December 19, 2016

Having a Ball

We are finally out of the boatyard and back in Boot Key Harbor in Marathon. The trip from Key West to Marathon went very smoothly. I was a little worried about it as the boat had not been in the water for at least two years if not three. The trip only took three hours. 520 HP will get you there in a hurry (of course at a price). The harbor is full. We were on a waiting list for five days to get a ball, but we finally got one and how sweet it is. It is nice to feel the boat swinging on a cool evening breeze. We are sleeping in a Vee berth again with a hatch right above our heads and the cool breeze at night feels better than air conditioning. Even though it is almost Christmas it is still in the mid 80s every day with a low in the mid 70s at night.

We started out living on a boat in 2010. That was a 25' sailboat named Morgan. It was tight, very tight. We then bought Island Queen which we later renamed Walkabout. She was a 36' trawler. We thought we were in a mansion. Now we are on a 29' power boat. Although she is much bigger than Morgan, she is no Walkabout. It is taking some getting used to living in such a small space again. But we are enjoying life, that's the main thing.

Amazing Grace at the fuel dock on Stock Island.

Walkabout could not do that.

Underway to Boot Key.

Docked in Marathon waiting for a mooring ball.

So nice to be on a mooring ball again.

Another beautiful evening in the harbor.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Home

Well, it has been a long time since I made a post. Actually way too long. This was a hard post to name since it has been so long and so much has happened. I will try to catch you up on the happenings of the disorganized unpredictable adventurous life that we live. I named the post "Home" as I finally feel we are home (well almost). We are in the Florida Keys, Key West to be exact. We love the Keys. Boot Key harbor in Marathon to Key Largo. If you have been following along you know that we sold our big (big to us) boat a 36' trawler and bought a 30' motorhome and a 29' power boat with the plan to spend about six months a year on each one. We spent nine months and 11,000 miles in the motorhome. We traveled out west and had a great time. We visited all five national parks in Utah and had a great time catching up with friends and made some new ones along the way, but in the immortal words of Dorthy there is no place like home and the Keys are truly home to us.

We are at 3D boatyard working on "Amazing Grace" out 29' Wellcraft Express Cruiser. Hopefully we will only be here for a week (I planed on five days and hoped for three). Things are progressing well and I think weather will determine our departure day more than how much I get done. We bought this boat with the idea of it being a seasonal boat but I can not imagine leaving the keys again. With that said we plan on selling the motorhome and buying a bigger boat then selling this one. So plenty of changes coming up.

I will try to do a better job of updating the blog. Since July I worked about seven weeks in Calgary and a month in Jacksonville with hurricane Matthew but I think my work is over for awhile so it will be easier to keep the blog up to date.

We are able to park the motorhome next to the boat while we work on it (sweet).

We were in West Marine and I saw these boat fenders. I asked Sharon if I could get some ( you can't have too many fenders). She said no. Women just have no sense of humor.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Five National Parks

We are currently in Sacramento California visiting family. We have had a good time on this trip out west but it has been really hot. While in Utah we visited five national parks, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, and Zion. Amazingly all were unique, no two looked the same. I would have to say that if one only had time to visit two it would have to be Zion and Bryce Canyon.

Bryce Canyon was beautiful and we hiked down Navajo loop trail. It is one of the most beautiful hikes I have done. Zion was a beautiful drive and included a 1.1 mile tunnel through a mountain. We camped on BLM land near both parks for free.

From there we went to Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam. It was my first time to see ether. Hoover Dam was pretty interesting. Vegas was one of those "seen it once, don't ever need to go back" things. I guess I was quite naive. I thought well I will get 1 roll of pennies, one of nickels, and one of dines. Go into a casino and play the slots until my $7.50 was gone, keeping the wins separate. Then see what I was left with. Little did I know the slot machines no longer accept or give coins. Now it is all paper tickets. No fun, so I think I spent $2 before we left.

We did go to "The Fremont Street Experience" which had a great light show but it did not take long to figure out this was the "Key West" part of Vegas.