Sunday, October 15 – Saturday, November 17, 2017
KATIE MACK had no working head and no running water, but the marina’s facilities were perfect: head, shower, and laundry. We highly recommend Yankee Marina and Boatyard for all your boating needs! By Monday, Hugh had the filtered water running so I could cook aboard, and Annie let us know when she needed to go ashore. She didn’t want to use the astro turf, even with a “pre-scented” puppy pad — this training will prove to be interesting, I’m sure!
More stuff moved aboard from the cottage and Six River Marine — where will it all go?
What a wonderful surprise to see that KATIE MACK’s relaunch made the front page of Maine Coastal News. This is great advertising and promotion for Six River Marine!
The late October days were unseasonably warm, and nights were cold. We slept better than we had for years! Our alpaca duvet kept us toasty warm despite frosty nights. Chilly mornings were warmed up with the Shipmate woodstove. It took me a few tries before I could start it without setting off the smoke alarm, but at least it worked and I learned how to turn off the alarm. Tim Carolan of Marine Electronics spent several days finishing hooking up various safety alarms and the wifi booster, Mark the diesel mechanic got the engine purring, and Chip and Scott of Six River Marine came by to work on the final punch list. As the seams swelled, the bilge pump slowed from every 5 minutes to 20 minutes, and then several hours.
Sea trials commenced on the 27th, when Hugh, Scott and Chip did some effective troubleshooting on the engine that was slipping from Forward to Reverse and skipping neutral! The next day they noticed a problem with the stuffing box, but at one point it “shimmied” itself into position. Once the drip was adjusted, it behaved perfectly and the bilge pumps hardly went off at all.
When the rains finally came, we placed buckets where the drips were. The big one over my berth, meant we simply taped a tarp overhead. By the 29th, the winds were picking up, so we moved off the Six River Marine pony dock back into our original slip at Yankee, topped up water and batteries, added extra lines, sealed a few more seams with Sikaflex, and poured Captain Tolley’s Creeping Crack Cure into as many tiny cracks as possible. It is thinner than water and works by capillary action: once it is drawn into the cracks, it hardens and seals them.
What a storm! While we experienced a few 60 mph gusts, we were just fine. Actually, we fared better than those in town as trees were blown down on homes and cars, blocking roads everywhere, taking power lines with them. When the storm was over, more homes and businesses were without power across Maine than during the Ice Storm of ’98. Luckily the temps were above freezing this time.
Once we got everything dried out (thanks to Ginny and her dryer!), Sea Trial #3, with Scott, Chip, and our friend, Rob aboard, was deemed a success. After dinner, we tested the shower — worked like a charm, and the shower curtains that Janie shortened were just perfect!
What a great day for Sea Trial #4 on Wednesday the 1st, with Matt Murphy, editor of WoodenBoat Magazine. He loved what we’d done with KATIE MACK, and wanted to write an article about the restoration. Of particular interest to Matt was how Chip and Scott decided to install the new oak frames in between the old ones first, then remove the old planks one by one by using the oscillating saw to cut through the old frames, and replace them with new planks. A painstaking job, but it maintained the integrity of the shape of the hull.
The next several days were spent cleaning out the rental cottage, and putting things into final storage in Portland or temporary storage at Six River Marine.
Our final sea trial was with Karen Stimpson, who lives aboard M/V JUNIATA, the 1929 Consolidated Industries commuter “playboat” at Chandler’s Wharf I’ve mentioned before. We made our way down the Royal River, past Chebeague’s west shore, around Clapboard, and back to Yankee Marina on a rising tide.
One thing we have started to do, as recommended by John Harries, who writes the Attainable Adventure blog (MorgansCloud.com), is to use the spring line as a fulcrum for arriving at a dock. It is the first line I secure as I hop onto the dock, and it secures the boat quickly from moving forward or back — this maneuver really surprised and impressed our friend Skip the other day as we came in to the fuel dock between 2 vessels. I think the skippers of the 2 vessels were a little impressed, too. The other thing we do is use Sena “marriage saver” headsets: we can speak to each other in normal tones. No hollering as we come in to entertain the marina’s peanut gallery.
Finally, we were ready to haul KM out and have her wrapped up on the hard for winter, while we headed west, first to Louisville, KY to visit our son, Charlie, and his fiancee, Kyle, and then to spend Thanksgiving with my mom, sisters, cousins, nephews, and our son, Bob, in California.
Here she is after the first snowfall.