Yacht Maintenance

It has been two weeks or so and as usual, maintenance on board Yacht Promenade is boring me to tears...although I do like the finished product. We made the decision to sit right where we are in Inner Harbour Roadtown, as it is flat and calm, and quite easy to get around and get work done. This is all supposed to translate to extra time to go out diving or something before charters start, but I will believe that when I see that...
Since over the years, we have had more then our share of charter guests who leave their cigarettes burning on the sink edges (yeah, there is supposed to be no smoking inside and I hate the ones who ignore me on it) we had to replace all the sinks. They are going to look like this and are quite pretty...


However, this is what they look like at the moment. Not so pretty. I almost regretted going down there to take a picture!


A couple of these sinks had countertops under them that we had not replaced when we did most of them a couple years ago, and since they looked like this ugly picture Bazza decided to go scour Tortola for new ones...


I am not sure what he came back with is any prettier then the old ones, in fact, the color may be uglier but he said my choice was that or pure white and since we live in the islands...at least it will be clean! I do think they have been sitting in the store here though as long as the old countertops were on the boat...

I am not sure what is worse, editing a billion pictures ad nauseam or cleaning..Lets just say that I am sick of both, so I thought I would take a little break and throw up a few pictures of the boat. At least I can sit in the air conditioning quietly for awhile.

Some of us are busy sewing trampolines...DAYS of sewing trampolines, trampolines that have been on the to do list forever, as we have to be flat and calm and not moving etc. The bit we get it down on charter does not do much..


At least Bazza was smart enough while we had an elder son here to get Felix and Chad to do them!


Bazza is busy himself, sewing all new rain guards for the cockpit. I don't envy him that task either!!


I am not sure who's department this is, but I think it is Felix's! Certainly not mine. All I could do was shudder///


And watch the pelicans...




The boat is coming together slowly but surely...Plan on giving felix a few days off this week and going diving once Chad goes home. Having help has been good!

The varnish begins on the yacht! My doors are getting sanded...



Don't look at the dirty boat, look at the water around and look closely at the step onto the aft. Bazza has put a new stainless steel fishing rod holder on it (how many do we need?)



I think we could just call it a knee breaker as that is what it looks like! Apparently they will not be on there all the time, only when needed and that is a good thing...

I am not too sure how clear this is, but they have painted and/or buffed and polished the entire sides of the yacht, except for right underneath the ama. The color difference where it is cleaned and where they stopped is quite remarkable I think!


Promenade back out at anchor at baughers when we came back from a dive yesterday evening...




Since we no longer have crew on board, it was time to turn the other crew room into a bed area for someone to be able to get at when we need it. This was the cabin that was totally blocked by all the dive gear and you could only get into by climbing through the hatch. Well for the first time in 14 years, you can get in it from the SCUBA room. I found out we have 19 practically new BC's on this yacht! How many people do I think I have diving?????


It has all been sorted and cleared out now and most of it gone away to the storage/workshop and we will ask guests what sizes they need in advance and just stick on board what we need for the week...Just keeping a few on board..


Of course that room needed a major cleaning, and we cleaned the carpets, but when we come back this summer we need to replace the carpets in there as well. They have water damage, and the crew cabins never had carpet replaced the last time we did the boat anyways.... (crew always get what is left over and the crew areas are never as nice as the guests!)

Imagine...one more time I have shiny sides on the yacht...We will see how long they last!




Not only do I have shiny sides but after epic searches on island looking for black silicone (BTW $28.00 in Golden Hind, $7.00 in a hardware store...) I also have new windows on both sides of the boat too!

Is in the beauty shop for the next couple weeks...Felix is busy working away on here, filling in her dings and dents on the sides, sanding and painting and then putting on new blue stripes and whatever....


She looks fairly tacky at the moment! I understand a trip to the dock in Little Harbour is in my near future so they can paint and also replace the side windows on the boat....


I'll cook...That is what I usually do when faced with tedious maintenance work on the boat!

What is better? Maintenance or charters? You judge!
The hatches on the yacht are in the middle of being rebedded and having new glass put in them. This is really a good thing. We will stop leaks again for a few years...
I am also getting some new sinks....


The bad part is that quite a bit of my yacht looks like this. At least they will all get cleaned nicely!


Not only new sinks, but new faucets and new separate shower faucets in some of the heads as well!! They look SO much nicer then the old ones that were so stained and melted and whatever else...


Connor apparently had the fun job of cleaning out the paint locker. He said he looked like Mary Poppins who kept on pulling things out of her bag, cuz believe it or not, all this came out of the tiny paint locker. I was amazed and shocked...Probably some of it is making it's way to the workshop.


The rest though, is going back in this little hole... I think my husband is a pack rat. He tells me he is not.

You never really notice quite how dingy they are until you paint them and then you are blinded (for the first week, until we drag suitcases across and drop scuba tanks)


Found a few random pictures on my computer that the guests had taken over the holiday season....still think my boat is pretty...with new paint is probably is brighter then the sun now!


And, of course, always a favorite...sunsets!




Just making our way onto dock at Village Cay to get ready for charter tomorrow. Billions of bottles of scotch and beer coming on as I type! Not much in the fruits and vegetable line though with all men coming on board next week. In fact, our next two charters is all men....

I am going to cross post this on the yacht promenade blog too, as really this is where these should be, but I know lots of people go to my personal blog to see what is happening on the boat...

Thought I would take a break from cleaning to put this up. Being Lazy this morning I think, and there is no time to be lazy on board this yacht right now.

My replying to personal emails is going to be slow for the next week, too busy trying to get this boat into some kind of living shape. The boys went out shopping while I cleaned on Monday, and Connor came back saying "you should see all the neat stuff we got" I ran upstairs to see all boy stuff, and cleaning products and a stereo. I was not nearly as thrilled as he was!


I did have a couple observations...I live on a boat. WHY do we have all these keys in the galley?? These are not house keys either!


Every single thing needs de molding de mildewing and de rusting. Next time, we leave a demudifier running! EVERY single piece of cutlery... Yeah, I am feeling arthritis in my hands again all of a sudden that I have not felt for a few months...


The boys did manage to get all 16 of their new batteries back to the boat. They were not very exciting either!!


Yesterday it was back into San Juan to pick up Pirate Girl Kim who is helping me out for the next month or two...Brave girl! She looks perky!


I left the boys to putting sails back on the boat....


Of course not only did I pick up Kim but I also managed to go shopping so we brought more stuff back to the boat.....


Connor, our fair headed deckhand, apparently did not spend too much time in the sun this summer in California as he is BEET RED. Said he was not going to get Bazza to put sun tan lotion on his back and then Bazza may want some on his hairy back!!!


Meet LUCY the cleaning lady as I call her now... We are both cleaning ladies. All the training we have done in our life and I scrub.


Did make an awesome dinner last night, kind of like philly steak and cheese sandwiches. Got to keep the cleaning crews strength up you know! I have a bit of a problem now with shopping and "easy food" and things like the food at Costco are no longer my favorite as so much of it is not "real food" but processed and salt and fat which I can't and don't eat any more. So much for a lot of "throw in the oven meals"

Also went to the large grocery store in Fajardo last night. Believe me the produce section was not Safeway! Quite disappointing. I will get used to it again, it will just take a bit....


Had to laugh at this jeep, as it is mostly hand made from the bumpers and fenders being wood, fiberglass for a lot of the body and an interesting wooden back seat too!









Anyways, quick entry and time to get back to work...

I think I can double post this from my own blog to the boats blog so everyone can see that although Promenade is tied up for Hurricane season, I am still doing my duty by buying many presents for it...


hen I went shopping for a cooktop. I needed one for the yacht. I, of course, thought I wanted something like this...with no ucky gas burners. Bazza thought I did NOT need something like that, as he said I would have to run the generator 24/7 whenever I wanted to cook anything. Not a problem in my world, although I certainly thought running around turning off other things to run the cooktop was not a great idea....



I thought if I could not have a Jenn Air, that maybe I could have something like this. It has spots for steam vegetables, a deep fryer and a grill. He added it up for me and said it was over $5000.00 I may get it for the house yet one day!!!!




This is about what i ended up with whether I wanted it or not, fairly boring run of the mill gas grill. Sigh. Oh well, at least I will have more then 2 working burners!


The laundry room is starting to fill up with boat stuff...The George Foreman Grill I bought for the boat as there are many times during the winter that grilling on the barbecue on the back deck is just a pain in the ass. Too much wind and too many seas. Bazza says he can live with it needing electricity for the times I need it!


This absolutely BEAUTIFUL piece of machinery is an ice machine that HOLDS 60 lbs of ice!! A true commercial one! None of this namby pamby 13 lbs storage like the one they bought on the boat this winter. Even for me with my blended drinks this should work well. AND it is no wider then the old one, although a lot higher..I am doing a happy dance over this....


Continuing on with boat shopping, these are the new lights for reading lights on the beds on the yacht.....


This is the new cockpit coffee table....


And these are the lights to replace all the flat lights that are on the celings...


These are the new sinks! Yes, I have done a bit of shopping. I think I really need to go back to work now to pay for it all...


Now, don't take this to mean that when you show up for YOUR charter in November that this stuff will all be installed! I have found out over the years that BUYING all the replacements and actually having them in place and working are two different things!

Having a pile of shiny brand new looking cockpit cushions....



And the puppy coming up with a look on his face and empty hands when he can find NO MORE to sew!!!!

Cross posted from other blog...

Perhaps...Interspersed with doing some medical appointments, getting blood work and doing "town" things.

One of the town things was turned in our work permits for renewal, and you would think I had never done this before, as although I had our cards on the papers, I had forgotten to "walk with" passport photo's so we had to track those down. Not as easy as you think as the first place we went to have all kinds of difficulties and it ended up finally with only me getting pictures and Bazza having to walk to the other place on Main Street.

Bazza has spent some time with electrolysis cleaning up the sword handle he found. It is very pretty underneath, and we assume it is quite old, and has a mark of R A with a crown on top of the R. Which I think would stand for Royal Artillery...but we will see!






Going into town early this morning from East End, I was met with several spots were sewage was gushing out on the road...Always pleasant! By mid morning crews were out digging out one of them.

Made Bazza stop to take a picture of these goats and sheep. Not sure if they were trying to fill themselves up with gas or get a ride in the boat!




Oh! There is the maintenance pictures...Bazza is on to making new covers for the cockpit cushions. They really need it. Although unwrapping the roll, we find, either they sent, or we ordered the wrong color, as it is quite a flat dark blue and we wanted more of a textured "hide the dirt" kind. There was no thought of sending it back though....


As you know, it is going to look fresh and clean unlike these disgusting old covers!


I don't have any doors at all in the aft of the boat. It looks quite weird to me and there appears to be a whole bunch more room in the cabins too!


The bathroom doors looked particularly grotty once they were taken off, but Felix is cutting new wood, and they will soon be all new shiny varnished doors with new hinges and locks!


5 degrees cooler in town this morning then it was yesterday... 92 yesterday, 87 today. That is much better!

Most of this is cross posted from my other blog...but not all, look at the bottom!
And the maintenance march continues on board...

Who knew ANYONE could fit into the garbage lockers on the aft quarterdeck? Certainly Bazza nor I cannot, but apparently Felix can! We will no longer have large holes going from the crew cabin to them to the delight of the crew and anyone else who sleeps in there now!

Bazza LOVES having Felix on board to help with the maintenance I can tell. He is thorough, conscientious and although not a speed demon, loves working on boats. Felix is from Dominica originally, but has been working in the BVI for a few years now on day sail boats etc. which are really slowing down this time of year, so it helps both of us out...


Bazza has this afternoon FINISHED going through every inch of the inside of the yacht. It has been scrubbed to within an inch of it's life.


I have to say that I have never seen these "spare tool" bins underneath the back beds been totally cleaned out before. And I think that was from long before we bought the boat in 1998! We did also manage to find a couple pairs of guests underwear down in these holes! Just in case you are missing yours...feel free to email me and describe them to get them back!


And finally, I am getting some new websites. This is a mock up of the new one for this website. I absolutely love it. Since we really don't tend to have tons of opening weeks to sell on Promenade, and especially now that Bazza and I have cut down the season and # of charters, this website I felt I could go more for a "prettier" picture as opposed to really light and SEO friendly etc etc. The layout, text throughout the page is not correct yet, I am mainly showing you the header that I love....


On other news, I am working at putting together a different type "package" for stay and sails... Which, for some reason, don't seem to be that popular in the BVI. Although, I hear from guests all the time that they have a person or two in their group who does not think they can handle a week on board, or they have a few too many for the boat alone. Traditionally, you stay on a boat for a few nights and then in a villa for a few nights. But what if you marketed it for the larger families and they had access to the boat and the villa for the week? Then those who wanted to NOT sleep on the boat could just do day sails, or they could switch around somewhat. More logistics and planning, but something that we could definitely pull off much easier now that we have the 25' power boat... Anyways, that is about what is going on in my world here...

I understand the cockpit cushion remaking starts tomorrow!

AND in a really YIPPEE moment, we found another almost full set of new curtains for the boat, so they don't need remaking this summer! My mother was glad to hear that as I was already giving her instructions for doing new ones....

Crossed posted from my other blog....

We have managed to make our way back to the dock. That can only mean that work is REALLY going to go on now. My boat looks like it too...

First on the list is the yearly end of season go right through the boat spring cleaning, throwing away everything that looks tacky, broken or like crap, making a list of what needs purchasing, fixing or, my favorite, buying!

I think that wine must be related to chicken parmesan somehow as they multiply. I am not quite sure how I have ended up with so many, filling up the galley and spilling over into the salon!


The last group did not leave me a lick of VODKA anywhere, but wine, hey, we are good. Considering we don't touch that stuff....


We had parts of the salon apart that had never been taken apart before in the old girls history. The shop vac is going full steam ahead, and every nook and cranny is cleaned, and sprayed in case any potential bugs thing they are going to show up....


Before we left Thatch yesterday, we did see a ferry with only one engine transfering people or crew onto the white ferry....No big drama.....


We have some new presents! Puppette/Bingo Bus got some nice whips to keep it off the side of Promenade. It will cut down on Bazza's fiberglass work fixing the side of Promenade substantially when it is alongside! Much nicer now....


We FINALLY after many years, have our VERY own dock cart! I will have to keep it chained in cement, but boy will it come in handy.....


And one of my happy pictures from this afternoon, the galley is getting cleaned and painted with a few little electrical things tidied up!


I am attempting to make a dent in paperwork. Some, I have not done since we arrived back on island in early April. Believe me it is beyond due!

Enjoying the pleasure the last couple days of getting to drive through the sewage spouting out of the manhole cover on the highway by the roundabout. That is pleasant. Imagine what the people smell waiting there for their rides out to East End!

My feet are throbbing and when I sit down on the galley floor to put away things it is hard to get back up again. In fact, I look up longingly wondering if I am ever going to make it up! But, 24 hours ago I was feeling panicky, stressed and all sorts on top of all that, and now, although tired, I think I will actually be able to make charter.

We installed cleats and chained and locked up our two new boats as much as we could on dock, as that is as close as this weeks guests are getting to see that we DO actually have new ones as we have no time to switch over tenders. We figure we can next week as we can leave the two tenders on dock for our maintenance guy, Felix, to swap over and just take the run around on charter as it will be easier to manage as a tender since Richard and Lisa, Bazza and I will all be there.

So, Cape Cod Pirates, our old dinghy may remind you of the old 30 year one you have at the lakehouse!


The princess is running around Puerto Rico shopping, drinking margaritas and I also hear rumors of casino's...We all do enjoy Puerto Rico very much. It is the "big city" after Tortola. Me, well, once I managed to get myself picked up off the floor I looked at my fridge to see what it was lacking and it actually at that time looked like a fair bit. So I did the normal yesterday afternoon and went to Bobbys, Cash and Carry, Riteway, and One Mart and walked up and down all the aisles. It was hard work, but I managed to catch quite a few things that filled the holes in the fridge quite nicely... I am sure there will be a couple trips to the grocery store this week. And I never did find any starbucks frappucino for my mocha frappucino's yet!!!!!!



Tonight our guests have a sleep over on the boat. That means we "kind of sort of" are supposed to be ready this afternoon, but as long as they have clean beds I am not too concerned! They took the fast ferry at noon today over from St THomas and the plan was to spend the afternoon shopping in Roadtown, having lunch at Pusser's etc etc, so we sent Conner in to town before deck cleaning duties to pick up all the luggage for them so they did not have to make two taxi trips back and forth with luggage. Here he is rolling it down the dock...I wonder if we could make any money by having "virtual holidays" guests send then luggage here, we take it around for the week and take pictures of it in various breath taking places??? Seems like it would be somewhat easier!



Now, remember that this group has BEEN on the boat before. In fact, they have been on the boat MORE then once!!! They told me that they have learnt and they pack light! I may want to question them what "light" exactly is as this does not appear to Conner to be too light. They said they had "gear" in there. Well, they are not SCUBA divers so I am not sure what type of "gear" they exactly have!




Bazza has been swamp dog busy since arriving on island. He just THOUGHT he was a kept man. Yes folks, he is STILL whining that he has not gotten a vacation! What does he think he was doing the last 4 months? Visiting relatives or something????

He replaced the membranes in the water maker yesterday afternoon, as water that was so salty that I could not even drink it, was not that handy. It is much better now. He was busy taking apart his ROV crate this afternoon, NOT because the ROV is coming on the boat quite yet, but because he had to get my housing for my camera and my SCUBA gear out of there!

Plus he had some electronic bits that he brought that he is busy filling up the office with now....


As an aside buried at the end of this post is the news that yesterday WAS a very busy day, as although Bazza said we could not buy anything else, apparently we COULD buy something else and Bazza and I have now bought BACK Yacht Promenade. You have got to know that a business is good when we buy it BACK! So, you can probably look forward to a Kerry and Bazza and Richard and Lisa owned and ran charter boat in the future if all goes according to plan...Unless of course someone else who might have an idea what is involved and what it entails to run a charter boat wants to buy a very good one?????

Yes, you will probably get more details then that at some point, but not this afternoon! We will let the coconut telegraph suck on that for awhile!