The inaugural sail itself went very well.  My crew consisted of my parents and Riley.  The weather was quite fair but the winds were light and variable.  However the outboard motor proved to be more than sufficient to overcome the woes of Knoxville sailing.  The idle speed alone on the 6hp motor was enough to keep the boat in a gentle cruise, slow enough to enjoy the beautiful fall colors in the hills surrounding Lake Loudoun.  The major hangup we experienced was getting the boat back on the trailer.  I’m not sure exactly how the previous owners trailered the boat originally but despite all our best efforts we could not manage to pull the boat all the way forward to its original position.  I think this problem stems from two deficiencies in the trailer itself.  First of all the winch is mounted on the trailer itself instead of up on a post.  This is important for a couple reasons.  First of all the winch hook attaches to the bow high up on the boat itself, I’d say approximately 3 feet up from the keel.  Therefore, when the winch is used to pull the boat up onto the trailer, the force is directed downward into the trailer itself.  After a certain point, the winch provides less forward force and much more downward force, essentially burying the bow into the carpeted bunks and making any more forward motion impossible.  This being said, you cannot release the winch because the boat will slide backwards off of the trailer as you’re pulling it out of the water.  All in all, this reverse-engineered bass-boat trailer struggles to accommodate a Catalina 22.  Another frustrating consequence of this system is that the balance point of the boat does not make it all the way forward of the trailer’s wheels and thus any extra weight on the stern causes the trailer to want to tip backwards without blocks under the rear portion of the trailer to support it.  This we learned the hard way when a friend of mine from work and I attempted to unhitch the trailer from my truck without the proper blocks in place in front of the wheels (not that we’re that stupid, we just forgot).  The trailer tipped backwards and started to roll forward.  Luckily, our combined manly brawn was able to stop the boat and trailer and prevent the near-disaster.

Another deficiency in the trailer may be more due to the shallow launch ramp but does seem to be a common problem experienced by trailered sailboat owners.  The trailer does not go sufficiently deep enough in the water on the ramp before my truck’s exhaust pipe touches the water.  This also contributes to the above mentioned complications.  Getting the boat off the trailer is not as much of a problem as gravity and a hearty shove seem to do the trick, but retrailering is definitely an issue as we just discussed.

The solutions?  Experienced trailer sailors I’m sure are probably already banging their heads against the wall at this point.  I will be upgrading the trailer with a 48″ post and bow-stopper on which to mount the winch up high, so the vector of the force applied on the bow is forward and slightly up (to guide the bow onto the bow roller).  This upgrade will be fairly inexpensive.  The second step will be to purchase an extendable trailer hitch for launching.  After pricing this out from available online vendors, a 9′ extension (which seems adequate for a 22 footer on a relatively shallow ramp) will be a bit more expensive.  All told, however, this will likely be much less cost-prohibitive than buying a new custom trailer.  The rest of the trailer including the newly upgraded wheels seem to be perfectly adequate for trailering a Catalina 22 so I think this is probably the smarter choice.

Other things to do for the near future will be to proceed with a good coating with rubbing compound and a waxing to spruce up the hull a little.  The battery and electrical system need to be purchased/upgraded as well.  I would also like to take all the teak out and sand it down and stain and varnish it to make it look all pretty again.  Other upgrades and improvements will follow after Christmas money and gifts.

What do you think I should do first?

• Polish and wax the hull
• Electrical system
• Sand and polish some of the teak (I’ll probably have to do it in several phases as there is a lot of teak)
• Install the bilge pump

Pictures and a video to follow.  The pics and videos are all on my phone and they don’t upload very well without a wifi connection and I’m not at home right now.

I purchased her for a very lean price and took on the operation of making her beautiful and functional again.  I am by no means an expert on sailboat maintenance or repair but learning fast is something I like to think I’ve always been good at.  From outward appearances the boat is in obvious need of a heavy washing, heavy application of rubbing compound, and waxing.  The boat is also missing a key piece of hardware for successful East Tennessee sailing: an outboard motor.  Winds around here are notoriously unreliable, variable, and all too often… calm.  The boat’s residence in the Concord Yacht Club is an excellent benefit.  The community of experienced sailors and with a wealth of combined experience and knowledge in boat maintenance and repair and their eagerness to share their knowledge is an incredible resource for a young newcomer to the hobby such as myself.  With a huge laundry list of repairs and upgrades, where better to start then at the beginning?

Project 1: Mission Water Bailout

The first task I wanted to do was to immediately test out the boat’s ability to float and take it straight to the water.  The idea came to a screeching halt when I opened up the crib boards for the first time since purchase to find a bilge full of about 6 inches of water.  Guess what piece of critical hardware the boat was also lacking?  This brings me to my next point (and most bloggers and experienced sailors seem to agree with this): the first thing you should add to your boat before you do anything with it is a bilge pump.  A hull is arguably the most important part of a boat, it keeps water out.  That pretty much defines what a boat does.  But what happens when water comes in from directions that the hull did not anticipate (um, like say… rain?)?  Then you have to get it out!!  Sails, keels, rudders, tillers… none of these matter if your boat cannot perform the most basic of boat functions: KEEP THE WATER OUT!  Bilge pump.  Your boat’s new best friend.

I spent 3 hours with a bucket and a self-wringing mop sopping up all of that water and dumping it out.  So where did it come from?  This boat hasn’t been in the water in 3 years, but the last several days prior to this had seen deluge after deluge of rain.  The tarp that the former owner had left draped over the cockpit and bulkhead had merely become a pool liner for the cockpit.  I had to attempt to lift the forward edge of the tarp and guide the dozens of gallons of water over the transom.  Needless to say this was only modestly successful and the water that didn’t walk the plank over the aft edge wound up directly occupying the cockpit floor.  Several minutes passed and the water didn’t go anywhere.  For the non-sailors out there, the cockpit of the boat has a drain or drains in it called scuppers.  The Catalina 22 in fact has two of these.  The fact that water did not seem to be draining effectively through these warranted a closer look.

I went below deck and poked my head under where the scupper drains were located and I took note of a slow drip from the starboard scupper.  After several attempts to use a clothes hanger as a pipe snake failed, I disconnected the scupper tubes from the T-fitting (after bailing the cockpit water out of course) and discovered the problem.  The T-fitting was completely clogged with sludge.  I removed the T-fitting, cleared it out, and replaced all the scupper parts.  I tested it out with a bucket of bilge water and it instantly drained out of the cockpit and came gushing out of the keel like it should.  The dripping water was also gone.  I took this as a good sign that I have identified the source (or at least a source) of the leak.  I also took it as a positive sign that the boat will float that the hull held all that bilge water (as opposed to it seeping out of a defect in the hull).  Time will tell how effective this fix has been, but I think I will reinforce the seal around the scuppers with some marine sealant.  Furthermore, my blog and forum scouring seems to suggest that a good resealing of the windows and hatches and a thorough inspection of the deck-hull junction behind the rubrail would be beneficial.  This will be added to the list of projects.

This obviously hasn’t been the only time water has collected in the bilge as it does have quite a bit of filth which seems to be generating an odor of old stale boat.  Tomorrow (if I’m not too exhausted from being on call) I plan to thoroughly clean the bilge and the rest of the boat for that matter.  I also have received my outboard motor from Online Outboards, which I plan to install either tomorrow or Sunday, when I plan to take her out on the water for her inaugural sail as my boat, the Eyes of Ruby.

First, I started my own company.  This is time consuming, overwhelming, exciting, terrifying, fun, and just about any other adjective you can think of.  It’s called Smarter Searches and it is a full service internet marketing agency specializing in search engine marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing, email marketing, web site consultation and analytics.  What does that mean?  Well, it means that I’m doing the same thing I’ve been doing for the last seven years, I’m doing it on my own, now.  My focus is small businesses that don’t see results from traditional agencies because of the exorbitant management fees they charge small businesses and small budgets.  I am focusing on businesses with mediocre web sites, minimal social media presence, and poor search results.  The overwhelming number of businesses that meet that criteria is overwhelming in the market.  Furthermore, I plan to approach clients with what Dave Ramsey (financial guru, author, talk radio host, et al… and my former boss)  calls the “heart of a teacher.”  Whereas most agencies have sales teams and operations teams – neither of which interact outside of a CRM tool (a big piece of expensive database software that keeps track of accounts, contacts, insertion orders, etc.) – Smarter Searches focuses on setting goals with the client and then building them directly based on those conversations.  Imagine that… goal setting. Client communication. Customer service.  Will wonders never cease… But I digress.  If you’re interested in learning more, check us out any number of ways:

• Our website: http://smartersearches.com/
• Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmarterSearches
• Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SmarterSearches
• Check out my internet marketing blog: courtneyherda.com
• Follow us on linked in: www.linkedin.com/company/smarter-searches
•  Learn more about internet marketing on my Pinterest boards: http://pinterest.com/smartersearches/

I know.  That’s a lot of social media and a lot of information.  There’s a reason I’ve been so busy…

The kids, of course, are keeping me busy as well.  They’re growing, learning, changing in front of my very eyes all too quickly.  Leah’s just started eating food and that’s going really well – she’s such an easy baby once you get past her slightly diva attitude.  I’m pretty sure her favorite person in the whole world is her brother.  She giggles for Riley more than anyone else – by far.  Riley learns more words and forms better sentences every single day.  It’s amazing to see how quickly he picks up on things.  Since I did updates on both of them recently, there isn’t a whole lot of additional information to add.

Andy works a lot.  In his spare time, he has started fixing up his sailboat.  It’s a slow process and a lot of work, but he seems to be deriving a lot of satisfaction from it.

Then, of course, there’s the menagerie.  We had some potty training issues in the last week that led to me nearly losing it (whatever that mythical “it” is).  I think Baxter peed in the litter box (clever puppy) so Peanut stopped using it completely.  This meant, of course, that she started leaving “presents” all over the house – mostly in the places Baxter frequents.  I caught her peeing on my rain jacket in the closet and I was just a few minutes from deciding to send her feline rear end to a shelter.  We didn’t, though, and we changed the perfectly clean litter box and all seems to be well now.  It’s been two days and I haven’t had to deal with anyone’s accidents except Riley’s.

So, go check out the company – I welcome feedback, leads, questions, etc.

Riley

Riley is huge.  Ginormously tall and comparably heavy – those are the technical terms, by the way.  He was 40″ tall and 36 lbs (I think).  As if that was news to me… he wears 5T shirts and 4T pants and he’s 2.5.  No kidding, he’s healthy.  In the last week most especially, his language has started growing by leaps and bounds.  He’s delivering legitimate sentences and having conversations with us.  He’s able to give us real answers to questions (though in 2-year-old fashion, his favorite word is probably “no,” with “chocolate milk” coming in second, and “Baxter” in third).  He had fun playing around with Dr. Brian (but of course we knew he would, that’s why we wanted Brian to be his doctor).  It’s so nice having a child that isn’t afraid of the doctor or stethoscopes or any other physician tools.  He adores Miss Summer and Miss Kee, two of the nurses at the clinic who always have hugs, treats, and kind words for him.  Riley adores Baxter and always wants to take him on walks, feed him, give him treats, and hug him.  Forget the cats, Riley goes crazy for Baxter.  At school, he has lots of friends (though I think his favorite is his girlfriend Adrienne) and likes playing computer games.

Riley’s Likes: Baxter, playing outside, Mickey Mouse, trains, swimming, helping around the house, story time at night, pretending to have a rocket ship, making Leah smile, Star Wars

Riley’s Dislikes: Having his hair washed or combed, bedtime, time out, eating strange foods

Leah

Leah continues to grow and change so quickly.  We just started her on solid food (rice cereal, woo hoo) and she took to it like a pro.  I added in some bananas after a few days and she likes those much better than the rice cereal gruel we started with.  She’s rolling over now, giggling, and such a delight.  I don’t know how many times a day we exclaim “she’s so pretty,” but it is a lot.  She sleeps from 8 pm until 7:30am and is now nursing five times a day with two small solid food meals.  She still gets a little occasional stomach upset, but it is significantly better than it used to be.  She adores her brother.  Adores him.  No one can get her to giggle like he can.  She is intrigued by Baxter and likes the TV a little too much.  There isn’t much else to report because she doesn’t do a lot yet (mostly eat, sleep, make diapers, giggle, and occasionally roll over), but she’s doing really well.  She was almost 13 pounds (about 12 lbs 13 oz) and 26″ long, I think.  I’ll have to have Andy check her records on that, but I think that’s where she was measuring.

Leah’s Likes: Riley, breast milk, baths, being dressed up, shopping, TV, watching Mommy cook

Leah’s Dislikes: GI upset, not being the center of attention, cold water/swimming

We went back the next day and took him on a little walk.  He was leash trained and we noticed that he didn’t have any feces in his cage (a good sign that he was housetrained) and was still quietly sitting in his cage instead of barking and jumping as Riley ran around the shelter in circles.  We decided to get him, though we couldn’t pick him up until Tuesday (I had to demonstrate up-to-date vaccine records on the cats and that took time).  We brought him home Tuesday and are still getting used to this idea of having a dog.  It’s made us spend significantly more time outside walking as a family, which is good (although the mosquitoes are killing me).  He only had one accident in the house and that was in his crate (and I still feel awful about it, though Andy swears there’s nothing we could have done).  He barked last night in the middle of the night, which was frustrating, but he eventually stopped and hasn’t barked since.  Hopefully that isn’t the start of a recurring issue.  Since he gets more exercise now than he ever did, he should be tired enough to not cause trouble at night.  He’s still gentle with the kids though he does get very, very excited (and thus a little clumsy and not very careful) at meal times and when he’s let out of his crate first thing in the morning.  All in all, he’s a great dog, and though we’re still acclimating ourselves to getting a dog and what all that entails, it’s been beneficial to all of us from the perspective of having more quality family time together.

Her schedule is very predictable now, with feedings at 7, 10, 2, 4:30, 6:30, and 7:30.  Yes, I’m aware that pattern is a little uneven and back-loaded, but that’s how she likes it and it’s almost always like clockwork.  After a feeding she either feels great and has “playtime” (which is mostly just a bunch of smiles, coos, or giggles) or she gets reflux and cries.  Then eventually settles down and naps until she wakes up for the next feeding.  She goes to bed at 8 every night and sleeps until 7 – almost without fail.  She’s such a great sleeper right now and is so easy to put to bed each night.  She still eats really well, but definitely has a strong preference for breast feeding over bottle feeding, which is fine since I’m home with her most of the time.  Riley still adores her and shushes her when she cries, covers her with blankets for “baby night night,” tries to help with her baths and diaper changes, and always gives her a kiss after we drop him off at daycare.

Leah’s Likes: Warm baths, TV, breast milk, morning snuggle time, her swing, being dressed up in cute outfits, walks

Leah’s Dislikes: Cold water/splashing, bottles, being alone, reflux

A lot of times I go through Riley’s baby book to get a little perspective on what he was doing at this time compared to what she’s doing.  Riley was about two pounds heavier and an inch longer, could roll over, and was sleeping about 7-8 hours a night.  Leah weighed 12 pounds, 3 ounces and was 23.5 inches long at her weigh in last week.  She sleeps 10 hours a night and is not rolling over yet (thank GOD!).  She hates tummy time (unless she can fall asleep doing it) and is much less motivated to lift her head when we put her on her tummy.  However, she reacts far more to mobiles, makes more mouth and tongue movements as well as more sounds compared to what Riley did.  All this is exactly what we expected.  Not only is Riley a rough-and-tumble boy, but he’s also always been fairly quiet and slower to talk.  Leah is much less physical and much more interested in sounds she can make, so I’m sure she’ll be talking earlier and probably walking later than Riley.  It’s really fun to see them and how they are similar and different.

Riley still loves his sister.  When she cries, he says “hush, baby.” If he wants to hold her and I’m breastfeeding her, he willfully shouts, “No, no Mommy. MY Leah.”  Everything for him is MINE right now, so I’m not the least bit surprised that he’s developed proprietary feelings for Leah.  He helps change her diapers, though it’s always punctuated with complaints of “Ew, Leah.  Dirty diaper.” He helps bathe her, even though his version of bathing her involves dumping a little too much water on her head, although he does politely tell her to “Close your eyes” when he does it.   He’s about to hit two and a half now, so we’re starting to venture into more tantrums, more trips to time out, and more things to say no to.  We’re still struggling with potty training (meaning we’re not there at all).  He is still eating well, although typical kid foods are much more popular than more esoteric entrees.  I had a judgmental parent moment (which I try to avoid, but it’s human nature) the other day when we went to Wasabi Japanese Steakhouse. Riley loves their food and eats the soup and the salad, the vegetables, teriyaki chicken and rice.  There were two much older children at our table (aged 8 and 10 probably) and they had happy meals at the teppanyaki table.  Happy meals.  And yet Riley had no problems finding food to eat there.  Part of me wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt since Andy and I were both picky as kids, but the other part of me was appalled that the parents allowed that.  If they won’t find SOMETHING at the restaurant to eat, then to me, that means they don’t get to go out.  My parents would never have allowed me to eat a happy meal at a nice restaurant instead of something they had there.  And on those occasions in San Francisco when I wouldn’t eat any food on the menu, I quietly at my bread and drank my water and didn’t complain.  That’s one of the struggles of parenting I’ve found – you’re always pretty sure what you’re doing is better than what everyone else is doing.  That’s also the egoist in me peeking through.  Although, Andy and I are certain we are not the best people to be potty training Riley, so we’re willing to step aside and let someone else take over because whatever we’re doing is so not working.  But he’s happy, healthy, and pretty darn cute, so I can’t complain too much.

Two Month Stats:

Leah’s Likes: Mobiles, her swing, being swaddled and warm, breast milk, shopping, bows that don’t put dents in her head, her stuffed tiger, baths

Leah’s Dislikes: Being cold, reflux and spitting up, having her nose suctioned, being alone or put down, Riley being too rough with her, the first few moments of bottle feeding

2.5 Year Stats

Riley’s Likes: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, his stuffed penguin Bird and his stuffed Mickey, singing the ABC’s and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, football with Daddy, showers, Leah, his babysitter Christin, the pool, Thomas train sets, pizza, watering plants, Eggo waffles and chocolate milk

Riley’s Dislikes: Having his hair combed, the word “No,” being in trouble, having his nose suctioned or salined, his strict 8pm bedtime

So, now, the stats.  She was 9 lbs, 14 ounces at her one month check up (compared to Riley’s 10 lbs, 8 ounces) and just shy of 22″ long.  She’s outgrown her newborn sleepers but I can’t tell if it’s because of a long torso or long legs.   She is a sweet, snuggly baby who loves people and hugs but she does suffer from pretty bad reflux.  Or as I like to call it, fussy baby syndrome (aka colic).  Most evenings after her evening feedings, she cries inconsolably, with only occasional relief from mylicon, cuddling, burping, or whatever else we try on her.  It isn’t nearly as awful as people can say it is, at least in our case – she just gets terrible reflux and cries about it and sometimes nothing in the world will make it stop.  The only good thing is that it usually resolves itself by the time we head to bed so it doesn’t keep us up, and thus, we retain our sanity. She sleeps really well and usually only gets me up once a night for a feeding (around 4 or so) and then sleeps in until Riley gets up.  I was worried I wouldn’t get any sleep with the two kids, but they seem to be nicely in sync with each other so I am a surprisingly well-rested mama.  Sometimes I can even nap.  I just hired a nanny for my weekday mornings to play with the kids so I can run errands, do housework, take care of business things, etc. and it has been surprisingly helpful.  I am able to get so much done these days it’s almost miraculous.

Leah’s likes: Riley, cuddling, milk, her mobiles, blankets and swaddling, baths

Leah’s dislikes: reflux, spitting up, anytime Mommy wears a clean shirt,  gas, not being held

Things Leah is ambivalent toward: toys, car rides, growing hair