A little video on the interior of Polar Bear.

So you can get a feeling for the interior of the boat, Simon made a short little video:

Adventures in maintaining a concrete hull.

Simon and I painted the Polar Bear white after several hard days' graft of sanding in Wales. It was originally blue. It was only after several days with a palm sander that we discovered that an angle grinder fitted with sanding disks was literally 100 times faster in removing the old paint.

Then, after we brought Polar Bear down to Portsmouth and hauled her out again, we discovered that the paint was already falling off in parts. That is when we learned that it is uncommonly difficult to keep paint on a concrete hull. Our new plan of attack was to sand it down all the way to the concrete on the lower half and down pretty far on the upper half and try again.

We have heard from other concrete boat owners that epoxy-based tar is a better way to go than marine paint. We've already bought the paint, though, so we are going to give it one more try. Also, tar is black, so we would have to rename her "Black Bear." Also, we need to rule out the possibility that the paint didn't set well due to the cold temperature in Wales, rather than just because the hull is concrete. We'll see how it turns out.

In the meantime, we owe a debt of gratitude to the Dearn family, all of whom spent several weekends in August to help us strip this hull down. We now know the hull intimately, though, and are happy to report that it is in great shape. Where we had rust, we ground it out, cleaned the fresh metal with acid and filled the holes with an epoxy-concrete goo. This worked astonishingly well and was easy to do. Simon was like a dentist, filling holes at the bottom of the keel. After the goo was placed in there, we used duct tape to hold it in while it hardened. Then we removed the duct tape and viola! But the epoxy mix turned his hands black for about two weeks.

We have similarly gone down to the hull on the inside (only the front half is done), and have rooted out any rust there, and painted over bear metal with an epoxy paint. There was very little, though.

The most important lesson that we learned: epoxy can fix anything (we also used it to help build some of our carpentry, but that is another post). It is our favorite substance. We should buy stock.




So it isn't much to look at right now, but it is beautiful to us since we know that the hull has it where it counts. We know that concrete can look rough, but it is unique. It doesn't look glassy like a fiberglass hull. Most people think that it is steel when it is painted, and it does look similar to that. Anyway, thanks to the great properties of a concrete hull, the marine paint is more for looks than for protection or functionality (unlike most other boats).

We couldn't paint the hull this last summer because it was too cold and wet. When we painted the decks -- see pictures below -- it rained right afterwards, creating a mottled, goopiness to the paint. The decks now require another coat -- which is OK, since we still need to put down the non-slip, but we don't want to make the same mistake with the hull.

Here are the topsides with our dinghy lashed on top (our dinghy was a salvage, and we haven't refurbished it yet... but it is awesome to get free dinghies, in my opinion).

Polar Bear's new head.

See... we did put a glass bathtub in! Hopefully it will remain in tact during our first bashing storm.

Our head is a Simon and Alicia original design, from the tub to the cabinets to the tiled "wet room" which will have a shower plumbed in over the center triangle space. We're very proud of this bathroom, which is 90% complete.

"I'm sailing! I'm a sailor!": Update

Yesterday, Simon was employed to do the same yacht transport job to Hamble that he did last week, and again I got to tag along. This time, however, it was actually sunny and warm out. Unfortunately, we had to head straight into the wind the entire time, so we motored the full way.

I sat in the cockpit, enjoyed the sun, and drank beer. Now I'm more like a real sailor. But Simon has officially banned me from quoting What About Bob?

In the meantime, there haven't been any interesting posts because I've been chipping paint for days. Paint chipping is not exciting, unless you think that identifying the waxy coat on the roof of the wooden cabins is exciting. We still don't know what it is, but we have dried out the wood significantly and found very little rot, which makes me surprisingly happy. Oh, the thrills!!

In future news, we've decided to get a puppy and I'll be picking him up on Saturday. We're temporarily referring to him as Pirate the Puppy. He'll be an all-black, pure-bred Portuguese Water Dog. Other potential dog names are Fitzroy, Magellan and Popeye. If you have any good ideas, please let us know! We're a bit stumped!

Extreme Makeover: Boat Edition

Simon and I have moved into a boatyard. Polar Bear was placed high on stilts, so we get on and off her with the aid of a ladder (we're about twelve feet off the ground).

We've run an extension cord to an outdoor outlet for power, use the marina's public showers and toilets (we have no plumbing on board yet and the wiring is shot), and we sleep in sleeping bags. Blue water cruising is so sexy.

I began sanding, painting and varnishing while Simon moved forward with bilge cleaning and demolition. Naturally, a previous owner used glue to secure every single screw, so only about five percent of them can be driven out. As a result, Simon's been hacksawing like crazy. Saw dust is everywhere. It is a bit sad, as the wood was good but so much of it has to be wasted now.

But our vision for Polar Bear is unwavering. We started by ripping out the entire forepeak cabin and the godawful head. We've decided to put in a luxurious bathroom in the front of the boat, using the point of the bow as a place for a tub. The shower will be right under the hatch, so you can look up and see the sky.

And that is only the beginning. This is a process better captured in pictures. Here are some "before" pictures. We're looking forward to sharing the "afters"!

PS - If you are in the neighborhood, please come visit us but be prepared to sand and paint. Free beer!

Team Polar Bear on Temporary Hiatus

Team Polar Bear continues to be on hiatus, but only for a few more days. We had originally intended to reunite on May 28th. Then June 1st. Then June 8th. Now it is June 10th... set in stone.

So, continuing our saga from where I last left off....

I left Simon in Wales to head back to California to handle some nagging business. (I sold my car just in time for $4 per gallon gas prices. I've got wind power now! Haha, suckers!)

Simon returned to the boat to get it into the water and down to Portsmouth. After several days of work, he finally managed to get it hauled into the water, only to find out that the engine wouldn't start. The starter motor had to be replaced. Rats.

A few days later, he was finally on the high seas! But the engine has a strange knock. After a few days, the knocking got worse and Simon shut it down. Unfortunately, it was 4 am and the tide was against him, bringing him straight to some rocks; the water was too deep to anchor, and there wasn't enough wind to give the beasty boat any power.

Despite the knocking, Simon tried turning on the engine again, but it wouldn't start at all. With no other choice, he called for help and was towed to a mooring buoy up a river in nearby Falmouth. (I can assure you that towing a 13 ton boat in the middle of the night is not a cheap proposition.)

The next day, we spent several hours on the phone together trying to troubleshoot the engine. We were in no position to do it, however, without much experience taking apart and re-building diesel engines. I had bought a book on marine diesels, but it hadn't arrived yet. Plus, I was in California and Simon was stuck on the boat (we don't have a dinghy yet) in Falmouth. We moved to Plan B and paid an engineer to fix it.

The engineer said he would need at least a week, so Simon packed up to go work in Portsmouth. A few days later, the engineer said he needed more time. Simultaneously, Simon was offered work for two weeks in Lanzarote, Spain (the Canary Islands, off the coast of Africa). We decided he should take it while the boat was in the shop. Team Polar Bear's rendezvous was rescheduled for June 1.

In the meantime, I've been going crazy at home. I am renting out my condo, which means I have to move the rest of my stuff out of it. I've packed up stuff that I'm taking with me to the yacht, but it is too much to carry. The rest was going to various storage spaces. I no longer have my car, so I've been renting/borrowing/walking. The logistics began to make me a little nutty, so I decided I needed more time. To be frank, though, as much as I love San Diego, my house, my family and my friends, I cannot wait to get back. I'm tired of running in fifty directions and I look forward to completing my tasks here so I can focus on my business and Polar Bear full time.

Good news, though. Polar Bear is all fixed up. The engine problems turned out to be loose parts, resulting in another small part becoming bent and jamming the whole thing. This was the best case scenario, and also what Simon and I thought might be the issue due to improper winterizing, so we are pleased with that. Simon is currently working again in Portsmouth, but on June 10, we are getting back on track. We have a fun itinerary planned of batting around the West country for about a week before returning to Portsmouth.

So, yes, things are a bit boring right now while we continue in this slow phase of gearing up for extreme nomadism. We're impatient to get going, of course, but at least things are moving along in the right direction.

How I became a Welsh coalminer. Part V. Subtitle: Playing with power tools in hail storms.

Simon and I spent only a day in London before we were off again to Southampton to get supplies for Polar Bear's refit. The plan was roughly:

• Sand the hull back with rotary sanders as far as needed to ascertain its condition and to change its color from blue to white
• Repair rust on rudder with acid and grinder
  
• Repair weak spots in hull with epoxy
• Prime, paint and anti-foul
• Change batteries and check electrics
• Clean out the bilge (it was filled with oily water)
• Remove all the junk from inside and air the boat out
• Check engine, change the oil, etc.
• Replace Welsh flag with British flag
• Check rigging, anchor chain, sails, etc.
• Stow all our stuff
• Sail it to Portsmouth, where we would place her back on the hard for a more thorough refit of the inside and topsides (including, most importantly, putting in hot water and a shower)

This was quite a tall order, so we decided we had to move to Wales, albeit temporarily. We had about two weeks to accomplish this stuff, with a weekend in the middle already booked with teaching work in Port Solent for Simon. Since it was about an eight hour drive to Pwllheli, several days were lost to transportation. We had no time to waste. Simon and I moved to the George hotel for the first week and camped out in the boat after that.

Now, I won't get into the mechanics of how we accomplished all of this work, because I imagine most of you will find that boring. If you really want to know how we did any of this stuff, feel free to email or comment and I will supplement this post.

Suffice it to say that we were covered in black dust and oil from head to toe for the entire two weeks. We were so streaked and stained black, that when we walked around town to get lunch or supplies, people stared at us and came up to us just to ask us what we had been doing. And, yes, I was asked almost daily whether we had been "down in the coal mines." It wasn't unreasonable to ask, since I'm obviously too big to be a chimney sweep, gov. I laughed and embraced my inner Pig Pen.

The sixteen hour days of hard labor that left us sore and filthy were masochistically fun. There is something really satisfying in physical labor and in building something, especially when you get to play with lots of power tools! Even though I have a million projects going right now (not the least of which is starting a business... shameless plug: Version 1.0 of GoodSharks.com launching in June), I was able to get lost in my coalminer alter ego while I went inch by inch over the hull with my sander. They were zen days.

We had only one industrial accident, too, despite the fact that we were working in intermittent hail and rain storms. One afternoon, I was using some acid to remove rust off the rudder. Unfortunately, it got under my gloves and onto my thermal shirt. I will tell you that claims of wicking action is not an advertising gimmick! The fabric wicked the acid right up my arm and I ended up getting a nasty burn. The cold water hose (fun for me in the freezing cold Welsh spring) was handy, but I still had to go back to the hotel and shower for about twenty minutes. I even burnt my fingertips removing my shirt, which made holding hot coffee the next day a rather unpleasant experience.

So, the good news is that the hull turned out to be in excellent condition, although it took us way longer to sand it than we hoped it would. In fact, everything took a little longer than we hoped, so I had to leave Simon in Wales to sail Polar Bear down to Portsmouth on his own. He had ten days and a volunteer in his good friend Alex, so we felt pretty confident that he would make it OK. But, alas, he only made it about half way....

You'll just have to tune in next time to find out why Simon ended up having Polar Bear towed to the port in Falmouth, leaving her on a mooring buoy and going to Spain. I returned to California to sell my car, rent my house out and be the maid of honor in my friend Michelle's wedding. (Woo hoo! Crazy bachelorette party on Friday!)

Team Polar Bear rendezvous next in London on June 1.

PS - Next time you all need to clean out a wet and oily bilge, it turns out that baby diapers work great. I found it amusing that I went to the store just for a bag of diapers, a can of grease and a case of beer. There's got to be a redneck joke in there somewhere.