01/06/07

1/6/07 Ok, I haven't really updated this for a few months.  Nothing really earth shattering has happened.  We have been going to the boat quite a bit.  We did buy a new head sail, a small jib.  Which seems to work really good for the boat.   The holidays went really smooth and was for the most part stress free.  We haven't been going to the lake as much, but now the tree and trimmings are put away, it's back to Bedlam.  I have made an executive decision to wear my life jacket more during racing.  Racing doesn't start till February 24th so we have a little more time off. 

10/4/06 Let me recap, Valhalla splashed the morning of the 2nd race day. This was done during storms and in between lighting.  Mark and Dee came by our marina to pick us up.  Us being Pepper, Bobby, Greg and I.  We headed to the race course as quickly as possible.  By the time we got there the sun was shining and the wind was blowing about 5 - 10, thank goodness.  We pulled out and 1st place in both races.  The second race started out with a competitor and us over early, on top of that we fouled them as well.  Not our best start.  But we got to the first mark and made our penalty turns.  Only later we found out that we didn't need to do a 720 unless we hit them.  We managed to fight back and win the race, not boat for boat but on time.  The six of us were exhausted.  Well I think Mark was ok, but the rest of us were wiped out. 

9/10/06 The first race day for the fall series was yesterday.  Our crew on Valhalla was race committee, which is good since the boat is still getting repairs done.  But the repairs should be done soon.   

9/8/06 Good News! It's not as hot.  Yea! We hope we have weathered our last 100 + day.  We didn't quit coming to the boat , we just didn't stay the entire weekend or longer.  Now we are back in business.  Of course we get here yesterday and start varnishing the companionway stairs and around the companionway.  It needed it. Right now I'm dizzy with varnish fumes.  Greg has started the 4th coat.  We are going to put some non-skid pads on the steps to make them less slippery when wet.    The fall race series for the J35 Valhalla (Mark and Dee's boat) is about to get started. Tomorrow is my birthday, Gail, Greg and I are going to see the Goo Goo Dolls and Counting Crows.  Gail got us tickets.  I know it has nothing to do with sailing but, I'm looking forward to it.  We did get out sailing once last weekend during Labor Day weekend.  Our weekend was a somber one after several people were killed during a poker run.  Very sad. 

7/16/06 I know I have mentioned it's hot, but its really worth mentioning again.  Now it is getting to the 100 degree mark, staying at the lake all weekend is getting a little tough.  We spend a whole lot more time in the water now.  The Caribe makes it easy to get out to the islands and swim. 

6/26/06 The race series is over Valhalla (Mark and Dee's boat) won.  Saturday was a hot one.  The first race was a real drifter for awhile, which makes for a testy crew.  We finished second in both races.  The second race we had good breeze.  All our 2nd places mounted up to a first place over all.  Has for the rest of the weekend, we played on Bob and Evelyn's jet skis on Friday.  Sunday was actually  a windy day 15-20 so we did what most sailors do, went sailing; then we anchored for awhile and swam.  Even with the breeze it's still hot. 

6/18/06 The dinghy now has it's own lift.  We purchased a used Sportport XLT http://www.sportport.com now we don't have to worry about where the dinghy will reside.  Our dock has a dinghy dock area which is on a first come first serve basis and is free to use.  Unfortunately there are getting to be more dinghies than spaces.  We ended up with someone's dinghy upon the dock next to our boat.  This didn't go over very well with me.  If I didn't mention it, the dinghy dock is right next to where Bedlam is parked.  Which isn't really any problem till there is a dingy in our way.  Hopefully, it will be settled now that the spaces are filled.  Either way we have our own spot and I promise if we come back from being out and there is a dingy on our lift, it will be set free.  Our friends Bob and Evelyn bought a grill for the dock.  Which will be nice, we have a covered walkway so there is plenty of shade at the dock.  The water is getting warmer, but still feels really good and cool. Last Friday the breeze was up with gusts over 30 mph.  We didn't have enough time to go out, we worked on getting the lift set up and then had to go home on Saturday morning.  We have one more race day (2 races) next Saturday on the J35, then we will be done for the rest of the summer.

6/8/06 We bought a 10 ft. Caribe dinghy a few weeks ago.  With a 15 hp Yamaha outboard.  We are still in the break-in period so we haven't had it up to full speed yet.  But it rides really nice.  It's a light rigid bottom inflatable.  We put in two 12-volt fans, one in the main cabin and one in the v-berth.  We finally got our TV hooked up so now we can watch DVD's.  There are pictures in the 6-8-06 album.  It works off of 12 volt so we can use it anytime.  We finally got our C-cushions in for the cockpit, it took awhile but they were worth the wait.  It's nice to have cushions to sit on.  

5/30/06 No racing recently, just good  sailing on Bedlam.  Memorial weekend we had heard that the Lake can be pretty crazy.  We didn't see too much of that.  It was really windy and probably kept some people on shore.  Perfect for a sailboat though.  We anchored out two nights and had good breeze all day and all night. The lake is still quite chilly, which was really refreshing when we got hot. We have now used our windlass 4 times and I have to say it's the greatest thing since slice bread. That and the auto helm.  Greg and I are wondering how we managed without it.  Auto does a great job sailing us around.  Of course we sit in the shade and monitor the course. 

5/16/06 Ok, I need to back up just a little bit. At the Leukemia Cup sailing on Scoots (Gail's J/29), the weather on Saturday was pretty windy, but not too bad.  Right after the start of the first race a 45 mph wind shift came up and slammed the fleet, unfortunately several boat were close by us.  Well we ended up in the stern of one boat, then we ended up knocked down.  With the wind shift those of us that were ballast were in the water, the lifelines were in the water.  The mast was touching the water.  At that moment we wondered if the boat was going to come back up. Well true to form, Scoots decided to forgive us once again.  Then another boat got tangled up in our forestay.  I'm not sure where they came from, but as we were gather ourselves there they were.  So we got them untangled took the head sail down and put up the smaller one .   Back to the race we go. All and all nothing hurt, just a few bruises on the crew.  I'm wet and cold and go down below, I come back up in race 2 with dry clothes and a life jacket on.  We don't fly the shoot during race 1and neither does anyone else.  We won all three races on Saturday.  Not a whole lot of spinnakers out the rest of the day.  Although the 2nd race wasn't too bad. Sunday was light and down right pleasant. 

4/24/06 I don't have very much updates to write about.  We have been having fun on our boat and going sailing.  We have done some maintenance stuff, change fuel filters, etc. I do have a new shower/faucet combo coming for the head.  It will turn on and off at the shower head. We got two of the c-cushions in. 

4/17/06  We have the instruments in. We had to cut bigger holes for them to fit.  Pepper and Chris helped us.  Greg hated to have to drill larger holes in the boat, but it all went well.  Canvas is about done.  Just the companionway cover left to finish.  The weekends haven't been all work and no play.  We have been sailing the last 3 weekends.

4/4/06 On April 1st she officially became Bedlam.  The weekend was a great success.  We look forward to many weekends doing some work and lots of sailing.  The weather turned out great with lots of wind.  Greg got the cockpit speakers in and the stereo worked great.  We took her back to Cedar Mills to get the dodger and bimini finished.  Bedlamites included Steve, Janet, Mike, Pepper, Leslie, Bobby, Evelyn, Mark, Deedee, Nick and Ben.  Good News, the instruments are in at West Marine.  We will put them in next weekend.  Everything is run and ready.  It will be great to know the wind speed, boat speed, depth.

3/26/06 This weekend we got the stereo hooked up, we are still debating on the cockpit speakers and the best was to set that up.  We also got the leak fixed from the one bolt that was stripped.   We got to see the frames for the dodger and bimini.  One thing we didn't plan on doing was replacing the head, but that is what happened.  Our daughter came up to see the boat, went to the bathroom and the handle assembly broke.  The head has been a little hard to pump and we haven't taken time to look at it.  Well Greg found out never send the women to get head parts.  Well technically it's parts, it is just parts that create a new one.  Mike and Jo came up to checkout the boat and lent a hand getting the new head put in.  It works great, I know it's a woman thing to have a good working head. Hey we go by the old saying around here "If Mama ain't Happy, ain't nobody Happy". 

3/20/06 Last weekend we went to the boat and spent the night and worked on the inside.  It was raining the entire time.  One good thing is that there was only one small leak which we will fix.  Considering all the deck hardware we took off and put back on we felt pretty good about it.  The mainsail cover is done and the bimini and dodger are being worked on this week.  We ran the wire for the transducers.  We still don't have the instruments yet, West Marine says they aren't shipping them till April sometime.  Hopefully we will put the stereo in next weekend.  We bought a Panasonic stereo with CD and DVD capabilities.  We are going to hook that up to a 15" flat screen monitor. 

3/13/06 Greg and I spent our first weekend on the boat.  Right now that still involves quite a bit of work.  We poured the Spartite around the mast.  Check out the upgrade info. page for more on that.  We sailed with our friends on their J35 Saturday for two races.  Then Sunday we put the headliner back on with trim and ran the speaker wires.  She is beginning to look as good on the inside as she does on the outside. 

3/7/06 She splashed on Saturday March 4th. We watched has she went into the water.  It was really amazing to see.  There were a few people walking around the marina and they stopped by to watch her go in.  Greg and I felt so happy and proud.  Thank goodness Bobby called us that morning, we had enough stuff to bring to the boat to fill 2 SUV's.  Pepper, Leslie and Mike came up to help out too.  The whole thing went very well.  No water was going into the boat and the engine ran great.  The mechanic checked a few things after she went in.  Once the mast was stepped and the rig tightened we took to a slip and put on the boom and the mainsail.  The Tides Marine strong track worked like a charm.   This was the first time for me to be on our boat in the water.  I'll tell you one thing, it felt great.  We had dinner and celebrated Bedlam's arrival. A more formal christening will happen in the near future. Sunday March 5th, Pepper and Greg put on the headsail.  We took her out for a shakedown cruise.   She sailed beautifully.  Once I took the helm, I didn't give it up till we were headed in.  Which was fine since the guys were tinkering with the rig, discussing all kinds of things to dote....  I was just enjoying the wheel.  Leslie gave the boat 2 thumbs up for comfort down below, she relaxed and read her book. 

2/28/05 Things are moving along very fast.  The windless is finished, the sail track should be installed.  We prepared the mast last weekend and put on the stern pulpit.  The bottom should be done this week and the new shaft is being installed.  They have also replaced the motor mounts.  Splash down is getting close.  Maybe next Saturday.

2/18/06 She came out of the paint shed on Tues (2/14).  Unfortunately we didn't get to see the move outside.  We did a few things, mostly involving vacuuming.  The dust is about 1/2 inch thick all over the inside of the boat.  Greg did some fishing, good thing I brought valentines dinner to cook.  But the weather was nice and being outside was very nice.  The stainless handrails were put on, they look great.  On Wednesday there was more vacuuming and wiping.  They did the companionway starboard and the stern cap rail.  We left while they were working on them, but they were really close to being done.  So the companionway was about done which made me feel better.  They are replacing the shaft and putting on new engine mounts.

2/13/06  I don't really know where to being.  She looks beautiful.  Bedlam heads out of the paint shed tomorrow.  We have spent the last 3 days putting hardware back on.  We wouldn't have it done without the help of our friends.  Thank you so much to Bobby, Pepper and Mike.  We are so grateful that she remained in the paint shed these last few days,  the first day we were here to work it was very windy and not above 40 degrees.  It was nice to be inside.  I still look at her and can't believe we will be sailing her soon.  I've still got Life Caulk on me even as I update this. 

2/4/06 She is still in the shed.  The deck was painted white today.  They will paint the nonskid on Tuesday.  She should be out by Friday.  The boat really looks great. 

1/22/06 Bedlam is now white with blue stripes.  She looks like a new boat.  They will start on the deck Monday.  It might be finished by next weekend.  I can't wait to get back and see.  We will be going back next weekend to work on finishing the mast which we are in the middle of re-rigging.  Putting new halyards, VHF antenna, lights, etc...  back on.   The mast and boom have been painted and look really good. 

1/15/06 She is finally in the paint shed and things are moving pretty fast now.  The hull is already sanded and they are going to start painting on Wed.  They will do the hull, then deck and lastly the bottom.   It is very exciting.  Check out the pictures for a look at her after sanding.  I know we will be going up there regularly to get a look at the progress.  Greg has been cleaning up all the boat parts that we will be putting back on.  As well as getting her new slip ready for the arrival.  Check out the dock boxes.  We are the envy of our neighbors.  We told them we were going to sleep in them.  They are big, but they will be full of stuff soon.   After looking at some before pictures and now pictures, it looks like we have destroyed the boat.  But I know that the true after pictures will be awesome. 

12/29/05 The boat goes in the paint shed on January 5th.  So I should have some newer pictures by the first week of February.  We have to make some decisions on paint by then.  The boat will be some sort of white with a blue stripe and the deck will be white with super light grey nonskid.  I will be posting the before and after pics on the picture page. 

12/11/05 We wrapped up taking off the hundreds of bolts and screws.  We used blue tape to cover up all the holes or plastic if it was a larger hole.  Also, we used baggies to mark the screws for each piece.  The large hatches are coming out when she gets in the paint shed.  They are both going to be replaced (the marina will be doing that).  The side hatches are fine, but they might remove the frames before painting.  Putting the boat back together will be a challenge in its self.  Since we have to bed everything as we go.  We are considering taking off a week vacation and putting the boat back together.  We have decided if you ever want to really get to know your boat, take off all the hardware. 

12/8/05 We have spend several weekends at a cabin at the marina where Bedlam resides, right now.  We have gone through all the systems and replaced the water pump.  We have removed the headliner (temporarily) and have taken off a lot of the deck hardware in preparation of getting the deck painted.  We still have more to go, so we will be back there this weekend to finish.  She should be going in the paint shed around Christmas.  We are having the deck, hull, bottom, mast and boom painted.  

11/15/05 We have just learned that she is in Denton.  No I'm not sure why since that seems south of Cedar Mills.  But she will be in their yard tomorrow.  I'm still wanting confirmation on this.  I think she has taken a tour through Arkansas and parts of Texas.  I think we will try to go on Thursday and have some visual confirmation.  I know there is a lot of work going to happen before she splashes, but at least we will know where our boat is. 

11/13/05  Greg & Pepper went to Cedar Mills yesterday and there was no boat.  It was suppose to be delivered by 2:00PM.  We probably won't find out where she is till Monday, maybe Tuesday.  It looks like we will have most of the work done there.  Next time we move her I want a hotline or GPS signal or something.  A tracking number would be good. 

11/01/05 OK it's official.  We are boat owners.  Greg leaves on 11/3 to go get the boat tied up and ready for transport.  The slip it secured, we have some work to do on the slip to get it ready for her.  Our buddy Paul is going to do the running rigging and instruments.   Greg is still planning on a windless on the bow and we are looking at a new mainsail system.  Something to make it easier on me is what I'm told. 

10/28/05 Paper work is done and sent FedEx.  So it's getting really close. The official date of ownership will be November 1, 2005.   The boat delivery is now scheduled for 11/9/05.   Time to get just a little excited is now.  Our plans for what work is going to be done first is still about the same.   New instruments are probably going to happen.  Except for the autopilot, which is new.  Greg is going to go to KY, to help de-rig the boat.  Let's face it no one will do it the way he wants it done.  They will probably stand around and watch him work. 

10/19/05 The survey was done yesterday, all went very well.  Greg said the engine (diesel) started up and sounded great.  Everything else checked out just fine.   We hope to get her to Texas very soon.   We have procured a slip for her starting in December.  We hope that she will be ready to splash by then.  We are still trying to decide what all to have done before getting her into water.  Probably paint (side and bottom), new running rigging, I think a windless at the bow is on the list as well.  Oh also a dodger and bimini.  

10/11/05 Survey is scheduled for 10/18/05, Greg is going.  We believe things will work out fine and the process will continue.  The prospect of being boat owners again feels good. 

10/7/05  Receive the contract back from owner with offer acceptance.  Big day;  we are excited about the boat.  We look forward to the possibilities.  She is really been well kept.  She resides in Kentucky right now, but could be coming to Texas.

Here is our first look at her.  This is Rottering Marina on Lake Kentucky.   The previous owners had redone the wood below as well as new cushion covers.  She is a J37 built in 1988.  Hull number 33.  This is a wing keel or UFO if you prefer.  This is a cruising JBoat, just don't tell Greg (the skipper).