Last weekend the family was out of town so I took advantage of the missing family to do some work on Odyssey. I pulled her into the barn and started cleaning out the stuff inside. Some things, like the towels, needed to be taken out and washed. Other things, like the cushions, just needed to be dried off and they were good to go.

I pulled the sails out of the sail bags and hung them up in the garage over night to make sure that they were dry, and I used the shop vac to pull 4 or 5 gallons of water out of the bilges. All in all, however, it was remarkably clean in there.

That weekend I pulled all the miscellaneous lines off the boat. I pulled the boom vang, the main boom downhaul, the main outhaul and the earring off and took them to West Marine to replace the lines.

I’m not sure what it is about the people at West Marine, but there are two kinds of people that work there. Good-natured people who don’t know anything about boats and unpleasant arrogant people who don’t know anything about boats but treat you like the problem is you, not them.

Of course, when I went in on Saturday there was one of each.

At one point I was doing the “I’m smiling because I don’t want to tell you exactly what I think about what you’ve just said to me.” I think they might have got the picture, ‘cause they backed way off.

Anyway, the good-natured guy helped me size and purchase new lines. I picked up a tide table and actually made it out of the store for only $21.

Yes, it was too good to be true.

I stopped on the way home and picked up a spool of waxed whipping twine at the other marine shop on the Everett water front (can’t think of the name. Typical.) because I didn’t want to go back to West Marine and try to explain to them what I wanted. Saturday night while I watched TV I whipped the end of all the lines.

The lines looked good, but when I went out to put them on the boat it turned out they were all a sixteenth too big. So I put Duchess in the car and headed back on Sunday morning.

The same two guys were working. They were standing in the exact same place they had been when I got there on Saturday. Worst nightmare ever. And it cost me another $17.

This time I bought extra line for the boom vang. I wanted to try to splice an eye around the beckett on the vang’s fiddle block. On Wednesday I finally gave it a try. It took me 3 hours and two tries to put in one rather ugly splice, only saved by the long whip I put around the splice. I can have one done for me for $6. Couldn’t make a living doing that…

Anyway, I took the lines out to the boat – put the vang back on the boom and tied the outhaul and downhaul where they belong. Looks rather spiffy with the new lines.

On Tuesday Dana and I went to Home Depot while the kids were at cat 4H and bought 18 boxes of Pergo laminate flooring, along with the floor padding and a few tools that we need to get the job done. Last night we started unloading the family room so that we can put new laminate flooring in instead of the existing carpet, which after only two and a half years is starting to show the wear and tear of cheap carpet in a high-traffic area of the house. We finished unloading the family room tonight after watching Burn Notice, hey, after all we need to have our priorities straight.

Anyway, as soon as the show was over I started taking apart the A/V equipment in the entertainment center. Wow, was it dusty. There were dust bunnies on the dust bunnies hiding behind the equipment. Sneezing happened.

After moving out the couch and the entertainment center we got to work pulling the molding from around the room. Dana came up with a marking system, and the kids carried the strips out into the garage.

After that Joey and I rolled up the old carpet and hauled it out to the garage. I needed to work fast, Dana was getting awfully close to vacuuming the carpet that we were about to throw away. Joe and I managed to stave that off, however.

Next up was the carpet pad. I was surprised (although I guess I shouldn’t be) to see lines of moisture where the subfloor panels butt together. Dana said there was moisture in the carpet pad too. The new underlayment for the laminate is supposed to provide a moisture barrier, not sure what good it will do but it sounds good.

Anyway, the family room is now almost the same as it was before they put the carpet in. It’s funny – I saw this house’s bones when it was going up but I still find it intimidating to see the subfloor hanging out there.

We jumped pretty quickly past the “OK, we’re committed” part of this project. Now that the carpet is out we pretty much have to go ahead with the project. Only we’re still not 100% certain, or even 90% certain, that we can pull it off. This could still be a train wreck.

Cross your fingers.

I started cutting a new back for Odyssey's hatch tonight. The first one was about half an inch too narrow at the top, and since I've only got half an inch or so to work with the darn thing doesn't fit. This time I'm cutting and fitting each piece individually, and it seems to be working out so far.

I cut the two sids, they are just slightly different angles. Not enough to make up all the problem at the top, but enough that I needed to reset the miter gauge on the saw before I cut each end of the bottom piece. I had to go in to make dinner before I cut the top, but I'll do that tonight and see what it looks like after I glue it up.

Sorry, no catchy title. I did try...

I've continued working on the hatch over the last week and a half, I just haven't got around to writing about. It hasn't been too exciting actually. Most of the time I've been waiting for glue to dry.

On the 26th I made it out to the barn to epoxy the inner hatch together. I mixed up a pot of epoxy from the same cans of resin and hardener that I used to repair the transom -- they've been sitting around for a couple, three years but I figured they still be good. Anyway, I spread the glue, stuck in the biscuits, and after a little jiggering, I clamped the whole works together. And started waiting for the epoxy to kick.

Two hours later, still nothing. Great, I thought. Now I have to clean all that mess off and start over. Yuck. I couldn't take it. I walked away.

On the 27th I stopped a Schuck's while I was out running errands and picked up a new syringe of 5-minute epoxy. That way when I got around to cleaning up and starting over I'd have epoxy to play with. While I was putting the epoxy on my workbench I eased the clamps on the hatch -- still gooey. I tightened them back down (hey, it could still kick I thought) and went away.

Until Sunday.

Sunday (the 1st.) Almost a week later. I eased the clamps and the wood didn't split apart. The epoxy had finally gone off and stuck the pieces together. Yay! I got out my belt sander and my palm sander and spent some time sanding off the squeeze-out and generally cleaning and smoothing the frame. It looked great. Life was good.

Until I test fit the frame in the hatch. The *%$)@ thing didn't fit. The bottom was fine, the top was a quarter in on both sides from the frame. Looks like it's really 3 degrees, not 4. I'm not sure if I'm gonna to to the trouble of starting over, but before I do I'm gonna get one of those bevel gauges that other people have so I can take an accurate angle off the hatch. This is good enough for now though.

With one thing (baseball practice) and another (being lazy) I didn't get out to work on the hatch again until last night (the 4th). I used a router and my router table to cut a rabbet for the plexiglass window to fit in. I cut biscuit slots, mixed some epoxy, glued it up and clamped the whole thing together. Now I just have to wait a few days for the epoxy to kick and I'll be ready to cut and fit the window and bolt the whole thing together.

While I was out in the barn I picked up a scrap piece of hemlock and tried out a different way of milling the hatch frame. I cut what is essentially a long tenon on one side and then turned the piece over and cut a slot. Two quick milling operations and I had a piece that would have worked perfectly. Next time I'll know...

Off and on for the last week I've been working on building a new hatch for Odyssey. The old one is three pieces of yucky wood screwed to two other pieces of yucky wood with dry wall screws. Not the most "yachty" looking hatch I've ever seen.

I have a picture in my head of what I want the new hatch to look like, but I wasn't sure when I started if I could get anywhere near that picture. Now that I've been working on it for a week I'm thinking I'm gonna get pretty darn close.

More...

Stopped at the Coast to Coast to pick up three 3-inch bolts for the pulpit roller thing.

Took it off the boat and to the barn. Tried to take pictures for the Web site but the darn little camera won't keep pictures all the way into to house. I left it disassembled so I can paint it some time in the next week or so.

Today I figured out how to build the bow support/roller for the pulpit.

I changed from using a large piece of 3/4-inch plywood to using two smaller strips. That solved the problem I've been having trying to attach cleats in the right place.

When I went to Coast to Coast to get the bolts I needed I discovered a small cache of boat stuff -- not much but it did include the trailer roller and axel I needed. And since it wasn't West Marine it was half what I thought I'd have to pay.

I only made one -- typical -- mistake: I measured the length of the bolts I needed at 2 1/4-inches, so I bought 2 1/2-inch bolts. Which are, of course, too short.

Oh well, more for the junk box. Not sure what I'll do with three 2 1/2-inch 5/8 bolts. Something will come up, I'm sure.

I hauled Odyssey to Marrysville today to pick up the trailer that I ordered from Boatland during the boat show. The guy on the phone wouldn't promise anything, but he was fairly sure that he could move Odyssey to the new trailer and send her home the same day.

It was a rainy, dreary day when I went out in the morning to hook the old trailer up to the truck. I spent an unpleasant few minutes in the damp, hooking up the trailer and tying the mast to the boat. On the bright side, the new dock lines (also from the boat show) worked a treat to tie the mast down with. I can't wait to use them to tie up to a dock.

By the time I got out the door about an hour later the sun had come out and the trip to Boatland was pleasant. As I drove to Marysville, I realized that this was the first time that I've pulled the boat trailer by myself, without someone following me in the car or riding shotgun in the truck. Kind of a heady feeling, like I'm a grown up or something.

The drive to Marysville was uneventful, except for the part of I-5 by Dagmar's Landing. I looked down at the the speedometer and realized that 75 mph was probably too fast for the old wreck of a trailer bouncing along behind me. I pulled my foot off the gas and slowed down, letting the other cars around me speed ahead.

Downtown Marysville is under construction, State street is torn up and traffic is nightmarish under the best of circumstances, and pulling a 22-foot boat is not the best of circumstances. Fortunately, Boatland is just off the main drag, so getting there was fairly easy, all things considered. I pulled into the Boatland parking lot, and Matt (or was it Dave) said "Park it over there by that trailer. Your trailer, as a matter of fact."

I left Odyssey the capable hands of the Boatland crew and left to shop for a new clothes dryer (the old one having given up the ghost the weekend before). Lunch, two mochas, and $200 worth of home appliances later Odyssey was on her new trailer and ready to go home.

The old trailer stayed at Boatland. They gave me a minimal amount in trade, and frankly, anything was more than it was worth. Matt (or Dave) said it wasn't the worst trailer he'd ever seen, but it was close. With the old trailer parked in the back lot and the Odyssey nestled snuggly in her professionally fitted new trailer, we headed back to Monroe.

Now we just need to wait for sailing season to start so we can try hauling Odyssey to some new destinations. It looks like a good summer for sailing already.