When this is the typical night for your family, after a while you need a break! This last weekend we took Friday off and just spend some time away from the boat.
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The new beam is officially in!! This for us is a huge step forward and a big check mark on the list of to dos! After the removal process, we began figuring out what kind of material would we use for our new beam? Stainless? Aluminum? Galvanize it or paint it? In the end we decided that if the one we took out lasted as long as it had that if we replaced it with what it was, it would far outlast our use! So, steel it is. We did however decide to galvanize it to give it even more life!
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and 2014! We enjoyed spending a lot of time with our family and friends, celebrated the return of our elf Crumble, ate great food, and started looking forward to 2015!
When we bought this boat, the big "issue" was the beam. Jim had told us that the beam was one of those projects that brought the completion of the boat to a stand still. Do you take it out? Do you leave it? We did our homework and found that the Cal's are know for being "over built" with this major beam in the mid. We talked to other Cal 40 owners who had already replaced the beams in their boats. We talked to a competitive racer and owner of Northwest Rigging to hear his advise. Everyone had different opinions and ideas, but helped us come up with our conclusion that while the boat is being gutted already we may as well replace the beam as well!
One thing Jeff and I love to do together is go for drives! Its a time where for the most part the kids are settled or sleeping and we can talk and dream while exploring new roads and places! At our house all our kids know that at 40 inches you can ride almost all the big rides at Disneyland. In fact on the wall where we mark the kids height so we can watch them grow, we have a big red line at 40 inches labeled Disneyland. About 2 years ago we surprised Natalie and Jack with a trip to Disneyland just after he reached that 40 inch line! This year Jeremiah had been measuring himself almost daily to see when it would be his turn to go! He got there right about September, so we decided to try to pull off the same surprise we did a few years back!
Winter is coming! After our last few storms this fall we decided to get our boat all wrapped up before the storms really hit! This would be Jeff's second attempt at shrink wrapping, the first was on our 19 foot ski boat in our driveway! So we dove on in!
Yes! It is official, our engine is now in the boat! This was a huge milestone for us. It has been YEARS since an engine has been in this boat. The last owner, Jim, removed the old engine and purchase a new fully rebuilt one. The engine had been sitting in a crate below the boat for years and we uncovered it and fired it off a few months ago (see here). Now, this last week we were finally able to place the engine in the boat!
It has been a while since our last post, but worry not we have been chipping away at our project lists. Fall has officially hit the Pacific Northwest! About two weekends ago the first storm devoured our visqueen tarp that had been keeping the boat safe all summer. Jeff went to the yard the day after the storm and found the tarp split in two flapping on the ground below the boat, as well as a very very wet boat interior! He was able to quickly dry up the boat and affix a new heavy duty tarp until we are able to shrink wrap it in a few weeks.
This past few weekends we have focused on getting the aft section of the boat fairly wrapped up. We ordered a new, custom diesel tank from Custom Marine Tanks in Florida. (They were wonderful to work with as well as faster than other manufacturers in our area. We would highly recommend checking them out if you are looking for new tanks!) It recently arrived! It was a dark and stormy night... Well kinda. We spent our first night on the boat this weekend! It started raining as soon as we got out of the car and continued all night! But it was WONDERFUL! We quickly got all our blankets and food loaded into the boat and got Natalie and Jase all cozy! Jeff tied off the plastic tarp to the scissor lift as we still have countless holes in the boat, we stayed dry all night! This was also the first time we had our dog Kiela on board. Normally she just runs around the boatyard and finds people to throw balls and sticks for her, or she finds some nice spot to curl up and nap in the sun. Kiela is not a stranger to boating but we have never had her on a sail boat! The steep stairs were a bit of a problem but once down inside she curled up and was out! It has been quite a while since our last post. We went camping at Sun Lakes Resort, this is an annual family trip with Jeff's side of the family. All and all we have 10 kids, that are 10 and under! We have tons of fun taking the kiddos out on the ski boat, jumping in the pool, playing putt-putt golf and eating a TON(thanks aunt Beth!) After the family trip, we take a few more days with just our kiddos and go camping either alone or with friends. This year we chose to go alone to Banks Lake and do the boat in sites! We had a blast!
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The Paxson FamilyWe are a family of 6 with a dream for adventure together! We hope you enjoy follow along with us! Archives
August 2015
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