Moving, from one boat to another

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Moving, from one boat to another

July 17^th Sailors Wharf, St. Petersburg Fl.

Swapping out stuff. Boy howdy did we have stuff.

We arrived at Sailors Wharf on Friday evening, too late to get rent a car so we spent the remaining day light hours exploring CHT and starting to pack up our stuff. My first priority was the galley and while packing I cleaned and scrubbed and cleaned. I thought CHT would be in the water next to us but

IT’S A BOAT…. So the best laid plans go helter skelter

I packed things in Grocery recycled bags, trying not to make them heavy. Saturday morning Tom and I started to hike things off CH (floating in the water tied to a floating dock) walk them up a ramp, across the lot to CHT up a ladder into the cock pit then down into the cabin. Cool Hand has air conditioning, the window unit that we dropped into the front hatch. So everything has to be lifted over that. CHT has no power and the sun was baking down on her. Inside even with hatches open it was over 100 degrees.
I started organizing the galley, taking stuff off that was of no use to us and trying to arrange the space to maximum efficiency. We worked at this all day Saturday, had lunch at Jack London’s Pub worked into the evening and decided to stay at Comfort Inn. No showers at Sailor’s Wharf.

Sunday we had a visit from my sister Chris and Arnie. She brought me a lovely bag that will be great to carry project up on deck. We enjoyed an early dinner at Jack London’s pub, then took them to see CHT. We continued the packing, lugging, hauling, lifting then called it quits around 6 pm.

Monday the crew was back working and we realized CHT would not go into the water until the end of the week. We did catch a small break in the moving. They had a pallet box that we could load up and they took it by fork lift to CHT, lifting it up so that we could empty a load all at once. We managed two load like this before the rain started. I stayed on CH and cleaned and scrubbed out the bilge, bathrooms, walls and other stuff.

A note on packing… I tried the vacuum sealed bags…. They do not hold up to heat. They were great in the air conditioned environment of CH but once they transferred to CHT and the overheated air. It was a disaster. Several of the split. I would not do that again. Moving things in the Grocery bags turned out to be the best way to move things. Loads were manageable. Next time we will have a cooler with ice on the both boats. Right now there is not even a prospect of a bigger boat.

Wednesday, I went to a supposedly air conditioned laundry to get bedding, rugs, towels and clothes done. It was not air conditioned and I was serenaded by three screaming children and two yelling mothers, nevertheless, prices were reasonable and the laundry did get finished. We continued to move things. I realized I have an exceedingly large stash of yarn that I have to work through, before I should buy anymore.

Thursday, Cool Hand was moved to the haul out well, and her mast, canvas and davits removed. It will still be a week before she is loaded on a truck for shipping, but Tom wanted to be there to make sure everything came down alright.

Cool Hand Too had her name on her bow now. Tom discover several of the sea cocks were corroded adding something else to our repair list. We did find a place to put the freezer on board, and our scuba equipment. Tom has a long list of thing to do once we return to Boca Chica. We believe we will have Cool Hand Too in the water Friday the 18^th and plan to head south on Saturday. We still need to be back in the Keys for 7/24 and Tom’s Surgery.