Aboard Astraea

Natalie’s belly is growing every day and I can’t wait to have a little boy!

Natalie's belly is looking awesome

Natalie and I had full boats a few weeks ago. My buddy Jeff came in to town at the same time that her friend Emily came to visit. Jeff and I stayed on Astraea while the girls were over on Airborne. Jeff and I worked on a bunch of boat projects – the biggest one being getting the Formica up to replace the water damaged teak veneer inside the cabin.

Jeff and I with a piece of Formica that needs a hole cut in it for a portlight

Here’s what we did to make the Formica fit:

Make paper patterns
Trace the paper patterns on to the Formica
Cut the Formica around the edges
Test fit and make additional cuts as necessary to fit the edges
Trace the portlight holes from the outside
Cut the holes for the portlights
Drill holes through the Formica so the portlight trim pieces can be installed
Test fit before gluing

: Test fitting the formica

The next part of the job was bonding the pieces of Formica to the bulkhead with epoxy. I chose to do this with West System Epoxy. I used the 105 Epoxy Resin, 205 hardener with 403 filler. The system is pretty easy to use. The epoxy recipe is a special mix so to make it easy there are specially designed pumps that provide the correct ratio of epoxy to hardener. Just do one pump of resin and one pump of hardener in a cup and then stir well for one minute. I mixed the epoxy in small painter’s cups and used a large tongue depressor to make sure the edges of the cup were scraped well.

The three parts of the West Systems Epoxy: Epoxy resin, filler and hardener

My first batch was used for a test bonding on two scap pieces of formica. I added some of the 405 filler to make the epoxy a bit thicker and then stirred the mixture until it was the consistency of ketchup and then used a paintbrush to paint it on two pieces of Formica. Then I put the two pieces together and moved it back and forth to get a feel for how much time I would have to set my large pieces in place before the working time is over and the epoxy is beginning to cure. I had about 5 minutes of working time so I decided to continue on with the process of putting the Formica up on the bulkhead.

Clean the bulkhead up with denatured alcohol to remove any dust
Mix up a thick batch of epoxy and apply it to level off any areas that weren’t flat and would have poor bonding
Mix up a batch of epoxy and add thickener
Apply a thin layer of epoxy to the bulkhead and back side of the Formica. Jeff and I split the job up, he would paint the bulkhead while I mixed up another cup of epoxy for me to use and then went to work on the Formica. Then when he finished on the bulkhead he came over to help me finish up the Formica
Place the Formica against the bulkhead
Screw in trim pieces to secure the Formica in place while the epoxy cures

Here’s a pictorial of the process:

Applying the epoxy to the bulkhead

Applying epoxy to the Formica

Putting the formica in place

Adding the Formica to the inside of the boat really brightened it up inside!

Sailing with Emily, Natalie and Jeff

Jeff’s visit was more than just free labor, we did have some fun too. We went out sailing on Airborne with Natalie and Emily. We also drank some beer and got to meet up with Danny Babcock, Trent Thurman and Eric Hurley old shipmates from our Juneau/Denver days.

Koku and Jeff floating with me in the dinghy after the motor died

We also took the dinghy out for a drift. It was supposed to be a dinghy ride around the marina but the water pump quit on the outboard and I didn’t bring along any paddles so we just drifted with the wind down the dock. Luckily, we brought enough beer to last the voyage.

Jeff was kind enough to build a great set of dock steps so now we don’t have to climb on to Airborne using a fender or bucket. Natalie and I both tripped getting off the boat, so we really needed a better way to get aboard Astraea. Thanks Jeff! Next time we’ll come visit you in Colorado.

A couple weekends ago one of my best friends, Emily, finally came to visit me. I say finally because in the last nine years I’ve visited her in Burlington, VT five times. Burlington is an awesome little town and I love going there so I’m not complaining, but it was nice for Emily to come to see me this time. And even better, she got to experience this different way of life I’m living now.

She arrived on a Thursday late in the morning and after lunch we spent the afternoon chilling in the cockpits of Airborne and Astraea enjoying the sunny weather. When Nate got home from work we showed Emily the not so romantic part of this lifestyle – pumping out. Nate’s getting really good at getting Astraea in and out of the slip and over to the pump out dock. He can do it all himself, but we gave Emily some lines and had her help. We drove out to Ocean Beach for dinner to go to Pizza Port, an award winning brewery restaurant. I think Nate and Emily enjoyed the beers, but I really loved the root beer they made there.

On Friday it was Nate’s turn to go to the airport. Our friend from Nate’s first ship in Japan, Jeff, happened to be visiting the same time as Emily. Luckily we have two boats! We had the girls on Airborne and the boys on Astraea (the construction zone with no windows). More on Jeff’s visit in a later post. Some pretty bad weather came in around lunchtime, so Emily and I spent the day holed up on Airborne watching movies as the boat rocked back and forth from the wind and the rain splattered on the decks. It continued to get worse throughout the day and I think that the weather that night was the worst we’ve had since living aboard. The wind howled all night and the boat was really yanking on the dock lines.

We survived the night and though the rain was gone by Saturday morning, the wind wasn’t. It was the day of our planned Baby Shower/BBQ, so instead of having it outside by the pool, we decided to play it safe and move it inside to the boater’s lounge and upstairs deck instead. My friend Amy did an amazing job planning the shower. I told her I wanted a laid back BBQ with just a little baby stuff thrown in since Nate and other guys would be there. We had burgers, hot dogs and chicken on the grill and a ton of yummy sides that everyone had brought. After eating we gathered in the lounge to play Pin the Sperm on the Egg and have a baby bottle beer-drinking contest. Emily got her sperm closest to the sweet spot on the egg, and Trent was the best baby around (besides baby Bella!) and drank his beer the fastest.

Pin the Sperm on the Egg

Nate got the game started

Amy get's ready to feed Eric his bottle

Trent and his feeding partner show us how it's done

Pretty cool wrapping by Nate's co-worker, Ellen. Can you guess what it is?

Amy made this awesome diaper sailboat

Looks like Jaime's got the baby fever from baby Bella

Koku knew he wasn't allowed in the lounge so he hid under the table

On Sunday, Emily and I drove out to Coronado while Nate and Jeff worked on some boat projects. Between the bad weather and the BBQ, we didn’t do any sightseeing in the previous three days, so I at least wanted to walk around at the beach for a bit while the sun was out. When we were done the guys had Airborne ready for an afternoon sail. Emily had never been sailing before and it was fun to watch her hang on nervously as the boat heeled over past 20 degrees.

Four days flew by way too fast! It was great to see you, Em!

Aboard Astraea

Invest in experiences

Jeff’s visit to San Diego

Emily’s Visit to San Diego (or, Natalie finally writes a blog post)

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