Wednesday June 10, 2015
Glamping: Shorthand for glamorous camping; luxury camping. To be more precise, camping with all necessary amenities including electricity as helped by these guides is glamping. This is not what we are doing. Serendipity may have been considering glamping to some as it was a step up from camping, but we have fallen so far from there. So very far in fact that I might have to say that we’re a level below camping. This folks, is because we have just moved onto Daze Off.
Yes, you’ve read that correctly. We will be living on the boat that we are remodeling. While we are remodeling it.
‘So you’ve decided not to rip the whole thing apart, but instead just fix little bits here and there?’
Nope, we’re still ripping the whole thing apart while we are living on it.
The original plan had been to live on Serendipity while we were doing this remodel, comfortably floating in a slip at the same marina where we’d have air conditioning running down through a window vent and a comfortable place to kick up our heels at the end of the work day. When that air conditioning unit where to encounter any issues, a professional repair company can provide expert assistance in diagnosing and fixing issues, ensuring optimal performance and comfort.
Assuming she would takes months and months to sell, as most boats do, we thought that we’d at least have all the major areas finished before there would be any thought of moving on to Daze Off. The v-berth, forward settee, galley, and hopefully the head. Basically as minimal as you can get to comfortably live.
But because the ‘Dip sold so darn quick, which in a way we are very thankful for because at least we won’t be paying $1,100 to the marina each month, we are now left homeless. House-less is fine by us as we’ve been that way for nearly three years now, but at this point we don’t even really have a home. We have a hunk of metal that’s in pretty bad shape, and that’s before we even begin tearing apart what’s there.
To make the situation somewhat bearable we’ve decided to break the remodel into sections so at least the entire boat won’t be in shambles at one time. The most important thing for us is to have a comfortable place to sleep so the v-berth is going to be project #1. We’ll probably couple it with the forward settee as our v-berth is really just a murphy bed that folds down into that area anyway. When those are complete we’ll move on to the galley since cooking on the boat will be our next concern after sleeping. From there we’ll move on to the head and then finish out with the pilot house and quarter berth.
We’ll get by, I’m sure, but I also know these next few months are going to be a bit hard until we’re past at least the first two stages. Even though we’re working on the v-berth we’ll be sleeping in it every night, cleaning up what we’ve worked on during the day. It hasn’t been terrible so far although it does kind of suck that the boat was left with no cushions in there. At the moment we’re sleeping on a combination of cockpit cushions and sport-a-seats. My back is not loving it.
Then there’s the eating arrangements at the moment. Â We have no working fridge or chill box on Daze Off and the propane is not hooked up to the stove or oven. Luckily the marina has a grill on it’s patio area down by the slips and so we’ve been wandering over there every night to fix ourselves dinner. With only a grill and microwave at our disposal though, meals are going to have to be well thought out. At least the slow season has come upon the marina and we’ve managed to commander a drawer in the fridge as well as one of the cabinets in the kitchen.
Oh yes, and let’s not forget one of the other fine things that puts us right down there with camping. We have no electricity at the moment. What we do have an extension cord that we’ve fed through a hatch to power our air conditioner and a few tools or electronics but we don’t have wiring for lights and that is unfortunately months down the road. When the sun goes down we rely on our Ryobi rechargable flashlight to get us through the night. I have to say, it actually does a surprisingly good job.
So that’s where we are at the moment. Living in the stone age and planning what we want to do next. Our surveyor is coming out in the next few days to do an ultrasound of the boat and hopefully we’ll be able to get the welding started right after and have the keel fixed and all those pesky holes filled. While we’re having that done Matt and I will attack the v-berth and maybe a few leaky hatches. With any luck we’ll have her livable within a few months, but until then, please pray for us. And maybe send some beer.