A Week on the S/V Iron Jack

We arrived at the S/V Iron Jack Wednesday, 01/04/2012, and was it ever a sight for sore eyes, home at last! Then began the fun…. Bill began the arduous labor of trying to get power and water flowing while Jeanne began the pack mule - like labor of schlepping much too much stuff from vehicles and trailer. There is only so much space inside this 39’ vessel and since in our universe no two objects can occupy the same space at the same time we’ve begun sorting and giving away the excess.
Thursday we began cleaning water tanks adding bleach and then flushing them. No problem, except that some of the valves, access ports and pump switches were less then easy to find. We did finish 2 tanks today and there are only 3 more to go. After that it will be time to find and clean the fuel tanks. There’s been quite a bit of sorting and condensing of galley items done today… the overflow gets taken to the lending library table in the laundry room from whence they magically disappear, hopefully to another galley where the goodies will be given a good home.

Spending a few days getting to know the surrounding area, found a nice little non-chain coffee shop for breakfast and coffee, not much luck in the lunch and supper departments though, all chains, so far… we need to get the galley in order so we can eat in rather than out all the time. Oh well, it gets closer every day …. Then going out for a meal will be fun again!

While Jeanne has been working at paring down and stowing things in the cabin Bill has been doing more of the outside labor, some rust touch up, a little engine work, pulling out to have the bottom inspected (couldn’t be done in the slip because we are sitting on the bottom), that sort of thing. He has also fired up the stove… 3 little burners are glowing and creating heat to make coffee and hot chocolate and maybe, someday a meal.. WooHoo

Bill‘s brother, Fred was kind enough to store and deliver to us our “ new to us” Avon redstart inflatable dinghy. The 3 guys (Fred’s friend, George came along for the ride) started to inflate the new ‘toy’ and could not figure out how to install the floor boards. One of them decide that reading the instruction manual might be a good idea. Much easier if you read the manual before trying to assemble for the first time. Jeanne was the first to row around the marina to make sure there were no leaks. SHE SURVIVED despite rowing around in circles and wavering paths. Then brother Fred tried and last but not least it was Bill’s turn. No one fell in or got wet trying to board the boat on the boarding ladder. Score one for the team!
Bill and Fred then removed the weird staysail boom we have and stored it temporarily on top of our trailer, that left room to hoist the dinghy and install it on foredeck. Gosh, we almost look like we know what we are doing.

We did finally finish cleaning and flushing all the water tanks and have 2 tanks filled with fresh water. Next on the agenda is to hook up the aft 50 gallon to the main feeder line, find an 8 to 10 gallon water heater that will work off the engine waste heat and 110 vac and plumb it into the system....Life goes on for the wanna be cruisers....:)