You might have noticed that we haven’t been off the dock in while. Typically this time of year we cruise often to take advantage of the cool winter weather. Unfortunately, we’ve had some down time due to a few issues with Blue Turtle that Randy has been troubleshooting and resolving. One was with our 185hp …
Boat Projects
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Not to long ago, we finally got around to a project I’ve been looking forward to since we got Blue Turtle. When we bought Blue Turtle 6 years ago, the interior main salon and aft cabin had this commercial grade carpeting in it. I completely understand why the previous owners would choose commercial grade if …
The morning we left for Jewfish Basin, Randy discovered a fuel leak in our generator. He troubleshooted the issue for a couple of hours before we left and discovered it was due to an injector line that might have had a hairline crack in it. Since it wasn’t leaking too bad, we decided to head on to our …
Last week, while I was busy provisioning for the Dry Tortugas, Randy was busy installing a new air conditioner in the forward berth. The old CruisAir AC had quit working on us and rather have someone come out and charge it and invoice us $400, we decided it was time to put that money into …
I’ve always loved touring the insides of boats. When we were shopping for a trawler, we would try to crawl around every interior possible to get an idea of what style and layouts we liked. I also love to see how other cruisers solve space issues and decorate to make it feel like home. We’ve been …
A few weeks ago I posted on our Facebook page that we had picked an inopportune time to pull the doors off Blue Turtle and have brand new ones made. We were in the middle of a cold front with 25-27mph winds and our replacement doors were thin pink foam insulation from Home Depot — I called …
While I was busy wrapping Christmas presents, Randy was busy with the annual diesel engine maintenance on our Perkins 185 and Onan generator engines. Randy learned early on that it is worth every penny saved to do this type of work yourself. Hiring someone to do oil changes is costly and it really makes sense …
When we first purchased Blue Turtle, the canvas and isinglass were very worn, the glass was cloudy and had several large cracks and rips in it. We knew we would need to replace it, so in May of 2013 we spent a week at Cape Coral Yacht Club to have it all replaced. We really …
Every boat owner knows that it’s inevitable that you need to haul out your boat for regular maintenance. For some, it may be every 2 years for others maybe longer. It all depends on the environment your boat is in, it’s bottom paint as well as how it is cared for on a regular basis. …
I mentioned in my last post that we have no shortage of boat projects right now. While I was busy refurbishing the interior walls, Randy was finishing up the exterior hull paint. As some of you may know, we began painting the exterior of our trawler in the spring of 2014. Since this is a …
We have no shortage of boat projects going on right now. We are tirelessly ticking things off our list to get the boat in shape for our family honeymoon to the Dry Tortugas and Key West. Some of the projects are musts, like regular maintenance and getting spare parts for the engine and generator. Other …