<<Written by Rachel>>

As many of you know, about 2 weeks ago Mosaic came out of the water at the boatyard for our major refit. Evan had not been able to be present when she was hauled out in San Diego, for the survey or for the trip North, so when he asked if he could be there to watch, Brenden and I decided it was worth letting him skip a day of school.

When we arrived at 9 that morning, the dockhands had already moved Mosaic forward to prepare her for the crane to come and remove the mast. Brenden, after speaking with the project manager at the marina, immediately got to work disconnecting wiring from the bottom of the mast. Evan and I wandered around and tried to find good spots for photos and videos as we had the GoPro and he had his action cam to shoot some action.

The rigger, Butch, showed up a little before 10:00 and helped with final preparations to get the mast taken out. The crane showed up right on time and quickly set up to pull the mast.

She sure looks strange without a mast! Here you can see the travel lift moving out over the boat to slip the slings under her belly.

Evan placed his action cam right along the inside of the travel lift track-way and set it to record the boat coming up and then flying over top of the camera. Unfortunately, his camera chose that moment to freeze up and it didn’t save the video. We were both very disappointed as I think it would have been an amazing clip.

Once out, one of the yard guys gave her a thorough power wash and blasted away over a year’s worth of growth on the hull. It’s amazing the difference a power wash can make.

Brenden and Butch were off working on the mast, starting the process of removing the old rigging. Evan and I had to head back to Grandpa’s place to take Kali off his hands. Brenden stayed to work all day with Butch, thus saving several hours’ worth of rigger work time.

Here she is, resting in her nest on dry land.

Once done for the day, we came to pick Brenden back up and retire back to our new-home-for-a-while at his dad’s house. Tomorrow will mark the two-week mark and  …. as is not unsurprising, we’re not even sure if they’re actually working on the boat yet. Sigh. I’m just hoping.

Ah, yes, I also wanted to post our list of jobs being addressed during this refit.

Boatyard projects: (~$8000)

  • Replace valve & thru-hull for head sink, inspect all remaining thru-hulls
  • Pull prop shaft & replace pedro tube
  • Inspect cutlass bearing and repack stuffing box
  • Clean and repaint bottom
  • Replace anodes
  • Pull, fabricate, and replace all chainplates
  • Install new depth sounder

Rigging work: (~$8000)

  • Replace entire standing rig, swaged terminals
  • Replace majority of the running rigging, new halyards (main, staysail, jib, spinnaker)
  • Rig up running back-stay system
  • Replace mast-head windex and wind sensor
  • Remove old radar (we will replace and mount elsewhere)
  • Remove old analog TV antenna
  • Remove old spreader lights (we will replace)
  • Replace anchor light with LED tri-color nav and anchor light
  • Replace steaming light
  • Replace VHF antenna
  • Installing new rope clutches
  • Redesign and implement new reefing system and outhaul system
  • Insulate stainless steel fittings from aluminum mast
  • Replace block for spinnaker halyard

Additional Projects/Purchases:

In addition to all listed above, we’re also replacing our stove/oven. The current one is original to the boat and the oven does not work. The company no longer exists and we’ve been unable to source parts or repair it to functionality. We’ve just returned from a trip to Seattle to attend the Seattle Boat Show and we ordered a new stove unit. Force10 three burner stove: $1300.

Additionally, we will be buying a new dinghy in the near future. After shopping around, we’ll be buying a Zodiac Cadet Ultralight 300 ALU from the Inflatable Boat Center in Portland for approximately $1800-$2000.

Sadly, we’re also finding a lot of corrosion on our mast and may end up spending a god-awful amount of money to have the mast stripped, sanded, and fully repainted. I am not emotionally ready yet to accept this addition to the total refit cost … so we shall see.

As always, thanks for reading. I’m thinking of doing a post once the refit is all done detailing all of the big project costs and the purchase of the boat itself. I know that when we were boat-hunting and starting to build our dream, Brenden and I always wanted to know how much everything was costing the people getting into this. Leave a comment if you’d find that information interesting at all!

Follow our Facebook page at facebook.com/mosaicvoyage for more pictures and frequent updates! Adios! ~Rachel