Lots of Maintenance and Upgrades

Been pet-sitting for my friends, Bill and Linda, in Fort Myers while she has surgery. (Good news—surgery was a success, and they should be headed back home in a day or two!) FellowShip II is only a half hour north up Interstate 75 in Punta Gorda, so I’ve been doing boat maintenance in the mornings when it isn’t too hot.

I gave it a good cleaning above and below deck and sorted through lots of stuff in the lockers. I found a bag full of spare parts for the Yanmar diesel and also a nice tiller autopilot.

I took the cushion covers to a laundromat and put them in two big front loading washing machines. Following Sunbrella’s cleaning instructions, I added bleach to the laundry detergent, and they came out looking brand new. I stretched them out on the dock in the sun to dry. I have learned the hard way to never dry them in a dryer to avoid shrinkage.

There was some nice wood-slatted decking in the cockpit, but it was in one-foot interlocking squares that just wouldn’t interlock anymore. I priced out a nice teak grate, but at $1,270 there was no way that was happening! Linda suggested getting interlocking rubber exercise tiles at Home Depot, but the local store didn’t carry them. Then I remembered West Marine carried Dri-Dek interlocking tiles. I checked online, and the only West Marine that had enough in stock was the store here in Fort Myers. I drove out last night and bought 10. The price was very reasonable—about $60.

I took my time installing the Dri-Dek tiles this morning, measuring carefully, trimming off a few excess inches using scissors, and finally cutting out the opening for the tiller using a utility knife. I think it came out nicely...

Still haven’t gotten out for a sail. I want to change the engine oil and do engine maintenance before running it again. I have a call in to a local mobile mechanic, but he hasn’t followed through with an estimate. (This is Florida—you really have to twist arms to get contractors to respond, I’m finding.) Bill has offered to help with the maintenance which was quite nice of him. I’ll give the mechanic an opportunity to respond, but will probably take Bill up on his offer!