BUSY!

So i've been living without a head or shower all this time.. dont worry ive still been showering and going to the bathroom... just on my dads boat or the marina restrooms. I havnt really had much time at all between work and sea tech marine school. Now that school is done I have weekends and nights avaiable for working on the boat. with that being said ive decided to re plumb the whole waste system and add a new holding tank (55gal). Attached are some photos, im not finished yet but the hard part of running that PVC under the dinette is done. I got pretty beat up doing it tho.. its a very tight spot. I could just barley squeeze my hips through the hole and then once inside you have to either be on your stomach or back, you CAN NOT turn over under the seats. Very tight! Actually at once point I got stuck and felt very uncomfortable and just kept telling myself "you cant afford to do it any other way just finish the job". I also jumped down onto my knees at one point and landed on a peice of wood with a nail that went 1/4" into my leg. ouch!

Ive decided on some other things aswell. Im going to remove the teak decks and do a non skid awlgrip paint. Then its done and I dont have to worry about the decks at all anymore.

Ive got so much to do I cant even think, im so excited about making it all bight and bristol clean.

My cover comes in hopefully this week.. once thats up the deck work can begin.

Today I hope to leave work a little early to install and wire my 220v heaters. its getting cold and thats most important right now.

Im going to have a computer on the boat full time now and bob found a way to steal wifi so I hope that works.

byeall!

a few pictures

Goodmorning,

Just got into work about a half hour ago. As long as you hit 590N before 7am you can go the normal speeds. Anything after 7 its 15MPH. I finished my Sea Tech Marine schooling. passed. I have a few things I have to take care of before I can send my paperwork to Toledo. (Drug test, Physical) But im happy its finally over and that I passed.

I took the measurements for my winter cover last night, 33W x 56L should do it.. Im going to call today and get the final price for that. I put up a few pictures of the frame. Its gone together pretty well. (koverklampframes.com)

Sunday I woke up to the Roman passing bye, Im laying in bed and I hear all the dock lines screaching and look out the window and see that. I love it. It really sounded like it scraped the side of the spirit of rochester, my father thought the same thing. They moved that scow downriver to hook her up to power so she doesnt sink during the winter. I post some pictures of that aswell. Im sure anyone would rather look at a few pictures then read all this crap.

One step closer

Second to last day of my captains
course today with sea tech marine training. I've been at it about a
month now.. It's been going well, learning alot! I'll be a licensed merchant marine officer to
100 US gross tons. Hopefully in march I'll upgrade
to 200 ton. Spent most my day doing that.. 9-6. Took a shower
at the marinas bathrooms. You don't want to be in there longer than you have to.. It's
cold and very outdated and pretty dirty. Oh well it's a
good reason to get my fresh water tanks cleaned out and working. I think im going to need a new hot water tank. I havnt had much time at all to work on the important things. Between work and class I've been beat. I've been roughing it
for awhile now.. It's not terriable but not comfortable. The boats great and perfect for what I want to do I just need to get all the systems up and running. Heat is another issue, right now I've got 3 heaters running. A west marine cabin heater
in the galley and a Eden pure in the salon that don let me borrow, then a oil heater in the skippers
quaters. It actually keeps the boat warm. I've only turned it down but it's going to be getting colder soon and I need to wire the two 240v 13600 btu wallmouts I bought.

Enough for tonight it's 1045 and im in my extreamly uncomfortable bed typing this on my iPhone. I need a new matress ($450) and the rest of my winter cover ($700) just one problem, I lost the lat/long for my money tree.

Goodnight

first post!

my name is Jakob Van Reenen and this is my blog. Its about life as a liveaboard on my 1981 Albin 43 trawler...

Ive been living aboard for hmm let see... about a month now. I bought the boat up in the 1000 islands, ive known her all my life.. always loved the lines spent alot of time cleaning her as I was younger. John Harris was his name, a great man he was. A crazy Canadian! He bought this boat in 92' I belive, out of Boston MA... her name was "MOONSHADOW". Anyways john brought his new boat to French bay marina in Clayton, N.Y. Where I spent much of my youth growing up. He took many trips, some as far as the bahamas.. I always offered him crazy deals like dollar down dollar a week for life for the boat, i'd start paying now and continue till you pass! then when your done with it you just sign it over john! he always told me, who knows maybe you'll end up with it.

John passed away about 2 years ago now and his daughter put the boat on the market.. I went back and forth with it, sitting on it dreaming about it being mine. The deal went through, spent a few weeks preparing it for the voyage back to Rochester NY, her new home port.

anways a long story short.. John was right, the boat is now mine.. my home. thank you John. RIP