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Gulf Island Building.

1M views 8K replies 149 participants last post by  Katie Cabana 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi all:
Since the summer of 1997, I have been building a cabin and house on our 1/2 acre lot here. Before I dive into that part, I am going to show a few photos to set the stage a bit. We are remote here. No services of any kind, except that which we provide for ourselves. So don't expect to see any paved roads with big trucks delivering any materials.
We live at the head of a small bay, which is both a blessing and a curse.
When the tide goes out, we have to clamber over hundreds of yards of rocks to get to our boat. When it is in, I can float logs right up to my little railway to move them onto the log deck. Well, not any more, but more about that later.
This is the bay in front of us.
 

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#2,510 ·
So tonight I was ready for the sunset. Never happened.

This was looking south over Thetis, Kuper & Saltspring islands. Couldn't quite figure out why the sky was like this as the sun is now setting due west of us.
 

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#2,514 ·
I second what Barb said, the red rain is just unreal, just beautiful.

Barb, that is the grain I was talking about, the Cedar Keith gets is a whole lot different and so pretty.
 
#2,518 ·
The missus and I have been occupied today with the unpleasant chore of cleaning the bottom of the sailboat. It's just downright dirty, miserable, cold work. And we have left it far too long...as you will see.

My friend Brian across the bay has a big old diving board bolted to the rock in front of his place. He uses it to tie his boat up against to clean the bottom occasionally.

With his kind permission I put the boat up at high tide this morning, and got the lines rigged plus a long board to hold the boat in place while the tide dropped.

Here she is still floating.
 

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#2,526 ·
Hmmm, scrubbing the hull...not really sure, but it is the devil of a job.

Today we only scrubbed the whole rudder, and from the bootstripe down about a foot or so on the hull. We use a stainless steel barbecue brush and it works like nobody's business.

I guess we spent about an hour on the scrubbing.

We will need to pull the boat again next spring and do a proper job. But next time I will get an electric pressure washer to do the last cleaning. I'm getting too old for this foolishness!
 
#2,524 ·
Here's the bow after scrubbing and painting. No, we didn't get to do the bootstripe this time.

We should have done the job yesterday, the tide was more in our favour. Today, it only went down to the point where there was still about 8" of water at the keel. Yesterday, it would have dried out for a short while.

Part of the problem is that the barometer is low today, and this keeps the water higher. I was hoping for a high barometer, no such luck. Although I bet you dollars to doughnuts that it will shoot right up now that we are done.
 

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#2,529 ·
This is just like watching a movie, nothing like what you are doing happens down this way, of course we are in the mountains though. We do have the Tennessee River about a mile from here but it isn't our front yard like yours. What an adventure, I bet it don't feel like it to you sometimes with all the hard work you have to do.
 
#2,531 ·
What started out as an adventure pretty soon turned into a never ending line of work.

I can't say I was expecting anything different though, but after working on other people's boats for a good while before coming here, it would have been nice not to be doing it again.

But, hey, if you want to live on an island, I guess that is one of the costs you have to bear.
 
#2,530 ·
Well, no problems really. Took the boat out to her mooring, and at idle speed it was moving about 1 1/2 mph. Would hardly budge before. It was taking us over 50 minutes to go across to the marina, now we should be back down to 35 minutes - and at a lower throttle setting to boot.

The other thing is that I can spin the boat in it's own length now. We came back into the bay a few weeks back and it was pretty windy. You always need to approach your mooring heading upwind.

So I came past our mooring in the bay, turned the boat and missed the mooring by about 10 yards. Tried that three times, no luck. Finally had to go way past our mooring - like 50 yards and then turn. We only just made the turn in time. Nothing like a dirty bottom to foul up your handling.
 
#2,535 ·
Coco .,

That is pretty good amout of growth on bottom of hull.

The last time I have to clean all the gunk off I have to use steam pressure washer that really take a bunch of stuff off like nobody bussiness WOOT !!

I have unlimited steam supply next to it { a med size power plant so I asked them and they say sure just pay 50€ for fuel cost that justify the time I have to clean out the bottom of tugboat ( 24' W by 135' long 550 tonnes }

Merci.
Marc
 
#2,539 ·
The main issue with any marine vessel { boats } no matter what size you need get their bottom of the vessel clean up due seraerals reason

• better fuel encomeny

• higher speed

• better handling

• reduce the unburden weight { as my tugboat I can get it clean and really loose about 3 to 8 tons of gunk off that make the diffrence }

The worst item I have dealt is Zerba Mussels they will really cling on the hull :censored:

Merci.
Marc
 
#2,540 ·
Thanks Marc. I guess the reason I didn't know that is because everyone I know who has a boat, pulls it around on a boat trailer. They back it up into the water, use the boat for the day and put it back on the trailer when they're done, to take it home. But some people leave their boats in the lakes or rivers from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Zebra mussels have been a big problem in the Great Lakes as well. Now we're being threatened with Asian Carp. They jump out of the water and right into people's boats.

Barb
 
#2,543 · (Edited)
Are we talking about the same kind of bottoms? Boats jl...boats! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Looking forward to your autumn pics.

We were over to town today and went up to Parksville. Very little change in any of the trees yet. It was warm right up until we had all this rain...and it needs cooler nights to turn the leaves. I'll keep my eyes open.

We weren't successful in our hunt for more marble tiles. May have to expand our search area.
 
#2,545 ·
Many thanks for the pic jl.

We have Garry Oaks here, mostly smaller kind of gnarly looking trees. Ours are still completely green, not a hint of change. Is that a willow also in there?
 
#2,547 ·
I thank you also JL, that is encouraging to see the colors starting to change. You sure do have a pretty yard, is that mountains way off in the background?

Judy and I noticed the mountain sides here look like the trees are changing but I think the trees are dying from all the hot dry weather we have had for so long. We are still hoping for some pretty colors here.
 
#2,548 ·
Thanks jl, I mistook the weeping birch for a willow. Now that I think about it the willows are usually much closer to the ground, are wider, and not as tall.

Nice collection of trees, that's for sure.
 
#2,559 ·
Jim's table got a full 7 coats of varnish after the wood was sealed.

So look at it like this...under the 7 coats there were 3 or 4 coats which didn't necessarily succeed in giving 100% coverage.
 
#2,565 ·
Jim...please be sure to pass along my "good luck" wishes to your son. If there is ever anything I might be able to assist him with - information wise - by all means feel free to ask.
 
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#2,566 ·
A little more on the wood up top.

I measured the height of the wood right at the beginning of the wall, and at two foot intervals. Marked the spots and drew a line. The cuts were made with the Japanese saw.
 

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