Farewell Hayden Bay

On one cold October morning, rain hitting the boat deck and the gentle swell from Elliot Bay rocking Hayden Bay, Marcus and I looked at each other and we knew it was time. Our living aboard experiment was coming to an end.

We had an amazing two years and now we don’t have to wonder whether or not the live aboard lifestyle is for us. The sad realization that moving back to land also meant that we will need to offer Hayden Bay for sale hit us like a truck, but the new found hope of reconnecting with friends and perhaps travel to non-boating destination kept us going trough the process.

For the sale we enlisted the services of Don Kohlmann at Nordhavn Northwest who was an really valuable asset though the entire process. If you ever want to buy a Nordhavn, please do yourself a favor and have Don represent you, he is that good!

Hayden Bay sold early in 2015 and was moved to Sidney BC. Her new owners are wonderful people and should have many years at her helm. We on the other hand miss her very much but are forever grateful for all the amazing memories we have from when she was ours.

Our boating life is not over however… our next adventures are just starting!

Marcus & Jorge

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Living aboard during the winter in Puget Sound

Winters in the sound can be incredible, we get a fair share of sunny calm days to go out and explore.

The biggest challenge for us, specially since we live aboard full time, has been keeping Hayden Bay at a comfortable temperature. Last year we tried using electric oil heathers to warm the cabin up and they were really not that effective. There is a significant portion of the vessel under the water line which makes it very hard for the electric heaters to keep up effectively.

This year we decided to use the reverse cycle air conditioning units, in conjunction with our diesel “fireplace”, when we are at the dock. Underway and at anchor we will use the hydronic heather since we don’t really like running the generator all that much.

Replacing the old reverse cycle units

Hayden Bay was commissioned with three reverse cycle units from Marine Air. When it was restored the owners decided to try fixing the units instead of a total replacement. This in return reduced their life expectancy significantly.

Given than they were to be our primary heath we decided to replace them with a more modern and power efficient model before the winter started.

This is the new unit installed

Jorge

Replacing the dry stack

One of the items that was discovered during the pre-purchase survey of Hayden Bay was the significant amount of rust on the dry smoke stack. Specifically the iron pieces that connected the engine exhaust system up to the muffler located on the upper deck. At the time, and since there were no signs of it leaking, we decided to wait and not replace it until a latter date.

During our summer trip we discovered multiple exhaust leaks and, while small, produced smells we much rather not have aboard our vessel. On our return we knew that the time had come.

We contacted Hatton marine to give us a quote and agreed on terms. Hatton was to fabricate a replacement in stainless steel and install it on site = at our marina in Ballard.

The removal was quick but messy. The stack was really rusty so it cover the engine room and upper deck with rust particles forcing a very time consuming clean-up process.

The new stack came two weeks later and it looks amazing. Lots of interesting parts to explore!

Running it for the first time produced a ton of smoke!! Glad we were warned before hand that it was going to happen as the oils used to install the insulation burned off…

Overall we are really happy with the work and would definitively keep using Hatton as a reliable service provider for Hayden Bay.

Jorge

New Fridge and Freezer!

Now that the Washer/Dryer combo unit was out of the salon it was time to install a real freezer. We originally looked at the u-line that Nordhavn is adding to the new 40s but we did not want to have to build a custom door to match our teak.

Steve from Waypoint suggested we looked at Vitrifrigo as they make a size compatible unit and has drawers instead of the traditional doors. After looking at pictures online and finding out they have a model that offers positive latches we were sold!

The old fridge as a black bar and beverage center GE unit. As you can see the framing had to be modified to fit…

The new unit speaks for itself!

As for the freezer, well we had to have a matching vitrifrigo unit as well

Here is one of the units before being installed.

Jorge

More restoration work completed

This week Waypoint Marine finished the third wave of restoration work on Hayden Bay. This wave included changes to the living space to make the boat feel more like a home.

A big part of the job was to install new appliances and we could not be happier with the end result.

When we purchased Hayden Bay the Washer and Dryer was located on the salon where the freezer is generally located. We are not sure why it was moved up but the model was ventless and not designed for marine use. Long story short it managed to destroy a large assortment of clothes, not to mention the after-smell since the dry cycle took forever!

My favorite part was how the old washer was installed…

Getting the new unit down below, on the guest stateroom was a bit of a pain but totally worth it! Now we have a vented model, designed for the marine environment, dries much more quickly and does not destroy or stinks up our clothes!

This is the location where the original washer was. The safari people unfortunately transformed it into a closet with ugly shelves, a home made drip tray and a 1.4 qf summit freezer shown on the pictures below after we moved it to the galley until the new freezer was installed… note how small the unit was!

Jorge

What’s the best type of vent?

We are doing some work on Hayden Bay this fall and, as we were exploring what’s behind the ceiling panels on the guest stateroom, we discovered something interesting…

For context Hayden Bay has a couple of dorade vents that bring fresh air into the two staterooms.

On the master the vent is on the starboard side but on the guest stateroom we could not actually find it anywhere. Where could it be? That was a mystery to us though not big enough to go investigating at the time.

Well, behind one of the ceiling panels we found this:

What you see in the background is the vent… it seems that when the boat was restored originally the vent was never rebuilt, instead they just left the venting hose behind the panel… the air up there was super fresh I’m sure…

Jorge

New carpet!

After a taking a break for a few months we would like to start posting here again regularly. This has been an incredible summer and I’m really looking forward writing about all our adventures on the amazing waters of Washington and British Columbia.

Before we start the adventures though we had to take care of some important maintenance items. The first one being the complete replacement of our flooring. When we took delivery of Hayden Bay it came with residential carpet trough the entire vessel. The carpet had very long threads and captured an incredible amount of dust.

Being the allergic person I am, and considering all the mold we discovered under the carpet on the guest stateroom, it was a no brainer that we had to replace the carpet.

We contracted a local company and selected commercial grade, rubber backed synthetic tiles to ensure it last a long time and that it survives any spill, salt, condensation that may affect it during its lifetime.

The installation wast performed over three days and we could not be happier with the results!

And the final result! Note that we restored the table mounts. The previous owner had them covered with the ugly carpet…

The vendor also did a very nice job with the hatches… can you see it? 🙂

Jorge

windy weekend on Andrews bay

Our friend Jürgen took delivery of his new Ranger Tug “Current Obsession” and since the weather called for strong winds we decided to do a shakedown cruise to Andrew’s Bay in Lake Washington.

The Bay is located south of the I-90 bridge on the eastern shore of the lake.  This is also the only official anchorage in Lake Washington.

The trip there was interesting as Hayden Bay needs to take the long way around Mercer Island since we are too tall to fit under the eastern section of the-90 bridge.  This adds at least an hour to the trip if not a bit more. 

We had 3-4 ft chop on the middle section of the lake so we ran with the stabilizers tough this section… guess one gets used to a confortable ride very quickly :-).

Once on the bay we dropped our Anchor close to shore and had an amazing evening with food, wine and great friends. What else can we ask for?

Jorge

Safari gifts

One of the things we like the least about Hayden Bay is the poor choice of carpet and upholstery the previous owners chose for the boat.  The carpet in particular is designed to be used on a residential dwelling and it has very poor quality.  In fact on the guest stateroom since the carpet is in contact with the hull, condensation created a significant moisture problem which was the source of some of the musty smell we sometimes had.

This is a picture of the floor under the carpet, note the really wet and totting wood trim that held the carpet in place.  Over the next few weeks we will be removing all the carpet on Hayden Bay and replacing it with either good quality marine carpet or teak and holly floors.

Jorge

Spring is in the air

Looks like spring has finally arrived to the Pacific Northwest and I’m so happy that we were able to be out on the water this weekend. All started this Friday as we had to “Work from boat” on tradition since there was some warranty work being performed. During our lunch break we went on a walk to the south end of Lake Union to enjoy some nachos at Joey and tour the docks by the center for wooden boats.

And while the walk and, of course, the sun were totally enjoyable, on one of the piers behind the new MOHAI we found a large wooden boat named M.V Lotus. The interesting thing about this boat is that you can rent one of its five staterooms for the night and all funds go to help with its restoration and upkeep.

The Lotus was built by a Seattle lawyer and was used for a while as a floating frat house for the UW (fun!). For more on M.V Lotus’s history please take a look at her website.

There are a lot of wonderful boats to see, including a super cute tug called “Skillful” and of course, a cute Cat posing for a picture. What a wonderful day!

To Linwood Cove

On Saturday 3/29/2013 we made plans with our very good friends Dave and Maureen to try Linwood Cove inside Rich Passage. We have seen this little cove from the ferry out of Bremerton but always thought it will get hammered by ferry wakes.

On our way there we witnessed the Sailing Vessel Bonnie Jean running aground when it tried to cut the corner close to Point Glover… Guess who did not win the race?

The day was spectacular and the cove was surprisingly calm, it seems that the Ferries turning causes an effect that cancels most of their wakes… good for us!

We arrived at about 2:00 PM and Destiny and her crew tied up to us at 3:15 ish. Happy hour proceeded and then hours of playing “Cards against humanity” which is a fantastic card game though not for the faint of heart.

Circumnavigating Blake Island… on a wing engine?

Sunday 3/30 started at 7:30 for us as we got up to share some coffee and breakfast aboard Destiny. Dave and Maureen needed to head back to Seattle since their jobs required them to travel to Alaska and New Mexico respectively.

We decided however to give our wing engine some exercise so we circumnavigated Blake Island at a whopping 4 knots!

After our little adventure and a couple of failed attempts to dock at Blake we headed over to Eagle Harbor where to spend the night. Tomorrow it will be an early departure to be at work by 10:00.

~ Jorge