The Saga of Pas de Deux, Chapter 12: Pas de Deux Finds a New Home and Has a Bath

There have been quite a few new developments in the little story of Pas de Deux, and I’m sorry to say that I’ve been very remiss in reporting them. Well, I apologize for that, but today I’m going to make up for it all by sharing the next thrilling and chilling installment in The Saga of Pas de Deux.

Pas de Deux has officially left her berth and travelled to a new marina. While the voyage to her new home wasn’t far, she still weathered it bravely, with Benn at the helm and Fuji and an old friend from Berlin, Florian, serving as the crew. You can see the video on our Facebook page, and if you’d like to see more videos of Pas de Deux’s adventures, be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook.

 

You may have noticed that one crew member was conspicuously absent from the voyage. Yes, I am still waiting for a decision on my UK visa application. I’ve ranted and raved about this in earlier blog posts, and I’m sure it’s getting boring…BUT UGH.

We decided to relocate to a new marina for many reasons, with closer proximity to the town and less dog mess on the pontoons being at the top of the list. One of the greatest advantages of the move is that we are now safely moored within the Ipswich Harbour wet dock and no longer subject to the rising and falling of the tides. While the tidal fluctuation isn’t such a big deal in and of itself, the steep trek up the ramp at low tide was more than a bit perilous on the days when the pontoon was covered with ice. As winter is on its way, Benn is looking forward to going to work or shopping for groceries without risking breaking his neck. (I’ll leave myself out of this one, seeing as how there’s no way of knowing whether or not I’ll actually be by his side this winter or ever, despite the fact that we are married, solvent, and most definitely not enemies of the state, as far as we are aware.)

Our new marina also has a liftout large enough to hold a catamaran, which is very convenient, seeing as how we didn’t have Pas de Deux lifted out before buying her and actually had no idea what the hull looked like. We know this is generally not considered to be a very smart thing to do when buying a boat, but, well, we did it anyway. Nevertheless, a good hull inspection was certainly something that we needed to get around to doing at some point. In fact, as she was last lifted out over 3 years ago, she was also pretty much overdue for a good clean and antifouling.

We were a bit nervous, as this was the point at which we could have discovered that our new home was literally a hole in the water in which we had thrown more money and time than would be considered prudent. We had no idea about the condition of the hull, whether or not we had signs of osmosis, or if there were any signs of the cracking between hulls that can occur in older catamarans.

Wonderful news, readers! Pas de Deux was in great condition! OK, a little dirty perhaps and still in need of antifouling, but otherwise fine. There were some signs of osmosis — sort of. The strange holes you can see in the pictures below are places where old osmosis actually broke through the gel coat. These were easy for Benn to sand down, refill, and waterproof, and he found no signs of anything more dire bubbling below the surface. We also discovered that, although the gel coat was in good condition, it is remarkably thin. Evidently, that is a characteristic of boats built in the 70s and nothing to worry about. You learn something new every day.

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We did have a bit of a scare after the lift out, however; after we put her back into the water, the seal around the depth finder suddenly began to leak. Benn had carefully avoided disturbing the depth finder while he was working and was pretty sure that he had not damaged it, but, whatever the cause, the seal was still leaking. Bracing ourselves for yet another boat expense, we arranged to have her taken out again to either repair the seal or remove the depth finder when, as quickly as it began, the leaking stopped. While any leak is enough to make us nervous, the consensus among the boat experts at the marina was that we just shouldn’t mess with it — so, I guess we’ll leave it for the time being. Fingers crossed.

All in all, Pas de Deux was in great shape for her age. Benn did an excellent — and exhausting, time consuming, and laborious — job of putting her back in top condition. Not only did he repair and paint the hull, but he also repainted the boot line (partially by hand!), replaced the anodes, reseated the studs, polished the topsides, burnished the props, repaired the rudder, restored the teak, and resealed the portholes. You can admire his handiwork in the photo above — and might admire it even more when you hear that he did it ENTIRELY BY HIMSELF. He feels pretty sorry for himself on that account, and I feel sorry for him, too, but that doesn’t mean that next time I’m going to volunteer to do the entire job myself, as he has suggested.

Now, I said there have been lots of developments in The Saga of Pas de Deux, and the lift out doesn’t even begin to cover it. Neither will this blog post, as the next story is so sensational that it deserves its own post. What could it be, you ask? Why, only the TRUE CRIME STORY OF THE CENTURY.

Now, I know the suspense is probably killing you, but I’m sorry to say you’ll just have to wait for our next installment to learn how once again Benn saves the day, making Ipswich a better and safer place for all who reside within! I’ve already given away too much, however, so let’s just end with some adorable animal photos and call it a day.