Friday, March 18, 2016

Key West - Laundry, hair dresser and we finally get our new hatch

Palm trees everywhere. The city ensures we have an adequate supply
Laundry in the morning, enough said. Ann always gets her hair done when in Key West, it's one of the few stops where she can find decent stylists. The only other stylist she uses is at Fernandina, Florida. Here she found The Beauty Bar at 328 Simonton St. It's run by two guys who just like to cut hair. Nice to find someone who likes what they're doing. They are from New Jersey (everybody in Key West is from somewhere else) and just moved down and set up shop, they like the area, who wouldn't.

Ann's new haircut
Later in the afternoon I got a call that a package arrived and lo and behold, it was the long awaited hatch replacement. The stupid tax only came to about $250 for the new hatch with a direct order from Lewmar through the Beneteau USA manufacturing site in South Carolina. Since only the closing part was damage, I plan on replacing only that part - which is probably not a good plan but I'll take the seemingly easier path first. The frame still attached to the boat appears okay (which means it probably isn't). Just in case, I ordered some butyl tape to rebed the new hatch frame to the boat if I have to remove the old one. Butyl tape, I hear, is the best rebedding material out there, better than the gooey, white stuff. I'm getting all of this second hand but they seem to be good sources. I'll let you know how it turns out.

One of these days I'll get over to Mallory Square
Since it's a Friday, we went to BO's Fishwagon to listen to  Barry Cuda but he's off somewhere else I guess. He hasn't been there for the last two weeks. Lots and lots of bands in Key West but we still like Barry Cuda the best.

2 comments:

Janice Roehr said...

thank you for sharing Ann's haircut! Those are things we need to know - and I'm serious! BTW I have just updated our blog, Travels aboard Obsession with our latest news and plans for this year. Question - I noticed a chair behind your wheel, where did you get it? Thanks, Janice

Bob423 said...

Hi Janice,

The chair is one of our favorite things on board. As you can guess, we do a lot of motoring on the ICW and having a comfortable seat at the helm is paramount. The seat is made by Todd, the Cape Cod Helm Saet:
http://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?path=-1%7C7504%7C2290169%7C2290171&id=1119746

The seat cushion is just the right firmness that it doesn't bottom out and it can be left out in the rain without absorbing moisture - no soggy bottoms! We settled on this model after about four tries with other versions of a seat. We did not use the pedestal that it's designed for, that would have been a more professional installation and would look better but we had not enough room on our sailboat for that luxury. So I bought a separate seat designed for use in the shower, shortened the legs and then attached the seat to it.
http://www.amazon.com/Moen-DN7035-Home-Shower-Glacier/dp/B00499RX3K/ref=sr_1_9_s_it?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1458400951&sr=1-9

With legs shortened, they are hardly noticeable, the Todd seat dominates the view. Finally, I bought a four pack of ratchet tie down straps and used one to secure the shower seat to the cockpit bench. On our Beneteau, the middle seat where you would sit while steering flips up for access to the swim platform. That mechanism provide a path for a strap under the seat, threaded between the shower seat and the Todd seat. The Todd seat itself is securely affixed to the shower seat with bolts.

The added benefit for us is that when sailing you can lean back against the seat for lateral stability. On long tacks you can even lounge in the seat since the high sides keep you in place.

Glad you enjoy the blog!