Guildive Cruises Blog

Guildive’s cover is coated in ice after all the snow and freezing rain from the last 2 days.  The cover sure did take it well, I was worried with all the pressure on the plastic the cover rip all the seams.  All is well on Guildive today, I batted off the ice from the cover and ran the engine to break free from the surrounding ice so she is living the good life again.  With the inclement weather Zander and I took the day to do some work where we didn’t have to be on the boat, keeping our hands warm for a day!  Zander is off for the barge work again for the next two weeks in Philly so I am left to hang out with the sand paper!!  He made great progress in the Engine room while he was home, now the next big project will be jacking up the engine and working on the engine mounts!  We give great thanks to our friends Simon and James who have been over to the boat with two brains full of advise about the engine room.  Please keep checking in as pictures will come soon!

The Guildy’s

Guildive on a foggy and COLD morning!

The teak cabin top sanded, before oil, after many hours

Kate putting the first bit of oil on the aft deck... many more to go!

The aft deck looking forward in the evening light

Zander driving in the bubble! We were running the engine breaking the ice around the boat going from hard left to hard right to give the boat some wiggle room.

A beautiful winter sunset, and the ice on the river.

Zander and I have been working the last few days through the cold!  It sure has been nice to have some company around the boat as the two weeks he is away it gets lonely.  He has been working very hard in the Engine room getting the tanks ready to change over some of the fuel lines and crawling around the bilge!  We started going through some of the supplies that have been stored in the bilge forward, it sure is fun discovering what is on the boat.  Here are some pictures from the past few days, some with the boat in ice, and others from the inside the bubble of the sanded teak and the oiling we have started to put on the wood!!!

Back aboard after a two week hiatus moving black oil along the Delaware river and I have found Kate has just about prepared the entire deck for Guildive’s new suit of colours.  All our teak has been prepped with a teak wood cleaner and sanded clean to a nice natural hue.  The combination of elbow grease and Kate’s meticulous attention means that Guildive is alive this winter, despite the cold.  Maryland is feeling the effects of a continental weather pattern and we have ice all around the boat.  Tonight we had a nice gathering to beat the cold and we tested our little gas stove with a 5lb chicken that maxed out our oven space.  Kate’s family was here for a fair well dinner before her brothers make the trip north back to college for the winter semester.  Both, Austin and Patrick have put a strong effort in helping Guildive spruce up, sanding away on both the teak pilothouse and cabin tops while I was off sailing in the last two weeks.  It was a piece of mind knowing Kate had company as I am sure there were days where the work seemed overwhelming, I know looking in the engine room I am met with thoughts along that vein.  Tomorrow will come and we both look forward to tackling more of our dream as it is very present each morning we wake up.  All the best with a full belly and a warm galley,

The Guildy’s

This past week has been spent prepping surfaces for new paint!  Zander is working in Philadelphia and will be for another week to come, so hopefully there will be some noticeable changes when he gets back.  He has been very fortunate to have a little time to get some work done on the website and research on the Guildive.  Many thanks to Austin and Patrick who have dedicated many hours to the endless sanding and keeping me company!  All of the painted surfaces are prepped on deck and now the big project will be all the teak, LOTS of hand sanding to go!  Patrick has been an all star with some of the hatches with lots of edges and deep varnish.  I was not looking forward to working on those particular hatches and Patrick dove right into them!  The weather has luckily been in our favor with nice temperatures and no rain!  We have been very fortunate to have the boat in such a protected spot with the wind we have been getting.  With the bubble very little weather stops the work from happening on deck!  More pictures will be posted soon as soon as the dust clears.