C'est la Vie is a 1966 Charlie Morgan 34.

Her home port is Everglades City, FL. Our typical cruising area is Southwest Florida, the Florida Keys, the Southeastern Atlantic Seaboard, and the Bahamas. We are C'est la Vie's third owners and purchased her in 2005. We continue to maintain and update this classic vessel. Please post any questions or comments about C'est la Vie or our travels via the comment links below.


Friday, July 22, 2011

starting to put some things back together

Thus far it has felt as if we have only initiated projects, found unexpected repairs, and taken things apart.  Perhaps we are now turning a corner?  Today I completed installing all the refinished parts of the starboard salon lockers.


 In conjunction with this effort I installed the new Airmar B112 depth sounder transducer that Gemeco replaced under warranty.   In the past, Gemeco's customer service and timely turnaround on orders has always impressed me.  This is the first time that I have had to work their warranty department.  I continue to be impressed with their service.  Last fall my father and I installed the B112 transducer.  Here is a link to the photo album from the project - Replace Depth Sounder 2010

The sounder and our starter battery are located under the aft section of the starboard salon seats (pictured in lower right of images above.)  Here is what  the locker looked like nearing the completion of the installation last fall...

Here is an image of the same area after painting the lockers and seats...
Once we move all the tools, spare parts, etc. from the vee-berth back into these refinished lockers.  We can then start refinishing the lockers below the vee-berth.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

more than a little help from a friend


We owe a huge thanks to a local friend that returned our ready to be primed windlass today.  He who cannot be named works as a military contractor in a facility that services some of the US Navy's vessels.  I went to him for advice in disassembling the windlass.  Over time and countless soakings of salt water many of the stainless steel fasteners seized to the cast aluminum body.  Together we were unable to make progress.  So our windlass took a field trip to a military machine shop where our tax dollars provided all the fancy tools and experience to resurrect our windlass.  Below is a before image of the windlass.