After a cold trip across the northern tier of the country, we arrived at Kevin's sister's home in York, Maine. There, we picked up all the stuff I had ordered from West Marine and Amazon and loaded it into the van. Kevin was not happy about the additional stuff bouncing around in the van.
Weather permitting we were allowed to work on the boat, We arrived at the yard bright and early on Monday, April 14 with smiles on our faces. Oh, the weather is turning bad tomorrow, the yard does not recommend taking the plastic wrap off the boat until Wednesday. OK, we can start on Wednesday. We get to the yard bright eyed and bushy tailed and most of the plastic is off the boat. Kevin grabbed the extra wood support pieces and started to build supports for the stainless steel radar arch which weighs about 150 lbs.
Once we got the arch up to waist level, we were able to fit the supports under it. Kevin then started to remove the old track vision satellite dish from the top part of the arch. This will be replaced by a starlink antenna for streaming and internet usage. We created a pole using the extra wood support pieces, then added a winch and ran support straps down to the winch in front and safety rails on both sides of the boat. The mast was able to support and lift the radar arch to its desired position.
It is Monday, April 28, 2025, the boat can go in the water anytime. We have the Starlink wired onto the radar arch and it turned on! It was a difficult job, cutting the ends off to run the wire from the top of the boat down to the cabin. There are designated wiring channels that the wire must go through to get to its final destination. Kevin pulled out all the old coax cable that is no longer needed as we removed the satelite dish.
Kevin has the old chart plotters removed from the pilot house and flybridge. We are installing new chart plotters in both locations. Naturally, they are not the same size so we took the template for the new electronics to a plastic shop where a custom mount will be made. The plastic shop will try to get to it, but it may take up to 2 weeks to finish the job. The flybridge chart plotter is hooked up to the necessary cables and turns on - it just needs that plastic piece so it fits in the dashboard.
The pilothouse chart plotter has some extra wires going to it that weren't part of the flybridge install. Kevin is working to finding where the extra wires lead to.
Wow, just as I was writing this, the plastics place got the job done early and the plates for the chart plotters to sit in were ready for pickup.
Well, the yard staff told us we are going into the water tomorrow, April 30, 2025. We still have a lot of items on our to do list to complete. Once the boat is in the water, the yard will need to remove all the winterization from the pipes before we can move aboard. Meanwhile, I have been waxing the boat. It is about 80% done and I plan to complete the other 20% once it is in the water.
April 30, 2025, We arrived at 8:30 am and found the boat in the water. Yay! When you put a boat on land for the winter, the yard puts pink potable antifreeze into the water system. We had not done that on the west coast where we keep our boats in the water all year round. Well, we found out that once that pink stuff gets into your water system it doesn’t clean out easily. We filled up the water tank and tried emptying it. It still has a soapy taste to it.
Then, we had the air conditioning service representative check the system as the unit in the forward cabin was not putting out a good flow of air. Turns out, we need a new air conditioner compressor. We should have a quote tomorrow. I am guessing it will end up a couple of boat bucks.
May 1, 2025, we still have a soapy taste in the water, but not as bad as yesterday. I would not recommend drinking coffee made from this water. The yard has yet to return our dinghy from storage where they cleaned and refreshed the engine fluids. They say it will be tomorrow before they can put it in the water and bring it to us.
It is taking quite a while to find storage for all of our boating related stuff. I am thinking about buying some plastic tubs to place in the bilge of the boat and fill with items that I won’t have to access frequently.
The fire service technician is here now. The boat has an automatic fire system in the engine area. The system still works, but does not shut down the engine as it is supposed to. It’s always something. It appears an electrical issue. Another thing for Kevin to work on!
