The final two weeks before shoving off is always crazy. The marina here was likely getting very tired of the Amazon delivery person, otherwise known as UPS.
The boat is feeling better than ever. If we’d just kept right on cruising last year, we would have been just fine, but when you stop in the States you tend to feel like you should knock off the projects. So that’s what we did. We replaced the bimini with a nice stainless setup and 400 watts of solar panels. Those power the two new 12v refrigerator compressors. The fridges are cold all the time now, and they barely sip the amps. This is a big upgrade over the AC powered fridge compressor we had before. With that we were married to the boat, needing to run the generator twice a day for an hour each time to get the fridges down to a decent temperature. And during those twelve hours in between the cold would just leak on out every time we grabbed something out from inside. Now, it’s all cold, all the time.
We fixed up the top deck steering station, got rid of the old broken windshield wipers and motors, ran freshwater up to the old saltwater deck wash. If you’re going to make 35 gallons of fresh water an hour you may as well wash the anchor chain off with it. We replaced the old back anchor that was solid rust covered a dozen times in paint, and left rust stains all over the boat. Lowe got his birthday wish—a sailing dinghy—and we worked out a way to lift and store it without completely destroying the boat.
I tore the old Honda outboard apart, and completely rebuilt it. It had done well for us up until about the time we got to the Turks and Caicos, at which point it just became a huge pain in our butts. It’s running great now. And the dinghy leak has finally been repaired properly as well.
We painted the bottom of the boat, replaced the zincs, painted a new bootstripe, installed a transducer for the depth finder, and buffed and waxed the hulls. The secondary fuel filters finally got changed, replacing the old ones marked 2014. The engines got fresh oil changes. We fixed a breaker on the fuse panel that had completely messed up our power situation our first year out. Ali cleaned every nook and cranny on the boat, and reorganized perfectly now that we know what we need and where it needs to go. We added an electric convection burner so that we could avoid, at least some of the time, running the generator to make dinner on the AC powered stove.
All the bed mattresses got replaced with new foam “bed in a box” beds. They’re great. The kids’ beds were easy, they didn’t need to be cut to size—the V-berth didn’t go nearly as well, and I wish I could do that one over again, but it’ll have to do for now.
We fixed lights, replaced missing screws, touched up cracked gelcoat, replaced the old burnt out spreader lights with bright new LEDs. The toilet waste hose got replaced, then the toilet broke, and some new parts fixed that back up.
The list goes on and on. These are just the things I can think of off the top of my head as I sit here now. No doubt I’ve missed dozens of other small projects that should help contribute to an even better season than last.
And of course, on top of all that was the day-to-day life. Ali took the kids on countless adventures, including “Sea School” on Sanibel, museums, and parks, while I worked the stock market at home. She made more trips to Target and Publix than you can count, and she did it all while muscling around an old ’68 International.
We’re happy and are sure all the hard work will have been worth it. We’ve got a fun season planned, and rough plans for a couple seasons after that which we are equally excited about. Our lifestyle never lacks for soothing the wanderlust.
Clearly this was Ali’s taco and spaghetti day at Target.
Really about the only thing this boat is lacking in is pantry space. A good chunk of the food supplies end up stored under the couch where Ali can usually be found rooting around once a day.
Rosy cheeks, sparkling eyes, salty hair, and an eight-year-old smile.
Downtown Fort Myers at night. Gotta have a night out on the town when you’re shoving off in the morning.
15 Comments on “A Season of Prep”
Bon voyage! I’m looking forward to seeing your journey.
The more I read about people with boats, the less ambition I have to ever own one! 🙂 Good luck on the water!
I enjoy all the technical talk. It’s a real skill, to be able to explain what you are doing to those of us who aren’t engine-savvy. That was one of my fave aspects of some of the original Bumfuzzle blogs, so it’s nice to hear it again. 🙂 Bon voyage to you and your lovely family!
Looking forward to the updates as you set out again. Perhaps we’ll see you out here 🙂
Mark and Cindy
Love that Lowe has a sailing dinghy. We are doing a refit in Marathon. One of the items we picked up was a small plastic kayak since Ethan had so much fun playing with Ouest’s kayak (and Oeuest and Lowe) in GT.
May our path’s cross again! Joe, Carla and Ethan on SV Mahi
Hi Carla, yes the kayak was a good purchase, Lowe still uses Ouest’s pink one for everything. For such a simple piece of plastic it really does live up to all the good reviews it gets. Have fun in the Bahamas!
If you make your way to Key West let us know
S/V JoJo
It was great running into you at the dinghy dock. Looks like we will be stuck with weather in KW for a few weeks.
Bon voyage and calm seas to you all. Looking forward to the adventure!
Happy Thanksgiving..
Been following along since the 356!
Awesome times!
Thanks, Ty. Oh our 356, we are very thankful for that car. Thanks for coming along with us for so long.
Hope you have a geat season, look forward to following along.
Hmm I like the look of those plastic carriers that you have food stowed in. Wondering here they are from, Target?
No Walmart laundry baskets, like $3 each. We have them everywhere to store extra food, then stack them up as they run out. Also great in the dinghy for shoes and toys.
go forth and make “magic” (aka time well spent). blessings to you and yours!
Bon voyage. We’ll be traveling along. Thanks for sharing.