June Surprises

June has been a month of surprises!

Ready to launch

You know what they say about plans, even the best laid out ones, something is bound to change them.  We had planned on being in the water for mid-May, however we only got put in the evening of the 8th of June.  That has created a sense of having to rush through the preparations we wanted/needed to do once we were in water.  Flushing our potable water system and cleaning it, testing our sanitary system (the head), actually going out and maneuvering the boat (then checking the engine levels…).  

As of today, we have been out twice to test and run the engines.  We thought, everything was in order. However, we noticed we had a bit of water in the hull, even after we cleaned it and used a shop vac to dry it out.  Upon closer inspection, we realized we have a trickle of water coming from both engines on the rear transom.  We are so discouraged… They now have to haul out the boat again to fix the issue – a water infiltration is not something to be ignored.  This is precisely why we had requested that the boat be ready for mid May – with all the work that they did on the engines and lower unit, we wanted to make sure we had time to find any problems – such as an unwanted water infiltration and have them addressed long before our go date.  

Remembering how the GPS works

As most of our friends know, we had a pretty lengthy list of upgrades we wanted to do before our departure. We are happy to be able to say, that we have completed the list and more.  Being in the water has now allowed us to “check” our work.  Unfortunately, we’ve had to address a couple things that took a lot longer than we thought, things such as one leaky faucet hose in the galley (took Papi 3 days to get it to stop…) and the transom platform not supporting the dinghy davits!  One of the davits, once we had hoisted the dinghy up was starting to lower, when we checked it out, we noticed that the deck/platform itself was “caving in”.  We removed the davits as soon as we could and have now solidified the area with teak platforms/plates that cover up to and a bit over the edge of the transom.  The weight should be supported much better now.  And with all the wood already on the boat, the teak doesn’t look out of place. We are crossing our fingers we got it right!

Dinghy without the engine

We finally had a chance to play with the dinghy this week.  Our bridle system/harness works, we’ve found how we will be securing the dinghy to Sea Loons, and how to secure the motor to the dinghy and on the swim platform. We’ve decided not to hoist the dinghy with the engine mounted because of the extra weigh it puts on the transom platform. The engine we got can be laid on its side and secured easily to the swim platform so that is how we will be doing it. (When we walked the docks at the marina, we noticed that quite a few other boats have a similar system for their dinghy/motor.)

I wasn’t sure I should even mention this, but the other thing that has challenged our plans, is that we had an accident with our truck as we were coming back from New Brunswick June 8th (we were not at fault, and there were no injuries). About a half hour from the marina! I don’t need to go into the details, but suffice to say, that there is a lot of plastic on a vehicle these days and it’s a good thing we had zip ties in the truck. (How can you not see a black 1500 Dodge Ram??)  Between having to go to a police collision center to provide our statement (they don’t send out patrol cars unless it is severe), dealing with the insurance company, insurance adjuster and the repair shop, our plans have been scrambled to say the least.  At least we have a nice courtesy vehicle to use while our truck is in for repairs.

Front passenger side bumper

We are now less then two weeks from our planned departure date, and we are not even sure the boat will be back in the water!  They have promised us it would be, but… I am very uneasy about it to say the least.

We are trying to be optimistic that we will be ready to go and that everything will have fallen into place by July 1st.  Nothing worth doing comes easy, and I am realizing this trip/adventure is no different. But I have to say, I am looking forward to the day that all I have to worry about is making sure I didn’t forget anything as I head to a marina shower! (Such as removing your hearing aid before stepping into the shower! But that is another story)

Soon!!! All we'll have to do is put up our feet and enjoy the view.

Tina & Papi

"In life, it's not where you go, it's who you travel with" 

– Charles Schultz