Splash

Every morning we leave the condo we rented in Stuart and go to work, or at least it feels that way. We arrive in the boat yard with a list of things to do and our purchases from the night before. We have put in a lot of work the last two weeks. We pulled out the old refrigeration and freezer compressors, condensers and evaporators and installed the new unit that we bought in Picton, Ontario when we went biking with many of you. The solar panels that we bought on-line from a place in California were matched to a holding bracket and post that we had an aluminum railing manufacturer make up for us in Stuart. We just walked into this little factory one day after finding out the yard wouldn't look at the job for less than $500 or more. The next day Josh had done the job for $100 cash; thank you very much.

As we showed you the mast went up without a hitch and all the halyards and other control lines (running rigging for you sailors) were back in place before the end of the day. Last weekend we completed the solar panel installation and a day later our batteries were topped up. Just amazing how much power you can capture using that Florida sunshine. We put the power to good use and tried the new freezer and refrigerator. Inside an hour and a half the cold plate was at -10 degrees C and it did it without drawing down the batteries like the old ones would last year.

We have tested most of the boat systems and everything seems to be working. We have one more day in getting things ready for the Thursday morning splash of Snow Shoo. The pictures show the boat on the hard being supported by jack stands, the trip in the travel lift through the boat yard and being gently dropped into the water. Yes we did check to see that the drain plug was in before droppping it into the water. We have found a dock down the river within a mile of our rented condo where we will be able to do our final preparations before leaving at the end of the month.

Here we are at dock in the boat yard after having given the boat a wash down. It was grimy and really needed some elbow grease. The engine started right away which is a good sign. Tomorrow morning we will take it down river to the dock we have rented until the end of the month.

Stuart Notes

We have been staying at this really nice condo in Stuart; pool, tennis court, gym, etc. and it is a gated community. We seem to have really lucked out in renting this for the month and it is centrally located near the main stores and services we need and the boat.

Work has been progressing nicely. The water maker checked out today so we know the equipment is ok and like everything else on the boat it probably wasn't correctly installed and that is why we were not getting the flow we should. So now it is on list of things to do; re-install the water maker according to the spec sheets.

Also on the list of things is installing the solar panels. We think we know where they are going to go and we just have to confirm this with the boat yard.

Liz bought a vacuum packaging system so that we can pack away food for months at a time. We have been trying different packaged foods so that we won't be scrounging the little grocery stores in the Bahamas and points south. The refrigeration/freezer installation is complete and we're wating to try it out once the boat is placed into the water. The tentative splash date is the 20th. Before that we just have a bunch of maintenance things to do which will more than likely take up the rest of our time in the yard.

We have been told that the in mast furling main sail is still functional so this year we'll try using it rather than the other main sail that we used last year. We took our bimini top to the canvas specialists and they all told us that it was beyond hope. The good part of this is that the new one will be water proof and when it rains we won't get wet like we did last year.

We haven't taken any pictures of the boat all torn apart so this will be just a simple short section of the blog. Weather has been great with very little rain and temperatures in the 15-25 degrees range. Very pleasant.