Finally feeling like progress is being made!

I’ve been living in a boat that feels more like the abode of a “hoarder” than a sailboat. There have been boxes stacked up to the point where I had the vee berth and the nav station and part of the galley to live in, and had to pick my way around boxes to move between those places.

Yesterday was a productive day. Although no project was finished, a number of them made substantial progress and I can see the salon table again (though still can’t use it at the moment).

There was nothing I couldn’t have done in time (with some requiring an assistant), though some of it took 2 people to do since it required being in two places at the same time. However, I hired a professional to do a lot of it. He has the advantage of experience. He didn’t have to think his way through things because he’s already done them before – plus he has the tools to do it! Me, I often had to figure out what needed to be done, look through my tools, and then figure out a way to McGuyver a way to get something done, and that all takes a lot of time.

We got most of the electronics mounted and now they’re mainly just waiting for power and/or an antennae to be run to them to make them operational. At the same time, we’ve removed an old chart plotter that wouldn’t even power up, which made the helm station a lot less cluttered.

The boat electronics are being centralized. All the important equipment is going to be at the nav desk down in the cabin, protected from the elements and potential thieves. At the helm station (and scattered through the rest of the boat if needed) we will put an iPad that is using WiFi to display needed information. When the race or cruise is over, walk the iPad down below and watch a movie on it or something. We’re also installing a waterproof USB charger so that the iPad can stay charged there at the helm.

For the radio, we’re similarly installing a wireless system so that the radio microphone can be moved around the boat wherever needed. It will have a charging cradle at the nav station as well.

The AIS is installed, though it still needs power and a hookup to the antennae, and then it needs to be programmed.

I’ve now had first had experience of “meathooks” on the safety lines, opening up a gash on my left arm. Of course, that happened the same day as the replacement safety lines arrived. I still have a bunch of splicing to do to prepare the new, dyneema, safety lines to be installed – that’s awaiting being able to use the cabin table to work upon.

Today will be mostly mechanical work on the engine, steering system, and hopefully the propane system At that point, we’ll be ready to go until winter, at least mechanically and electrically. Oh, and the wind and water sensors need to be ironed out as I’m not getting indications of wind speed nor direction nor our water speed. Also want to see if we can hook the radar to the chart plotter since the radar display is inside the cabin and, therefore, unreadable from the helm.

Things that will still need to be sorted:

  • Mattress cushions for the two aft bunks
  • Refrigeration of some sort for the galley
  • Potentially replacing the head witha composting one
  • Some blackout curtains or something for the sleeping berths to allow good sleep during the day.
  • Insect netting for all the openings.
  • Water maker so that we don’t have to carry water for long distance cruising
  • Solar power or other electrical generation equipment

After that it’s tinkering with the interior to get it the way we like.

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