May 1, 2010 - We be boat people

The big news is that we are now out of the boatyard. "KingFisher" (yes, that is our final new name) was launched today from the Salt Creek Marina boatyard and it feels great. In the last couple of weeks we have continued to work hard to ready the boat. Here are some of the things that have been completed since our last report -

1) Hull painting.

2) Stainless Steel rub rail installation

3) New zinc installation

4) Propane stove installation

5) New 110 vac outlet installation on the pilot house helm

6) New anchor installation (55 pound Delta)

7) Purchase of a bunch of stuff such as fenders and new shore power cords

8) Flybridge top (bimini) installation

9) Sink faucet installation in both bathrooms

10) Bright work (varnishing by Linda - see photo below)

11) Installation of new lazarette drain.

12) New house bank battery installation

13) New starting battery bank installation

14) New inverter (110 vac from the batteries) installation

15) Bottom Painting

16) Installation of our refurbished compass.

17) Installation of a new "sanitary" system.

Above is a picture of the boat showing it's new coat of paint. It made a great difference in the appearance!

Here is a picture of Linda working on the main head (bathroom) floor grating. We moved onto the boat on Thursday and are trying to get used to it. It feels great to finally get the boat cleaned up. You can't believe how hard it is to have ten or twenty projects in various states with all the associated parts sitting around. We have gone through two boxes of Zip Lock bags for organizing parts and I am sure that we spend at least an hour a day trying to find parts that we set aside because we were delayed on that particular project for some reason. And of course switching from job to job means we are constantly looking for tools in spite of trying to diligently keep them in their place. We have had to go parts shopping at least once and often twice a day. Couldn't have done this without a vehicle.

Below is a picture of the actual launch process. Pretty cool eh?

So that's the good news. The bad news is that since we were launched we have discovered three problems. First, the generator shut down after five minutes due to (I think) an overheat problem. Second, the starboard engine started making a screeching noise after about an hour of running so I shut it down. This required docking on one engine in pretty strong wind but I avoided disaster with a low speed crash landing. I suspect a frozen alternator or something similar. Finally, one of the thru hull fittings or it's valve is leaking. I will investigate all of these over the next few days and I'm sure we can get them fixed.

So we are at least wet if not fully functional. It is GREAT to get out of the boatyard after 50 days. This was 22 days more than our original plan but not really too bad considering all the stuff we did. It will take a week of washing just to get all the paint dust off. Here is a picture of the boat moored at the St Pete Municipal Marina (Linda had been working hard in near 90 degree weather and refused to be in the picture).

Are you getting sick of boat pictures? Hopefully there will be real journey pictures in my next report.

Miss all of you

Tod and Linda.