I finally got a string of days off
work, and I've spent the last three of them neck deep in new to me
boat. I bought it as a
project, but the deeper I get, the less
project it seems to be. Not to say that it doesn't need tons of
work, but what I thought were all going to be tear out and replace systems are coming back together with nothing more than catch-up
maintenance and
elbow grease.
It's been commented often here that there a group of folks who never leave because they're in a constant state of trying to get the
boat perfect. I'm going the other
route, trying to do the bare minimum required to get out to the islands for a few days. Got the
engine overheating issue sorted (I think), figured out the
head (that'll be another thread or two), and got the
windlass and
anchor gear sorted. Oh, and I replaced the
engine start
battery.
We're taking our camping
stove and a
propane BBQ rather than deal with the
diesel stove, bottled
water for drinking rather than deal with the
tanks, two little handheld
GPS units and my paper
charts for nav, the dink and
electric outboard from the old boat rather than deal with the
outboard and new dink, and my little
Honda genny for
insurance against the 10 year old
batteries in the house bank. And we took home all the dishes and
galley ware and washed them.
As I dig around trying to get ready, I find myself liking the boat more and more, and really liking the guy who did the
refit and outfitting. He made a lot of choices differently than I would, but I'm going to live with most of them for a while and see how it goes. He seemed to know what he was about, which makes me hesitant to start changing things until I know more.
We leave tomorrow for
Santa Cruz Island at 9: am. I hope to have a much better idea of how to proceed on any changes when we get back.
JRM
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