Progress

In the words of our favorite fictional news anchor…

We’re now two months into the refit due to a direct lightning strike and things are moving forward, albeit slower than we would like. The mast and standing rigging inspections came back clear so now the mast just needs to be rewired and returned to its rightful place on the boat. We have new batteries, solar controllers, inverter, VHF radio/antenna and B&G electronics suite installed. The whole boat is being rewired and every recessed light is being replaced.

The list of items we’re waiting on is still large. From the shore power chargers, solar panels, windlass, refrigerators, water maker and washing machine, to the engine and saildrive work that hasn’t even begun yet, we still have much more to come than we’ve conquered so far.

Since we’re a euro boat (230V, 50Hz), some of the components need to be purchased overseas and shipped to the states, but as materials arrive, they’re being installed. We’re excited to begin testing some of the systems that couldn’t be tested until the 12V system was back up, so I’m sure we’ll uncover even more things that need to be replaced or repaired. By the end of this journey, the hull, mast, sails and rigging will be just about the only original items left on the boat.

It's an extremely frustrating process. We’re not where we thought we’d be by now and this is an enormous project to undertake, especially after only owning the boat a few months. We’re trying to stay on top of it all and absorb as much knowledge as we possibly can but it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the things that are outside of our control right now.

We’ve used our forced land time to take care of some big things though. Our big dog, Tully, re-injured her knee the night of the lightning strike so we bit the bullet and got the surgeries she needed. 15 weeks of babysitting a bedridden pup? We’ve got time for that! I’m just happy that by the time we’re back on the water, she’ll be able to run on every beach we visit.

As always, it’s great to get bonus time with family and friends. We even did a short trip to break up the down time between Tully’s surgeries. For the foreseeable future, we’re back to chipping away at boat projects and will continue to document our progress.

Huge thank you to those who are reading this. It’s tremendously helpful to feel like we have people out there rooting for us. We appreciate you!