Its been a long 5 months, we haven’t seen the boat since January.  Lots of work travel, its time to travel for fun and go on vacation. Lazily putz around the caribbean under the guise of moving the shack out of the hurricane zone.

2 days and counting, till we get to enjoy the warmth and sea again.

We commissioned some maintanence and some repairs while we were way.  The yard at Rodney Bay marina takes great care of us when we are away, always attentive to email questions and status updates.

One of the things we had done, was the tiny plastic rub strakes on the bows were kind of always breaking, the previous owner had some nice stainless ones made for the outer sides that were never installed.  The rub strakes prevent the fiberglass from wearing and chaffing the rope when it rubs at anchor or at the dock, the dock lines did have the nice stainless ones installed but never the bow, and with last Christmas’ trip and the heavy winds some of the fiberglass was rubbed pretty raw, so there is a “china man” in Rodney bay that does some amazing stainless work, I think his name is Lawrence, but he shaped and formed the stainless to fit the curves of inner bow and added the outside protectors for us.  That will make the strain on the bridle and the constant rubbing we had on the last trip be minimized as well as protect the fiberglass.  This project had been on the list since we bought the boat in Turkey.

stainless rub strakes

Had the water maker rebuilt, almost replacing the entire system – so it should be good as new. it will take about 12 hrs running the water to fill the fresh water tanks, we hold 700 liters or about 185 gallons of fresh water in our tanks. The water maker makes water at 16 gallons per hour, so every 20 mins is like filling up one of those water jugs they deliver to the office. Definitely easier than carting those 5 gallon jugs around we did last year.

The Mastervolt inverter/charger that gave up the ghost and let out all the good smoke was replaced so that we’ll have 110v electricity on board and we can blend some frozen drinks on this trip.

A good wash and wax by the nice folks at the ship yard, they did an excellent job last year and we are hoping this year is no exception.

Of course we are bringing spare parts in the luggage as usual.  At least with all my travel this year the airlines let me bring 2 bags, and don’t you know they are busting at the seams.

A couple of Dennis Rodman fenders for those who remember on Lake Austin.

A backup water pressure pump to keep the fresh water flowing out of the tank.

A new WiFi Antenna to pickup the available WiFi from the boat, we have to be able to play words with friends, right?

And some fun toys to play with fun 12v lights and a BlueTooth GPS to keep us from getting lost and that will connect to the Apple iPad see if it works for navigation.

All in all ready for some tinkering on the boat, some cold beverages, some sailing and lots of relaxation – 2 days and counting.