We make progress, but it seems like there is a whole bunch of work to get done and time is ticking. We are 30 days out from closing on our house and leaving on our boat and our boat just got put in the water this week! To review:
Monday: Big day! Our boat launched and is in the water! Jan and I went to the Marina at lunch time and saw Serenity make her maiden destination to the G Dock T-Head!
We adjusted her lines, put a couple more bumpers out to keep her snug against the dock and then off to see Steve at East Coast Rigging. Our mission in the afternoon was to put the boom back together again, and over the next four and a half hours we ‘helped’ put the mess of lines and cars back in the boom. We only had to take it apart and put back together twice. Steve showed us how to make an eye splice at the end of a line. He knocked it out in less than 10 minutes per splice. It took me a painful 20 minutes, including poking myself with a needle. And mine sucked. But at the end of the day, our boom was back together. And we agreed to come back later in the week to put it back on the boat; but first we had to get home to feed our son!
Tuesday was filled with thunderstorms in the morning, so I went grocery shopping and did lots of errands that needed to get done while Jan starts packing boxes.
Wednesday back at the boat and we pick up our boom, walk it down to the boat, move it onto the boat, at which point Jan cracks herself in the face with said boom and we pause while Jan takes a knee and recovers. Once recovered we successfully get the boom on the boat! While we are having all this fun, back at Forksbridge court, the new buyers are doing their home inspection. We get back to the house at 1pm to pick up AJ who is getting out of school two hours early (yet again). We continue packing.
Thursday we divide and conquer. Jan cleans the entire basement storeroom out. One 
sentence that captures eight hours of back breaking work. Our basement store room had the accumulation of 15 years of marriage and moving across the world and it was somehow packed into about 10 boxes and one enormous pile of recycling. Meanwhile I was on the boat with a dude servicing our fridge (it had a small leak). And I replaced the four house batteries on the boat.
Friday was another rainy day. Jan and I ran out into the deluge to the boat to identify a leak in our boat and make a hasty repair until we could return on the weekend. Then back home to prepare for the garage sale on Saturday. We mark everything so that we have a minimum amount of chaos on Saturday. We hire a local moving company to move our big stuff out later in April. And finally, Friday is our pizza and movie night, but since AJ has given up on pizza until we get to New York City, we had Indian food and movie.
Saturday we (Jan and I) were up early to get everything outside in time for the 0800 start time. The first dude showed up at 0700, but we scared him off with death glares. By 0815 we were in full swing and at noon we shut it down having sold (Jim) or given away (Jan) most of our stuff. Everything we had left we packed up in Jan’s car and immediately drove to Goodwill. Then we came home and picked up seven years worth of paint, stain and other hazardous materials and dropped off at the landfill. Next was multiple trips to the storage facility to drop off the boxes Jan had packed during the week. And finally we made a big pot of spaghetti and relaxed after a long day of purging!
Sunday is a gorgeous day and we head out to the boat. The mission is to put the mainsail on the boat and checkout the new engines. Both are accomplished, though putting on the mainsail takes all three of us a lonnnngggg time! We celebrate by leaving the marina early, making an enormous pan of nachos for dinner and eating them on the couch while watching “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D”
Focus next week, and really for the rest of the time, is on the boat. We need to get all the sails on, checkout all the systems, take everything off the boat, purge what we don’t need and then put all our stuff to live with on the boat. When weather is sketchy, we will work on the house and packing boxes.
jadonn2
Donnelly Great Loop Adventure 2017 
April 5, 2017 at 1:51 am
Looks like you’re making some good progress. I know you must be glad to get the boat back in the water. Did you get your leak in the ceiling plugged? When do the solar panels go on? Did you have to replace the radar or was it ok?
LikeLike
April 6, 2017 at 1:14 am
He Dillon;
We are glad to have the boat in the water and get everything checked out. We took it out today and found a couple of more small things. The leak was fixed. It was a stanchion on the port side that had at sometime been replaced; the hardware was different than all the others on the boat. We removed the screws. resealed the screws and the base. Had a big storm last night and no leaks. So very positive. Solar panels were part of the boat when we bought–are mounted on the hard top and work great. We did have to replace the radar when we upgraded the chart plotter during the winter. So the chart plotter on the boat was about 10 years old and I was using my iPad in place of using the chart plotter. I wanted an upgrade, but had to get a new radar with the new chart plotter. We also added AIS (transmit and receive) at the same time. Checked all out today and they all work well, though I’m going to have to figure out the new interface on the chart plotter. We are heading out Wed-Sun next week on a shakedown cruise to work through those issues….
LikeLike
April 5, 2017 at 1:58 pm
Yeah. So I average about 5 minutes per Eye-Splice using my hands…about 12 minutes per splice if my hands are occupied and I’m forced to only using just my feet/toes.
Just sayin’ Capt’n…
I’m also exceptionally gifted at drinking beer, and retrieving beers.
You have my resume and know first-hand my credentials.
I can resend my application to be your First Mate as required.
Your deepest consideration is appreciated.
-Bo
LikeLike
April 6, 2017 at 1:09 am
Bo;
You qualifications are as always impeccable. AJ has locked up the first mate position, but we are always looking for swabbys. Deck needs to be clean and right now Jan has me on those. I think we can work something out!
LikeLike