So I'm back in Phoenix in body if not in soul. I've communicated with PO a number of times, he is doing some work to the boat to ensure it is mechanically reliable as he represented at the time of sale. He has changed the starter button and the solenoid. Hopefully, that returns it to 100%.
It's so exciting seeing Kathleen start to buy in! She's reading Kindle sailing books and asked about Chapman's Piloting and Sensible Cruising. I think she was a little surprised that they were on the bookshelves in the house! I've been reading and studying and preparing for this adventure for decades! We're trying to figure out when the shake-down cruise fits in our schedule. I'm working on April 26-May 6. Have found reasonable airfares for those dates, and would like to have the extra days to give us some breathing room on our weather windows and voyage planning.
Signed up for a Marine Diesel course in San Diego- unfortunately the early April session was sold out, I'm waitlisted for that and registered for one in early May. The engine compartment is tight and I'm not, so being trained up will save me
Also discussed the next tasks with Jay. We're trying to remove as much Icky from the boat as we can before the end of April. We settled on removing the loose veneer from the cabin sole, sanding and polyurethaning the remaining plywood for smoothness, appearance and water-resistance. Decided not to paint the deck and cabin because there are obvious leaks and fiberglass repairs to accomplish before painting.
Talked to Tom yesterday about working on the rigging. I'm having the halyards replaced so I know their history. Ropes for sailboat running rigging is several grades up from what you see at Home Depot and commensurately more expensive. The Main halyards (x2) are 86' and the mizzen halyards (x2) are 62 ft. That's about 300' of rope at about $1/ft if I win the bids I've placed on EBay for spool ends. Plus Tom's time. I am also having Dale from Pearson365.com (a rigger in Buffalo) give me a quote on new forestay and top shrouds for the main. The boat has the original NavTec turnbuckles which are stainless on stainless and have had a history of problems with failure. They should have been stainless on bronze. The new stays will have the appropriate turnbuckles. Tom will install the new running rigging but needs to evaluate the difficulty of doing the forstay given it's inside the roller furling (also why the forestay was Dale's first priority recommendation). Generally Pearsons have oversized rigging and I haven't seen any reports of Pearson rigging failures online and have looked. Don't want to do too much expensive replacements until Kathleen and I have spent time on the boat together and she gives me a smiling thumbs-up.
Got a call from the PO at 7:30 today (10:30 Florida time) that they were motoring over to the Yankeetown dock. Success! Wish I was there to confirm results, but I'm sure all is good. Confirmed the work had been accomplished.
Also talked to the owners of the home dock this morning. They understood the shore power need so that is accomplished inexpensively. We will be paying $75 per month for dockage with shorepower! Very happy about this. The dock savings pays for 2 RT airfares every two months! They were also happy that we will have insurance in place as of April 1. Boat US insurance is our least expensive option, but still $1000 more than it would be any place other than Florida!
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