During three intense weeks we tried to make some progress on multiple projects while trying to «move-in» our small sailboat. We were growing more anxious each time we unloaded stuff from our pickup truck on the boat and were seeing the boat sinking more and more… Well, we are not fully loaded yet, but now we start to be accustomed to see the new super high waterline;-) This was a difficult period since mixing several projects with organizing our new live aboard was not easy. Alas, we completed some items of our list.

  • Installed a flat rope roller on the stern pulpit
  • Had some welding done to mount the liferaft on the stern pulpit
  • Had a stainless steel «faux» boom gallow made to attach a navigation awning [need picture]
  • Lot of sawing for various projects [more later]
  • Added a spinnaker and a pole to our sail-robe [not flown yet]
  • Re-redo the stuffing box (back to the basic, no more drip free packing)
  • Lowered the exhaust waterlift
  • Replaced the two 105Ah flooded batteries with 2×80 Ah AGM house batteries (GPL-24T) + 1x870CCA AGM starting battery (GPL-2400T) [switching for flooded batteries to AGM implied a series of other changes, but I knew that I did not want go cruising with moving acid in my boat]
  • Replaced the stock alternator with one high output externally regulated alternator (Balmar 60 Series)
  • Installed a new smart regulator (ARS-5)
  • Replaced the old battery combiner with a combiner with real charge profile (Duo-Charge)
  • Replaced the old 15A battery charger with a 20A – 3 stages battery charger (Protech 1220i)
  • Installed a 50W solar panel (Kyocera KC 50) on the stern pulpit [and moved the stern running light on the panel]
  • Installed a solar panel regulator (ProStar PS-15M)

Of course, our departure date has slipped a little, but even if our project list is still very long, we are starting to see the end of the tunnel. We actually even went for a short sail with some relatives today!