Back at (but not on) Well, Why Not?

November 21, 2017

Another chapter of "The good, the bad and the ugly"

During the summer we had arranged to have several projects completed while we were away from the boat.  The first was the repair of the damage we had done to the fiberglass – a gash in the hull and the chewed up bottom of the keel and the rudder.

The second was to have a new dodger and bimini constructed so that we could have zip out windows with screens behind them.  Our old bimini was falling apart and had been rendered partially unusable due to the structure for the new solar panels.  The clear vinyl in the dodger was cracked and brittle.  Our strapping tape repairs were not working well.  (No surprise there!) 

When we arrived at the boat we were met with a beautifully repaired hull and an attractive dodger and bimini enclosure. We now have a complete surround to our cockpit - with windows down for cold windy weather or windows up and screens down for warm buggy weather.  It is always a bit nerve wracking having work done long distance but in this case it worked out well and we were pleased. Thanks to We Paint Boats for the fiberglass repair and Nick at American Yacht Outfitters for the new dodger and bimini.

New dodger, looking into cockpit from foredeck

Bimini seen from aft deck

More good news was that there were no signs of cockroaches like last year. The bad news was that we had some new water stains on our teak and holly floor.  But the ugly news was that we had no power in the boat and each attempt to turn the power on caused the boatyard circuit to blow.  It took 2 days or so to eliminate a number of possible causes but ultimately Jim concluded that the batteries - all 4 of them – were dead, never more to be revived.  In the meantime the notion of staying on the boat became much less appealing - though in fact it is never fun on the hard so we retreated to the relative comfort of the Motel 6!  

The next day we ordered three new AGM deep cycle batteries which we picked up at West Marine in Punta Gorda.  With an individual weight of 115 lbs, they pose a handling challenge.  After sitting in the back of our pickup over the weekend, Matt from the boatyard came over with a forklift and helped Jim unload the old batteries and load the new ones. These will replace our house batteries but we have yet to deal with the start battery.

Two of the three new batteries waiting to be loaded

Matt and Jim bringing out the old batteries

Getting batteries up onto and off of the boat

Lowering battery into the cabin

In the meantime I have been sanding and staining the toerail, putting stuff away and cleaning. Jim has been varnishing our new cockpit table, unloading his tools from the pickup and working on miscellaneous projects that do not require boat power.  We expect to move onto the boat in a few days.