They say sailing is just doing boat maintenance…

They say sailing is just doing boat maintenance in exotic locations. I haven’t gotten to the exotic locations part, but I can definitely confirm the boat maintenance part. We’ve completed a lot of projects and maintenance as things broke while on the move since leaving Seattle. It’s been a busy month. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel as it will soon be just routine maintenance. It just proves how little you actually need that half the boat was unfinished when we left the dock.

For our boat friends who are interested, here’s a partial list of what we’ve done on the move this month and what we’re still working on at the moment. Those keeping watch will note that right before we left we had a couple months of major work as well including a bunch of electronics installs, windlass work, arch install, solar panels, etc. Some of that was DIY and some we had help (example: welding).

DIY work completed while on the move so far in August:

-Grinding, sanding, filling, gel coating, sealing, polishing, painting, and other repairs due to being hit by another boat
-Ran wires through conduits (sounds small…was. so. horrible.)
-Uninstalled old watermaker systems, plumbing, and wiring
-Installed new watermaker systems (still need to plumb and wire)
-Disassembled and cleaned outboard carburetor to fix idling issues
-Fixed diesel transfer pump
-Removed old GPS system, antenna, and wiring
-Installed AIS GPS antenna
-Installed satellite data antenna
-Installed WiFi extender system and antenna
-Installed solar charge controllers for new panels (still need to wire panels)
-Fixed existing solar charging system
-Fixed wind generator
-Fixed diesel generator startup problem (electrical)
-Setup barber hauler running rigging
-Setup jibe preventer system
-Setup jacklines
-Replaced/fixed leaking seals in heads (eww…)
-Windlass maintenance (various work)
-Reorganized entire boat multiple times
-Lots of little things like doors, latches, etc
-Oil changes, etc

To do next couple weeks:

-Wire new solar panels (parts arrive this week)
-Wire and plumb new watermaker (final parts arrive soon…ish?)
-Finish davit system tackle setup (parts arrive this week)
-Rebuild raw water pump for diesel generator (parts arrive next week)
-Oil changes, etc again…
-So many things I can’t think about right now.