Getting Closer

We got the dinghy engine on, put it in the water and took it for a spin.  Taylor wasn't so sure about it but I think she will get used to it.  Well, she will have to or she'll be stuck on the boat all the time.  Wes was in heaven and I think it met all of his expectations.  No more dinghy envy for him-YAY!

They are making progress on the engines but not as quickly as we would like of course.  They just have the mufflers to finish then hopefully we can get it in the water and see if they run.  We're getting close so that's good.  Wes and I are getting a lot of other things done on the boat while they work on the engines.  A lot of things aren't working after sitting for 9 years.

It was crazy this morning because while we were driving out to Taylors Island (where the boat is), which is about 17 miles from Cambridge, (where we are staying) you can see when the tide is out or in by looking at certain sections close to the water.  But this morning it looked like the tide was way in and the water was up to the road and up to people's houses.  Come to find out after talking to John (the marina owner), hurricane Imelda was causing the tide to be higher than normal.  

Still No Engines

We got a bunch of stuff done today (well, Wes did) but we still don't have the engines hooked up and we haven't seen hide nor hair of the guy who's supposed to be working on them in a week and a half.  But Wes got the water working, the stove working and the TV working.  All important stuff.    And we did get the name put on the back.  Another productive day!!

It is still so hot and muggy here in Maryland and hopefully the good weather will hold out till we get down south.

Another Days Work of GettinThings Done

It took a few days but we got the whole top side of the boat painted and boy does it look good.  The back is ready for the new lettering that we ordered.

When we took out the mainsail to put it back on the mast, Wes decided that it was not in very good shape, so we ended up ordering a new one.  Below is his diagram that we had to send to National Sail Supply with the specs for the new sail.   Dirk was awesome to work with.  We're just not sure where we will be when they are ready to ship it as they said it takes 3-5 weeks. 

Things are coming along but very slowly.  But that is boating life.  I don't think I've worked this hard in my adult life (at least manually). Every muscle in my body aches. 

 

No pictures again

 Well it's time to blog again. All I can report is that we are working hard on the boat. We worked all week and we still don't have it done. But we are making progress. We painted the bottom and most of the top. The boat is looking a lot better. We tried to put up the main sail but found it was falling apart. Also the halyard rope is falling apart so we have to run new ropes. Thank god for google. There is a video showing how to do it.

On the brighter side we do have the freezer and microwave working so we don't have to go to town for lunch. They have been working on the engines,  mostly ordering parts for the input and output water system. Hopefully we will have the boat in the water a week from Tuesday.

That can not come soon enough, We look out over the bay and we long to be sailing on it. With a little bit of luck we will be doing that soon.

 

 

 

Down at Taylors Island

 Well I guess its time I put my input into this blog. Sorry no pictures with this post. Karen put some up yesterday and we don't have all that much to show anyway.

We got down here on Wednesday the 10th. As expected the engines were not fully installed. Looks like we won't be leaving Taylors Island until Oct 1. If we are lucky. For now that doesn't matter. We have a lot of work to do on the boat. When they put the new engines in they removed most the wiring I had for the house batteries. That means that I will have to rewire the house batteries. That will be a job because of all the connections I have to make. There is the solar, the shore charger, the alternators plus about 5 more systems that have to be hooked up.  

The good news is we have the bottom painted. Next week we will paint the top and I should be able to start working on the electric system.

I now know why God set up the seven day week with one day off. My body hurts. I need a day off. Just climbing on the boat 50 times a day has made it hard to walk. So we are taking today off and going to a sports bar to watch the football games.

I should have some more to posts next week. So bye for now. 

Back To Tropical Diversion

Wes sold his truck and retired on 8/1/25 and my last day at the bank was 8/29/25 so we loaded up the pickup, trailer and Taylor and headed east to Maryland, which is where our boat has been since we pulled it out of the water in 2016.  We checked on it a few times when we went to Ocean City but we haven't really done much to it so needless to say, it was in pretty sad shape.  

We got here on Wednesday, 9/10 after stopping in Michigan to pick up a new dinghy.  We had ordered a new dinghy engine before we left home and hauled it out with us.  Wes is very excited because he now has the dinghy of his dreams, a 12 foot hard bottom dinghy with a 25 hp mercury engine.  

We ordered two new engines (18 hp Westerbeke's) back in December and the Marina hired a guy to install them.  Wes checked on them a few times over the past 8 months but they were moving pretty slow with the installation.  The gentleman (Steve), that is working on them is a local Police Sargent and has been working on them on the side.  When we got here, they were both in the boat and one was just about installed but the other, on the port side still needed quite a bit of work.  Steve showed up yesterday and worked on them all day.  He will need to come back but won't be able to come until the 22nd.  

We painted the bottom of the boat today and Wes worked on the electrical.  We have a ton of work to do, but it was a good start.  

Wes cleaning the bottom

After the bottom paint

New Starboard Engine

New Port Engine

This is what it looked like when we got to here