Getting Close

Our crew member arrives tomorrow morning.  Original plans were to depart Tuesday, but we will probably be delayed a bit.  

We hit a setback when we were testing systems.  We found a leak in the hydraulic steering.  This necessitated the rerunning of three copper tubing lines.  They are exposed to the bilge in their run from the main pump in the engine room until they get to the main system (autopilot, ram and bypass valves) under the master cabin bunk.  Sitka had problems with parts in stock so it took us nearly a week from demolition to full working again but we have made back some of that time via long hours and hard work.  

Newest ETD is Wednesday or Thursday but only a short hop for the first day.  Due of the aforementioned problems, we didn’t get to do a shakedown sail.  Therefore that first short hop gives us a chance to pop back if we notice anything threatening after departure.  

The diver greased the prop Thursday as well as cleaning four years of growth off the hull.  We changed the engine oil and finished checking all the rest of the major systems out.  Other than provisioning and storage, we are just looking for a weather window.

Getting the Boat Ready

As most of you know, we are finally leaving Alaska.  We came for a year in 2015 and it will be just a couple weeks shy of 8 years when we finally cross the border into Canada.  When we got to Sitka, we took a storage unit to get a lot of non everyday stuff off the boat and free up the forward cabin for visitors.  Well, after four years, the storage unit became packed and so did the forward cabin again. 

We have been mercilessly going through and trying to get rid of as much stuff as possible, while putting items needed for cruising back on the boat.  

We are also trying to purchase the items we would like to have for the boat from LFS while we still have Pauline’s employee discount.  This included 10 gallons of bottom paint for our quick haul out when we get down to Washington as well as two new DC panels (welcome to the 21st century).  They were a pretty big job as we made all new wire harnesses as well.  The great news is, no flickering lights anymore and no equipment turning itself off and on plus we have lots of room to add more circuits if required.

Panel in Main Salon

Main DC Panel

 

We also purchase a StarLink unit so hopefully we can post things from those remote anchorages. 

the Starlink satellite antenna

 

We have ordered a new cranse iron and bobstay bracket to be mounted in Washington as well as a new forestay.

We also got rid of our Northern Lights generator and big water maker.  The big generator was always troublesome and we were tired of throwing lots of money at it, so we pulled it.  Northern Lights generators are normally very reliable but ours has not been and we have spent a lot trying to get it right.  So in the end with less than 3000 hours on it, we gave it away.  Our water maker required a big generator to power it after we converted the engine drive over to an ac motor so we took that out and gave it away as well.  We will replace it with a new more efficient modern one before we get to Mexico which means we will probably put it in when we reach San Diego while we wait for hurricane season to finish and make that dash down to the Sea of Cortez.  Anyway it will be a busy year.

Singapore Trip

We made a trip to Singapore and we were there for Mark’s birthday.  Good thing too as he had to get a physical for his driver’s license and set up to claim his CPF.  Most importantly though, we went to see family.  We did get to visit with some friends but it was a quick trip so we missed most of you.  It is not that you are not loved, just not enough time.  Sorry to those we missed and thanks to those who could make time to see us on such short notice and such a wicked schedule.

with Pauline's school mates Irene and Celene

with Rina, Karen L, Karen G celebrating Karen L and Mark's birthdays

with Pauline's parents and brother PJ

with Mark's ex-colleagues Mark C and Aik Moh

with Pauline's brother Mike

with Pauline's auntie and cousins Gerry and Chris

with brother Mike and sis-in-law Shermaine

with old friends Murni, Lizzie and Soh Lay

with Pauline's childhood friends Pauline H and Wei Ling

Soh Lay and Mark share the same birth date

with Gordon and Lizzie on their boat in Raffles Marine

Mark wanted Indian banana leaf curry for his birthday

 

We also purchased a new AIS transceiver for Sari Timur.  As we had to title her in the USA, we could no longer use our Singapore AIS.

Northern Lights

 

These photos were taken with our iPhones, so they do not do the lights much justice but pretty all the same.  A couple of them just have a smidgen of purple showing.  We have seen other photos from people taken outside the city lights and they were even more spectacular.

Update

Well it had been a while but we have been doing things.  We went to Singapore in March and we didn’t put anything on the blog about that.  We also got some great views of the northern lights on deck in the marina before and after the Singapore trip. They were even better outside of town but we were too lazy to get in the car and drive outside of town.  And probably the biggest task is we are busy getting the boat ready to head south in a couple of weeks.  So we promise three quick posts with some pictures over the next two days.