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.