Spring boat work
Well, the rig sadly wasn’t in when we went up to the boat last weekend, but we got some cleaning done and other bits taken care of. The yard did get the mast in this week (hooray!) so we’re looking forward to finally rigging sails and moving Oestara to her mooring over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.
In the meantime, looking back at the off-season, we have had quite a lot of work done on Oestara in preparation for our year afloat:
- dropped and rebedded the keel (bolts looked good, whew!)
- got a complete bottom job (blasted off the old stuff to put on a new barrier coat and bottom paint)
- painted new boot and cove stripes
- put on a new beefier anchor
- installed bimini frame and canvas
- replaced a whole bunch of electronics: radar, chartplotter, depth/speed instrument, instrument displays, autopilot, stereo, and speakers
- installed IridiumGo
- wired six fans in to keep those sweet trade winds moving inside the boat (woohoo!)
- repaired refrigeration for our front loader fridge
In addition to all of that work (most of which we’ve been happy to have the yard and other specialists taking care of for us!), Patrick did a fabulous wax job on our hull, replaced our starter battery, replaced the blower for the engine, machined and installed a new anchor strike plate, and made and installed beautiful new mahogany shelves for two of our hanging lockers.
I don’t think you could tell those aren’t factory original!
He’s also working with the canvas folks to have 600W of solar panels sewn into the bimini, and will wire that up when it’s done. Adding solar charging will be a game changer in terms of our energy production and use.
Cecelia recently installed an important item for her cabin, too:
It’s starting to feel more like home already!