Well the update since the last post was the the burning question.... how did we fare in the hurricane? There was no damage to our boat however, there were some very scary times. At times, we didn't know if we should pack up and get off the dock or continue to stay and wait it out. The docks are floating so at some point you could imagine that all of the boats could just lift off the dock. It came close at one point, that Andy said there was 2-3 feet from the top as the storm surge was so high. We made it though. The hurricane did claim one boat who tied up the outer docks which is not recommended during a storm because it can be so rough. Sadly, that boat sank and it completely broke my heart to watch this happen.
Our plans to take our 1st shake down cruise over the Labor Day weekend is not going to happen now due to the hurricane. We have postponed this to a later date for several reasons. The first being we don't have a working windlass yet and we are still waiting for it to get done. In the meantime, Andy is working on getting the solar panels installed so we have back up power to recharge the batteries. Andy took a day off work as well and spent the day getting our radios and AIS programmed and installed. Progress is being made so we can get closer to our goals.
Sept 22nd... the worst day! I get a phone call from Andy while I was at work, keep in mind that he doesn't call me at work so the fact that he called, had me worried. He quickly tells me, the fire dept is at our boat and the boat is on fire. Will call you back when I know more and I am on my way to boat... I am like WHAT? Is this a joke?? Apparently, not... once things calmed down, as if I can work at this point, I get a call back from him saying the battery on his e-bike has exploded and caught the boat on fire. There is some damage. So much for my b-day weekend. Our girl has some damage however, we are very lucky that the damage wasn't worse than what it is. There was no smoke that made it inside the boat. There is quite a bit of damage to the exterior of the boat. The following damage was done to the boat: lost a furling line, 2 sheets, andy's bike, the seat on my bike, 2 large windows, dinghy is a loss and we have quite a bit of gelcoat work and non skid that has to be repaired. We are going to have a difficult time trying to match the gelcoat since it's 48 yrs old. Hopefully we won't have to re-gelcoat everything but might have to if we can't get it to match which is going to be the largest expense.
Solar panels also went on the boat this month so we now have 8-100 watt panels all in parallel series for 400 watts coming in to help with our power. They seem to be working very well too. We have 2 additional panels that still need to be installed but we are re-doing the bimini and will make that a hard top and place the 2-450 watt panels. The smaller 100 watt panels will be moved to the deck above the salon and the new dinghy will have to on davits on the back the boat. But again, this is all part of getting her cruise ready which is now our goal.
