Yesterday Sasha and I made it to Maine Yacht Center to find Salty Ginger on the water at the end of the dock. I spotted the boat while we were on the bridge some 200 meters away from the pier: the shape, the mast and the red main sheet were unmistakable Salty Ginger.
Inside was quite a mess: the things were stowed 2 years ago and since then the workers were inside doing work on the engine, the desalinator, etc, etc. I find it quite overwhelming being faced with a lot of tasks that need to be done, especially when it’s practically impossible to find place for gear and personal things that need to be moved from one place to the right place.
We checked that we have running water and that the electronics work. For the first time in 8 years the wind speed works! We can now report the “scary” conditions with precision! Then we started stuffing all the things that were in the way into the starboard cabin and started going through all the lockers to do an inventory of all the stuff that we have onboard. We also used this al an opportunity to get rid of some of the old stuff that hasn’t been used in years and is therefore unlikely to be used any time soon.
Some time after 7pm we were tired and hungry, so we headed over to a Thai place for dinner followed by a run to a Shaw’s supermarket to get food for the next few days. By 11 all the food was in the fridge, the surfaces wiped from dust, heads cleaned and the floor washed — perfect time for a beer in the cockpit. It was a bit windy and cold, so we didn’t stay for too long.
Getting ready
I am still a bit jet lagged, so when I was woken up by the sun at 6am, I was ready to go. Sasha got up shortly thereafter and we discussed our plan for getting everything in order so that we can sail in the afternoon.
During the clean up that followed we identified more things to throw away, found all the sewing supplies and made a short list of things to buy. In the marine store we tried to focus on getting only the necessary things. For sailors there are always so many temptations that ultimately have much less utility than one expects. We are now “legal” from the safety perspective, and that’s the most important thing. All the other toys, bells and whistles can stay in the store.
Electrical issues
Last night we noticed that only half of the cabin lights work. In the morning we discovered the reason: the other half of the lights have 2 switches and one of them is disconnected. We couldn’t find the connections, but the marina guys found them in 5 seconds flat. Ok, good, we have light everywhere!
Then this morning I noticed that the solar batteries were not producing any current. Hmm, I thought, the guys did some work on the electrical system, they may have messed things up just like with the light switches. However, when the technician came to troubleshoot the issue we quickly saw that the breaker was off. Silly me! But indeed, it is quite easy to forget little issues like this if one uses the boat every 2 years.
The other important thing that happened this year: the technicians serviced the water maker, so now so long as we have power (diesel, solar, wind, hydro) we will have fresh water! That’ll be a very nice thing to have on the journey. I only need to document all the steps that the tech showed me to make sure I don’t forget flipping switches in the right order.
Now that we have the solar and the wind power going, all the necessary systems are running, and we can think about going sailing. Oh, there is this sail issue: we’ll have to swap the foresail for the old one before we can leave the marina. Which means the time is perfect for lunch so that we don’t have to cook underway!
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