In the yard

Well, we finally left the marina yesterday.  First time Siempre Sabado has been away from the dock since we arrived 2 years ago.  All went well (meaning we didn't crash into anything getting underway and the engine didn't quit on us) except that we discovered that our alternator is shot.

As usual we were way early.  River Bend marina is very tide-dependent and high tide wasn't until about 12:50 PM.  since we were at least 2 hou

rs early, we just lowered the rpms and continued on up the river for aways, just for the ride.  It was a beautiful day for a boat ride. When our appointed time arrived, we motored on in to get lifted out.  Normal procedure is to just hook on to the boat with boathooks and pull the it in to the lift.  But Siempre Sabado wasn't budging.  Seems we were stuck in the mud a little.  The proprietor asks "How much does this boat draw?"  "Four and a half feet."  "Can't be, it has to be more than that."  "Well, that's 

what the drawings say."  Ultimately he gets us hauled out and had to admit that we did indeed draw 4-1/2'.  There just wasn't much water here.  I'll say!  I shot this just as the tide started coming back in tonight.  You might still be able to see our keel track if you look hard enough at the picture.   Even if the water was all the way to the top of the pilings there wouldn't be much more than 5-1/2 to 6 feet.

But, we're out now and that's what's important.  We've decided to change some of the colors while we're out.  Never have liked the brown of the 

bulwarks so we're changing it and the boot stripe to Kelly Green to match the dodger.  Lulu got the first coat on the boot stripe today.  You can see the blue masking tape on the bulwarks and the rudder.  This is for the next step: re-doing all the teak.

I got a Dynaplate (grounding plate for the SSB radio) installed today.  This required drilling four 3/8" holes 

in the bottom of the hull so it was a little traumatic.  But it went smoothly.  The real trauma will be tomorrow when I have to drill a 1-1/2" hole in the  bottom of the hull to install the keel cooler for our fridge.

So far, River Bend is a nice place to be hauled out.  They let you stay on the boat if you want and even have bathrooms (not porta-potties) and showers (free).  It's very nice and quiet at night, too.  Oh, and there's intermittent wifi.

Other jobs we completed today: changed the sea cock on the engine cooling water thru-hull, moved the watermaker and the refrigeration compressor so everthing will be in place for the keel cooler, ordered a new alternator, and Lulu serviced 2 of the Groco sea cocks in the head (what a pain THAT was).

We have a fair-sized list of to-dos while we're here, but it's all do-able and, if we get it all done, well have gone a long way towards being ready to go.