We finally finished the non-skid! Yay! One item off the list! We actually finished it last week ;-) We were planning to wait until we turned the boat around this week, but we realized the spots we had to wrap up were not in the regular walking areas, so we got up early Thursday morning and just knocked it out. After that, it was pretty quiet for awhile.
The heat has been a little stifling. Michael tried to sleep on the boat Friday night and he had enough - we finally ordered a portable AC unit to hopefully help - the regular temperature in the saloon has been around 93, and humid to boot. Makes it really hard to get any work done, and hard to sleep until late when it finally cools a bit. The unit was expected on Wednesday, so we planned to just laze around the apartment until then.
Monday I decided to go run errands - groceries, pick up some stuff I had ordered from West Marine, nothing too exciting - but while I was checking out at target, I got a text that my pickup was ready - at the store right next door! So, of course I had to go get it - not waiting on that one :-)
Monday night after work, all three of us went out to the boat, turned it around in the slip - the wind was stronger than usual so Bean had to work a bit harder, but she got it done smooth as silk like always, and then connected the AC unit and made sure it at least turned on. After that, we read the instructions - which said we should let it sit upright for four hours before turning it on to ensure no malfunctions due to transport (since it had been in my car, on its side, for most of the day - oops), so we quickly turned it off, packed up and went back to the apartment.
Tuesday we just decided to declare a lazy day, because we could... so we chilled, read books, watched some tv, and I did a little household admin work - scheduling dr appts and such for everyone. Wednesday we decided to head out and see what it could do.
I had planned to meet up with a local gentleman that has a wood workshop to build a new board for us to properly connect the AC unit to the outside - right now it is definitely rigged... He wasn't available until the afternoon, so I worked on my shelf design with some foam trying to figure out the best way to properly support and stabilize the shelf.
After playing and making quite the mess, I decided to ask the wood worker if he would look at that too and give me any feedback, and maybe make the complicated pieces that have to curve around the hull.
He came out as expected early afternoon, had a great conversation, he took the template wood and expects to have that back to us this weekend. When he comes back he will bring all of his tools and properly measure the shelf and get that done for me as well! Yay! One more thing off my list. I'll have to paint it and install it, but at least I won't have to borrow tools to cut the wood ;-)
Side note: The AC worked well enough to keep the saloon at about 77 degrees while I worked on the shelf - still sweating, but not dying like I was the week before!
That finally catches us up to today - I had one of those many dr appts to start the morning (when you put things off because you are constantly moving, you have a bit to catch up on - especially at my age!). Afterwards, I headed out the boat, excited to make at least some progress this week and have something done! I set my sights on the dc-dc charger. It needed to be installed in the aft cabin (under my bed). It will be used to charge the lithium batteries from the agm starter battery while they are being charged from the alternator. This is so the lithium doesn't blow up the alternator - I've seen videos, it isn't pretty!
Of course, I didn't want to take my bed apart again, but I was determined to get the work done, so I made a little cave for myself :-)
I found a good place to install it, read the instructions to make there wasn't anything complicated (technically I am just mounting it right now - until the lithium batteries are installed, it isn't connected to anything), and then realized it didn't come with screws and I didn't have any the right size - so off to the hardware store I went!
Once I got back, I quickly climbed into my cave again, mounted it on the wall and happily called it a day :-)
I'm looking forward to getting a bit more done next week, though I am kind of stuck until we go get the mast - I don't want to do anything that makes the boat inoperable with a trip on the horizon. Hopefully we will hear from Stix N' Rig'n soon and we can be sailors again.
Now I am off to chill with the family for the night and enjoy a nice weekend together, I'll be back next week!
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