Only a few days to departure!!!

It is hard to believe Bert and I are now only a few days away from our targeted departure day of Monday, August 20th.  Bert has been extremely busy for months getting the boat ready to go.  One huge project, the new electronics were completed very late on July 31st.  Well actually very early on August 1st as he worked until about 1:45 am bleeding the power steering after installing auto pilot.  The electronics were tested on August 1st when we did a nice afternoon cruise with nine of our friends.  Eleven of us enjoyed a beautiful day on the water cruising up the Clinton River for lunch at Crew's Inn and also doing a tour through Metro on the way home.  It was a perfect day on the water with our friends and for that we are truly grateful.

As I write this post, Bert is putting the final touches on the engine room maintenance with an oil and filter change.  This is not a small task as each engine requires 8 gallons of oil and the generator also requires a gallon of oil.  I will be very relieved when 17 gallons of used motor oil has passed safely through the mid stateroom, down the companionway, up the stairs, over my salon carpet, up another set of stairs and is off the boat later this afternoon.  Last week we did a shopping trip to the Cummins dealer in Mt. Clemens to purchase 17 gallons of oil as well as other required maintenance items.  Over the past week, he has changed the belts, water pumps (sea pumps), fuel filters, batteries, battery boxes.

A big thank you to our friend Mike who helped get the new batteries from the car down the dock to the boat and also get the old batteries out of the boat, down the dock and into the car last week.  A second big thank you to Bert's cousin Bill who helped install the new batteries yesterday afternoon.  Each battery weighs over 150 lbs and four of them were purchased and installed.

For those of you not familiar with sea pumps, periodic maintenance is required, which includes impellers as well as some other bits and pieces.  Maintenance kits for sea pumps are either minor or major.  Upon inspection, Bert determined major maintenance was required as it appeared sea pump maintenance had never been done in the 13 years of this vessels life which means the sea pumps have to be removed, rebuilt and re-installed.  One sea pump is easy to access, however the second sea pump is very difficult to access.  Bert works better at night so late on Tuesday evening, Bert re-installed the rebuilt sea pumps and I took some pictures of the hard to get to job.    Bert had to remove the built in vacuum system and fit through a hole that is 12 inches by 13 inches and then once inside, he had to be bent over sitting Indian style and work under the stairs that transition from the salon to the companion way.  Not an easy task as you can see from the pictures.  Once the job was complete, I shot a short video of Bert re-emerging through the vacuum system hole to give folks an appreciation of the difficult task.

View from the hole in the stairway

Installing rebuilt water pump

What have I been doing while Bert has been working so hard?  I've been getting the rest of our affairs in order to not only go on a four month journey, but also to relocate to the Gulf of Mexico.  My last day of work was last Thursday and while I will miss CenCorp and my colleagues greatly, I am excited about our upcoming adventure.  Below is a picture of the department on my last day.

Financial Accounting Group

With all the required boat projects nearly complete we can now turn our focus to finalizing our affairs here in Michigan, provisioning the boat with supplies for departure and saying "see ya'all later" to our friends and family over the next couple days.