Our time on the hard - an update!

We got news back that our gear box is OK. Phew! We could have just put it back in and waited to see if it ever caused us problems but we knew that we would always worry about the next time it could happen if we didn't know for sure. The gear box will hopefully be put back in early next week and we will then get back in the water and be on our way north shortly thereafter!

While we have been waiting we have made the most of our time on the hard and gotten a lot done:


Firstly, I (thankfully) redeemed myself and rectified the poached egg disaster! Bryce now trusts me in the galley again! ;)

We also...

• Planted the "garden" and watched it bloom.

• Did laundry (a couple of times)! We were lucky enough to have use of a washing machine and got to utilise our many lines for drying! 

• End-for-ended the anchor chain  (flipped it) and marked the length increments on it. We also cleaned the anchor locker. There will be more about all of this in another post. 

• Repaired our manual fresh water pump, our hot water system (repaired leaks and replaced relief valve) and fixed a separate leak in our fresh water system near our electric pump. 
• Replaced the raw water strainer for the engine.
• Cleaned the bilge. I am aware that this isn't the most flattering photo of myself however it explains in one photo, how the bilge is cleaned! Bryce thought it was hilarious but he didn't laugh too hard as I'm sure he was quite pleased that it wasn't him down there! 

• Watched the Coast Guard boat that towed us in, come and go from the boatyard! 

• Removed our old huge bikes from the cabin where they lived. Yes, they were big enough that they got their own cabin! 
• Sanded all the rust off of our new (old) smaller folding bikes and polished them up (if it weren't raining, I would go take a photo as I am very proud of them!).  A big thank you to Tim for the bikes!
• Organised all of the manuals we have for everything on board. There are four binders worth but is still seems though we never have the ones we actually need
• Stripped & rebuilt the gear box (OK, that wasn't us...).
• Removed obsolete plumbing and capped the sea-cocks.
• Organised all the storage compartments and started an inventory of everything on board. 

This is just a glimpse at everything we did, probably the more fun things. We have found that everything takes longer to do on a boat, particularly as we are still getting to know her intricacies. We have also found that most jobs take two people! One of us is often in a really awkward position in a really small space and needs the other person to bring them things, turn on taps or switches, or even just give a second opinion. It is going slower than we would like but we are both learning so much and still having fun!  Looking forward to getting back in the water soon...