With little time off from work and a list of pre-splash projects, I am on the list for possibly paying a fine to the Conservation Club by not being in the water by June 1 this year.
Oh, well, I can only be in so many places at once!
Now that I have removed the old, bronze, non-functional thru-hull transducer and installed my new one (more of a job than you might think), I can move on to the last few items that have to be done before Amalia is in the slings.
First, I have to reinstall the thermostat, fill and bleed the cooling system, and activate my cockpit-based alternative cooling water supply to start the Atomic Four for the first time since last October. The batteries are now fully charged and ready to go. Some of the other maintenance items like an oil change, fuel filter change and carb overhaul can easily wait until I’m at home in slip 114.
Since I adjusted the transmission forward gear engagement last fall and didn’t get it quite right (not enough travel to engage reverse properly), I will also need to do some tweaking here before I can move the boat in the water.
All of the drilling that I needed to do on the stern while on the hard is done and my shiny new davits are temporarily installed awaiting another set of hands to help me tighten up all the mounts on the stern.
Although it will be in the way a bit, I’m going to leave the mast down so I can replace more of the standing rigging. Strongly anticipating shipping the mast to Mobile instead of leaving it on deck for the first 1200 miles of the trip, I might not even put it up this year.
I have lots to do before my tentative Labor Day ‘ish departure!