Happy New Year to all of our Patrons! Part 1

Our New Year’s goal is to get Calypso ready for a fun-filled cruising season! Before we cruise away from the US, we want to get a bunch of repairs completed. I don’t know if you saw our instagram post with the LONG “to-do” list, but either way we wanted to share with you a more in-depth look into that.

We did get a lot of boat work done in Grenada, but we have even more left and we really want it to be done while we are in the US. It's easier to get these repairs done here because there are so many options for service providers and it is way easier to schedule services. Also, if we need to order parts, it’s much easier to get it shipped within the US rather than us finding it in the Carribean. Personally, I'd like this all to be in a month, but Jeremiah is saying that realistically it's going to take about two. We will keep you updated on how long it actually takes!

For a typical weekend boater, this huge list could take an entire year to complete, but since this is our home, we are hoping to expedite the process. As much as we can, we try to do the work ourselves because it saves us so much money. That being said, there are some things we have to hire out for because we aren't certified in certain areas. Well, are you ready? Here is our list:

1. Tighten the port and starboard engine mount.

So, Jeremiah was running the engines and heard a rattling from the port engine. He found that there are mounts that the engines are screwed into right on the hull. We did get brand new engines about 2 years ago, but I guess this is something that happens because two of the nuts broke off just like the last time everything was replaced. Jeremiah will go in and tighten up those engine mounts to the correct torque level.

1. Troubleshoot our generator issues.

Before we left for our winter getaway, we noticed that the generator would start up but then shut down right away. The generator is a huge deal for us because we're going to The Bahamas where we are mainly at anchor. We need the generator to give us power and recharge our batteries without us having to turn on the boat, run the boat, or hook up to dock power.

1. Replace the main halyard block.

So, the block is essentially the pulley. The lines go from the back of the boat all the way down underneath the boat, and back along and up the mast. Jeremiah needs to get in there and replace the block.

1. Reglue the name plates

All along the boat there are a bunch of little name plates. Since we bought the boat, they have been kind of falling off. These name plates tell you what each part is and important things like if the pipe is freshwater, etc. These will need re-epoxy.

1. Oil changes

Both engines will need oil changes as well as the generator. These also include fuel filters. So, oil changes, oil filters, all six fuel filters and strainers. A strainer is basically like a basket that water comes in from the outside. It's a metal or plastic basket and the water goes through it and catches it in debris before it goes into the system. Jeremiah will basically have to check out the strainer state to see how much debris is in there. Why don’t we just hire someone to do this for us? Well, because we have tried it before.

So, it costs Jeremiah $60 to do our oil changes. A couple months back we decided to hire someone to do it. We were feeling overwhelmed with lots of things on our plate so Jeremiah decided to hire somebody so he could focus on getting that week’s video out in time. They quoted us $1000. Jeremiah even had to help them with some of it-- it was crazy. In the end they ended up charging us $400/$500 because Jeremiah did help, but that is a big difference in doing it yourself vs hiring.

1. Raw water line for starboard engine

This water line has been leaking and needs to be replaced. I think this is one that stresses Jeremiah out the most because it is so hard to get to.

1. Adjust the yacht commander

The yacht commander is the mechanical box. When you put the throttle into gear its electrical signal goes down to a mechanical computer box next to the engine. And then, if you go into forward, it sends a signal to the motors to go forward. So, it's just a little bit out of rig-- on the starboard side, we had to replace it when we first bought the boat and the company has never come for the programming. Because of that, Jeremiah has been programming it and it is a little bit off when in idle. It’s just a little too high.  It's running around 1000 but should be 800, so when you go into reverse, it bangs into gear. So Jeremiah will just have to do some fine tuning.

1. Check standing rigging

I’ll pull Jeremiah up the mast all the way to inspect that all the cables are tight. He will also check the mast on the way down for any cracks or corrosion.

1. Replace 200 feet of new anchor

This will be at least a thousand dollars -- anchor chain is really expensive. If you are a Bahamas boat, that means you don't have very much anchor chain because The Bahamas are very shallow. Ours was a typical “Bahamas’ boat because we had about 120 feet. We do have two different ones, but you can't add them together. Our main one is 120 feet, which meant we could anchor in max 12 feet of water. There are some places in the Caribbean have anchorages at 80 feet of water, so we couldn’t anchor at those spots-- instead we would have to go into a Marina.

Since we usually won’t want to anchor that deep, we are going to do 200 feet. We want to be able to anchor in 20 or 30 feet easily.

I’ll go ahead and stop there. Stay tuned for part 2 of our New Year’s goals where we talk all about the repairs that we have to have done professionally. Feel free to drop a line below and tell us all about what you have in mind for your goals/resolutions.