When we chose a commuter cruiser lifestyle, I had no idea how hard the transitions would be. I love each phase of our lifestyle so much that when it comes time to transition from one to the next, I’m always depressed. Even though I’m looking forward to our out west adventures in the travel trailer, I’m bummed to be leaving the boat in a few days. Really bummed.
We’ve chosen to haul the boat this year and leave it on the hard to dry out the bottom before new barrier coat and bottom paint. And as long as we’re in the yard, we’re getting estimates on lots of other projects … and getting some stuff checked for safety – like the seacocks, rudder post and cutlass bearing. As well as getting the leaky seals in the transmission fixed. Ugh, no fun stuff.
But if there’s any money left over in the budget, we’ll look at getting our refrigerator box rebuilt with lots of insulation and no air leaks – when we redid it ourselves, it improved greatly, but there’s still air getting in because it’s frosting up too quickly. I’d love to have it rebuilt … and maybe even a Frigoboat compressor installed (in addition to the Adler Barber) just to make sure both boxes cool better. 🙂
In the meantime, we getting ready to be hauled out … ugh ugh and ugh. So our usual list of prioritized departure projects has been updated. If you’re looking for a starting point to develop a haul out and store the boat during hurricane season checklist, here’s ours. I won’t say enjoy, because I’m still bummed about leaving….
2015 Prioritized Leave Winterlude On Hard List
If you have other stuff to add, please leave a comment and share! Cheers! Jan
Jan,could you elaborate on “caretaker duties”. Also if kayks are on deck, where do you store Dingy.
A good start for our to-do list. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing your checklist, Jan. You have a few things that I have missed such as “take photos for insurance”.
I’d be very interested in hearing about a fridge box upgrade. We are thinking that this may be on our to-do list as well. Its our largest power consumer by far.
Speaking of fridge rebuilding – have you considered one of the drop-in fridge units from Isotherm? (link here from Defender – http://www.defender.com/category.jsp?path=-1|2276204|2276226&id=2276230)
Depending on what’s involved in upgrading yours… Just a thought.
Safe travels!
We will be on Stock Island this summer. If you need anything please get ahold of us. Have a great summer!
Thanks Ted & Relinda! Hopefully all continues to go well and s/v Winterlude will be safe and secure on the hard getting her bottom dried out. Just think, she’ll have lost significant weight by the time we splash this fall – she’ll be one happy gal! 🙂
Found your excellent website last year and have been meaning to comment. We’re getting ready to do RVing, and I got my husband to read your blog. We love it! So much information. We just read your Alaska post, and that is very interesting. Have taken the ferries in British Columbia, and we know they are clean and very efficient.
Your sunset photo is spectacular. Where were you? Like you, I also get depressed when time comes to leave a port, especially when we’ve stayed a while. And it always feels good to be back!