Finally out of the yard and home

We sat in the boat yard for almost 2 months, most of that time was waiting on a replacement board to fix our ailing Trace 4000w inverter. The board was to have been made in a Canadian subsidiary where the Trace inverter is now housed. It is no longer made for the marine industry, rather it was retooled for renewable energy industry. So parts are hard to come by even though this was still under warranty. As our frustration grew, the independent  service center reached out to the US domestic supplier of Xantrax and, voila, they sent a brand new Trace inverter. In four days it was delivered and installed and so far doing quite well. Hats off to Pablo of Lamplighter Marine Electronics in Palm Beach.

We traveled home on the July 4th weekend, our local independence from the yard. With Jeannie and me were our two nieces Becky and Sarah and their husbands Joe and Brian. Some additional crew members included Becky and Joe's 2 oldest children, Shannon and my godson Aiden.

It was not a particular long trip; longer by boat than car. Beautiful weather and scenic country side were a real treat.

Anyone who has cruised with us in the past knows first hand the harsh truth that life aboard is work work and more work we are hard task masters ..right?
We do not supply the sun screen, well maybe sometimes...

Building on that working theme, everyone must master all of the basics, at least enough for me too feel good about pontificating on various gadgets.

Here is the beautiful Great Wicomico River a few miles before entering the Chesapeake Bay.

Cap'n Brian did a great job of helping us navigate the mouth of the river.

Heck, even the younger ones got a chance at the wheel...in the A/C of course.

We were quite the crowd, I would point out that the guys were all clustered around the gizmos, where else I ask you?

A great run on the 4th of July weekend

A chance to run her up on WOT and see how the temps and pressure do. After sitting in the yard for so long it was a pleasure. As a habit I always run at WOT and record the results believing you will start to pick up small problems before they become big and it  allows you to burn off any carbon build up in the cylinders.

Unusual for us, we had lots of hands to help with the docking. 

Getting ready to come in to our Kilmarnock home dock.

Back in the slip and setting the lines and shore power.

Joe and Aiden preparing to depart.
Nice trip on a beautiful holiday weekend and we truly enjoyed having guests and crew. It helped make the trip a real celebration.














Now that the boat is back I have on the list about 53 (yes exactly 53) maintenance items to attend to and get to them quickly. We use a service called http://www.wheelhousetech.com/ which helps us keep track of not only maintenance and repair issues, but it also keeps our inventories and all equipment that is aboard. Quite a handy tool.
We are planning a trip up the bay in a few weeks so the pressure is on to get everything ship shape.