Once back to Connecticut, we got right onto our projects. The sooner we start, the sooner we can be done. Well, that’s the theory anyway…

Our cockpit enclosure was at the top of our list as age is causing cloudiness & discoloration. A normal person would have a marine canvas company fabricate a new one. Not only would that likely cost over $8,000, but we would also be without our enclosure for much of the summer, as they would take them to use as patterns & slowly work on them while juggling dozens of other jobs. Would the work even be done when we need to leave in September? As the cockpit is our “living room” & it can be quite buggy here – would not be good.

I also didn’t want identical replacements. While the standard Strataglass clear vinyl is o.k. & can be rolled up for ventilation, it is optically imperfect with wrinkles inevitable. High end yachts & sportfish boats are now using semi-rigid materials such as Lexan at extreme cost.

One of my “how hard can it be?” moments brought me to replace the 3 rear panels myself with a scratch-resistant type of polycarbonate. While unable to be rolled up, clarity is much more important. I decided I could re-use the vinyl border & while it’s common to use 3M adhesive tape to attach the polycarbonate, that method has its own concerns. In the end, I used the old Strataglass panels as patterns to drill, then stitch using high performance thread to the old vinyl edging.

Thousands of .1 mm holes, drilling one for every other stitch.

Once I got going, the drilling went fairly smoothly, except when Lori once yelled up asking me something – I drilled right through my thumbnail & halfway into my thumb as the bit broke off – all in a fraction of a second. Fortunately, a tiny portion was sticking out, so I could back it out.

Probably my most satisfying boat project ever – the polycarbonate is as clear as glass with fantastic visibility. New panel to the left / old to the right.

Clear both day & night

To see what’s coming

Sadly, with the 3 rear panels looking fantastic, the old side panels looked really, really bad. While I was tempted to continue using polycarbonate, there are 2 curved corner pieces, plus I decided having the roll-up “smiles” & built-in insect screening was important, so I used the traditional flexible Strataglass material. Hand stitching, including the “smiles,” took many hours.

“Easy” projects such as replacing a rotting plywood base for our freezer was almost a pleasure. Engine maintenance, oil changes & coolant replacement – no problem!

Surely, a double rainbow must be a sign my projects are done??

No such luck – the rainstorm which caused that rainbow had caused an occasionally drippy porthole to gush water, so … out it came. The original installation wasn’t ideal, so I’ll be re-doing all 8 portholes 😦

While I’ll repair the worst couple of portholes now, the rest will have to wait. We have lots of fun plans for the rest of summer, boat trips to Long Island, Block Island & the Vineyard, fireworks, car trips to Maine & Vermont & much more!

The NYC skyline upon our ominous 8AM approach.

While we weren’t attempting to break our south-to-north trip record … it simply turned out that way. Some places we were planning to linger at, became quick stops as weather was just too perfect not to be underway. Rainy, thunderstormy days to wait in port? Never happened – hardly any substantial rain & not a single thunderstorm (even in the Carolinas where we’re always attempting to avoid severe thunderstorms & tornado warnings every spring). And now that we’re back, I can safely 🙂 say we didn’t have a single engine or boat issue the entire way!

Long Island Sound is rarely this flat – for the entire day. Ignore that weird, threatening cloud bank! Again – pushing our arrival forward as the forecast was for winds 15 – 20, gusting to 25 for the entire upcoming week.

A beautiful, calm travel day like this is hard to turn down.

Mornings like this are worth waking up early for (even for sleepy Rusty).

Anchored off Cape Canaveral close enough to see a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket takeoff. The (even more spectacular) Artemis II was scheduled to take off just 2 days later, but would it be postponed? We decided to move along (of course it went off on schedule!).

Everything effects our schedule … Being chased by pirates? Just another day in our nomad life – “step on it” & leave them in our dust!

Keeping an eye on this hungry alligator. I think he was eyeballing our stern steps to see if he could swim over & climb up – not a chance buster!

Ahhhh … seems everyone needs a good push once in a while.

Lori likes this form of anchoring – just put down your spuds & no more rocking.

The Navy (along with nearly everyone it seems) are switching to powercats.

Yet another scheduling dilemma … Britts Donuts in Carolina Beach, NC is only open weekends this time of the year. Do we adjust our schedule to arrive when open, stand in line for 45 minutes, just for some donuts??

One advantage of being north early is that marinas in the Chesapeake are just getting going, so lots of available slips. With occasional nights into the 40’s, it was great to plug in for some heat.

With our Safe Harbor Marina membership, we received 11 free nights of dockage this trip. Considering transient boat slips are going for up-to $220/night, it’s a nice “savings”. But how do we get out of this slip (& how did we get into it ourselves after-hours), both at low tide)?

Getting a head start on summer projects while underway, beginning with our icemaker. While I would never install one, “it came with the boat,” so we have been attempting to keep it going. The company (U-Line), for some reason, paints their ice cube mold with green epoxy, which flakes off on your ice cubes – yuk! Spending $400 on a replacement U-Line ice maker assembly did the same thing after just a year. Researching on-line, I learned this is a common issue. Fortunately, a generic household ice maker assembly (for 1/5 the price) will (almost) fit right in, but the wiring needs to be deciphered, which turned a 2-hour project into a 2-day project with (literarily) sparks flying. In the end, success! Now onto the more serious “sailor” projects.

While it is still a bit chilly in Connecticut, we are happy to be secure, plugged in and to be able to ignore weather forecasts for a while. Fortunately, our summer project list is a small fraction of previous years, so hoping for a fun summer!