Early days, lot's to learn

Our first days (actually weeks) on the boat are intense. We get up early, work all day, fall in bed exhausted. No time even to take many pictures. We check out every nook and cranny, I am making an inventory list of everything we find on board, and where it is stowed. After that, we, well, mostly Warren, figure out all our systems. Engine, generator, air-con, heat, water, plumbing, lighting, batteries, the list goes on and on. One of the big projects Warren wanted to tackle right of the bat, was the water maker. The boat came with a water maker, but it was listed as needing "assembly". Well, on our trip through all the lockers of the boat, we did find all the parts for it. Now the assembly part started. And went on, and on, and on. Almost 10 days of water maker installation hell. Meanwhile, the boat is in shambles, as all the floors are opened, and hoses, clamps, motors, filters, you name it, everywhere. That means that I can not move around the boat, I am disabled. What is a girl to do in such a situation? Off to Walmart!!!! Actually, I did go to Walmart, many times, because I have to provision the boat for our trip to the Bahamas. We want to take along as many provisions as possible, many items are hard to get down there, and often more money than Walmart. So while Warren was rolling around on his stomach and back, I had the fun job of shopping at Walmart.
After 10 days, the water maker was still not finished. It required countless trips to Home Depot and Lowe's, eating up a crazy amount of time. But those of you who know Warren will know, that he will not give up. But the project was temporarily put on hold, so we could take the boat out for a spin, up the Manatee River and into Tampa Bay. We had almost been on the boat for two weeks, and it was high time to give this "sailing thing" a try. Off we went, on our first excursion, I was so nervous, mostly about navigating through the buoys correctly, but also about getting in and out of our slip. But all went well, and once out in the bay, we even used our Jib and sailed! (the jib is the sail at the very front of the boat). (we decided to leave the main sail for another trip)
We were also excited to welcome our very first visitors on board. Willie and Brigitte from Germany, we know them from our trip to Southern Africa. We took them out up the river and into the bay, had a wonderful afternoon together. Once safely back in our slip, we celebrated with a nice bottle of bubbly and then had a cozy dinner together.
Next day, back to work. Warren had been mulling this water maker thing around, and figured out some solution. And sure enough, it's all good and working. We actually had a very big surprise, a fitting end to this saga. Water makers are reverse osmosis systems. They have a "membrane" to treat the salt water into drinking water. But membranes are fussy, and when they are not in use, have to get "pickled". We didn't even think that we had a membrane, so when we tested the water, we were really surprised to get "sweet" water, we expected salt water. (we were only testing the system to make sure there were no leaks in the system) Turns out, we had a pickled membrane, a $400.00 dollar saving, and the water tested perfectly fine, yay!!!
After a high, there is always a low. Next on the testing list was the generator. Should have been a rather straight forward thing, but not so. We just could not get it started. Actually, it started fine but would quit running as soon as you took your fingers off the start switch. Not very handy. Long story short, after 1 1/2 days of searching for the problem, Warren found a loose wire and voila, generator purrs like a kitten. Things were looking up and becoming a bit more easy, so we planned our first over night trip, more about that in my next post.

Checking out the dinghy.... all is well.

If you are too busy to sail the actual boat, you can always go for a spin in the dingy....

Our very first trip out, to test the motor, and test the chart plotter and navigator (me :))

Willie and Brigitte, our very first visitors, we had a wonderful time! Thanks guys for visiting!

A well deserved happy hour! A bottle of bubbly served by a pro!

Enjoying a lovely dinner together...

Warren investigating the plumbing ...

He is only smiling because I asked him to! Working on the engine, or water maker, or generator or some other darn thing. Access to all these items is impossible!!!

Thanks Warren, you are a trooper !