Finally.....

1.10.13 Happy New Year and welcome back! I know we are glad to be back up and running; it has been a long and winding road for us to be able to get back out on the water, but we have finally made it! Since it has been quite some time since our last blog, I will keep this as brief as possible, but we are very excited about some of the new updates to the boat so we want to share everything with you! We have spent the last year and a half working towards refilling our cruising kitty, both in West Palm and then in Corolla, NC. Although it took longer than we had planned, we finally saved enough money to be able to make the necessary repairs to "All In" and get her back on the water. We spent the summer in Corolla, NC bar-tending and while we were gone, we hauled "All In" out of the water and left her on the hard for hurricane season. This was our first time being off the boat in two years and definitely our first time leaving her on the hard for an extended period of time. We thought we had sealed her up nice and tight and taken care of all the necessary things, but when we returned, she was a hot mess! Mildew had taken over the boat completely and the two cushions we had left on had mildewed as well. We spent the next week using various cleaning products and lots of elbow grease to clear out all the lockers and scrub away all the mildew. Although it took some time, we soon had her back in shape - unfortunately, we couldn't say the same for our cushions. New upholstery was something that had really needed to be done since we bought her, but we had put off due to monetary restrictions. Even though we weren't equipped for the large sum it cost us to have the salon reupholstered, it was now a matter of necessity so we bit the bullet and now have brand new cushions!

We put in lots of work while she was on the hard including: - Removing all the sole (the floor panels), sanding them down and applying coats of polyurethane - Applying teak oil to all the wood belowdecks - Sanding, Priming, and Painting the Hull - Epoxy repair to gashes in the stern - Installing new batteries - Replacing our entire head system - new hoses, new holding tank, new macerator - Rewire the running lights Here are a few before and after pictures:

We also gave our dinghy a much needed makeover with some fiberglass repair work, some patches and a coat of bottom paint. We also purchased a used 15hp Honda outboard, not as powerful as our last one, but also not as heavy - which is important since we will be removing frequently with the multiple deep water crossings we have coming up. Although the list may not seem impressive to you non-boaters, let me just tell you that we put in lots of hours and lots of heavy labor to get these things accomplished. It is all very tedious, especially when you have no idea exactly what you are doing! I will give credit where credit is due and say that Brad undertook the new head system project and did an excellent job! It was a lot of hard work and a lot of him standing on his head to get into the tiny crevices. We finally were able to put her back in the water and into a slip. We were so excited just to have her back in the water and we could almost see the Bahamas materializing before us....until we realized how much work we still had left to do. We spent the month of December making last minute changes, stocking the boat, and making minor repairs. We were in West Marine at least once a day and everyone knew us on sight. We did buy a brand new GPS which we are super excited about and also a new Rocna ancor, arguably on of the best on the market at this time. After a week trip to spend Christmas with my family in VA, we were finishing up the last of our To Do's and finally invited our friend Sean (the best man in our wedding) to join us aboard. He will be traveling with us a for a month or so and helping us with our deep water crossings. It seems everything is finally falling into place and we cannot wait for the voyage to begin!