Is it Summer yet?

Well, it’s be a long minute since I’ve updated the blog….and we’ve been tucked into the Inner Harbour of Victoria again for the winter months. It’s been a productive 6 months here and I’ll let you know what has been going on.

First of all we came back early to help with Charlies knee surgery recovery. I am happy to say that he is walking nicely with a little limp, but just underwent a surgery to remove a couple of melanomas recently. It’s been a way easier recovery time. He turned 10 in January and we can see that he has slowed down- now he is so mellow and easy going.

As for boat projects:

1. We installed a ProNautic battery charger and I can personally say, that this was a game changer for us. We used a car battery charger last year and this new marine charger is hands down much more superior.
2. We found the leak in our 35 year old hot water tank- it was a completely rusted out heating coil- well don’t you know it, they don’t make that kind anymore. So after 2 weeks of not having running water on board, we finally go a newly fabricated attachment for a screw in heating coil. Works great and no more leak. Now to install the difficult to find heat sensor.
3. Dave built shelves and protective walls around our windvane ropes in the back lazerettes. Now we can stack things in neatly and they won’t slide into the steering ropes.
4. We got rid of our ‘ghetto’ plastic day tank for our diesel heater and installed a cool new aluminum tank- looks more professional now.
5. We installed more LED lights in the cabin- including the kind of strip lights that change colour…party on!
6. We’ve decided where the new watermaker will go and now we need to plan all the tubes and wires, but this will be such an awesome addition to our being off grid.
7. I studied for and passed my Safety Boaters Exam and now can use the dinghy by myself.
8. We have bought a life raft and will be picking it up in April.
9. Dave recertified for his diving, and has decided that cold water diving is not really for him, but he has all his equipment checked and certified for some warm water diving this summer.
10. Installed our Iridium Go and will activate it this summer.
11. We added 2 more 130 watt solar panels with their own mppt controller. Bring on the sun.
12. We got new dinghy davits and had parts of them fabricated- now maybe we won’t keep braking the davits
13. We installed hard stainless rails all along the back for safety and to attach the new solar panels.

There were so many small projects that we did that it’s hard to recount them here. But every little project keeps our boat comfortable and safer to live aboard.

We leave the docks tomorrow to head out for 6 months of summer fun. We were thinking that ‘maybe’ this year we could head south to Mexico, but we won’t leave until we get both our vaccines, and that the world has their vaccines. Hopefully, we will start our vaccines in Oct/Nov and get our second on before heading out again. Next year for sure we are taking the big Left Turn.

Our summer plans are loosely put together. We will hangout in the Gulf Islands for April. Then May and June we will start heading north and hope to get as far north as Prince Rupert. We don’t plan to stop in any small village and will practice stocking our boat for long passages. Then in July we plan to go down the outside of the Island buddy boating with some good friends, Jim and Tami. We are so looking forward to reexploring the west coast and again, will not be stopping in any small villages. Then late summer, we will head back to Desolation for a lot of sun and relaxing. At least this is our plan for the moment.

I hope everyone is keeping safe and healthy. I plan to keep updating the blog throughout the summer so stay tuned to our upcoming adventures! Cheers!