Five Weeks and Counting !!

Things have been happening at a very quick pace. Once we caught on that Baetech wasn't going to come through for us, we were able to hire some pretty terrific contractors. Thanks to "Bill" for his hours of work on the electrical system, even on short notice and weekends. Joe got the hatches in, and has one or two smaller things to do and he will be off the hook. Jim continues to show up as we find yet another job for him to do. And the sailmaker has booked tomorrow to come to finish up his work on the sails. Then there are sea trials. And I think that means that we get to sail Ryen's Quest somewhere, maybe even for a few days.

It's getting quite chilly to be going sailing these past few days, but with our newly installed furnace, that shouldn't keep us along side.

Mac has moved aboard full time now, and the plan is to push off around the end of October, direct to Bermuda and then to the islands where I will fly and meet the guys. So it looks like five weeks from now the dream will move away from the pier here in Halifax and journey down to the Carribean just in time for Old Years celebration in the sunny south. Al mentioned something about Christmas at Roxy's.(I mean Foxy's sorry if it is spelled incorrectly!) Who knows! We will be wherever we end up.......and this is just the beginning.

She Is a Beauty

I realize that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder; however, " RYEN'S QUEST"is beginning to look like a ship that is ready to take on a trip anywhere the wind blows. The past two months I waited painfully for the workmen to come to do the things needing to get done. This past two weeks Allan has been going to school with a very experienced marine electrician and we can rest at night now, knowing the boat shouldn't catch fire. We found wires that were hooked up directly from the battery to the switches. No fuses, nothing labelled....it was a nightmare. And scarey enough, there were live wires that didn't go anywhere. The hart system is doing what it is supposed to do, talking to the batteries. Computers can do anything!!

One of the stackpacks is on, the other is waiting to get installed. It is hard to pin the sailmaker down to a time, especially during the summer months when everyone wants their stuff done yesterday. We expect he will be here soon, and take the boat out to make sure they fit the boat correctly.

Mac still works part time, but when he can he comes to the boat to work on the lines, anchor chains and all the stuff that he does so well. We are waiting for rope for the stern anchors and that job should be done in the very near future. He moves aboard this weekend permanently. Mac has a great sense of humour, and is even tempered unless aggravated by someone. He knows a lot about sailing, and has skills that every boat owner should know. And he says he can cook!

Plumbing kinks have all be identified and fixed. LifeLine Marine certainly stands behind their work. We are happy knowing all the plumbing has been replaced with new hoses throughout and our SeaGull system seems to be working flawlessly. We are unable to find someone with experience with the electrosan system, so that can wait until we get to a place where the workers have the expertise in these systems.

The autopilot has not been working since the guys started their trip to bring the boat home. It was last week when we had an electronics guy in and found that there wasn't a drop of oil in the unit. We are hoping that the fix is just putting some oil in as it sets a course but it doesn't keep the course because there is no resistence on the rudder. We feel there was little daily maintenance done on the poor girl, but that has all changed. If the problem is more than oil, we are probably looking at buying another autopilot, and that won't be cheap

We haven't even looked at the watermaker since it was "pickled" last year. When we get to a place where there are people who work on these things on a regular basis, we will get that up and running. We love the custom stainless steel sink that we had made. It was made to our specific measurements and works like a charm. No more water backing up when she rolls to the starboard side. It is not very deep, only four inches, but it is very wide which can easily hold big pots of anything. Have I mentioned how much I love the galley?

Admittedly, "STARDUST" may not have been the spoiled child I had expected when we purchased her. But I can say, without hesitation, that "RYEN'S QUEST" will be properly maintained and looked after as best we can. She does have beautiful bones, deck and hull, and everything else can be fixed or replaced.