Outfit and Refit

Our first trip back to the boat after our repositioning trip consisted of a quick overnight to do some more planning, some more measuring, properly clean out the extra items not needed at the boat while she’s not traveling, and to supply the boat with some of the items we knew we would need to begin our projects. We drove down to Georgetown full of ideas, but we drove back to Charlotte with a plan. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but in the future you may just be amazed what will come out of this quick little overnight trip, if we stay on track and are able to keep it funded this time around. Hell, I may be amazed too!

 

We took inventory of what most people call the needs, the wants, and the nice-to-haves: work that was essential or necessary to be done (no questions asked), the work we wanted to do but could postpone, and the work that we would like to do but is which completely optional (and due to time, resources, or other changes may never even come to fruition). Our initial work up had consisted of some upgrades and additions for both safety and comfort, but the majority of the work to be done was cosmetic. Now that we had been afforded the perfect opportunity to become familiar with Wind Dragon II most intimately, inside and out, while actively living aboard her for 2 months while traveling, navigating, anchoring, and docking, we had new impressions and ideas of ways we could use our spaces more efficiently.

 

We consider this working time and our project choices as being very flexible, and also very fluid. By that I mean to say that everything from the designs, to our ideas, and even our timing choices of which projects we work on are constantly in flux: other external factors beyond monetary considerations also heavily influence our work planning and choices; weather and location challenges just to name two.

 

Some projects, say for example the remodeling of our original wet-head, require multiple other projects to be completed along the way which seemingly have nothing to do with the main project at hand, but which are completely necessary. To begin working on the head which is located port side aft, we first had to solve the issue of accessing our starboard side water tank so that we could plumb the galley sink (and while there we needed to also install our new water pump and water heater), before we cut off the water supply  and disconnect the plumbing on the port side.

 

Hidden challenges will drive the completion time for a lot of project posts, so these posts may start out well but trail off abruptly without an end, only to be revisited and added to again and again at later date(s) as the project is paused and resumed and more progress is made towards its completion. I’m still working out how to organize these posts, but for now I’ll add progress notes in the headings. Message me if you think of a better way for this to be organized!