Salty Sea Trials

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Today Salty went out onto the Cape Fear River to test out her engines and she passed with flying colors. With luck the weather was on our side. The tide was high for us to get out and it was a warm 78 degrees. Perfect. We only took her out for about an hour, she had a date with a welder to fix her hatches.

Now we are sitting comfortably at the service dock getting the forward hatch replaced. We got a steal on ebay for all new hatches but they are larger than the originals so we are having to cut out the deck a bit. We are a little worried about the strength of the new hatches with people walking on them but I’m sure they’ll be fine. We are also mounting a small border plate under them to raise them from the deck to wick away the water. Bye bye to leaky hatches! I haven’t been up to the forward cabin yet, I’m sure behind that closed door is a mountain messy steel shavings everywhere. I have no idea how but little Wags seems to be sleeping soundly in her cabin with all the grinding and welding going on, she’s a trooper.

The clock is counting down, we have less than 10 days before we plan on leaving/ waiting for our weather window. A lot needs to be done, but a lot has already been done and we need to remember that. I’ve been slowly filling the boat with food, cleaning products and safety gear for our trip and my anxiety level is slowly climbing a salty mountain. What do I cook on a boat? What do I make underway? I can barely keep the cupboards stocked with enough food for a week let alone longer. How often will I be able to get fresh produce in the Bahamas? I’m afraid to fill Carl in on my lack of organizational and provisioning skills he has enough to worry about. I’ve been trying not to forget anything from grab bags to kids fishing rods to homeopathic drugs for labor to a sat phone. There will be all out mutiny if I forgot a vital jigsaw piece to our journey.