We start our stay in the boatyard with a very manageable list of projects – mostly just standard maintenance and cleaning this year. But one thing leads to another, and then to another… I think in the week since we’ve been back, I’ve added more items to my To-Do list than I’ve crossed off!

I do the boring, non glamorous jobs. Like cleaning every surface inside the boat to remove the layer of boatyard dust. And unpacking and putting away everything that we stored on land. And doing an inventory of the provisions that we didn’t eat last season that seem to have survived heat and humidity and we’ll put right back in the rotation for this year. And touching up the interior teak with oil where it has been dulled and faded by sun or water leaks.

Just for fun, here’s a picture of Mike’s flip flop – glued together with silicon caulk and with a big hug of water holding it in place to dry!

Capt. Mike does the important jobs that will actually keep us safe at sea. For example, replacing the swivel hardware that connects our big, heavy Bugel anchor to the rode chain. While the anchor has performed fabulously over the past two seasons, the connector has been known to fail, which could allow Sanitas to drift into another boat or onto shore, or at the very least could allow us to lose that expensive anchor! Our German friend, Andreas, recommended a Wasi anchor swivel, so Mike replaced it is an abundance of caution. Hopefully this will let us sleep soundly at night once we’re living on the hook again!

For his next trick, Capt. Mike replaced the stuffing material around the rudder post. My very nontechnical understanding of this is: there are two things that have to go from the inside of the boat (where the motor and steering mechanism are) to the outside of the boat (where they actually propel us or steer us through the water). These two items are the prop shaft which moves the propeller and the rudder shaft which moves (can you guess?) the rudder. The boundary between the inside and the outside is called the stuffing box. A thin strand of Teflon material, that looks kind of like an extra fat shoelace, wraps around the rudder post inside the stuffing box and forms a fairly tight seal. If installed properly, it keep MOST of the water out, just allowing a slow drip into the bilge.

Mike replaced the prop shaft stuffing material last season – there was so much water flowing in, we decided it wouldn’t be prudent to cross the Gulf Stream in that condition! That repair was complicated by the fact that Sanitas was in the water at the time, and keeping the wet stuff on the outside was pretty important so we’d stay afloat. It made much more sense to finish the job and replace the rudder post packing this time while she was safely on the hard and no chance of sinking.

Thanks to Al, who gave us this fancy tool which was perfect for removing the old packing material.

It’s definitely the most difficult space in the boat to work in. Capt. Mike has to do some serious boat yoga to fit into the space. And it’s almost unbearably hot. He had to use the big wrenches for this project!

Right about in the center of this next photo, you can see a circle of textured material around the shaft. That’s the nice, new, clean stuffing!

Not quite as dramatic, but still on the To-Do list, Mike made a small shelf for the bottom of our chest refrigeration. Condensation gathers at the bottom and this shelf will let me keep food out of that water. Plus i can never actual reach what’s way down there at the bottom of the fridge anyway!

And then… After all this productivity, we ran into our first unpleasant surprise of the season. While testing the propane system, Mike discovered a leak. When he turns the propane on at the tank, we can hear the hiss of gas escaping, and can smell the propane. Luckily, the solenoid still works (we replaced it our first year) so we can narrow down the source of the leak to the external part of the system – not something leaking within the living space of the boat. Theoretically, this should be easier to trouble shoot and fix. However, we’ve squirted soapy water in ever hose and connection, watching for bubbles, and we haven’t found the source of the leak yet. Wish us luck as the search continues!