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How was our first day on the new boat? Although not without drama, we loved it!

Instead of enjoying cocktails in the cockpit, dreaming of our future escapades, we spent the first afternoon re-bedding the Lexan into one of the salon hatches. As luck would have it, I pushed up on the plexiglass to open the hatch and the seal gave way. Oops. As there’s a chance we could take some water over that hatch while underway, and we’ve been having a fair number of rain squalls, I wanted it sealed properly. Fortunately Jean-Yeves, the previous owner, had most of what I needed to do the repair already on the boat.

Once that job was completed, we thought that we’d be smart and fill the water tank as we knew that we’d be leaving the marina today. Unfortunately, we goofed a bit in filling it, and ended up dumping a fair amount of fresh water into the bilges. Bilges that are, in the absence of this kind of error, always dry.

One look at the photos below and you’ll see how much stuff was stored in those bilges. We found treasure after treasure after treasure. We had been looking forward to exploring all that was stored on the boat. We just weren’t planning on doing it on our first day aboard! In order to solve our water issue, we had to remove every single item, hand drying many of them. All’s well that ends well though… we now have some very clean bilges!

12 Comments

  1. Way to go you guys – so stoked for both of you in acquired the yacht that will take you on your next series of adventures. I’ve also followed S/V Delos for quite some time now and their Amel has held up very well on blue water travels.

    Looking forward to some interesting monohull stories now as you transition out of the “cat life”.

    Best wishes,

    Alan and Christina

  2. I just love this first screw up story. Just a slight bend in the learning curve. I know you guys are PUMPED digging into your new digs. Are you? … I’d expect on, on!

  3. And you thought you got rid of “stuff” back in Ont. ……..I guess its different ….Boat stuff dosnt count …hehe

  4. Congratulation for your new sailboat and we wish you our best of luck for your new adventure. We will follow it with great interest.

  5. How did you end up putting water into the bilges?

  6. Congratulations on your new boat, guys! Enjoy your new home and the fun of setting up your new floating home.

  7. Looks like typical cruisers “treasures of the bilge”.

  8. Congrats on the first day on the new boat. From the looks of that first photo, it looks like you guys are already getting used to heeling on a monohull!! 😉

  9. I clearly remember our first day of “treasure hunting” on our PDQ; 1/3 good stuff, 1/3 duplicates and OCD cleaning supplies we took home, and 1/3 pure trash. The “prize” was the old enclosure, including oxidized windows with all the clarity of waxed paper.

    A great process, though, forcing you to look in every corner and giving some insight into the repair history, particularly if the PO like to keep “might be good” parts. I really hate “might be good,” when it is nearly always “probably not.”

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