Getting the engine work wrapped up and moving onto the boat was a big step but we had a lot more planned. We spent the next month and a half working through our long list of projects.
The most complicated project, by far, was installing a forward-looking sonar (FLS) system. The purpose of an FLS is to provide a digital reading of what the bottom looks like ahead of us. As you all know, the second rule of sailing is to not hit anything hard and an FLS will hopefully help us avoid that, especially in notoriously shallow places like the Bahamas. Lucas scoured eBay for the past 3 years, slowly assembling the parts we needed for a fraction of the cost of a new unit. Now that we had all the parts, it was time to install them but the installation process was going to be complicated. It required us to drill a 2” hole in the hull of the boat, below the waterline. The sensor then needed to be installed perfectly vertical on both the outside and inside of the angled hull. This meant we needed to construct a “wart” on the outside of Alaya’s sloping hull. Lucas decided to make it out of G10, an incredibly strong fiberglass board. Making theG10 wedge was tricky, especially without a workshop, but Lucas managed to create a circular wedge that we then epoxied to the hull. Once the outside was sorted out, Lucas had to engineer an interior backing plate to make sure the sensor was structurally strong and vertical on both sides. This meant more G10, epoxy and a lot of grinding.
During pauses in the FLS project, Lucas also worked on several wiring projects. First up was wiring for our new lithium batteries. These batteries are super cool and increased our house bank capacity by more than 4x. It took a bit of wiring and programming to connect them into our existing system. Lucas also installed our new alternator regulator, which required even more wiring. Lastly, we ran wiring for our new Starlink system, FLS and our new instrument panel in the cockpit. Wiring projects are always disruptive, they either require us to remove multiple floor boards to access the main house wiring runs or remove ceiling panels to run wires to other places. Either way, the boat is a mess during these projects.
We also worked on repairing a few leaks that popped up over the past year. The biggest one was above our dinette. Whenever it rained, we had a lot of water coming in through a dorade vent fitting. We tried to fix this issue a year ago but it persisted. So, we beefed up our second attempt at the repair, adding additional epoxy and sealant. While we had all the ceiling panels down in this area, we also replaced and resealed some hardware around the mast that had been bothering Lucas.
While Lucas took the lead on the wiring and FLS projects, I focused on a few projects of my own. First, I sanded Alaya’s entire hull in preparation for fresh bottom paint. While sanding, I patched a few spots that also needed a new barrier coat and then applied two coats of paint. This is a tough project, especially on my shoulders, but very rewarding in the visual progress department. Once the hull was painted, we also installed our new, higher pitch, propeller.
I also worked on building out our first aid kit. We had a basic first aid kit last year but we wanted a beefier one for cruising in the Bahamas. Before purchasing anything, I read a lot of sailing articles online and reached out to a few trained family members (thank you Noah, Tony and Deb for your consultation!). Our new first aid kit is now all neatly packed in a waterproof bag and organized by type of treatment.
The other emergency bag I worked on was our ditch bag. We had a small one last year but again wanted a beefier one this season, especially since we hoped to do more ocean passages. A ditch bag is meant to have the essentials to help you survive in a life raft until rescue. Our bag has everything from a portable water maker (thank you, Sue and Richard!) to sunscreen to 10 cans of canned chicken. It was tricky to decide how far down the rabbit hole to go on the first aid kit and ditch bag projects but I’m really pleased with where we ended up.
My biggest project of the fall was provisioning aka grocery shopping. Last year, we tried bulk provisioning but made a few rookie mistakes (way too many canned chickpeas and black beans). This year, I wanted to take the lessons we learned from last year and then go bigger. I also wanted to take advantage of our car, provisioning heavy stuff is so much easier with your own wheels. I first inventoried every consumable item already on board into a spreadsheet. Then I started purchasing, logging and storing the quantities of our staples that I guessed we needed for the entire sailing season. Storing large quantities of food on Alaya was like a puzzle and I found/created so many hidey holes. Lucas helped me partition off various cubbies in the bilges to better maximize our storage. I’m very impressed with how much we can fit on Alaya. My favorite storage hack was that we found out-of-sight storage for 16 bags of tortilla chips. We are ready to serve buff chix dip! Only time will tell if we made the right purchases for the season.
In mid-November, we took a short break from the boatyard to visit Annapolis, one of our favorite cities. We had some boat-related shopping to do and wanted to visit our friends on SV Victoria, who are spending the winter in Annapolis. Our first stop was lunch at one of our favorite downtown restaurants and then we headed to a local boat shop to look at life rafts. We wanted to order a new life raft before heading south this year. These survival rafts are designed for cruisers like us to use if you have to abandon ship while out in the ocean. They have a lot of special features to help keep us safe at sea. Unfortunately, all of these special features meant they were in high demand and there was a 4-week lead time. Ugh. We placed the order anyway and decided to have it shipped to the boatyard in Deltaville, hoping it would arrive a little sooner than expected (spoiler alert, it did not). We also stopped at our favorite used boat shops. Once the errands were run, we partied it up with Sarah and Dan on SV Victoria in downtown Annapolis. We hadn’t seen them since January but have texted nearly every day. It was so nice to spend time together in person. We were honored to be the first overnight guests on SV Victoria.
A few days later, we took another break from boat work for Thanksgiving, braving the 19-hour holiday weekend drive to southern Florida to surprise Lucas’ Aunt and Grandparents. We had a blast spending time with Joe, Melissa, Grandpa Paul and Grandma Nancy and the weather was perfect (70s and sunny everyday). One of my favorite parts of the weekend was watching Wicked at a theatre with Grandma and Missy. While we were at the movie, the boys started their brisket saga. Joe had received a smoker from a friend and wanted to try it out. None of them had ever smoked anything before but how hard could it be? Lucas was designated captain and manned the smoker. He watched three football games and a rocket launch from the back deck while the brisket smoked. By 1 a.m., the brisket still wasn’t done (they started it at 1 p.m.) but Lucas was exhausted. So, following advice from a YouTuber, Lucas put the partially done brisket in the fridge and went to bed. He fired the smoker up again in the morning and miraculously, the brisket was done by halftime of the Michigan game that afternoon. The brisket was delicious and Michigan beat OSU. Everyone, especially Grandpa, Lucas and Melissa were thrilled. One guest at the party even told Lucas that it was the best brisket she’d ever had! Lucas now wants a smoker onboard Alaya.
Once we made the very long drive home (word of advice, never stop at a Buckey’s on a holiday weekend), we dove right back into boat work. The weather was getting colder and we were getting anxious to start cruising. Alaya launched on December 9. She was looking great and there were no leaks with our new FLS fitting – victory! We continued to work on projects for the next 10 days, staying a few nights at a nearby marina and five nights at anchor. It felt great to be back in the water and to test out some of our new systems, including our new electric outboard motor for the dinghy. Our last major project was reworking our cockpit stand for all our new instruments. This entailed hiring a local welder to extend our binnacle post and then bending it ourselves in the middle of a rainstorm.
Our intensive boat work period had come to an end, just in time too. Did we get everything done that we wanted to? Of course not, but it was starting to get really, really cold in Virginia. Time to go south!
