After 4 weeks of intense work we have slowed down just a little bit but we are still working.  We are both feeling the aches and pains of our age.

The lilly pads create a problem for everyone it seems.  We removed a rather large amount of them from around the Halcyon with the help of a grappling hook, making it easier to get the Whaler out.  We went to visit Hank at the Gerogia Girl one evening and found that he was having the same problems so we brought our grappling hook over and conducted a 'marine vegitation relocation action.'  LOL

  

We arrived home to find we were sinking!  It turns out that the sump pump in the shower had created a reverse siphon and pulled river water in.  Carter immediately fixed this problem and hopefully we won't deal with it again.  It's never dull on a boat that's for sure.

We both continue to sand everythingin sight in preparation for painting.  Carter has worked diligently on the main hatch doors and I started on the instrument panel.  Both will be turned into beautiful wood again.  We take turns sanding the superstructure. 

Sanding and teak oil really perked up the control panel.

  

I failed to mention that Carter has been working on a side project since we first arrived dealing with solar electric propulsion.  He's been experimenting with 500Watts of solar a large trolling motor temporairily mounted on the starboard side near the stern. Although it does push the boat surprising well, we're afraid even with two mounted on each side, it will come up short so Carter has been researching how to mount a central electric motor in the diesel drive train instead. With some helpful ideas gained from our visit to the DragonFly, he thinks he can come up with something that will work but there is still a lot of design work to do and that will have to take a backseat to some of the more pressing issues for a while.  We will probably adapt one of these as a bow trusther later so the effort has not been in vain but the central motor just seems like the best way to go.  

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Despite over 5 weeks of toil there is still so much to do that it seems a little overwhelming at times so I decided to make a list of what we have done to make ourselves feel better. So far we've:

Carter:

Licensing the boats

Build new gangplank

Construct work tables

Cleared deck

Pressure washed entire boat

   superstructure, walkways, and freeboard

Cleared out dinette

Cleared out mechanical room

Cleared out bottom bunk (storage of sails and RIB)

Pressure washed entire boat 2nd time

   including Boston Whaler

Removed rotted handrails on superstruture

Began Epoxy in damaged spots - continues daily

Paint primer superstructure

Began construction on pilot house - continues daily

Began testing electric propulsion system - continues daily

Repair sump pump in shower

Removed table in dinette and replaced with nav station table

Removed washing machine

Cleared Anchor Chain Locker

Cleared Hanging Locker (removed many scuba air tanks)

Secured Solar Panels on Roof

Removed, sanded and poly main hatch and doors

More cleaning on superstructure

Sanding and continue epoxy on entire boat in prep for painting

Removed splash guard (had rotted)

Worked on Exhaust system in engine room

Worked on repair to pulley in engine

Diane:

Cleaned:  Kitchen, bathroom, storage drawers

Paint bathroom

Cleared and cleaned bottom bunk

Moved our clothes into drawers

Cleaned galley and dinette

Cleaned walls in salon

Removed carpet in salon

Helped with shower sump pump repair

Cleaned and set up galley pantry

Cleaned parque floor in salon

Cleaned anchor chain locker

Primed and Painted anchor chain locker

   and hanger locker

Sanded and painted main hatch entrance

It looks like we could make a career out of this boat but I guess this is a good start.