Painted, Waxed, and Packed for the Bahamas
Where do you go with a newly painted bottom, a freshly detailed hull and superstructure, and a trawler that’s been buffed and waxed all over? The Bahamas, of course! Seadee is back in the water and looking better than ever! Bound for South Florida tomorrow, then the Bahamas as soon as the weather looks favorable. Follow us on our SPOT (also at the top under “Follow Our Progress”) or just watch the website for new posts periodically.
It's hard to make a Great Harbour look petite -- but look: I've done it! You just need a 100MT travel lift.
Look at how it gleams in the morning sun! That's 42,000 lbs of shininess right there!
This is so typical: you get your boat waxed, a new boot stripe put on (the old one was sand, new one is navy), and the first day back in the water some manatee comes up and slobbers all over the side! This guy thought the raw water being cycled through the AC system tasted pretty good on a balmy morning. (The black at the top of the photo is the hefty rub rail.)
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Can I get a lift?
It’s always exciting to watch boats lifted out of the water, especially when they are as cumbersome as a Great Harbour Trawler. Seadee was treated to a haul-out this morning at Scorpion Marine, where their 100MT travel lift has no problem with Seadee’s tonnage, nor 16′ beam. We’ve been waiting to have Seadee hauled since Christmas, but renovations to the Canaveral Lock (particularly the installation of manatee guards) kept the lock closed until this week. We’re having several things worked on, including a fresh coat of bottom paint and a detailing job. More updates will follow as these projects are completed over the next week.
It's always so comforting to see a full-displacement boat suspended in mid-air like this. This time the marina tied the lift straps together to prevent any slippage (or heart attacks).
Safely blocked and with stands in place (chained together), Seade is all plugged in on 50amp service and ready for some pampering.
Such Upgrades!
It may seem like Seadee has been sitting at the dock, but oh no! It has been busy with a bevy of important upgrades from the flybridge to the engine room and from the master cabin to the salon, there is much new and notable to share.
This Airmar PB200 Weatherstation, mounted on the flybridge arch, gives us the real-time and trending wind info for Seadee at all times. It also serves as another (redundant) GPS.
This new Garmin GMI 10 screen on the salon helm shows anything we want on the boat's NMEA 2000 network; here we're looking at apparent wind on the boat. As another example, we like to use it as a split screen showing depth and wind while underway for quick reference.
This independent Garmin GPSmap 441 mounted in the master cabin serves several purposes: it acts as our anchor alarm, it doubles as our dinghy Garmin, and it allows us to see info from the boat's NMEA 2000 network while lazing around in bed. If you don't understand the value of lazing around in bed, try consulting a woman.
To solve our barnacle and seachest debris problem, we had sea strainers installed on all working seacocks. Shown here are the engine and generator strainers (and yes we have already had to empty them). We plan to have the seachest screen removed at Seadee's next hauling.
The air conditioning pump was relocated to the stringer inside the engine room (port side), accommodating its own sea strainer and a more succinct hose structure.
As proof that the barnacles here are of a vicious variety, this turtle was caught napping and has picked up a few on his shell. Good luck with that, buddy!
This is a gratuitous manatee photo. You have no idea the patience it took Annie to get this photo, since the manatee was asleep at the time.
Merritt Island Weather
