We are still alive and kicking
Why silent for such a long time? Well, until just few weeks ago there was nothing much to write about, as it was basically work, work, and more work, making Vanille not only ready and reliable (hopefully not for heavy seas!), but esthetically pleasing as well. The first task we tackled was quite a challenging labour done in a typical summer weather here in Annapolis (hot and humid) and took us several weeks, stripping
Vanille's headlining and replacing it with a new one purchased last year in France. Then the windlass motor had to be changed for a stronger one. While one contractor replaced all canvas outside for better sun protection, another took care of all cushion covers in the boat seating as well as replacing some of the foam, and still another one made us new carpets. Meanwhile Jean-Pierre installed a marine sanitation device system to one of the toilets to make us legal in United States (and probably elsewhere as well), he installed few additional fans, renewed all motor hoses on the Perkins motor and checked the heat exchanger.
Amel head sail furler had to be exchanged for a new electric one from
Harkens, and as an unexpected surprise we had to order a new HF radio and tuner since the old
Furuno suddenly gave up. We also installed a new fridge before the old one would get a chance to fail us. And as part of the normal annual maintenance we hauled-up for an antifooling paint and some waxing and polishing as well. All in all this was a total refit and we think we will be under way around the mid October and will get going, depending on what kind of weather the mother nature brings us, in this almost like new sailboat!. And just to let you know this hasn't been only work and no play, we had our annual visit with the family, and played tourists when my sister Marcella flew here for a visit. With her we finally managed a proper visit of Annapolis as well as its surroundings and toured Washington city to see where all the US tax money gets spend! - we managed to visit before all the government mess and were lucky to have all these interesting museums and parks open to explore!!
