Brunswick, GA
October 20-26, 2024
Our checklist for Utopia to return to the water is getting very small. For the most part, she is ready for splashing now. The yard has scheduled our launch for Thursday the 31st and we have a slip reserved with the marina starting then.
Since the yard is only open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday – Friday and does not allow owners on site during off hours, our project list has sort of become our “job”. Each morning, we get up and head to the boat yard parking lot, then walk the docks of the marina. The marina office is nearly a mile away from the yard office, and that is our goal if we have packages waiting for us. After our morning walk, we climb the ladder up to Utopia and begin our day’s projects. Lunch is a short break back at the apartment. Our goal is to stop work and tidy up to exit by 4:30, which is when the yard prefers non-personnel to vacate the yard.
A lot of our errands and chores are saved for the weekend, while the yard is closed off to us. There are not a lot of amenities in the downtown Brunswick area and having a car to utilize the past couple of weeks has been extremely helpful. Without it we could ride the free marina bikes or hire an uber to the major shopping areas located about six miles from the apartment. Having the apartment is great for washing all the moldy clothes that we decided to keep, and for cleaning and packing up our backpacking gear.
We’ve been trying to take advantage of some local events while here. Some of these include the Jekyll and Hyde Con, Octoberfest, farmers markets, and checking out the large cargo ships that come to port in Brunswick. Brunswick Landing Marina also hosts a lot of events. We attended a presentation on cruising the Caribbean, watching the deployment of an expired life raft, and the customer appreciation oyster roast where the marina owner worked hard cooking oysters for the marina guests.
Here is a summary of our boat projects from this past week:
Rigging
The correct gooseneck pin was delivered to the marina, and we were able to install it. It was as difficult to install as it was last February, but at least it did not take as long this time around. The story about the beginning of this project can be found in this post from February.
Rick and Sarah with Sail Ready stopped by the yard this week to take a look at our halyard situation. Since the jib halyard is in place and exits the mast about a foot from the top, they will be able to run the other halyards without a crane after Utopia is back in the water.
We finally got around to servicing the winch on the mast. This project went well. The only small challenge was that the horizontal position of this winch required an extra set of hands to reassemble the unit.
Electrical
Jimmy ordered and received new tools and parts to complete the installation of the ram mic (the handset to use the high-powered VHF while at the helm). As mentioned last week, the end connection of the cord for the ram mic was too big to fit into the conduit. So, Jimmy cut the line, fished wire through the conduit, then spliced 11 tiny electrical wires together. The microphone worked upon testing, however later, after the Nav Pod was closed and our work zone tidied up, the mic was not working correctly. The next day we opened up the Nav Pod (a watertight box at the helm binnacle that houses the connections to the electronics at the helm), made some adjustments to the wiring and all appears to be working well now. With that, the installation of our brand-new VHF is complete.
A small project that we took on this week was the installation of a new light over the nav table. The old light fixture was falling apart so we decided to replace it with an LED light fixture. Of course, this small project took several days to “complete”. There was a strange wiring connection between the old fixture and the galley fan that was hidden by the old large light fixture. Then, we ran into an issue of some of the wiring not powering up the new LED light even though the wires had proper voltage. In the end, Jimmy got creative so that the new light functions properly. However, the fan's polarity has been reversed, something we will correct at a later date.
A third project in the electrical category did not really involve any wiring. This was to simply dry fit the mounting for a mini Starlink antenna. We needed to find a spot that was in reach, which did not interfere with the solar panels, and that would be stable and safe while underway. Here is where we got lucky in that the prior owner had a piece of stainless steel tubing labeled as “antenna extension”, and it appears that it will work perfectly for the Starlink panel.
Miscellaneous Tasks
Attempted to reinstall the shower drain plate, but was unable to get the screws to seat and ended up just leaving loose screws and plate somewhat attached using silicone adhesive. We’ll need to address this before Baxter moves back on board.
Took inventory of our food stores and created pantry inventory listing in Anylist. A lot of cruisers keep inventory of their food stores, so we will attempt to try it out as well. We already have an inventory of the non-food items stored on Utopia and it is now to try to stay on top of a food inventory. This will help us be more efficient with managing our groceries and help us find items that are stored inside the boat.
Picked up and filled the recertified propane tank. Both tanks are now good for another five years. It was a saga in trying to get these tanks recertified as we cruised between St. Petersburg and Brunswick, so we are very happy to have both tanks recertified now.
Made a new diagram of Utopia’s thru holes and began diagrams of other important safety data.
A survey of Utopia was performed this week by a marine surveyor for insurance purposes which needed to be done while the boat was out of the water. The inspection of the rig will be done by Sail Ready after Utopia has been splashed.
Continued with general household set-up.
One other item I have been working on is taking a course about cruising in the Bahamas from The Boat Galley: Get Ready To Cruise The Bahamas! There is a lot of great information about crossing the Gulf Stream, checking in and out of the Bahamas and about provisioning for extended trips. We plan to spend about three months in the winter, maybe early spring, of 2025 in the Bahamas. I have never been to the Bahamas and am very much looking forward to heading out there.
Both Jimmy and I are chomping at the bit to move back on board Utopia and the boat is essentially ready to serve as our home once again.
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