We made it

Well, the Belle and crew made it.  At times I felt like Mr. Alnutt on the African Queen banging on his boiler to keep it working.  It should be said that while the Belle is and was in pretty good shape we probably should have done a bit more preparation on mechanical and electrical systems before pushing off on our long journey.  Having said that, we were pretty lucky as far as breakdowns were concerned although the engine shut down on the Cumberland River did give us a fright. 

So let me see,  2 batteries, a fuel pump, o-rings, crush washers, injector seals, a sea water impeller, a bilge pump, valve cover gasket, a lot of rewiring, a vhf radio, am-fm radio, stern light, anchor light, spot light, windlass, house water pump, a fog horn / hailer, new lee cloths, storm damage fixed on the bimini, rain water leak repair, both depth sensors that still don't work right, a new toilet, vacuum gauge for the Recor, a halon fire system that isn't all the way installed yet and as I look through the log books there were a lot of little maintenance chores almost on a daily bases i.e. light bulbs, corroded terminals, etc.

As far as the overall condition of the exterior the cabin tops are starting to peel, a nasty scratch on the bow courtesy of a bozo dock guy, teak deck that looks like hell, the upper rub rail has some dents and even some cracks from, well, rubbing (learning curve).  The edge of the euro overhang also has some rash from guess what, a bozo dock guy.  In the big picture, the boat still looks pretty good for a 25 year old boat that just finished 5500 miles.

What's next?  I have two pages of to do items that I want to start on if we stop in one place long enough. These items are mostly cosmetic in nature and / or upgrades.  It's a lot of putzy work but things I enjoy doing.

About the 155 mile crossing.  It's not something I care to do again.  At one point we were surfing down waves at over 10 kts.  I don't know how big the waves were but they were reported to be in the 8' range with some bigger. I don't know as we couldn't see a dang thing which is probably a good thing.  All this was complicated by a night crossing, crab pots everywhere, staying up for 24 hours and freezing our butts off on the open flybridge looking for the pots.  Thank goodness for our new mast mounted spot light.

Later today I'll be posting my perspective on the trip as a whole.

Kerm