It’s official, as of today we are living aboard! In the last four days we have stayed in four different states, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland, but last night we were on the boat! We are still cleaning up some loose ends in the VA house but should be done and completely out today! More to follow!

We haven’t dropped off the edge of the earth, we were moving. We’re back in VA moving out of the house and onto the boat. We’ll be back into boat mode in the next couple of days!

We have been talking with Dan from Canvas Creations, http://www.canvascreationsinc.com/, in Annapolis for almost a year regarding our dodger and bimini. We have opted for a hard dodger made of fiberglass and stainless steel rather than the traditional cloth dodger. Dan has been great to work with and after our 24 day delay, today he took the measurements for our dodger and bimini (cockpit cover). We’re excited about the end product!

Measuring the cockpit:

Measuring the dodger frame radius:

Thanks Dan!! Can’t wait to post pictures of the finished product!!

Now that the boat is secured in a civilized and safe environment we have had to focus on a few home repairs. We had to fix the back storm door handle, the kitchen window crank, the spare bedroom window, the front bay windows and a broken roof rafter. All mundane non noteworthy stuff but it had to be done and we’re finished. We replaced the back door handle, easy and not really worthy of a picture. The kitchen window crank was missing a screw and probably some operator instruction is needed. The spare bedroom window was another story, it was jammed shut. After we got the window open it was easy to see the balances were missing. We removed a balance from the adjacent window and of course resorted to the internet for research. We found a couple of great websites,  http://www.glassdistributorsinc.com/ and http://garage-doors-and-parts.com/window-spring-balances.html that were a great help! Once we identified the code, length, end pieces and tool required we ordered everything. The parts were relatively inexpensive and the assembly and installation were straight forward. After fixing the upstairs window we removed the balances from the bay windows and figured out they just needed to be lubricated. All the windows are fixed, they are smooth as silk!

Had to put this picture in so you can see the “Under Contract” sign:

We had to fix a cracked roof rafter that the condo association refused to address. They told us “we take care of the outside of the structure”. It’s fixed:

We’re done with the home repairs! Back to the boat!