Spending Money Like a Drunken Sailor

The money taps are open and boat projects are well underway.   We're figuring on a departure date of somewhere around September 19th so we can hit slack tide at Hell Gate in the afternoon, so that gives us only five weeks to get ship shape.  Here's the latest progress report.

The fiberglassing of the decks is underway.  That big square hole is where the old hatch was and where the shiney new Lewmar hatch will go.  Needless to say, it's rained frequently since we opened a big hole in the deck, including a 2" deluge the other day.   We used a big empty tote to catch the rainwater.

The old worn loveseat was replaced with something more comfortable and boat like.

Here Pam is lecturing Chevy about not getting on the new furniture.

Here is Ruby getting on the new furniture.

We had a local upholstery shop make new cushions for the foredeck and for the dinette chairs and bench seat.   We used Sunbrella for everything.  Oh, see that round windshield wiper thing in the middle window?

That's going away.   I dropped the window off at a local Norwalk place to get it replaced with Lexan.  I hated looking around and through that silly wiper gizmo.

The last project last night was a big one.

The 35 pound CQR anchor was replaced with an 80 pound Manson Supreme.  
If you enlarge the photo, you can see the size difference between the two.   The Manson is the latest and greatest in anchor technology, but to be honest, I'm not too impressed with the build quality.   I know it's only an anchor, but the finish is very rough.  I hope it holds better than it looks.  If Manson hopes to sell more anchors, they should concern themselves more with looks.   We had a saying in the car sales business- "eye appeal is buy appeal".

Next up are electronics.   I ordered a complete Simrad package a couple of days ago and it's on its way.   I also need to get the Boston Whaler running.   Without that, the dogs will have no way to get off the boat when we're at anchor.

In the "maybe I should order one of those" categories are 200' of 3/8" chain (95% probability), new Morse MT-3 engine controls for the flybridge (90% probability), a 12 volt/120 volt Dometic TJ85AC refrigerator (75% probability), and a Taylor Made misting system for the flybridge (50% probability). 

A misting system, you say?  I think it's (ready for it?) pretty cool- click here and check it out.