That’s what we’re left with-the little things. Kim and I are feeling a growing sense of confidence that, finally, we may be leaving. Soon. Like, in a week or so. Why? Because the list is actually short. And let’s face it, at this point we’ve replaced and repaired almost everything aboard Meraviglia, so there’s not that much to fix. Of course, stuff will still break-it’s a boat. But it shouldn’t be major stuff. We hope.

The shift was exemplified by one of this week’s projects: cleaning the boat. And we mean CLEANING the boat. We scrubbed the outside (the birds here are ridiculous), including the topsides and then went to work inside. The inside took a full day. We pulled every drawer and emptied every shelf. We scrubbed the headliner and the walls and the floors. We vacuumed all the upholstery. It was startling actually how much dirt accumulated in the buckets of water. We changed a LOT of dirty buckets. I even organized the junk drawer (which must mean we’re close, right??!!)

We also did do some further work on the systems. For starters, our autopilot wasn’t working. We discovered that it wasn’t getting power. After tracing some wiring, we figured out that, for some strange reason, in the chaos of the refit, the autopilot power wire had gotten labeled as “Compass Light”. Magically, turning on the compass light fixed out autopilot!

We also managed to fix our anemometer, though not before expending a lot of time and energy trying things that didn’t work. We replaced the sensor at the masthead (Bob’s trip up the mast #6) and the data cable (Bob’s trip up the mast #7) and the data box and the power cable. None of it made a difference. It still didn’t work. We called Garmin support and they had no idea (“take a video and send it to us-we’ll open a case”). Finally, on a whim, we took the boat out and recalibrated the system compass. Magically, we suddenly had a working anemometer. Absolutely no idea why that worked but we’re not asking questions.

Wind! It’s sort of important for, you know, SAILING!!
Yep, that’s Bob up there, replacing stuff that’s not broken.

Finally, we are still getting the engine configured. The last thing is the alternators to charge our batteries. We have two high-output alternators on the engine and they are controlled by an external regulator to make sure they don’t damage the batteries by sending them too much current. That regulator has to be programmed, so that’s where we are currently. Obviously, this thing has changed in 20 years because one programs it, not through an app or even a computer interface, but by holding a magnetic screwdriver over a red sticker on the device and then waiting while it scrolls through endless options. When we see the option we want, pull off the screwdriver. Seriously? It’s 2024! The other task is to rig blower fans for the alternators. These babies can produce a lot of heat, so it’s recommended to set up fans to push air past them inside the engine compartment. Do we have air conditioning? Nope. But our alternators do! Or will, anyway.

One of our alternators
Adding some more wire, of course!
The regulator-sure, program me with a magnet!

And that, really, is it. With a little luck, we’ll have this wrapped up this coming week. Then we’re going to start looking for a weather window to hit the high seas. No ICW for us anymore-too stressful. We’ll be going “outside” on the ocean and heading to the Bahamas. Finally! Of course, when will there be a good weather window? Who knows? But at least we’re looking!