Upgrades & Improvements

Just when you thought it couldn't get any better...

We hired E&S to sand down and refinish the shelf at the front of the salon.  Through years of sun and saltwater spray the varnish had begun to discolor so a light sanding and new coat of varnish has her shiny and new again.  

The AirCon unit in the salon has been trying to die for about a year.  The heat of last June and July was too much and the compressor finaly bit the dust.  We had Marine Maintinance instal a a slightly bigger/ stronger unit and they even diverted a bit of the cool air down to the galley!  Chef is happy!

Upon inspecting the old windlass there were significant cracks in the main drive shaft, so we installed a new windlass.  Again, this one is larger and we are sure it will do a better job of pulling up our anchor.

Last but certainly not least, we added extra sound proofing around the front of the generator.  Sasha is on a mission to make the bow area a relaxing, quiet, after dinner conversational spot.  Last summer we had a seperator installed on the generator exhaust to bring down the noise at the water level, now we are working at the deck level.

Honeymoon Part 2

Well, the first part of the honeymoon went just as most married couples would expect.  We rented a car and drove from one B&B to anothe as we explored the Carolinas.  Too bad that was just a pit stop on the way back to de islands, mon!

We already have a full season booked and there were a few spare projects we've been meaning to get around to, so we hit Tortola a little early this year.  First up was organizing the Soterion storage unit.  

Most charter boats own more stuff than they can carry on board.  We have, for example all our holiday decor, bits and pieces we've taken out of the crew cabin to make it feel larger, all 27 jerry jugs used to carry fuel when the boat was delivered from France, tupperware full of Soterion swag, etc. 

I'm tired of looking at a heap of stuff in our storage unit... so it's time to install shelves and see what we can do to bring a little organization to this place.  Here you see Sasha squatting on a layer of cinder blocks -- what's with those blocks you might ask?  Flood protection!  We are on the ground level and in the summer this area is known for flooding.  

We bought some heavy duty brackets and installed three large shelves.  

Top shelf is for all the jerry jugs, they will come in handy for the next big adventure!
Second shelf is for extra "tools".  Captains and chefs rarely throw things out because none of these things are actually their personal property, and you never know what the next crew on a yacht will find useful.
Third shelf is for decor and other stuff that is not taking up perminent residence.
Ground level is for tuppers full of Soterion swag.  

Sorting what little swag we had leftover from last year.