For weeks now, Dave has staunchly refused to believe that we are actually buying a big power boat. He just keeps saying its not real. Melissa's theory is that he is so excited about the boat that he just can't let himself believe its real - because if something were to go wrong with the sale of the condo or purchase of the boat, well, he would be utterly heartbroken. With the additional complication that if we sell the condo and the boat deal falls through we will also be homeless in Seattle. So he has sort of mopped around. That is until the condo closed. Then he promptly bought a ticket back to Seattle so he could be there when the boat closed. Because, well, kid in a candy store.
When the boat closed on Tuesday, Dave went over to just sit on the boat. All by himself. Just digging around in the electrical systems. He discovered that the owners had come aboard and removed a few things like artwork. This is a strict "no no" when selling boats. Once the boat survey completes, the boat is to remain as is until sold. So might be some conversations there about how that happened and what else may have disappeared.
On Wednesday, Jim came to see the boat and the guys just sat around drinking beer and digging into systems. Dave is liking the electrical more than he feared. Seems the hot water does reheat underway, and the electric burners on the kitchen stove do not take much power so moving them over to the inverter will work great.
On Thursday, Dave and Jim went back to the boat with Vic (the broker) for some quick lessons for Dave on docking. During the boat sea trials, Dave was not allowed to dock the boat for insurance reasons. But now that its ours, the docking maneuvers can begin. Did two practice dockings and Vic promptly hopped off the boat having realized Dave didn't really need any lessons. Well duh. MacGyver's got this. They then moved the boat to the new boat slip not far down the way in Lake Union. Due to some confusion over the boat marina name, they ended up in a different spot than Dave originally believed the new slip would be. But they figured it out eventually.
Jim even got to drive.
On Friday morning Dave then measured the depth of the slip. Its 6 inches below the props. Yikes. That is cutting it a little close. Though in the summer when the lake comes up it will be better. Ultimately Dave moved the boat forward in the slip so that there is more like 2 feet under the props which is much safer for her in the winter when the lake water is at its lowest point.
Friday afternoon, Jim and Dave met up at Apsaras. The did a little work but mostly sized up the jobs needing to be done. There are two things that need fixing, the radar and the diesel heater. They discovered we removed the tools Dave needed to remove the diesel heater, so we will have to hire that out. They then took Apsaras out for one last cruise.
And one last rescue.
On Saturday, Murph dropped by, and helped to "properly provision" the boat. The boys went to dinner at The Eastlake Bar and Grill. The provisions might have been reduced a bit Saturday night.
On Sunday Murph and Dave went out for a cruise. Lunch was up at Red Mill Burgers before Murph drove home.
Monday, Dave went out to Nomi’s boat after work to diagnose a problem. She is in the process of selling her boat and during sea trial they realized they had no cooling water coming out. Dave quickly determined that the gaskets on the strainers were bad, and the impeller was sucking air, not water. She had some old ones on the boat which did the trick.
Tuesday, Dave, Jim and Margaret met up at Apsaras with the intent to remove the radar. Jim went up the mast. The bolts were quite corroded making it more difficult job than anticipated. They ended up spraying the bolts with penetrating oil and left it to soak for a day.
Dave returned to SS7 and Nomi stopped by for a tour of the boat. They were down in the engine room when SLAM, the access hatch closed and locked them in. They did not even have their cellphones to call for help. Luckily, it was not too hard to jigger the latch to escape. MacGyver needs to work on something a little more failsafe.
Wednesday, Hermann (up from Chile) helped Dave store the car back in the hangar. It is a very tight fit.
Hermann was kind enough to bring Dave back to Apsaras. He hung out with Jim and Dave while they finished taking the radar dome off. Dave went to his favorite restaurant at the marina and had oysters for dinner.
Thursday, at 0-dark:30, Dave took an Uber from SS7 to SeaTac for the flight back to the winter home.