What’s Happening with the Lady?

Sunday, July 31, Edgewater, MD – Several new things have occurred since my last update.  All good things and we are happy to have these upgrades installed and functional.  The first is the Lady’s exterior look with new canvas for the bridge.  She will also sport a brand new dingy/tender for the rack on her upper after deck.  Our electronics experts have been busy also, installing the new integrated command and control system.  Read on!!

We now have the new bridge canvas system installed.  The photo on the right is the Lady with her old white bordered canvas, and the one on the left is the new Navy Blue bordered canvas.  The new window panels are amazingly clear!!

The Lady’s new canvas totally wraps around the entire bridge section.  New access panels allow us to go out onto the top after deck where the tender/dingy and the davit are located.  For those of you who wonder, a davit is a crane that is mounted atop the yacht after deck that allows us to lower the tender/dingy from the deck over the edge and into the water along side or behind the yacht’s swim platform.  The picture on the left shows the davit, it is the long white arm showing just above the deck rail.  The black thing down on the rail is a weight with a closure hook to grab what ever you are going to life with the crane or davit.  The picture on the right shows a view of the after deck from the bridge and the metal rack where the tender/dingy will be tied down when it is hoisted aboard the Lady.  Just to the right in the photo, note the large metal rack.  This was placed on the yacht when it was being built.  It was designed to carry the Harley Davidson motorcycle the first owner had and wanted to make sure it was available at each and every port he visited.  The davit was used to hoist the Harley on and off the boat.  In the center of the picture on the right is the open hatch that leads down to the main salon.

These next photos are a view of the bridge as it is undergoing the upgrades for her electronics. These pictures are shots of the bridge helm station from port to starboard across the dashboard.  In the left picture is a shot of the integrated systems console, it has a protective cover over it but when underway, it will provide us with radar sweeps, voyage chart plots (works like the navigator system in your cars, but for the water), course headings, speeds, and depth beneath the keel (bottom of the boat).  Since our boat draws about four feet of water, and there are two large stabilizer fins on each side, we must always be aware of how much clearance we have above the bottom or any obstructions.  The systems console is a touch screen command unit.

In the center of the picture is the digital compass and next to that are two stacked units that make up the yacht’s auto-pilot.  The middle picture shows another view of the auto-pilot units and the white covered device just above the towel is the new digital radio with GPS and AIS interface.  The AIS paints the systems console with images of all boats within the range of the radar system and will inform us of what size, the speed and direction of those other boats.  Will help me steer clear of any hotshots with a jet boat and two six packs under his belt.  The third picture shows the radio, but it also includes an image of a teak slab where the old radiotelephone unit was mounted.  That was removed and trashed as well.  On the left side of the bridge next to the system console screen, is another teak mount where the old LORAN computer system once sat.  That unit was also scrapped and the teak mount will now be fitted with a rack to hold my big Keurig coffee maker. (A captain has to have his coffee ya know!).

The two photos below are shots of the starboard and port side of the Lady.  On the port side (has the work rack platform), note that the deck rails have been removed beneath the windows on that side.  Those windows showing above that missing rail were removed when they pulled the starboard engine out of the boat.  The yard technicians then replaced the window to keep rain out, but did not totally secure it, since it was expected that they would be taking it back out when the engine was ready to be reinstalled.

The other photo is a shot of the starboard side, showing the new canvas AND just below that is where the name boards will go when the graphics fellow has them read to be reinstalled.  Note the four dark dots, these are where the mounting bolts will go to hold the name board snug once reinstalled.  The name boards are Teak planks.  A good view of the galley windows is shown in this photo also note how large they are.  That is a good thing, because that is where they used a fork lift to remove the engine.

 

The satellite antenna system was also installed over Thursday and Friday of this past week, the electronic engineers strung cable for the television sets from the antenna mounted on the arch, down into the boat and to the entertainment center in the salon.  They also strung cable from the satellite desk top controller in the entertainment center to the TV position mounted in the salon and another cable run down to the master stateroom/cabin.  TV sets were mounted on the wall in both the salon and the master cabin as well.  Loose television sets are not a good thing when the yacht is underway.

A lot of progress on the livability aspects of the yacht were accomplished this week.  And yesterday, Saturday, the diesel engineer who is working on the port engine (the one that still worked) and he installed all new coolant hoses, a new impellor (pulls water into the boat to cool the engines), and was supposed to install a component in the fuel system.  He wanted to do a test to ensure that the fuel system component already installed was the problem.  Imagine, an engine mechanic who doesn’t install unneeded items just to raise the price!!!!

Okay, enough for today.  Tomorrow, Monday, I am hoping to go up to the ALBAN distributor to pick up the exhaust manifold and the parts kit.  The last two items were supposed to be in house Monday sometime.  I will then put them in my SUV, program the GPS system with the diesel guy’s address and then deliver the parts to his shop.  Where I will also look over my engine and get a commitment on delivery and reinstallation.

Have a good week, and keep watching this page.  More to come, we are starting to get into the active stage again and the 1st Mate, our two Sea Cats and the Skipper will be looking forward to finally getting to occupy our floating home.