Summer has arrived in Alaska and we are using all the daylight hours to a max, as we embrace the day-to-day beauty of where we live, while simultaneously planning for our voyage ahead. We are managing to fit some fun outings in among many projects and work.
Most notable for us this week was the departure of our dearly loved 36 foot Bayfield SV High Endeavours, who is on her way to her new home in Sitka as I write this. She has been an integral part of our growth as a couple and as a family over the last 17 years and it feels like a loss. However, as our friend Emil reminded us, “Ships are safe in the harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.” When I dip my toe someday in the South Pacific Ocean, the same waters will connect us to her in the North Pacific Ocean.
We all have our voyage preparation jobs. I have gathered all the homeschooling resources and supplies to cover four grades of schooling underway (6th and 7th grade for Cora, 8th and 9th grade for Calder). I’m working on details like Crew Lists and May Day templates in English, Spanish, and French. I’ve downloaded music to enjoy underway (we love listening to music). I’m also ensuring we are all up to date on our medical care and shots, as well as continuing to build a fairly impressive medical kit for ourselves and others we meet along the way who may need some assistance. I’m still working full time as a family doctor for the next 3 months and saying difficult “see you laters” to patients I have cared for over the past 13 years.
Calder is learning to fly our drone, which we hope to use for awesome pics, as well as real-time navigation in places such as narrow coral-lined entrances in the Tuamotus. He’s also double-checking his list of fishing lures. Cora is ensuring her Kindle has enough books to last her and wondering which of her stuffed animals to bring along.
Chris has spent much of May helping get High Endeavours ready to set sail with the new owners as well as working on house projects. He went to San Diego for a workweek on Terikah in April, tackling electrical gremlins, updating navigation and radar systems, installing new canvas sunshades, re-routing the rain catchment plumbing, wiring in new wiper controls, installing a new primary anchor, drilling new access hatches in the roof, mounting dinghy launch wheels, and other odds and ends. See following photos for details and his comments on a few of the latest projects:
“DON’T TOUCH, DON’T OPEN” Yeah, well, we did. And we did. Our friend Brad, who, among many other things, is a very accomplished Electrical Engineer, devoted the better part of three days to chase down what turned out to be multiple issues in our electrical system. If I understood half of what “we” did, it would fill several pages describing it all. In short, problems were fixed that we didn’t know we had, and our leaking ground current issue (the problem we started out to fix) is now resolved. We can sleep safely, knowing these gremlins have been removed. So many thanks to Brad for his time, patience, and expertise. The inner workings of our Victron Inverter/ Charger. While chasing the electrical issues, we wound up in here. Turns out there were a couple dip switches that were in the wrong position, which was a partial contributor to our issue. Yeah, they are called dip switches… This was easy to correct, but oh so difficult to diagnose. All the ceiling panels in the boat are easily removed for access. Very handy. Long story short: Our upper roof is set up to collect rain water, or direct it overboard through a drain line (one on each side) and a couple valves. Its never drained correctly, and I discovered the high loop directly after the roof drain (next photo) that was keeping water from flowing. Turns out water doesn’t run uphill very well. Access is non existent, so I wound up having to drill out and put in a couple 5 inch access plates to rework these lines and replace the entire hose on one side. Pulling the new hose proved to be a huge challenge due to tight spaces, lots of resistance and it just about beat me. This success photo was using my last idea before I went to plan B and used a smaller hose. Drain from the roof gutter in the background where it enters the upper roof cavity. Hose heads up before diving down the struts of the windshield to diverter valves in the aft staterooms, directing water to our water tanks or overboard. New hole that I put in the roof prior to sealing the raw edges and installing the hatches. My fix to remove the uphill loop on the drain hose. New sun shade for the transom. We are also having a couple similar ones made for each side. I needed to get the dinghy on the dock to install launch wheels. The outboard weighs about 120 pounds by itself, so removing it seemed like the only option to make it possible by myself. This idea of Calders worked really slick, but certainly looked a little sketchy. First of two Beachmaster wheels installed. Affectionately known as our BM’s these launch wheels are great! This is the third dinghy we’ve put them on, and I highly recommend them.Boat cockpit in full on project mode. The interior looks similar.
SV Terikah Adventures 
8 responses to “Preparations & Transitions”
Fine line between sketchy and genius. Great work Calder!
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Thank you for the update. I love your common sense Alaskan approach to problems. God bless you guys. Butch and Alice
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Sounds like you are addressing all of the important issues. Lots of work but all is necessary. Looking forward to your adventure.
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You folks are obviously doing a good job with improvements to an already great vessel. Thanks for sharing.
Harvey
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div dir=”ltr”>Hello to the Terikah Team!!!
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div>This sounds like a wonderful adventure and the preparati
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Good luck with the drone and boat!
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Happy sailing and may the Lord be with you every step of the way! I will be following your adventures closely, have a magnificent journey!
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I will be enjoying your voyage!
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