In Maine, there is no choice but to put the boat away for the winter. We pushed it as long as we could, and it worked out well as we had great fall weather, but in late October it was time to say goodbye to our girl until the fall. We shopped around all the marinas in the Portland area, and it was difficult to really compare prices as they all priced a little differently. In the end, the cost was close on anywhere we wanted to haul her so we decided to opt for convenience so she is now hauled at the closest marina to us, which will help come spring with all the work we need to do. It is hard to say good bye for the winter, but we gained some great experience this past summer so it was worth the extra time and winterization to learn the boat, and then have a few months to digest it and figure out our needs versus our wants.
The to-do list is long (and growing), but so far all of our “need” projects are either safety related, or will improve our quality of life while on board. For the safety issues, we will install radar and a second chart plotter that has bottom mapping functionality. The radar is great in the Maine fog, but while cruising is important for tracking vessel traffic, and vital to tracking squalls so we can do our best to avoid them. Our next “must” have is an Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponder. This will integrate with our (and other boats around) plotters so we can see local traffic. It allows us to see vessels (that have AIS) so we can communicate, but most importantly, it will allow large commercial traffic to see us, when sometimes our radar signature is lost to sea clutter (big waves). One other important piece of safety gear on our “must” have list is some sort of satellite communicator. We aren’t sure if we will buy a Garmin Inreach or an Iridium Go, but either are capable of some sort of world-wide communication for both checking in and emergencies.
On the quality of life side of upgrades, we are going to add a water maker. Many boats cruise without them, but given our desire to get off the beaten path, we want to be as self-sustainable as possible. We also want to add some cushions to the cockpit and Steph has to decided to learn to sew, so we are going to attack those projects ourselves.
For now, we are studying and learning as much about what we need to do this spring as we can. We are entering ski season and are excited to spend our last season on the mountain. As much as a fresh foot of snow still excites us, I know we all are looking forward to putting the boat back in the water so we can start to move aboard and prepare for our adventure.