It has been a few months, about five actually, since First Light settled into her new home in Alton, IL. For the first couple of those months we were just getting settled back into land living again. We would check on the boat now and again and even got a couple of projects done before winter hit hard.
The first of those was replacing the starboard side cleat that was torn off of the boat while tied to a free wall waiting out a storm on the Great Lakes. That turned into a bit of a task as much of the shower stall had to be disassembled (you can read that as destroyed) in order to install a new one. When it was all said and done we managed to both replace the cleat and improve the shower at the same time. By then winter was at hand. A long day was spent winterizing the boat. Which is a bit of a job when there are two engines, a generator, head, and water systems involved. With that done and First Light tied into her slip with about ten different lines, she was ready for winter. We checked on her pretty regularly but working on the boat was not high on the list of things to do.
New shower wall behind which is the starboard midship cleat
Come the first hint of warmer weather, that changed. Deb took on the job of repairing some of the interior wood in the V-berth. Wood that had, truth to tell, been begging to be fixed since we first bought the boat. I took a deep breath and then started the repair on the aft deck cover. The one that also supports our solar panel array. I had already repaired it once, replacing the rotted plywood with new bits that I had coated with fiberglass, glued in place, and painted. But it turned out that wasn't sufficient and the new panels started to rot and peel away before we got out of Canada. Which chafed at the mechanic in me. I had clearly missed something.
It took a few days to pull down and sand off all off the rotted stuff. As I did, I noticed that virtually all of the worst of it was where the solar panels were mounted. The roof was an add-on. Which was pretty well done. Solid structure carrying the load to the hull. The Solar panels were another add on, and not so well done. They had been simply been mounted on top of the 1/4 in ply with no thought of transferring that load to the more robust structure. Ply that was not up to the task of supporting that kind of weight while pounding through the Great Lakes. It is a bit difficult to describe, but we added 2x4 and 2x6 supports to carry the weight of the solar panels directly to the main structure that supports the roof itself, bypassing the thin plywood. Several cans of short haired fiberglass filler were then applied, sanded, spot puttied as required, sanded again, filled, and painted. All of it work done over head, a bit of a challenge for this well-used bod of mine. But it got done, is much more robust than it was, and looks pretty good. Part of the work was aided by two grandsons and a granddaughter who helped with the easier sanding and painting. Which made the whole exercise a lot more fun.
Reinforcing beams added for solar panel mounts
While that project was underway, Deb did some more interior repairs and handled some plumbing issues that popped up over the winter. She also changed oil and filters for both engines and the generator. We were delighted when all three fired up with zero hesitation, and no leaks.
A couple of weeks later, the rest of the family was on vacation down south. Deb and I took advantage of them being gone to fire up First Light and take her out for a shakedown cruise. There is too much of the pilot/mechanic in me to have a boat full of grandkids along for the first foray out on the Mississippi River after a long hiatus and several projects. Everything worked just as it should and we declared First Light as a going proposition once again.
A few days later, First Light left the dock with five of the six grandkids we live with along for the ride. Three of them got a chance to drive the boat. One is too young and the oldest wasn't interested. We ambled up the river a while, pulled a U-turn and headed back to the dock, tying up after just shy of two hours on the river.
Once tied-to, the two grandsons helped us splash the Dink and lower its outboard into the water for the first time in many months. Given that it had proved to be a major hassle during our previous months on First Light, neither Deb nor I had any faith that it was going to start. Much to our surprise, that Yamaha 9.9 took just a little coaxing to get it putting along. The grandsons and I took it out for a short spin, each of them getting a chance at the tiller.
And later we fired up the air conditioner and enjoyed having one on the boat.
So our first summer of being local river boaters is officially underway. There are still projects to do. But being back on the water felt really good. We are going to enjoy it for as long as we can.
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