What a Ketch!

          Mission accomplished! We are the proud new owners of Drumbeat! She is quite the sight, and as solid as can be.  I’m still in awe of her, and I’m sure that will keep up until we start working on her. We need to contact the USCG to transfer ownership, but that will have to wait until later this week, at least all the papers are in order and notarized. This was the longest short trip of my life, but it was quite fun if you remove the more than 24 hours of driving over three days. I’m now ready to go home and finish my school work so I can get back out to play (work) on the boat. To this as well, I’m not sure what my title is now, having five vessels under my command (counting the dingy), but commodore sounds pretty sweet!

          I found two quarter sized soft spots in the cabin roof; one above the electrical panels and one over the kitchen sink, but the exterior has been rebuilt and looked solid, so I may leave them for now. The rest of the wood was extremely solid. Some of the cabinet drawers stick, but wetted and with the masts in, that should solve those issues. The biggest issue is oil in the bilge, which in turn means the engine is in need of a decent amount of help as well (I assume). The smell is too much to bear for long, so for moving aboard this will be the first thing to take care of. The toilet too looks like it needs some help, but we intend to replace it with a composting head to eliminate extra through hulls and old crummy holding tanks. The plumbing will probably need looking into, just because it is so old, and I don’t know if the two 50 gallon holding tanks are dry or not, moldy, or what other issues may be present. The electrical system looked good, though I’d put in LED bulbs to reduce heat and energy use. The v-berth light was shot, but I hear it’s wiring not the bulb, but that can be dealt with.

          My excitement level has calmed down a bit by now, mostly because it’s now turned into a waiting game. It’s time to get back to saving and finishing my graduate degree. I am very excited to get Drumbeat in the water, to move aboard, and to learn her quirks. I added a slide show to the side bar and will see what I can do below on this post. Stay tuned for projects, skill discovery, and more as we get ready for moving to Drumbeat!