Well it has been a rather strange month again. We made it down to Akupara last weekend but did not get a lot accomplished other than to check on her and try to get our heads back in the game. We are so close to finishing all of the major interior wood that the last few pieces are getting to the point of being painful. Once they are completed we will need to make a decision as to what to attack next. We have many options of course but I think for the time being we will continue to complete the interior. We still have to sand the cabin ceiling to get rid of all of the old house paint, and there is still all of the electrical and plumbing. Of course we have not attacked the galley yet, but I think that will be the final interior job. Something about having construction dust in a new galley is just not appealing.
The Vancouver boat show is coming up in January and I would like to have the interior renovation complete so that we can move on to other things like what I mentioned above. Sometimes there can be some good deals at the boat show and other times it just seems to be the same old thing.
A few items from our shopping list are: new seacocks, 12v and 120v wire, electrical panel, 2 heads and associated plumbing, and perhaps a diesel heater. On Kismet, we installed a Planar Air Heater. They work on exactly the same principle as the other big name air heaters but cost 1/3 the cost. We absolutely loved it! We could go down to Kismet in the winter time after she had been left all week and in under an hour, the interior temperature would be close to 80. We have never had forced air heat aboard a boat before and let me tell you, once you have had it, you use it more than you can possibly imagine even in the summer. Typically I am the first one to wake in the mornings and I would get up, make my coffee and sit out in the cockpit to enjoy the sunrise. The admiral is the next up but if I timed it right. I would turn on the furnace about 15 minutes before she got out of bed and she loved it. Just enough to knock the damp early morning chill out of the boat. It extended our season and our comfort aboard in the off months was greatly increased. For 1/3 the cost of the big names I thought I would take a chance and I am very glad I did. I have heard of less issues with these units than the big names. Friends of ours also installed one, after fighting for years with an older big name brand and they love theirs as well. Even if you only got a year out of it and had to buy one 3 years in a row, you would still be farther ahead than the big names which from what I have heard, start acting up in under 3 years.
And the final icing on the cake. Here in Vancouver, the distributor actually delivers the entire unit and any extra parts that you may have purchased right to your front door!
If you have ever thought about having one, for about $1000 plus your installation time (I installed mine in 1 day), you can have the luxury of turning on the furnace as well. 🙂
check them out if you are in the Vancouver area. http://www.planarheaters.com/