Lion's Paw spent the summer and fall in Annapolis, Maryland, undergoing commissioning and some significant refit work. Living aboard "on the hard" is a lot like living in a tree house. And everything you need for whatever you're doing is at the other end of the ladder.
Ammenities are few, with no running water or "indoor plumbing" - the heads are a quarter mile walk at the far end of the boatyard. We had one electrical cord, run from the nearest lightpost (where the light would dim every time the power drill was turned on).
Major work included removing the old, leaking aluminum water tanks. (The guys who removed them "left the lights on" - for a month - and thus the batteries were stone dead when we arrived - requiring a major epic to get them resurrected back to life.) The engine is relatively new, but the heat exchanger tube stack was hopelessly clogged with dead marine life, and required removal of the heat exchanger, which required removal of the exhaust manifold, which required drilling an access hole through the galley bulkhead, which required moving the fresh water sink feed hoses ....you get the picture. And so it went for a 6-page list of projects, from installing a head holding tank system, to electrical wiring, to replacing through-hull valves and replumbing all the below-waterline hoses, rolling on jazzy red bottom paint, etc., etc. I think there are now only about 4 pages left on the list.
We were launched in late October - it felt good to be floating at last. Although it brought to light all the leaky connections in the new hoses.
We tried to head south at the 11th hour before heading out to an offshore trip with another boat. Unfortunately,persistent northwest winds blew enough water out of the bay to leave us hard aground in the slip. Thus Lion's Paw spent an extra month "resting" in Annapolis, enough time for the winter weather to set in.
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