We moved aboard, at last, three days ago, after a wonderful visit to Sarasota to see Grandma Helen and Grandpa Laci, followed by a visit to Orlando for Navy stuff and Universal Studios fun. It has been hot and sunny a lot of the last three weeks, except when it rained rather torrentially for a couple of days last week (which delayed our moving aboard, but that was just as well since we were still doing wood finishing in preparation for the final conversion of the bow half of our super-sized salon into the "owner's cabin" configuration.

Mischief Managed! Derek completed the cut-through and the trim on the cut-through, the stairs and the trimming of the stairs, and the bulkhead that sets our "owner's cabin" apart from the salon, while still allowing light through from the big bow windows into the salon.

When the woodwork was complete, Derek wrestled the Bed-in-a-box, nine inches of delightful memory foam with a goosedown pillowtop, so that the compressed roll of the bed was directly above the forward hatch. Ken even stopped by to help with this phase -- the box was 18.5 inches on each side of the square and the hatch is 19" on a side... you'd almost think these bed-boxing folk knew what they were doing!

Oh, dear, is that a comfortable mattress. Yummy. And not at all hot, because of the loft of the down.

Grant's cabin was also finished off, with trim installed (Derek and Heather working together) and the woodwork stained the lovely rich color of the previous interior brightwork.

We moved aboard, Saturday afternoon.

Finally, we are living aboard! Next, we've been tackling the finishing-up jobs (which will include Derek's six weeks' worth of Navy duties coming up this summer)... today, for example, we put a back on the big cabinet in the head, urethaned the shelf in the head, Derek installed two Bora high-output fans in Grant's cabin and over our own bunk, Derek installed a reading light for me (yay!!!) to match his, and we visited the library during the hottest part of the afternoon in order to replenish the reading bin and enjoy their superior air conditioning :-)

I'm moving a little slowly due to recovering from a small operation (a safety issue for the ocean, really - a little hernia that would be best resolved rather than risk it flaring up at sea), but it should be a lot better in a week or so. Until then, Derek and Grant keep watching out for me, to make sure I don't do too much and risk my stitches. It's good to be under their capable care!