First of all let me say, we hope this is one of the last posts written for awhile that has the word project in the header. We've come to realize that the "projects" will never be completed and a new list is always being generated but hopefully, we are making our way through this big list and the work will be a little more maintenance style in the near future.

The photos in the gallery show the projects we have either completed or are still working on today. Replacement of the windlass, anchor, and chain, foot control switches on deck for up and down, radar, all instruments and lights on the mast, instruments in the cockpit and at the nav station, compass, chart plotters times two, water heater, ac aft, refrigeration and freezer, lights, fans, water maker, solar panels and controllers, varnishing, stainless steel repairs, cockpit enclosure, covers for the dinghy, hatches, windlass and the life raft, SSB radio and the AIS system. We are sure there are more but that's the projects we can recall in a few short minutes.

The latest projects were started when we hauled the boat out of the water.
We had North Star out of the water for ten days. We had no onboard toilet or refrigeration but we did have a portable ac hooked up and the weather was much better than last year. Last Thanksgiving you could surf from the work yard to the main building where the bathroom, shower and restaurant are located. This year has been much more pleasant with rain but mostly at night or off and on showers. We have had very few days that are dreary and rainy all day long. It is now December and the Christmas winds have arrived. We have had several nights of twenty-five knots and some light wave action inside the marina.

While we were out of the water we had the bottom sanded and repainted, cleaned and painted the prop and shaft, replaced the zincs, cleaned the bow thruster blade, changed a thru-hull and installed two keel cooler plates for refrigeration. Not bad for ten days work. We were ready to get back in the water and continue with the refrigeration installation. We are converting to a Frigoboat DC system and getting rid of our Grunert 110V AC holding plate system. The new installation will run on our twelve volt system powered by our new solar panels. No need to run the generator every day to keep things cold. This also means we can leave the boat for days at a time and the food will stay cold or frozen. We are really looking forward to both of these advantages.

First thing was taking all of the old holding plates out, copper tubing and pumps. Installing the new unit required bending the evaporator plates to fit the box, closing all the old holes in the box we didn't need and making new holes, running the copper tubes and setting up the motors and the cooler for when the boat is out of the water. Doesn't sound to complicated right. Well, we had to find a space to mount all of this hardware and that required the removal if the shelving under the galley sink. Installing parts and rebuilding the shelving and putting everything back.

We have everything running with the new fridge at forty and freezer at seventeen and will be able to have a cold drink tonight. Tomorrow, off to the grocery to restock.