Launched and Loaded

Cupcake was launched last week. Right now she is floating at the dock at Brewer's South Freeport Marine waiting to have her mast stepped.

We spent the weekend loading the boat and chipping away at projects. Got the head fully installed, including the exhaust fan. The tricky bit about that exhaust fan is that the little fan (a computer fan, I think) is designed to sit in a manifold right under the dorade. My concern was that any spray or moisture would quickly kill the fan. So I figured out a way to mount the fan well inboard of the thru-hull exhaust port I put into the transom.

I've run a vent line from the transom thru-hull to a bulkhead in the aft-lazarette, and the fan manifold attaches there. Since the hose from thru-hull goes up before it goes down to the fan housing, the theory is that any water will run out and not in. We will see how that works out. In the meantime, I am ordering a replacement fan, just in case.

At this point in the preparations, it is standard practice for cruisers to show a shot of the crowded interior and say something like "I don't know where we are going to put all this stuff." We are actually pretty sure we know where everything will go, and we are pretty sure it will all fit. The last time we went on a multi-month voyage, we had one additional person, lots of unnecessary equipment (eg. four anchors, two of which had no rode or place to be stored other than a hanging locker), and no idea about all the hidden spaces aboard. I've opened up previously inaccessible space aft of the aft cabin, we don't have a holding tank, and we will be storing non-perishables in the bilge.

Nevertheless, here is one obligatory crowded-boat pictures as well as a shot of an un-crowded cabin and a shot of truckload #1 of 4 (and the Angus sticker Simon slapped on the bumper).

Also you can see the new cushions in place. Ellen noticed that only some of the cushions hav the new foam we requested (and paid for). She thinks when the inmates did the work, they used new foam when a supervisor was watching but used old foam when nobody was watching. Ellen now has a dim opinion of convict labor. She is also going to call the prison and demand a discount.