Saturday 18 March 2017

We have a boat!.... Now what?

After the sea trials, I managed to secure a slip for a month at the municipal marina in Leamington, Ontario. The previous owner was kind enough to help me get the boat over to the marina where we topped off the fuel tanks and got her tied up in her slip. As we were taking on fuel, I noticed a major problem with the boat that the surveyor missed. The boat was missing both an anchor and steaming light. I wasn't sure how I missed those and more so how the surveyor missed those. I brought this to the attention of the owner who could not believe he missed that as well although he very rarely used the boat at night. He offered to install the lights and I took him up on it. After we got her back to the slip, the owner showed me how to connect shore power and water and also walked me through some of the systems.
Tropical Horizons at Leamington Marina
When we turned the water on, there was no pressure at all, the owner offered to fix that as well. He gave me some old stained fenders and a few extra dock lines that he had as well and I returned him to his truck that was parked at the Kingsville marina about 15 minutes away. On my way back to the boat, I stopped by a hardware store and assembled a small tool kit that I still keep adding to. I returned to the boat with a bit of food for supper, the tool kit, a sleeping bag and my duffel bag and spent the first night on the boat just poking around and figuring out where everything was.
In hindsight, I should have made the repairs myself, as the repairs that were made to the boat were less than ideal, you'll see why in the future posts. 

Tropical Horizons II Reveals Her Secrets!

From her inception in 1955 to her build and original launch in 1959 she has undergone many changes and repairs.  With those changes and repa...