After multiple begged rides, a bus trip, and a ferry ride, I’m back aboard Turtle. She’s spent the last month up here in the capable hands of Dave Rasmussen, who’s been diligently going through my list. I’ll be heading back toward home at first light (7:30-ish) with a planned overnight in La Conner. Conditions seem good.

A brief summary of the work completed:

  • Bunk is complete. Dave did an amazing job getting a 24” bunk to convert to a 36”. Plenty of space on the top bunk and a bigger cave for our solitary reader.
  • New dash looks great. I didn’t realize just how bad the old one was.
  • Gelcoat is repaired – seems like this may be a warranty repair, since both chips were on corners where the fiberglass wasn’t flush against the gelcoat (there were voids). Still needs a third coat, but it’s been rainy.
  • The 24v charger seems… ok. This deserves a longer post, but we sent it back to Pro Mariner and they said “everything’s fine” and sent it back to us. They did recommend putting it in “Power Supply” mode instead of “Battery Charger” mode – which is a little weird. There’ve been no ELCI trips and no measurable AC leakage. Crossing fingers.
  • The engine “smoke” seems to be steam from cold air and cold seas. I may have just started noticing it on the way up because it got colder. We did a sea trial and Dave said everything is nominal.
  • The weird noise at 2250 RPM is also something Dave has seen before. It’s how the engine is programmed. Nominal.
  • We added a foot rest in the pilot house, makes the starboard side of the bench sittable.
  • Replaced one of the blackwater sensors that had started detaching from the tank – mild corrosion as well. Seems to be reading right, now.
  • Flipped the port tank site gauge upside down, since the bottom acrylic was cracked causing the drip leak I’ve observed. Need to get a new one, but that’s an easy swap that I can do.
  • Installed the shaft brush.
  • Wash and Wax.
We ordered a foam mattress and cut it into a 24” block and two 12” blocks that can be removed to shrink the bunk.

So good to be aboard again! After a quick turn-around in our home marina, we’ll set out for Hood Canal and our annual Alderbrook Christmas getaway.

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