This weekend we passed an important milestone, we moved Kinship back to Confederation Basin in downtown Kingston.  It looks like we turned up way to early to the party but we are happy to be back.

Confederation Basin is 30 minutes less travel time from Ottawa and we don’t have to drive if we want to buy food or eat out, so life is a lot simpler.    Cutting the cord at Loyalist Cove was hard, having skilled people around has been a big help, we were made very welcome and we were able to get a lot done.  Before leaving we installed the radar and wind generator on the arch with help from Loyalist staff and we sent Kathleen up the mast to move the topping lift to the right side of spreaders before putting the boom back into place.

Kathleen up the mast.

Here I am wiring up the radar, sitting on the arch made this quite easy as everything was to hand.

After we took the ladder off the boat the last thing to was to remove the tether from the wind generator and test the systems.  Everything on the arch is working well. we have to add the solar panels and the 2 sat phone systems and rig the dinghy lift but we are getting closer.  Dave from Quinte Canvas has started work on the new bimini and enclosure, the frames are in place and he has made his patterns.  Now it is a race between Dave finishing up and the mass invasion of Kingston may flies.

Kinship is cleaned up and looking great at least on the outside.  On the inside we are still in the process of replacing the water tanks, the first one has been built, but more on that next time.

 

 

 

We had a very busy weekend.  Kinship has been launched and the mast is up.  Dave and the boys and girls at Loyalist Cove Marina lifted the mast on Monday afternoon capping a weekend of real progress.  For the first time this year we were able to stay on the boat, our cabin is usable even if the rest  of the boat is still a mess while we wait for the first water tank.  Though inside work took a back seat, we made lots of progress on the arch and exterior projects.

On the arch, we have four working antennas for primary and backup GPS systems and the two antennas for the AIS.  Together with running the wiring for the stern light I think we have reached about the 50% point in the assembly of the arch.   The wiring for all these systems goes to the port side and involves crawling a long way into the sail locker to get access.  It was very satisfying to turn on the plotter and see our position mapped and the AIS data from the ferries on the screen.  There were times I did not think I would be able to get everything back together, I am feeling a lot more confident now. We have the radar and wind generator to add next week and we need to sort out the mounting for the solar panels.  The wiring for these systems is easier to get to so I will not have to spend hours contorted in the far corner of the boat

At the this point, my plan is to mount the panels on 1/4 inch starboard and use some easily removable clamps to mount the panels to the frame.  This will allow us to remove them if we need to reduce windage for weather or storage.

On the stern, we have mounted the fantastically expensive removable bracket system for the fantastically expensive Watt and Sea hydro generator.  For the record, the expensive parts did not include the stainless part, which was quite reasonable. Now we can have the dinghy on the arch without the risk of hitting the Watt and Sea.  A new folding ladder completes the cruising set up.