Wild Horses is Ready for Launch!

After almost a month of preparations, research, running around sourcing parts, installing, uninstalling, scrubbing, shining, waxing and painting, Wild Horses is ready to launch. And, I dare say, she is looking pretty amazing! We took a few weeks longer than planned but here we are. Happy and ready for launch.

So, what have we accomplished in the last month? Like most boat commissioning endeavours, it has been two steps forward and one step back. The important thing is that we have been able to cross critical projects off our “to do” list.

• Our new hot water heater has been installed
• We had our vintage 2002 navigation system, autopilot and transducers replaced. No more autopilot shutting down unexpectantly in the middle of a passage!
• Our outboard has been fully serviced to correct some intermittent hiccups
• Our Honda 2200 generator, which we haven’t used in almost a year and a half, has been serviced and is ready to use. We were thrilled that it purred like a kitten!
• The freezer on Wild Horses had been frosting up fast. The cure was a new gasket and a repair of a loose freezer top.
• Picked up our new indoor cushions which had been worn from age (they are original) and full time liveaboard use. They look fabulous and really jazz up the place!
• After removing one of our six docking cleats to give them a good inspection, we could see that the spacers beneath the cleats had significantly deteriorated. We have now designed our replacement spacers, involving 316 stainless steel base plates and backing plates. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of sourcing the metal and having them sized, pre-drilled for the cleats and then polished to a mirror shine. Installation will happen soon!
• Of course, we also spent a bunch of time with regular commissioning tasks: cleaning and waxing, new bottom paint, cleaning the dinghy (and replacing our worn registration numbers), shining all the stainless on the decks and polishing all the wood inside the boat.

​We have also tackled a couple of unplanned projects:

• Our bilge pump broke down and had to be replaced
• One of our freshwater hoses sprung a leak and had to be re-plumbed

Yikes! That is one broken gasket.

New and improved!

Oh my! Oh my! Pretty new cushions.

Jonathan going up the mast to install our new wind monitor

The view from below

Pretty dinghy with pretty new registration numbers

Shopping for stainless steel

Raw (unfinished) 316 stainless steel

The polisher sizing up the steel

From raw to drilled to polished. Ready to install!!

Another major “semi-planned” (i.e. dream) project came to fruition thanks to our friends on Caretta, Barry and Andrea, who visited us all the way from Tennessee. These two amazing gems are the same Caretta who we travelled with for 9 months in 2023/2024, from Luperon, DR to Grenada and then back north again.  After returning to North America in 2024, they headed back home to Tennessee to spend time with family.
We hadn’t seen them in a year and a half but, lucky for us, they took a quick weekend trip all the way from Chattanooga, Tennessee to see us in Green Cove Springs, Florida. Amazing!
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The reunion was just what the doctor ordered. There was so much hugging, laughs, stories, smiling and solar. Wait…what? That’s right. Our fabulous electrician-slash-solar expert Barry installed a new solar array for us in just one day. One day!

Caretta was only visiting for a weekend so installing solar wasn’t in the plan. Our visit with Caretta was supposed to be just about visiting! In fact, we hadn’t even ordered our solar panels prior to their arrival. It was during dinner on one of their last nights with us that we chatted about the panels and Barry helped us narrow down which ones we should get. We ordered them at 7pm that night.

The next morning, the four of us arrived at Wild Horses, ready to do a couple of small boat tasks and then head to St. Augustine to play tourists. Shortly after our arrival at the boat we got a call from the Marina office. Our solar panels had arrived! An incredible 12 hours from placing the order to delivery at the marina office! Wow!
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That was all Barry needed. In just over one day, he had all four 400-watt panels installed and working. This upgrade takes the solar power input on Wild Horses from 1,050 watts to 1,600 watts. We are thrilled!!! 

Oh the gang! Fun times!

Solar panels delivered

Installing...

...and more installing...

...oh baby...and more installing!

And then the finished product!!!!

We launch tomorrow and then will head just a mile up the St. Johns River to Reynolds Marina where we have secured a slip for a few weeks. Our plan is to finish up a few projects and attach the sails. We will also get all of our provisions and spares for the next four months. That will get us through the very expensive Bahamas and into the much more affordable Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
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Grenada – here we come!

All cleaned. All polished. All ready to launch!

Whew! It has been an exhausting month!

Dreams of our future dance in our heads!!