We've spent a lot of time aboard our boats over the years but I must say, the entire family seems to agree the last 5 days we had aboard were the best ever. We had SUCH a great winter break together! The last few days we mostly spent relaxing. Even our dog, Daisy, got in on the relaxing via her naps in the salon:
Daisy honestly never enjoyed our trawler. She would sit and cower in the aft stateroom and just did not look super happy the entire time we were aboard. Not on our new boat though! She seems very much at home, relaxed, and happy. I think she likes all the extra space. Due to the winds blowing the last half this week pretty much non-stop at 20-30 mph though we had not done much boating! Saturday we were planning on going home but everyone was having fun hanging out on the boat relaxing so we never got around to actually going home. :) We had some friends from a couple of docks over come say hi and tour our "new" boat. We hadn't seen some of them pretty much all winter so it was fun to talk boats and catch up with them. My broker Steve had told us he and his family may go to a well known restaurant in the area for dinner. Our friends Terry, his family, and Tommy and his son told us during their visit they were going there too in their boats. So before we knew it we were underway to Steve's Landing restaurant which is a 10 mile cruise up the river. This was the first time underway on the 4550 for my wife and our daughter (and Daisy!) so it was a lot of fun. Their Ribs have been reported to be incredible and I must concur- they were great!! Terry and his wife own a newer sistership to our boat...the 4788. Here they are as they are pulling into the docks at Steve's Landing:
We had a great dinner and despite it still being winter, the place was packed! Our cruise home was a nighttime affair. Yet again we find how much the pilothouse simply is wonderful! We had a great time with Tarne and I and the kids as we following our radar and GPS (and Terry's boat as lead!). We had fun with the kids laughing and telling stories the entire way back to our marina. A picture of our pilothouse as we cruised home in the dark:
We also took this week to work on some projects. One of those was getting the dinghy davit winch motor working so we could raise/lower the dinghy. I took apart the motor and this is what I found...one new solenoid and one very old/rusted solenoid:
I called the company that made the winch motor and ordered a new solenoid on the hopes that is all it was. They overnighted it to us and I installed it (learning on the process that the winch motor is hard wired it seems b/c the switch on the panel sure doesn't kill the power to it!!). This may be the first boating project that was completed in about 30 minutes and for only $28. :) So...this morning I could not resist anchoring out so that we could test out the dinghy. This would let us test the windlass for the anchor AND test the dinghy which makes it a win-win event. We cruised over to one of our nearest anchorages and dropped both a hook AND the dinghy. Good news is that the dinghy davit and winch worked great, the dinghy is awesome, and we had a blast. The dinghy that came with the boat is a 2003 11' RIB and a 2003 Mercury 15hp 4 stroke outboard. Compared to our little 9' RIB with the old 6hp outboard it had, the new dinghy FLIES! Wow is it fast! The kids and I had a great time zipping around the cove buzzing by the "mothership" and having fun.
A few pictures of our boat from the dinghy:
Sarah on one of our dinghy rides:
Heading back to the boat:
All in all....I can't wait for summer!!! We are glad every system works on the boat thus far. We even tested the washer/dryer this week and it works (dries a little slow as do all combo units on boats).
COME ON SUMMER!! :)
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