It began with a broken mast – thanks hurricane Charlie.

It became new rigging, new chainplates, new thru-hulls, new seacocks, new head, new hoses, new faucets, new gas tank, new diverter valve, new upholstery, new canvas, new cockpit cushions and, oh yes, the new engine.

Wow, that was work. For everyone who was shoveling out their driveways picturing us doing nothing but drinking rum and watching the sunset, all I can say is this, find the smallest cupboard in your house (maybe under the bathroom sink), pour in some diesel and add some sand. Now crawl in there with a couple of the smallest nuts and bolts you can find. Reach behind your head and try to put the nuts and bolts together. Stay there for a couple of days. Welcome to the wonderful world of boat refits.

One day we woke up to the chirping of birds and crawled out of the v-berth ready for another day of work. We looked around at our spiffy new upholstery and realized, hey, we can see our spiffy new upholstery! All the crap that had been piled all over the place while we worked on the boat was safely stowed in its proper place. We were done! Ready to launch and be a sailboat again! OH BOY – BAHAMA BOUND!!!!

Thank God It Floats!!! Launch is never one of my favourite times, boats just weren’t meant to swing through the air. This time there’s that little detail of, oh my God, we drilled holes in the hull. Argh. Everything is perfect, we float, the boat rocks. She’s very happy. We’re happy. We look at our spiffy new engine. He hits the start button and hallelujah, it starts! The Pirate Guy is one brilliant guy in my books.

So how fast are we with our new 18 hp engine? Oh my, we are SO fast! Well it’s not quite time to buy a wakeboard but we’re actually getting places before dark! No we haven’t succumbed to the “oh we never use the sails” phenomena, but a couple of times when the wind is 5 knots we’ve done the motorsailing thing and it’s been great! We no longer have to worry about going backwards against wind and tide.