Back on the water,

We left home early Saturday morning to begin our adventure this year.  We arrived in Columbus Mississippi in the early afternoon making our first stop to visit our new old friends from Happy Destiny.  Kim and Jim welcomed us into their new version of Happy Destiny, the RV.

We had followed them throughout their loop adventure so it was wonderful to finally meet them.  After checking into a room we met back up at the Unity Convention for an amazing dinner and speaker.

Sunday morning started with breakfast at the convention with Kim and Jim again, great food, great conversation, and the best company.  But...we were anxious to get to the boat so we said our goodbyes and headed for Demopolis, Alabama.

We arrived at the boat and began the process of completing the pre-launch check list. After we unloaded the SUV, Erik got right to work taking out the old air conditioner to replace it with the new one and Renee got to work cleaning, unpacking, and making a grocery list.  Since the boat was up “on the hard”  we could not test the new AC unit after installing it (it requires the boat to be in the water.  This was unfortunate since it was 98 degrees and the boat was sitting on the middle of a lot
with no shade.  It was HOT 🥵.  We debated on going into town to get a hotel and have AC but.  
           
 we stuck it out!  We ventured over to the pool for a dip in the evening.  This was not exactly refreshing since the pool water temp was like bath water, but...better than nothing.  As it turned out
after the sun went down things cooled down some and with fans in the hatch and window it was very comfortable sleeping 😴.
Monday brought more of the same....lots of hot sun ☀️ and many more boat chores accomplished.  We finished up the AC ductwork, installed our new anchor rode, started on the install of a new VHF radio, and attempted to get the water system working by installing the pump that had a new pressure switch put on after it failed last year.  Unfortunately, the pump still did not operate properly 😐.nb
By about 6pm we were borderline suffering heat exhaustion again so we stopped working and ventured back over to the pool again to cool down.  After that some burgers on the grill and an early bedtime were in order.  Once again, the temps fell pretty nicely and the warmth became bearable.
We were up early again Tuesday 5/28 both of us eager for “Splash” day of the boat!  By about 830am the boat was in the slings of the travel lift and Aquaholic was on her way moving toward the water
💦.

There are always some nerves when the boat goes in wondering whether motors will start, wondering what plug was left out 😂.  Fortunately everything worked as it should and we tootled over to our slip at the marina where we went through our usual test of systems.   Most everything checked out well and most importantly the AC was fired up and blew ice cold air....ahhhhhh 🥶 

We made a trip into town to do some additional provisioning and also to return our rental car.  Returning to the boat Erik did some work catching up on emails and such and Renee spent a good 

part of the afternoon cramming in video lessons and completing an assignment for her masters class (one of three that she is taking this Summer).   We rounded out the evening with a trip back into town in the marina courtesy car (a real classic.....old Buick with every possible dashboard light lit up like a Christmas tree!) where we attended the Demopolis Group of AA.  It was a VERY small meeting with only 6 of us attending.  We met some friendly folks (as usual) though and had a blessed evening.   

We decided to delay our planned  departure for a day to allow for a few parts to come in (plug wires/distributors) and we also wanted the local marine mechanic to be able to install these and properly adjust the timing on the engines.   Matt, the mechanic showed up about 1pm on Wednesday 5/29 and spent a couple of hours working on the engines.  He also was gracious enough to find us an end for our VHF antenna chord that we needed.  The GPS enabled radio is now up and operable.   The generator chord adaptor that Renee had ordered and we thought would not come till Thursday arrove today as well 😎.   This was nice because had it not arrived we were planning for the marina 

staff to forward it to us down in Mobile....nice for that not to have to be the case.   Finally, Erik was able to figure out the adjust,ent to fix the fresh water  pump! Renee slammed out a bunch more classwork while Erik gave the old girl (boat, not Renee 🤣) a good bath.   We rounded out the day with a short 4 mile cruise downriver to ensure everything was running smoothly prior to our departure in the morning.   Everything seemed to check out fine.   We are ready!