We had a nice Christmas visiting family in South Carolina. As part of the celebration, we received a thoughtfully hand-painted wall hanging from Lisa's sister. It perfectly conveys our reality - SCOUT is now our "home sweet home".
We have come to the realization that we will likely be here (or nearby) until we finally leave for the Great Loop in April/May. The repairs, modifications, and upgrades that we have undertaken are taking too long to consider getting anywhere south for the winter. Every time we start something, there's so much setup, tool changes, and tear-down involved in such a small space that we often have a "as long as we're doing this, we might as well......" moment. About half of them are safety/security items and half are for long term live-aboard comfort. If we get lucky and get finished up sooner, we will cruise locally to SC or GA as a "shakedown" before heading north.
We are rationalizing this so that we won't have any major things to do while underway on the Loop. Having a car here, local hardware store and lumber yard, easy Amazon delivery, etc. are just too convenient here not to go ahead and finish the projects with all haste.
The list *IS* getting much shorter, however! The guest stateroom remodel and heating/air duct work repair is now complete:
The helm station seat and chart cabinet is complete:
We are currently working in the forward stateroom, reinforcing the forward bulkhead, painting and patching, etc. Lisa is doing "cabinet-top yoga" as part of this project:
And so, as long as the water temperature stays above 50 degrees, our reverse-cycle heater will keep us warm. Hoping the historical averages for water temp are on target!