It's been a long time since I've posted, but we really have been busy working to get ready to cruise. We've been fortunate to work with some wonderful vendors who have made life so much easier by providing their expertise and skill in a timely fashion to help us get underway. A bonus is that they have all been professional and a pleasure to work with. To give credit where credit is due, because good customer service seems hard to come by nowadays;

Neil Thurston at Thurston Canvas has built a beautiful dodger and bimini for us and designed the cover to incorporate the flexible solar panels that should replace the energy consumption from the batteries. We have a full enclosure for cold, rainy days and screen inserts for the warm days that we are in buggy country.
http://www.thurstonsails.com/canvas_index.html

NorEast Marine split the inefficient, energy sucking, small fridge/big freezer set-up that came with the boat. Long story short, they realized that for either appliance to work efficiently we needed to give each their own compressor and thermostat. The benefit for me, when provisioning,  is that I can use either unit as fridge or freezer depending on the ability to replenish supplies. Big fridge on the East Coast then big freezer in the Bahamas.
http://noreastmarinesystems.com


Headsync LLC.  did the diesel dialysis on the fuel tank. They also installed water filters and fixed plumbing issues in the head.
http://www.headsync.com/Headsync/Home.html

Garhauer is building our dinghy davits, they promise delivery in two weeks (we just ordered them) which is pretty good for custom metal work. We have worked with Garhauer before on LUNEA and it's always a pleasure to call them and have the owner or his son answer your questions :)
http://garhauermarine.com

Dan from Conanicut Marine replaced the alternator on the engine with a more efficient one to recharge batteries while underway.
http://www.conanicutmarina.com

S&S Fabrics is making cockpit cushions for Sirene. They must be incredibly busy because we ordered them in March and they are still telling us it will be a few weeks. Very frustating, but I have to put up with it because I already gave them a deposit.  :(   They've admitted that if when a big job comes in they put mine aside! Money talks. Although they do beautiful work and the personnel are pleasant, if I was to do it again (unless I had tens of thousands of B.O.A.T units to spend) I would hire another vendor.
nolinkforSnSfabrics.com

We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have learned more valuable lessons along the way, so it's all good.

The boat is shaping up...today the fuel tanks had diesel dialysis. Clean fuel is a good thing. The rig has been inspected and tuned and new windex installed. The inline water filter to the galley sink is installed. (lets us safely drink from the storage tanks if we need to), the engine will be serviced and new alternator in place on Friday. The macerator and new waste hoses will be installed next week. The solar panels will be in place on the bimini and wired to the batteries. We are awaiting dinghy davits and radar pole and then the big items will ticked off the list.
The organization of these projects has fallen to Bob, while I have been organizing the house for hibernation. Furnace maintenance, car maintenance (to sit idle for weeks at a time) and chimney inspection and cleaning. The chimney inspection/colonoscopy was disturbing. Chunks of mortar missing. Can we get the repair work done before the end of August so winter visitors can use the fireplace? Stay tuned.
In the meantime I am organizing the boat galley (from home because I won't actually get the galley and living space chores started until all the workmen are gone and it's cleaned up) I tend to bring too much stuff, trying to cover all contingencies. Too many spices, to many clothes, too many books etc.
This year I am trying to be more realistic of what we may actually use because we have so much less storage than we did on Lunea. The weeks long shake-down cruise this summer should reveal how successful I was. If I didn't use it I'll remove it from the boat. Like my dear partner says "You know Lauren, they do have stores in Georgia and Florida." Sigh...

Welcome to our new Sirène blog. We are in the process of getting new systems installed and the boat put back together. Sometimes Often the two objectives clash, creating scheduling conflict, so our daily goal has become one of managing our expectations and frustrations of what we are able to accomplish, and what we were hoping to get done. Sigh...
Today's goal for me was to get the linens and blankets all washed (done) and get the Spot transmitter lined up with this blog to provide you, our dear readers, with our daily position on a map.