Normally we keep Enfin with all systems in cruise ready condition. After all the time we spent taking care of me and putting cancer in remission, we needed to check all systems in preparation for our upcoming cruise.
As we went through the list it was great to see everything responding normally. All pilothouse instruments started fine. All engines already tested well. The tender started on first press of the electric start, etc.
So that leaves us with only the water heater needing replacement. Done today thanks to our local marine shop who kindly pushed us to the front of their service line in consideration of us being live-aboard and knowing that public showers are not a good choice for me.
So as far as we know we only have the water maker to sort out, but since we are going on a river cruise where the water maker shouldn't be used we will wait a while before we restart it with new membranes. Nothing difficult, as water makers are stopped and restarted regularly, just something that will be more logically done before a salt water cruise.
And last, the head fan isn't working. I have a spare electric motor for it, since Enfin has 3 similar fans around the boat and I'd decided to stock up on spares. So on a slow day during the cruise, I'll just swap the motor and all should be well.
So -Famous Last Words?- we believe that Enfin is ready for a long cruise. In any case we are assuming we'll have access to many towns and a number of smaller marinas along the trip so we're not as focused on complete independence as we've been on previous cruise preparations.
Ready or not we've decided to leave for a Columbia River cruise on the 01st September. We will go as far up as we can. Hopefully up to Idaho, but if we must turn back sooner, so be it.
We bought the chart portfolio for the river, have updated the electronic charts, read plenty of info and watch the YouTube videos. It's amazing the amount of info out there.
All tests good: Ready to go!
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