We’ve had several friends ask us a variation on this
question and I usually respond something to the effect: “I’m not really sure but we’re extremely busy
doing whatever we’re doing!” So putting
some thought in to it, I realized that it’s a question worth thinking about and
might be informative for others who may go through this, or a similar
commissioning process, themselves.
We were very fortunate to be in a position to move to Stuart
and be here for the full commissioning. As we progress through it, I couldn’t imagine not being here.
While PAE is commissioning Blossom (a separate blog post that
Martin will address!) we have our own commissioning tasks to do. There’s a lot
of work that can be done now, even if some of the actual installation takes
place post PAE commissioning. So far, most
of our time has been spent finding, contacting and vetting various vendors.
Then we set up a meeting, explain what we need and get an estimate for the job.
In most cases we go ahead and work with them. A few times, we’ve continued to
look and repeated the process until we found a vendor we’re comfortable
with. I was surprised how much is involved
with some of these decisions, requiring several visits and much deliberation.
(Not at all helped by the fact that I tend to over-think most everything…) The
work that we’re contracting out to be done includes:
·
Electronics installation (we chose to have this
done state-side)
·
Maretron system installation (monitoring system)
·
Window treatments (shades & curtains)
·
Window coating (UV protection)
·
Canvas work (outside window shades, table and kayak
covers)
·
Carpentry (systems to secure dishes &
glasses, changing hinges, adding hanging bars)
·
Steel work (to mount kayaks and flopper stopper
fish to the boat deck)
·
Scuba set-up and installation
·
Custom beds
·
Steps for getting on and off the boat
The other major activity is shopping! Equipping Blossom is the same as furnishing a
new home from scratch. Luckily we have
a storage unit to house it all! A short
list of what we’ve been researching and buying includes:
·
Kitchenware (dishes, glasses, pots & pans)
·
Kitchen appliances
·
Bedding
·
Office supplies
·
Lamps
·
Tender
·
Fenders and lines
·
Life raft
·
Ditch bag and contents
·
Tools
·
Boat cleaning and maintenance supplies
·
Kayaks
·
SUPs
·
Bikes
·
Various containers to organize the refrigerator,
drawers, closets and lockers
And lastly, there are some miscellaneous tasks that need to
be done like filling out the warranty cards from all the equipment on the boat,
verifying the “as built” boat against our order, organizing boat manuals, making
a snubber, making a cover for our electric grill, figuring out how to mount our
bikes to the boat deck, etc. We’ll be
going on another shopping spree next week after we meet again with Bernie
Francis, our training captain and consultant, who is helping us to equip and
outfit the boat.
So that’s a summary of the “work” that we’ve been up to. We’ve also been hard at play. We’ve attended the
Miami boat show, Trawler Fest (aboard our friends boat!), and the Palm Beach
boat show. We’ve been having a wonderful time with our friends Sean &
Louise who are here with us until mid-April and with whom we’ll be cruising once
we’ve finished in Stuart. Together, we’ve
been exploring the area and cooking for each other, building up our go-to
recipes for our upcoming cruising days together. We’ve had a great time meeting
some other Nordhavn owners who have come by the Nordhavn dock including the
folks from Silver Spray, Summer Star and SimBil. We’ve been visiting with
friends who live down in Delray and my Dad and step-Mom who are snow birding in
Cocoa Beach. We’ve had several visitors including Martin’s Mom and her partner,
Michael, my Aunt and Uncle from up north and family friends from England. And the list goes on!
So our day to day lives have been very full and we’ve been
surprised at how relatively little down time we have. When we do have free time, we have lots of options for filling it - the weather has been gorgeous for walking and biking, there's a weekend farmers market in town with live music, and there's much more to explore in the area. And of course, we always have the blog
we should be keeping up to date J
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