The DODGER Has ARRIVED!

After many months of planning and many weeks of waiting our new aluminum dodger arrived today!
Thanks to our good friend, Mike D. we are the proud owners of an awesome looking new dodger that will keep the sun, rain and waves at bay as we begin our journey in just 250 days!

This was the last major project to be completed before we are ready to go.  Over the next few weeks we will complete the last few jobs to finish it in our heated garage.

We need to:
 - epoxy a few inside joints (to make it look good)
 - cut out the window openings
 - clean all the bare metal with solvent
 - prime & paint it
 - install the two 60 watt solar panels and wire them
 - install the solar controller
 - install a wire for a white and red led light that will live under the dodger
 - install a passive motion sensor (a part of the alarm system that will detect movement in the cockpit)
 - install two handholds on the sides of the dodger.

When that is all done we will store it until the spring when we will either take it to Rochester and install it before we sail back to Hamilton, or sail home with no dodger and install it before we leave on July 1st...

As we wait out the last few months we are VERY busy doing something with everything we own.  

Everything we own will either be:
 - sold on Kijiji, EBay, or Craigslist
 - sold in a giant garage sale we are planning for the early spring
 - be given to one of our children or friends
 - put in storage (We have decided on a MAXIMUM of 10 boxes of important keepsakes and papers).
 - or brought with us on the boat....

Above, is a picture of some of the "stuff" we have set aside for the garage sale...

That last option is the one we are most worried about!  As you can see in the picture above we already have a ton of stuff earmarked for the boat... Some of the stuff was already on the boat and was removed for winter storage...  We are being careful not to leave with the waterline just below the gunnels...

We have decided that with all the work we have done to make this boat our home, we need to do everything we can to protect it.  And while we are not naive enough to imagine that we can protect ourselves from all eventualities, we believe that there are ways to deter some of the theft that is out there...  Our research tells us the many of the crimes in the islands are petty and crimes mostly of opportunity.  That said, we have already installed a better than average lock on our hatch door, and installed bars in the main salon ceiling hatch...  To further our "deterrent crime prevention system" we have purchased a 12 volt "home" alarm system from a company called "Skylink".

This "Skylink" system includes magnetic switch sensors that will be installed on every hatch in two positions so that they can be left open slightly for air circulation when we are aboard.  2 motion sensors that will cover the main salon and the cockpit, and 2 wireless panic buttons that will set off 3 110 decibel alarms at the push of a button...  We think that when we are away, the noise created when the system goes off will be enough to attract the attention of a neighboring boat, and that when home, if we hear someone on our deck at night they can be sent packing either with the noise set off with our panic buttons or their movement picked up while they are still outside the boat by the infrared motion sensor located under our new dodger.

In addition to the new "Skylink System", we already have 2 cameras installed on our solar arch on the transom.  They can be set to start recording on a laptop by a motion sensor inside either of them and we can turn on the TV in our cabin at night an see who is out there in infrared mode...

Is all of this going to keep us from getting robbed? Who knows, but after years of living in the city, we know for sure that if a thief can find an easier target, he will likely move to that before tackling something more difficult...  As always though, the best way to protect ourselves is to make sure we don't make stealing something easy....

More later,
cheers,
Kyle