It has been almost six months since we took possession of the new to us 39' Marinette Aft Cabin Cruiser. Thought we would take some time on a cold and blustery late January day to create a blog post on what has been happening with us and the new boat. 
We officially took possession on July 28th. Erik's dad (Bert) and his wife (Felicitas) had been staying at our home in McConnelsville since early June where we enjoyed spending time with them. They were eager to see the new boat and spend some time aboard so when the time came to make the jump they traveled with us to Lenoir City TN (Ft Loudon Marina) to check things out and help with initial cleanup and transfer. We arrived at the marina late in the afternoon on a very hot and humid day. We were told by Larry, the previous owner, that the main A/C unit for the main salon and forward berth was flaky and only working intermittently. Well....intermittently was discovered to be not at all. It was going to be a hot and sweaty week aboard if we could not get the unit working. So, while Renee, Bert and Felicitas got started with stripping all of the previous owners stuff out of the boat and starting on a deep cleaning Erik started working on the A/C. Within a couple of hours, with the phone guidance of a marine HVAC guy who Larry had recommended, it was determined that both the motherboard and blower motor were going to need replaced to get it to operate. Tim, The HVAC guy, stated that he likely had, at a minimum, used parts that would work and could likely get there to work on it within 2-3 days.....hmmmmm. Erik made the decision to make a road trip with Dad to Tim's house and shop to hopefully get the necessary parts to make the repairs himself. Tim's shop was only about 20 miles or so away, but it was 20 Tennessee mountain miles in the middle of nowhere. His driveway alone was a dirt road over a half mile long. Tim was very helpful and set us up with a used motherboard and complete blower unit for a good deal. By the time they made it back to the marina it was well after 10pm. The temperatures had finally come down to a reasonable level and Erik decided that it would be best to wait till tomorrow to attempt the repairs.
Renee, Dad and Felicitas had continued with major cleaning. The boat had not been particularly cared for or cleaned well for quite a while. There were spider webs and spider poop on everything outside, carpet that required cleaning, cabinets that were grimy etc..etc..etc...
The first 3 days the boat never left the marina slip and lots of sweat and elbow grease went into the chores. It was nice to have Dad and Felicitas aboard to help, but, we started feeling bad that they were working too hard. Finally, on the 4th day aboard, we took her out of her slip and spent the day cruising Lake Tellico. It was a beautiful day of cruising, floating and swimming. Toward the end of the day we had made arrangements to meet with one of dad's previous coworkers at Tellico Village Yacht Club/Blue Herron restaurant where we had a nice visit and dinner. We arrived back at the marina just as the sun was setting.
We spent the remainder of that first week on the boat continuing to do all kinds of miscellaneous small projects to the boat along with continued cleaning. We did manage to go out for a couple more nice cruises to help break up the time and not make the trip ALL work and no play.
Just two weeks after our return home we made another trip down to the boat for a long four day weekend, this time with our good friend Belinda. We had made the conscious decision to make this second trip much more relaxing. We had wonderful summer weather and a great time sharing the boat with our friend and showing her a little about our love of cruising. We did several trips out onto the lake. Our usual trip is always up toward the top of Lake Tellico to get the wonderful views of the foothills of the Smokey Mountains. We anchored out one night near the the old historic Ft Loudon. We had debated on making the trip up the Tennessee River to Knoxville since this was the only portion of the river that we had not yet traversed. This would have been approximately 50 miles each way. We decided that since it was getting near to the end of our long weekend that we would not do that entire trip but instead just cruised up the Tennessee River about 10 miles or so and then floated in a cove there for a bit before heading back to the marina. This was a very nice and much needed weekend aboard. Makes all of the work worthwhile. P.S....Belinda will have to get invited back soon since she brought three beautiful, huge and tasty steaks along with her that fit just perfectly on the grill!
In late October we made another trip down to the boat, this time with Erik's brother, Mark, and his wife, Pam. We were hoping for the opportunity to see the area during the height of leaf change. Unfortunately, we did not quite time that perfectly. We did see what was the beginning of a lot of fall color but it was still a week or more off from the true peak. Nevertheless, it was another fun weekend aboard with family. Mark will be retiring this coming May and he and Pam are seriously considering moving to the coast around the NC area. Part of Mark's desire it to also have some sort of cruiser to explore the ICW in that area. The weather was chilly, but it did warm up enough for a nice cruise up to the top of Lake Tellico and to explore the Ft Loudon area. We docked the boat at the Fort and spent the afternoon up on the flybridge enjoying each others company, a tasty charcuterie board and unfortunately a Browns loss.
Finally, and most recently, We made the trip back down to spend a week aboard the week between Christmas and New Years. This again, was intended to be largely a working trip. However, we did take the time on the way down to stop in at Gatlinburg where we spent one night. We did a nice hike and explored the town. We had a very tasty dinner at The Cherokee Grill and Steakhouse, recommended by one of Renee's teacher friends from New Lex. The town was hopping with lots of people this holiday week. We waited over an hour to go up to the top of the mountain on the chairlift. It was a neat view down at the town with all of the lights. The skybridge was neat also but some of the affect was lost on the glass floor section since it was dark.
We had contracted with a guy in October for a major canvas and enclosure job. When we arrived we were very pleased to see the completed new flybridge bimini top and isinglass enclosure as well as a top that connects the upper bimini with the lower bimini over the aft deck. Also, we had him make new splash guards and gates around the aft deck that now go down closer to the floor to make it safer for Riva and hopefully keep her from losing toys overboard.
We had made arrangements in the fall months with Bruce of Alexanders Mobile Marine to meet us at the boat early this week to discuss and go over the electrical scope of work that we want accomplished over the winter. Bruce is a ABYC (American Boat And Yacht Council) certified electrician. This is important to us because obviously we want the boat to be wired safely and correctly. It was NOT when we purchased it. Someone over the years of ownership had done a hack job on the electrical panel. We met with Bruce as scheduled and reviewed our desired scope: updated electrical panel, installation of new inverter system and battery bank, installation of 'backbone' for Simrad system that will give us ability to connect up all our Simrad radar, chart plotter and newly acquired fuel flow meters.
In addition to meeting with the electrician we also spent several days 'digging in' and discovering much more about the systems and locations of things on the boat. We changed the engine oil in both engines and the generator and put new impellers in the water pumps of the engines. We also tore apart and winterized the Purisan toilet units in both heads. We were uncertain whether these units were really working properly and discovered that one (the front one) appeared that it was but the other (rear one in the main berth) was not. While trying to service it and get it to work properly we managed to break a couple of the old, brittle fittings and had to place orders for replacement parts. We were able to get both units winterized though. We also winterized both A/C units and the complete water system on the boat. With a small ceremony and no wine to offer Poseidon we renamed her "Happy Destiny". By the end of the week we were satisfied with our progress in getting to know our 'new to us' vessel.
These first couple weeks of January we have spent multiple hours on the phone, emailing and texting back and forth with the electrician on designing and planning for the electrical upgrades. Erik mostly just looks and listens in with confusion while Renee and he discuss design options. Renee is MUCH better at this type stuff than Erik and has spent many hours herself researching standards and options. It was looking like the electrical panel/s and equipment itself (not including the labor to install) was going to be custom designed and built and be quite expensive :-( However, after some more research and considering it has been decided that we are going to simplify some things in order to both hold costs down as well as ensure that we will be able to get needed components in a reasonable amount of time. We are now currently planning to order essentially a pre made panel, switches and disconnect box that will suffice for our needs. We will be eliminating the single 50amp service input for now and just go with the double 30amp service that is located on the front of the boat. This is what most marina's have readily available anyhow and also what we have shore power chords for to feed. More to come on this when we see how things progress. Crossing our fingers!
