When I inspected the good ship Egress upon arrival, she didn’t look to bad, though, she had several “hangovers” from the flooding when we first saw her in August.

The Bilge pump needed replacing as the existing pump shorted out, and would need replacing. She certainly needed a good thorough cleaning after having all that water. We also found that all electrical connections that run through the bilge areas never used marine grade connectors. They would have to all be replaced. Also the work on the mast that we thought would be completed upon our arrival was not completed yet. We didn’t have as much time as we thought to splash her as we were to leave for Duluth for the TALL SHIPS festival shortly after splashing her and we had family coming so we had things to do around the house. So we left it up to the marina to finish the mast work and install a new bilge pump, while Barb and I cleaned out the boat and replaced all electrical connections that ran through the bilge pump. 

In preparation for launch I removed the blanking plug for the triducer and installed the triducer according to the printed instructions. The insert instructions told me to install the thick yellow o-ring if we had a flapper type plastic housing rather then the thinner black o-ring. I followed the instructions, but it was tough to get the treads started on the cap nut. I wasn’t sure that this was right but the only way to tell if it leaked was to splash her.

Launch day arrived and I brought some bottom paint down to apply some paint to the areas we could reach because she was in the cradle when we painted her. The marina hoisted her up into the travel lift and I quickly applied some paint and they left her hang while the paint dried. Then the guys lowered into her into the water and sure as rattled goaltender the triducer leaked like a sieve. The crew at the marina fiddled with the triducer but she just wouldn’t seal. They then lifted the boat back out of the water and replaced the yellow o-ring with the black one, and then lowered her back into the water and the triducer didn’t leak. The instructions were wrong!  Being that it was late in the day, steeping the mast would have to wait until the next day.

Steeping the mast and the value of coins.

The next morning arrived and with much to do around the house I was running late and by the timed I arrived they had already steeped the mast and were attaching the running rigging. Arrgh that means the mast was steeped without the traditional coin placed on the mast step. Would this bring us bad luck? I watched and learned much about dock tuning the mast from the marina crew. After they had finished up I went below and terminated the wind transducer and triducer wires. I also terminated the mast lights and with help from the marina crew we tested the lights. All lights had previously been changed with LED except the deck light which of course didn’t work. I was happy that the depth gauge that I thought had issues from when I ran a bucket test back in May actually worked. And last but not least the wind transducer worked like a charm. Now I need to figure a way to drop a coin onto the mast step, since I don’t wish to test the theory of not having one and the bad luck it could bring.

We tied the Egress up to our slip and all was well as we prepared to head to Duluth.