Ok – we are a little behind on updating the blog. We will work to catch everyone up over the course of several posts…
It’s finally time for the survey! June 13th and 14th – two days for the hull survey and one for the mechanical survey. We flew in Sunday morning, the day before. Jeff Merrill met us later that Sunday. Lee, our hull surveyor, came Monday morning and Ernie, our mechanical surveyor arrived Tuesday morning. Neil and Elaine were on the boat Monday as well.
Lee got started first thing Monday. To say that Lee is detailed would be a disservice to him. He spent two full days looking at every part of the boat, every piece of equipment and tested everything for operation. He didn’t let up even when we were underway during the sea trial.
Earnie came in Tuesday morning and checked the operation of the main and wing engines as well as the generator. Oil samples were pulled and sent off for testing.
Jeff, as usual, took copious amount of pictures. If we haven’t said it yet, Jeff is an amazing broker. His knowledge and detail is amazing. We cannot say enough…
The haul out is always fun. We knew that the boat was big but seeing her out of the water is a show stopper. She is almost 40′ from keel to the tip of her antennas.
After we splashed her, Insignia was tied up to the yard’s side tie and they allowed us to drop the dinghy down for a quick cruise. The RIB ran well – fun baby boat!
At the end of the day Tuesday, Lee gave us a verbal run down of the items that will be on his written report. Our goal was to get the survey back from Lee and submit it to our bank by the weekend. We also were to have our mechanical report by the end of the week as well. If the bank had the reports by Monday morning, they could draft the paperwork and have it ready for us to sign on Tuesday – which was great as our one way return (Seattle to San Diego) Alaska tickets were for Tuesday afternoon! Tightly scheduled…
After leaving Lee, we drove Jeff to the train station and ourselves to the rental car return. Back to Seattle to wait for our paperwork and financing to wrap up over the course of the next week.
