Sunday, April 19, 2020

April 2020: Cruising Back to Fort Myers

Foreword:  Ghost Rider became our very own containment vessel for the few days it took us to cruise back to Fort Myers, staying offshore and stopping only at a couple of anchorages along the way.  There are worse ways to practice social distancing, and not many safer.  We would like to salute the front line medical workers and first responders who continue to put themselves in harm’s way. To once again quote Mr. Churchill: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”  Of course he also reportedly said something like “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted all other possibilities.”  That one is looking dubious.

First Leg: Palm Beach to Rodriguez Key (Near Key Largo)
With Yacht Tech mostly shut down we had definitely reached a point of diminishing returns on the east coast of Florida, so on Tuesday, 14-April we departed Loggerhead Marina in Palm Beach Gardens and pointed Ghost Rider south.  Joe and Carole (from N40 Barefoot Girl) helped us with dock lines, which was much appreciated as our assigned boat slip wasn’t an easy one for Chelle to dismount and remount the boat, especially with a very stiff breeze from the southeast pushing us off the tall fixed dock.  Our planned itinerary included an overnight run south to the Rodriguez Key anchorage near Key Largo, then a shorter day trip to the Marathon anchorage, and finally another overnighter from there to home port in Fort Myers.  The planning logic was simple: there weren’t any marinas taking transients, so anchorages were our only option; and we wanted to get past the mainland and down to the Keys quickly enough to avoid a worsening weather forecast for areas north of there.

We departed just after 1500….timed such that we would reach our first anchorage shortly after sunrise the next day.  It was mostly sunny, humid and hot with the temp hovering at 90F, but the stiff breeze coming off the slightly cooler waters helped keep it comfortable on the fly bridge.  By the time we reached Lake Worth winds were at a steady 20 knots but we had timed the two ICW bridge openings perfectly and made good time.  And somewhat surprisingly, when we punched through the inlet and into open ocean, the ride wasn’t too bad – two to three foot square waves with plenty of wind chop on top, but Ghost Rider seemed quite happy to be moving again.  However that hefty wind (with higher gusts) regularly kicked salt spray clear over the fly bridge and up to the satellite antenna dome.
Pilot House View at Dusk Near the East Florida Shoreline
We had planned our initial legs down towards Miami to be about three miles offshore, the thought being we would avoid most of the near-shore fishing grounds, along with the busy inlets and anchorage areas at Fort Lauderdale and Miami.  Unfortunately, while NOAA was reporting the western edge of the Gulf Stream ten miles out, that did not appear to be the case.  After the turn south we found ourselves bucking a current of at least three knots.  Following an hour of crawling along, sometimes under five knots of SOG, we hung a hard right, detouring two and half miles to the west.  We began hugging the shoreline about a thousand meters off the beach and that gained us two more knots of forward speed for a while.  But come night fall we once again swerved back out to the three mile limit line, mainly for the traffic avoidance and safety factors near the busy ports….and back into that nasty current.

Chelle took the helm for the early night shift (1900 to 2130), then Rick took over for the graveyard shift through 0430, followed by Chelle again for the final four hours.  It was after 0200 on Wednesday, 15-April before we got around Lauderdale and Miami – and their offshore anchorage fields looked like parking lots. There was a lot of stranded tonnage there, collectively with enough lights blazing to totally destroy everyone’s night vision.  
Radar Screen Capture as We Skirted the
Lauderdale Offshore Anchorage Area

Overall the night running was mostly without stress, but approaching the Miami area Rick had to hail one cruise ship on the VHF to clarify safe passing logistics.  The big vessel was lingering about a mile to the east of the offshore anchorage, but unlike all the others its AIS readout did not reflect an “anchored” status and it showed a few knots of movement; we did not want to get run over….a distinct possibility at our reduced ground speed.  It turned out he was “drifting in place” and we agreed on a passing protocol satisfactory to both vessels.

Once south of Miami’s Government Cut shipping channel we again cut back west and closer to the mainland to join Hawk Channel and run inside the Keys’ reef tract.  Even there we were still bashing into a current, although one not nearly as strong as the Gulf Stream’s fire hose.

Throughout the sortie the winds never let up, and the atmosphere remained warm and muggy all night – temps never dipped below 82F.  So when we reached Rodriguez Key and tucked in behind it just before 0900 and dropped the hook, the generator and A/C came online fairly quickly.  That anchorage is one of our favorites in the Keys – good protection, fairly isolated, plenty of swing room, just enough depth with mild tidal changes, and always clean, clear water.  But we had never seen it so empty.  We tended to some minor chores, napped, read and caught up on the news (blech) via satellite TV, then slept like stones that night.
A Shot of the Rodriguez Key Anchorage Near Sunset.....It Was Pretty Empty
We were not in a big hurry the following morning, Thursday, 16-April, since we only had a short six hour sortie down to Marathon in the mid-Keys.  It was still warm and muggy outside even at 0830 – temp and humidity both in the mid-80’s – but we had kept the genset and A/C running all night, so had slept well.  After our coffee, email and news checks we cranked up Ghost Rider’s systems, hoisted the anchor and were back underway by 0930. 
Our Track from Rodriguez Key to the Marathon Area

Hawk Channel waters were docile, generally about a foot, and since the wind had diminished considerably overnight to around 10 knots, featured just a light wind chop on top.  We had to dodge occasional strings of crab pots, but otherwise traffic was light apart from the occasional pod of dolphins that would glide in the boat’s bow wave.

Water quality was as good as we’d ever seen it inside the reef.  No debris, and bottom features readily visible in varying shades of blue, green and turquoise.  We had read reports the same was true all along the coasts of Florida following beach and facility closures that had reduced human activity to nearly nothing.  Perhaps a silver lining in the Covid cloud.

The Anchorage Near Marathon & Seven Mile Bridge
But around 1400 the calm of our peaceful cruise down the spine of the Keys got interrupted by a bright red warning light on the stabilizer control panel – for “High Temp.”  Nuts.  Rick went to the engine room and used the infrared temperature gun to verify the oil tank temp was high (it was, well above redline), then centered and pinned the stabilizer fins, and shut the system down.  A quick check of the manual revealed it had absolutely nothing to say about troubleshooting this error, so Rick pinged James Knight via SMS text for his input. James called back within minutes, and had Rick check the relative temps for the cooling input and output lines at the stabilizer’s oil reservoir (both normal), and also verify that the output line’s thru-hull seacock was open (it was.)  Seas were still quite gentle and forecast to remain that way for the final leg home, so the absence of stabilization wasn’t a big deal.  Conferring with a few other N50 owners gave us a pretty good idea as to cause (clogging debris in the cooling circuit, likely from zinc anode shedding); that will require considerable disassembly and flushing, so we decided to leave the system disabled, and wait to address once back in port.

We turned the corner at Boot Key and pulled into a mostly empty anchorage near Marathon around 1530, and had the hook firmly planted shortly thereafter.  Initially we left the generator off and the boat open for a few hours to let the engine room cool down a bit, then ran genset and A/C for a spell and recharged the batts.  By late evening the predicted cold front shifted the winds to a northerly flow bring slightly drier air, making it comfy enough to shut down and sleep with natural ventilation.
Chelle Cooking up a Spicy Taco Dish at the Marathon Anchorage
By 0800 on the morning of Friday, 17-April the winds had clocked around to the southeast once again and the breeze helped as it was already quite humid with a bright tropical sun gradually amping up the heat.  We started the generator around 1030 and let it charge the house batteries and enjoyed some cooling A/C.  Our goal was to be underway by 1530 – enough daylight remaining to pass through some of the more dense crab pot fields visually, but not so soon as to arrive at the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers before daylight the following morning.  And that’s what we did, weighing anchor at 1515.
Our Overnight Track from Marathon to Fort Myers

Once Chelle had steered Ghost Rider under the Seven Mile Bridge and into Florida Bay we found smooth water, mainly just a light wind chop, and we were grateful for that with the stabilizer system shut down.  We weaved our way around Red Bay Bank and then aimed the pointy end north, settling down for the long run up to Fort Myers.  As expected we were dodging the crab pots in the southern part of Florida Bay, and we managed to pick out most visually and on radar, although the wind-chopped surface made the latter erratic at times.

We manned the helm with the same shift schedule as the previous overnight run, with Chelle driving at the sunset and sunrise portions, and Rick in between. (His stay-alert technique: two mugs of coffee and a whole box of Girl Scout cookies.  Thank you Grace and Alice.)  It was a black, moonless night, the proverbial “boating in an ink bottle” run; looking straight ahead you could see absolutely nothing….not even the Nordhavn pennant fluttering a short distance away on the bow.

Chelle Steers Ghost Rider Towards the Seven Mile Bridge
Looking up, however, it was a different story.  With zero light pollution that far out in open water, the night sky was a star-studded palette of brilliant pinpoint lights.  To our west Venus was initially bright enough to leave a narrow wake of reflective light on the bay, and nearby Sirius was almost as bright.  To the east Ursa Major stood out, pointing dutifully to Polaris. Rick’s “Star Map” app could be distracting, and it took some discipline not to continually scan the sky and stare at that thing.  Way off to the northeast distant flashes of lightning would occasionally strobe out far enough for us to see, but our XM weather display told us the cluster of storms that spawned them were at least 75 miles away and moving further east.

Duel Radar....Totally Void of Any Traffic
In the blackness Ghost Rider’s Furuno DRS X-Class radar served as our eyes.  As is our habit we ran one radar display at close-in range and the other looking out a few miles further, with a two mile Guard Zone set up.  This night we also ran with the autopilot in “Track” mode, also known as “Nav” or “Auto-follow” mode on some pilots.  In open water on long, nearly straight stretches it’s a no-brainer to let the computers drive the vessel on its intended course.

We did not see another boat on the water from Marathon all the way up to Naples, either visually or on radar.  Throughout the night our conditions stayed comfortable, with following seas at about a foot, temps in the low 80’s, and humidity close to that.  The breeze turned from southeast and around to the northeast just before midnight, which also helped with better airflow in the pilot house. 

XM Weather Display Showing the Cluster of TRWs
Between Lake O and the East Coast of Florida
On Saturday, 18-April, we arrived at the Sanibel Causeway around 0730, and at that point we finally witnessed a normal level of boating activity on up to Fort Myers...plenty of small leisure craft getting early starts toward the fishing grounds.  We coasted upriver on an incoming tide and pulled into Legacy Harbour Marina at 0915, docking without any drama in mostly calm conditions. Then we spent two hours hosing off several layers of salt from Ghost Rider, unloaded gear and food, drove to our condo, and called the journey complete.
Sunrise Over Fort Myers Beach as We Approached the Sanibel Causeway
Overall Ghost Rider had performed very well.  Apart from the stabilizer oil temp / cooling issue, the only other thing to break the entire way was the starboard side (green) navigation light; we carry spare bulbs so that was an easy fix (although Rick did cut himself when the old bulb shattered in his hand; nothing new there.)  And our dipstick leak repair was so far holding up very well.  While it was disappointing to have to skip the planned Bahamas cruising, the maintenance depot stop at Yacht Tech was satisfying, as was the safe journey back home.
The Repair on the Dipstick Housing Oil Leak Seemed to be Holding Up
Our Complete Return Track -- From Palm Beach to Fort Myers -- as Seen on Google Earth

Sunday, April 12, 2020

April 2020: Final Maintenance, More Madness

Foreword:  We’re stilling hanging in there, practicing the recommended distancing protocols, and keeping busy.  And we are reconciling with the reality that things will be this way for quite a spell.  While leadership is hard to define and impossible to teach, the absence of it eventually becomes obvious….and costly.  Churchill once said, “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, it’s also what it takes to sit down and listen.”  We don't have a Churchill.  Of course Sir Winston also said “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”  So there’s that.  Keep on going.

As if We Weren't Spending Enough on the Boat, the
Condo Got a New Fridge / Freezer.
By this time we originally had planned to be in the Bahamas, but for obvious reasons that wasn’t going to happen this year.  So during the second weekend of our stay at Loggerhead Marina in Palm Beach Gardens we took care of a mix of personal and boat business.  Charmaine (Chelle’s mum) drove down from her winter home in Frostproof, FL, and we loaded up her car with supplies and food.  Chelle and Char then drove back over to Fort Myers to our condo and got Char settled in.  Unfortunately, as they were stocking the freezer they discovered it wasn’t cooling; that had happened before, so we decided we were done with that (LG) unit and had a new one delivered.  LG may make decent televisions, but their refrigerators are crap.

Rick had a couple of projects to attack over the weekend as well.  The first priority was tracking down a slight water leak somewhere on the starboard side of the forward engine room compartment.  That turned out to be the strainer lid for the main engine’s raw water cooling loop; it wasn’t loose or cracked, but it was missing one of the two o-rings that provide the seal between the acrylic screw-on lid and the strainer’s bronze housing – an easy fix.
Strainer Baskets Leak a Lot Less with
the Correct O-ring in the Lid.

There were also two other minor items that Rick had been putting off for a long time – and time was one thing he currently had available.  The first was cleaning, lubricating and adjusting the three sliding doors on Ghost Rider – two small ones in the pilot house, and the big beast at the rear of the salon.  Another item was the anchor’s blocking pin on the bow pulpit.  That’s a beefy stainless steel rod that serves as a mechanical brake when the anchor is stowed, and it has worked well enough except for the way that Nordhavn fashioned its safety line tether: a length of wire rope attached to the bow roller pin, whose rotation tended to twist and wrap that wire into a gnarly and tangled ball.  Rick cut off the wire rope, tossed it in the trash, and replaced it with a much more flexible segment of paracord, attaching that to a fixed stanchion instead of the roller.  That’s one less thing to worry about when deploying or retrieving the big Manson Supreme.

Maintenance – Part III
Yacht Tech reappeared at the boat on Wednesday, 08-April, to begin tackling our next project, which was to replace some of the aging and increasingly odiferous black water hoses.  If there was ever a maintenance item worth offloading to a third party, this was it.  It’s a difficult, messy and smelly endeavor.  But parts of Ghost Rider’s black water plumbing was showing its age, and while we had no leaks (thankfully) some of the older hose runs were permeating.  If one opened certain compartments or inspection plates a distinct sour odor would start to waft around.  It was time for action….or a divorce according to Chelle.
It Isn't Difficult to Tell Which of These Two Hoses is the Smelly One....the Bottom (White) One is Still in Good
Shape, but the Top (Yellowed) Hose Needs to be Replaced.
Dan & Paul drew the short straws at Yacht Tech, or were on James’ shit-list, we’re not sure which.  They wore gloves and masks, although this was an endeavor that called for that regardless of CDC guidelines for the current pandemic crisis.  We decided to go with James’ recommendation of Shields Poly X sanitation hose (at $22.50 per foot, or $30 if you’re crazy enough to buy it at West Marine), but pulling old hose lengths and running new ones is not for the faint of heart.  We decided to focus on the oldest (yellowest) hose runs and ended up replacing about 40 feet in total.  And, since one of those hose runs was the one going from the master head toilet to the black water tank – and that required disassembly of the toilet – we also replaced the toilet’s base and sealing gasket, using a spare kit that Rick already had onboard.
Paul (with the Heat Gun) and Dan Looking Less Than Happy Pulling Out Old Black Water Hoses.  This is a
Project That Warrants Hazard Pay.  The Heat Gun Was Needed to Remove Some Hose Ends that Had Been Glued.
While they labored on that delightful project Rick tackled one of his own down in the engine room.  The dipstick housing tube on the main engine, a big Lugger 6108A2 diesel, is a rather poor design – it features a sleeved fitting that wasn’t particularly tight and would seep small amounts of oil after a few hours of run time.  It certainly was not serious, but it annoyed the hell out of Rick.  The consensus was a whole new replacement tube would be just as problematic.  Bob Senter (aka“Lugger Bob”), the NOG’s resident Northern Lights expert, recommended removal, a thorough cleaning, a light sanding with a 3M Scotch-Brite pad, then a coating of either Permatex or Loctite Blue before reassembly. We had both sealants onboard but Rick chose the Permatex, since it tended to be less brittle after curing.  Reassembly was fairly straightforward, and testing will occur whenever we sortie back to Fort Myers.
The Dipstick Housing Removed from
the Engine Block.

Then, on Thursday, 09-April, Yacht Tech decided to shutter its operations.  Some neighboring shops were starting to report employees with suspicious symptoms and James did not want to take any chances with his employees and customers. He got no argument from us, it was the right thing to do.  Together we had made good progress on the Ghost Rider punch list, with only two items left outstanding – the rub rail replacement on the port bow, and the Triac heat cycle switch on the A/C compressor.  The former is just cosmetic, and Rick thinks he can figure out the latter item on his own between now and the next time we need heat on the boat.

Chelle drove back from Fort Myers to the boat on Friday, 10-April, this time in our own vehicle.  Eventually we’ll return to fetch it back home.  Her only stop was to fuel up ($1.69/gal at Costco) and also brought along a few fresh food items that we needed to restock on the boat.  Then we began to plan our escape from Palm Beach.  Right now it’s looking like we’ll have a decent weather window to get back underway on Tuesday, 14-April, with the rather modest goal of simply getting back to our home port in Fort Myers.  That will be an interesting journey since there are no marinas along the way accepting transients, but we’ll figure it out.  We’ll have more on that in the next blog.

In the meantime take care of yourselves and each other.

Friday, April 3, 2020

March 2020: Continued Maintenance & Madness

Foreword:  We are still hunkered down, observing public health protocols, and like everyone else closely monitoring the continuing Covid-19 conundrum.  Up until 01-April here in Florida some businesses and beaches actually remained open (and crowded), a stunningly stupid idea. Leave it to Florida to finally announce mandatory stay-at-home on April Fool’s Day.  Of course the federal efforts are just as mysteriously nuts.  We hope you are staying safe & sane despite the chaos.

The Loggerhead Marina Office in Palm Beach Gardens
Over the previous weekend we were saddened to say good-bye to Dave and Amy, as they were heading back to their dirt-dwelling home in Tennessee.  They had also recently decided to put their N40 (hull # 36) Intrepid up for sale (with Yacht Tech as broker, the listing is HERE.)  Dave is a pilot and Amy is a flight attendant, and they were missing their own airplane. Chelle had volunteered to finalize a few things on their boat after they departed, such as the disposition of a few remaining food items and defrosting the freezer chests, but that didn’t take long.

Also over the weekend we got a brief update from Brad & Lorraine Carlton aboard N55 Adventure.  They had been working very diligently and generously on hurricane relief efforts in Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas when the Covid-19 crisis intervened.  Here is Lorraine’s email update as of 29-March:
Chelle Finishing Up Work on N40 Intrepid
“We are hunkered down on GTC. 24 hour curfew in effect except for food, water, exercise.  We haven’t left the boat in 4 days. Got word today that we can go subsistence fishing with members of own family only. So, that is our plan today. No dinghies allowed on beaches. Needless to say, our construction has stalled for now. 

One restaurant (McIntosh) remains open for take-out only. The grocery store is still open. The ferry is no longer running to Treasure Cay so the island has been isolated. 14 confirmed cases in Bahamas. 12 in Nassau and 2 in Grand Bahama. Stay safe!”

Brad and Lorraine have done incredible work over there for several months now, and it’s worth reading about when you have a few minutes at this LINK.  We regret not being able to join them.

Maintenance – Part II
On Monday, 30-March we returned our attention to the punch list.  Dan from Yacht Tech came to the boat early to work on the control board for the MSR’s A/C compressor.  But after fiddling with it Dan determined that the entire board wasn’t toast. (This is the board we had salvaged from the old pilot house compressor two years ago.)  Instead, his sleuthing revealed the problem was now the “Triac” switch, which is a small transistorized relay on the control board.  There are two of them on each Cruisair compressor unit – one controls the cooling cycle, the other the heat cycle.  
The Two Yellow Arrows Point to the Triac Switches....the One for Heating
 Was Functional but the Cooling Switch Was Not....Se We Swapped Them.

Dan removed the one for cooling and swapped it with the heating Triac…and voila, the thing started working.  That means we still needed to source a new Triac for the heating side, but that most certainly is not a priority right now in south Florida, and those things are cheap compared to a whole new control board.  Dan is now officially Rick’s favorite marine electrician.

By Tuesday, 31-March one of our last punch list items remaining was servicing the windlass gearbox.  A proper maintenance curriculum calls for draining and refilling its gearbox with 90W gear oil every three years and that was now due.  There is a (mostly accessible) drain plug, but getting it refilled was another story.  The manual for the hydraulic Maxwell 3500 indicated the entire motor assembly had to be dropped for that part of the operation (their assumption being you would also replace seals.)  But Glen & Rob from Yacht Tech have a technique of pumping oil into the sight glass cavity, and while a bit messy it gets the job done.  Rob and Rick fired up the wing engine and hydraulics, ran the anchor through a few up/down cycles, double-checked the oil level in the sight glass and called it a success.
The Hydraulic Windlass Motor....Which is Located in the Chain Locker at the Bow of the Boat.
How Glen Crawled into the Chain Locker is Best Left to the Imagination.
The Same is True for How He Got Out of There.
On Tuesday evening Yacht Tech owner James Knight stopped by for a courtesy visit, and given how hectic his world has been, we were quite appreciative.  James had returned from Washington state (where Yacht Tech was branching out) about a week ago and had gone into a self-imposed quarantine while awaiting his Covid-19 test results.  We celebrated his negative results with Goombay Ghosts and entertaining conversation, and as usual James had some thoughtful advice on the few remaining maintenance items for Ghost Rider.
James and Chelle Aboard Ghost Rider
While the weather had been very pleasant since we left Fort Myers back on 12-March, on Wednesday, 01-April we awoke to even better conditions.  A mild cold front had passed through overnight, and after a brief rain shower in the wee hours left a cooler and drier air mass behind.  Temps stayed in the 70’s all day with humidity hovering around 44%, which by south Florida standards is quite dry.  After Rick hosed down and mopped the boat we shut down the A/C and opened hatches and doors.  The perfect weather was a bit mocking since there was no place to go.  Coincidentally, that same day the governor of Florida finally got his act together and reluctantly, under pressure, issued a state-wide “stay-at-home” order, which effectively shut down all non-essential businesses.  As it turns out, that did not include Yacht Tech.

Testing the Boat’s Bonding System
In the previous blog entry we had briefly mentioned at its conclusion that Rick wanted to determine just how well the boat’s bonding system was performing.  A vessel’s bonding system is what keeps its various metal components that are immersed in sea water (a very good electrolyte) from acting like battery terminals and corroding to a quickly dissolving death.  Technically speaking, that’s called galvanic corrosion.  The concept is simple – connect all those metal parts (bronze thru-hulls, stainless steel shafts and rudders) to a much less noble metal (one or more zinc anodes) and make that less expensive chunk of metal the sacrificial device.  A small slab of zinc (or aluminum) is a lot cheaper and easier to swap out than a thru-hull, shaft, rudder or engine block.
The Always Handy Multimeter and Reference Electrode Assembly. The
Latter Needs Enough Cable Length to Go Over the Side & Into the Water.

Ghost Rider’s bonding system consists of #8 green AWG wires and copper plate straps that run fore and aft on either side of the hull.  These are connected at several locations to embedded through-the-hull terminals fitted with 4” x 8” sacrificial zinc anode plates.  (Prop shafts have their own “donut” zinc collars.)  Then, inside the hull, all metallic parts and thru hull fittings touching water are connected together with more #8 AWG (tinned & stranded copper) that are branched off the fore and aft wire and copper runs. 

While we’ve never observed galvanic corrosion damage or uneven wearing of zinc anodes, Rick was curious.  A bonding system check is properly conducted using a “reference electrode” (usually with a silver-chloride element); it gets immersed in the water around the boat and its long cable plugs into the negative port of a multimeter; the positive probe of the meter is then connected to the (hopefully) protected metal component, and the meter then displays the voltage delta.  On a fiberglass boat protected with zinc anodes the meter should register from -550 to -1100 mV per ABYC standards, though Steve D’Antonio prefers a more conservative range of -750 to -1100 mV.  (And it’s worth noting that the adequacy of any boat’s bonding system can only be tested with the boat in the water.)
Testing in Progress on the A/C Raw Water Through-Hull.

The readings Rick took (initially just on three thru-hulls) on Ghost Rider were in the sweet spot, all at -940 mV.  Theoretically at least, all such readings should be identical if all the connections to the boat’s bonding system are solid and consistent. Likewise, the readings should remain the same when taken first with the shore power cord disconnected, and then again when shore power is re-connected to the boat’s electrical system – that’s a comparative that tests whether the vessel’s galvanic isolator device is doing its job.  And those also looked good on our meter readings for Ghost Rider.  If you are a boat nerd, want to know more about marine corrosion, and have time on your hands (who doesn’t during the current lockdown?) the ABYC webinar video at this LINK is edifying.

We still have a few punch list items to address, but both scheduling and obtaining parts are getting to be a challenge.  We hope to have a better idea of what will be possible early next week.  Stay tuned and stay safe.