Substantial progress has been made in the final outfitting of Phywave for its upcoming voyage. The Schaefer furling boom has been fitted and the mainsail rolled on. Tests from last Friday, June 24, running the mainsail up and down the mast show it’s working well and now operational. The Forespar telescoping whisker pole has been fitted to the front the mast. This will be used to pole out the genoa in light downwind/broad reach conditions to improve sail performance.

On the communications side, the antenna lead-in from the insulated backstay antenna to the ICOM AT-140 antenna tuner has been put in place using standoff insulators along the non-insulated portion. The HF SSB radio is an ICOM IC-7300 ham radio rig that I modified internally to transmit on marine and aviation band frequencies. This setup is working well – last night I talked to station in Malta, and few stations in the US.

The Iridium GO low speed satellite link is also installed and working well with the antenna mounted on the starboard side of the solar panels and the receiver inside in the starboard-side technical room along with the HF antenna tuner. The Iridium GO is primarily used for text communications and downloading grid weather forecast map files (GRIB files). It is also responsible for sending the GPS tracking information available on the sv_Phywave web page provided by Predictwind.

In the galley I’ve installed the small microwave oven which will be a real convenience. The propane system is installed and working although at this point I still lack a solenoid-controlled shutoff valve required in the propane locker (outside on the stern of the boat). I expect that to be installed in the next two weeks. It will make turning the propane on and off from the galley – much more convenient. Propane gas is heavier than air so it’s very important not to get it in the boat where it will sink into the bilge and stay there.

I also now have the 9.5 foot AB RIB dinghy (aluminum hull with inflatable tubes) hanging from the arch. A 6 hp Yamaha outboard motor is also on board inside a stern locker.

The next stop is Haven Harbour Marina in Rock Hall, MD, on the east shore of Chesapeake Bay where a 6 kW Northern Lights genset will be installed. While that’s happening the dodger and bimini frames will be completed and canvas installed. I expect these remaining items to be completed by mid-July.

On June 1 we climbed aboard the transport ship Spiegelgracht in Baltimore to offload my new sailboat Phywave. They swung it over the side and lowered it to the personnel deck level where we stepped over the railing and across to the deck of the still swinging Phywave. We were lowered another 20-25 feet to the water where we started the engine and waited for the lifting slings to be cleared. With that done we motored 4 hours south down the Chesapeake Bay to the Jabin boatyard/marina in Annapolis where Phywave will be for the first steps of its final outfitting.