Dunato's Boat Yard

Faraway was in Dunato's Boat Yard on Lake Union in Seattle from approximately September 1st 2015 until we pulled away from their yard on April 27th 2016.  During that time they did a tremendous amount of work on the boat.

Faraway at Dunato's dock just before departure

Much of what was done on the boat is somewhat transparent because it is under the hood, so to speak.  There were numerous replacements of pumps, hoses, fittings, etc. that are hidden from view, and so not readily apparent. 

Perhaps the biggest and most important improvement to the boat was to the electrical system.  They replaced all the batteries, added a new 8D battery, moved the generator battery closer to the generator, and installed a 2000W inverter.  An inverter converts DC (direct current) to AC (alternating current) so that certain AC devices such as microwave ovens and other devices can be used when the boat is not on shore power and not running the generator.

Another fairly major improvement was to the raft lifting system.  They installed a new connection system that connects to the fiberglass floor of the raft rather than to the air filled pontoons.  In addition they installed a winch system on the boat that allows me to winch the raft up to a vertical position on the swim step.  There are stand-off rods that secure the raft in the vertical position, although they had not yet been installed at the time of this photo.

Faraway raft lifting system

The hull was buffed and waxed, the bottom repainted, the boot stripe (that dark blue stripe right near the water line) was repainted.

Faraway gets cleaned up

The props were taken off and sent to a specialty shop where they straightened out any dings or bends.
Over almost 9 years of running we have hit many objects in the water.  Now the props are in A-One shape and will be as efficient as they were meant to be.

Rudders were painted as well

 Many other maintenance tasks were attended to.  My goal was to have the boat in as perfect shape as possible when we left the boat yard, and I think we accomplished that.

No one gets everything they want and in fact some of the tasks on my wish list ended up getting taken off for various reasons, mostly cost.

Here are a few of the more major items that ended up not being done:

   Water maker
   Auto Pilot
   Hard top for flybridge

A little after 1 PM on April 27th none other than John Dunato himself, and his friend Bonnie, came aboard as my crew to assist me to get through the locks.  They had been through them numerous times, perhaps hundreds of times, and they were the perfect crew for this assignment.  They handled all the lines and bumpers and all I had to do was steer the boat.

I did not have the time or resources to get any pictures as we made our way through the locks, but suffice it to say they were great and we had no issues whatsoever.

Shilshole Bay Marina is just around the corner from the locks so we made our way over there and into a slip on the guest float, where they again helped immensely by helping me get into the slip and get tied up securely.

Faraway at Shilshole Bay Marina

We moved onto the boat from the hotel the next day and spent most of the next week provisioning and preparing for the voyage back to Ketchikan.  Scheduled departure day was May 4th.