Our crew is onboard and we are ready to cruise. Also the sat tv is working.

Have always known I wanted to have a high quality watermaker on board. Hampton recommends Blue Water brand, and several of my friends know the founder/CEO. 

Also, a few of my friends have a tentative relationship with their watermakers. One of them says "most troublesome piece of equipment on the boat."  But this friend only washes his boat with "product water" as it is the most pure available. I'd have a lot of problems with hard water spots if I use the water at my home dock.

So my approach is to buy a truly current one, locate it where it is readily serviceable, and filter the hell out of the incoming water.  The location above is just to the right of the tool box in the lazarette. As you can see all the filters are readily serviceable. However the membranes are not, when they need changing the unit will have to come out. 

This article on the Tanglewood Blog clued me in to using these big media filters. (Thanks Peter.) They are a lot like a swimming pool filter, and they are super easy to back flush. They filter most of the crap out before the sea water hits the phalanx of other filters. 

Our unit is 1,500 GPD (although you get less in our colder water). 

Rather than lose any more floor space, Jeff from Yacht Systems NW suggested building this table over the beer keg/water heater. They did a super job making it a really professional look. 

There's one more piece of equipment, the low pressure pump which pulls in the seawater. I wasn't too excited about losing this floor space, it's a prime place for larger items like bicycles or what have you. But at least the pump is very serviceable. In between the pump and the thru-hull there is a strainer of course, it's easy to reach (kinda like Jeff is doing there as I took this pic). 

I can use the control panel on the unit to control it, and also there is a remote panel in the galley. Looks like we'll be able to order up some water whenever we want! 

Took our tender out for her maiden voyage. Guess we should have cracked a tiny little bottle of champagne on the bow?  It's a great ride. Walker Generation 400.

It's got a sweet little Garmin display. Everything works just like on Mahalo, so nothing new to learn here. It's integrated with the Yamaha engine too, so you can easily check its status.

We played around with some different mounting locations. Most Endurance boats have the tender athwart ships (sideways). This does involve an incredibly expensive modification to that stair railing.  I walked around the marina and you literally see every mounting configuration possible. 

In a fore and aft config like this, more often the outboard is hanging off the back. But I really don't like that look for our boat. Plus, this way, it's super easy to work on the outboard when you want to.  You can get completely around the tender, which you cannot in the athwart ships config.

Note that it isn't centered, the actual location will be dead on center which is about 18" or so to the right.  Our two kayaks will then fit very nicely on the port side.  I did some measuring, and with athwart ships, and two kayaks forward, it's the same amount of space used up as this config. 

This config also has advantages as far as through bolting the pad eyes.  So I think this is the winner. 

When I first saw our stainless Torrid water heater in the laz, in China, I thought "wow, that looks like a big keg!" Which hatched an idea of doing a beer label on it. 

I had lots of time to think about it. I looked at some beer labels on line. But what drew me in were old travel posters, think Lake Tahoe. I came up with the wording (blue is our them color for the boat), and specifically that the bottom of the MAHALO letters had to have this curvature. 

I went back to pictures I took at the Old Lahaina Luau in 2003, and selected this one of a dancer. Then Chris of Reid Signs (www.reidsigns.com) worked his magic and aloha to our new beer label! 

Unfortunately the huge media filter on top of the heater kinda took away from the effect. I had some thoughts of having a tap, like in a pub, made to go on top. 

​But anyway, if I ever decide to start brewing beer again I have the label! 

After a one hour haulout for Steve D'Antonio to assess below the waterline, we stopped at another yard to pick up our 1/2" HT anchor chain. Here Jeff Owen of Yacht systems has just begun pulling out the heavy chain.

Our Hampton Yacht Specialist Scott Hauck joins in "the fun." What a guy!

The chain was attached to a line, which was tied off in the anchor locker. The chain was brought on board with the windlass. Now to get the 80kg anchor off Mahalo's cockpit and onto the deck. No mean feat for two guys. Oh to be young again. Or have a young back again.

You think Dustin, on the left, got the bad end of this deal?

It's time for the old heave-ho and I think Dustin learned something?

And the anchor comes aboard for Mahalo for the first time! When it got to the roller, we had to tighten the clutch on the windlass.

Back at the dock and looking good! This is going to be a great system.