Why We Disappeared . . . Boatyard Blackmail!

First, thank you everyone for all of your concerns! Second . . . WE DID IT! After 2 of the most confusing, emotional, and stressful months of our lives, we finally made it back to the water. We left off on our channel with Amanda preparing to graduate her Physician Assistant program and studying for her final Board Exam. We are so proud to say that Amanda graduated in the top 10% of her class, passed her board exam with flying colors, and that we were able to escape to celebrate for a couple days. Our plan was to go on vacation for a few days, celebrate the end of Amanda's 8 year school career, and then come back to wrap up the 3 months or so of work needed to launch the boat. In the middle of the trip, we got a call from the boatyard and our plans instantly changed. We had already been through a lot at Cracker Boy Boat Works, including termites, bad shipstore products, and harassment, but nothing that we couldn't shrug off. This time though, the yard threatened to double our rent from $3k/month to $6k/month because we weren't 'making enough progress'. This is the short version, we aren't into bashing people online, but IT SUCKED! After getting the news, we had something like 20 days to get our boat in the water . . . which compressed our timeline by almost 4x. Needless to say, we ran around like crazy, spent a lot of money, and really struggled to do good work. We ended up fighting with the yard and taking an extra 3 weeks after almost sinking in their slip due to a failed grounding plate seal. When it was all said and done, we had painted the boat, started a hydraulic steering system, fiberglassed custom rudders, machined custom stainless rudder brackets and hardware, built a custom masthead, rigged our mast with Dyneema, serviced our Dinghy/engine, tore down our main engine (still in progress), built our 16kWh lithium battery bank, built a custom 1500w charger, fabricated and mounted a crossbeam, made some custom moorings, and were still able to record a few of those moments! It was a crazy amount of work, and we still have a way to go, but we are alive and wet :) Thank you to everyone who has supported us and checked on us. We are excited to announce that we are still working on this project, and that we will be resuming more regular videos very soon! If you want to help out or get involved, feel free to reach out to us on Facebook or by email: maroonedby5@gmail.com Sand, Sun, and Rum. ~ Amanda and John