Hello Joe. All good advice regarding drainage while on the hard. Pat is very correct about a positive bow up angle. Place a level on the cockpit sole and make sure the bubble is floating forward. Otherwise any water that gets inside won’t be able to flow aft to the bilge sump in the engine room. While even more important for longer term storage than the 2 months you’ll be absent, an incredible amount of water can make its way inside the boat during tropical waves, depressions, storms and hurricanes through the anchor hawse and the masts. It is a good idea to get an expanding foam product at any hardware store  like GREAT STUFF greatstuff ‘dot‘ dow ‘dot’ com and fill the hawse hole that the anchor chain goes down to prevent water coming in. It works even better if you separate the chain from the anchor and drop the chain into the chain locker ( and put the anchor out of sight in a foredeck locker for safe keeping ), but you can use the foam around the anchor chain and it will stop almost all the water. Very easy to remove the foam and if you are lazy, a trip or two through the windlass makes it go away. Quite a bit of water can come in through the main mast in a driving rainstorm. Make sure that the small waterway passage (under the main mast inside the boat just overhead and outboard of the forward head ) that goes from the water trap that catches any water coming in from the mast ( all the mast wires for lights and electronics run through this water trap ) that feeds this water to the drain hole that is close to the shower head ( that allows the water to escape into the shower drain pan and make its way aft to the bilge sump ) is open and clear. I don’t know how the seeds the birds ‘expel’ while sitting in the rig end up inside the mast and then into this water trap, but they do and plug up the drain with not good results when the water trap overflows. Here in Florida, we check them monthly on the boats I have for sale or under my care. Yours was clean and clear when you left! If you leave the battery switches on, be sure to turn of ALL the dc/12-24 volt breakers. ALL including the ones in the hanging locker next to/aft of the navigation desk, and all the ones for the winches, windlass, furlers and all the ones in the engine room too. The stories I could tell you after 35 years of Amel adventures would seem too far-fetched to be believed but if the breaker ain’t on, nothing bad can happen to flatten the batteries. Or worse. I’ll tell you over an adult beverage next time we meet. Be sure to test the bilge pump switch for easy reliable operation. It’s a good time to carefully take the assembly for the bilge pump floater switch apart and clean it meticulously of all dirt, grease, hair and other nasty stuff. If not cleaned, this ‘goop’ can harden when it dries if it isn’t getting wet every day, and trap the switch float in the off or on position. Seen it happen twice. Not good either way. Be sure that the boat stands/cradle don’t cover up the cockpit drains ( unlikely but…) or the bilge pump exit .

Now you won’t wake up in the middle of the night and wonder ‘what if’.

Have fun with your Amel!

Joel

Joel F. Potter/Cruising Yacht Specialist LLC

THE EXPERIENCED AMEL GUY

954 462 5869 office

954 812 2485 cell

DOH! Pat, you are correct. When I said to shut off ALL the circuit breakers if you leave the red handled positive and negative master switches just next to the batteries in the ON position, I should have mentioned ALL EXCEPT THE BILGE PUMP BREAKER IN THE ENGINE ROOM. On every unmodified ( don’t get me started…) SM 53 I have seen, the bilge pump power supply is indeed cut off when you turn off both red handled master switches. And while I expect a happy go lucky Irishman like yourself to generally be cracking wise, regarding suggestions, you know I never have much of an opinion about anything. I’ll alert Joe privately, thanks for the catch.