Thursday, February 26. Today I spliced the Vectran to replace the steering cables. Splicing is really more tedious than difficult as long as you follow the instructions from NE Ropes and keep all the various marks on the line clear. One issue, however, is that the first line turned out 6" too short! Fortunately it was the long side and I was able to cut it and reuse it for the short side, but when I did and end splice on the next line, I carefully measured everything and, sure enough, it was 6" shorter than when I started. Sooooo, with that info in hand, I made up both sides and came out perfect. Tightened it all up and it feels great. I do have to rebuild the stops at each end as TMM had screwed that up as well as the lines, but it will be easy. After that, I finally got the Air Breeze up. That was quite exciting. I had started with the tower kit from Southwest energy, but because I decided to mount it half way down the swim steps, I needed to extend it. Originally I made a 4' section of PVC which was the same diameter as the aluminum pipe, but it just didn't seem strong enough. John Elliot (the welder) saw it and agreed and offered that he could get me 4' of 1 �" aluminum pipe the same as the original and two 4" sleeves to attach it with. That worked out great. I painted them first and pop riveted the sleeves in place. Mounting the final top section with the generator was the exciting part. The mount swivels down but the way I had it mounted, it swung out over the dink and on to the seawall. The biggest issue was trying to get the heavy wire that they call for to fold and stuff enough extra down in the tube so that it can be removed for service if necessary. To lift it into place, I got in the dink and walked it up while Deb pulled on the tail line of the Air Breeze. Once it was almost vertical, I got up on the swim steps and pulled it into place and locked the stays into place. It now feels very solid. Wiring the switch was another contest i n getting too heavy wires to bend. I finally got it in place, but it is a very tight fit and I am worried about possible chafe. We'll keep an eye on it. Now all we need is wind to test it out! With the watermaker and solar panels done, we really have all the major projects complete now. (But, of course, there are lots of 'minor' projects yet to complete.) Ray and Nadia MacStay arrive Sunday and will help us take a shakedown cruise to see how all this is working. Then we will return to Naples for probably another two weeks to try to finish everything before heading out.