Monday, March 23 Unpacked all the goodies that arrived while we were gone. All the rigging stuff came from North East Rigging and all the dinghy stuff from NRS. I am not real impressed with the "mast bracket" that he had 'fabricated' - it is a piece of stainless steel, bent twice to create a "U" shape. It does fit the mast appropriately, but not at all what I expected. Everything else looks great - good quality stuff. With all this in hand, I started laying out the location of all the parts. Used blue tape to mark fair lines from the mast to the winch and then tried to lay each line along the course.

Tuesday, March 24 Spoke with Kevin at NE Rigging and he explained that the bracket was to position the blocks further behind the mast and allow them to be a bit more widely spaced. That does make sense so I guess that is what I will do, it just doesn't seem like much of a "fabrication."

Wednesday, March 25 Mounted the bracket to the mast and installed two double blocks for the reefing lines. Replaced the lines with new high tech ones and ran them back to cockpit. After much measuring and wiggling, I got all the line clutches in place where I wanted them and started drilling holes. Fortunately, they all came out in the area about the dish cabinets as planned. After I had everything installed, I took them all out, drilled all the holes oversize, scraped out the core from between the layers of fiberglass and filled the holes with thickened epoxy. This makes a much stronger installation as the forces could crush the core if it were left in. Tomorrow I will drill them out again and install the clutches. While I was doing all that, Deb was making mosquito netting covers for all our hatches.

Thursday, March 26 Finished installing the clutches and running all lines back, measuring and marking them. Deb had to hold each bolt with a screw driver from on deck while I screwed on the lock nut from below. Haven't replaced the main halyard yet as it has been too windy to go up the mast comfortably. Made a West Marine run to get a new winch handle (old one won't release half the time) and some fishing lures for local waters. Discovered that West Marine now carries Bose speakers again. I had tried to get some last December but was told they no longer carried them. The store was out of the 131 model I wanted, but said he could get them in overnight.

Friday, March 27 I got and installed the new Bose speakers in the cockpit. Also cut out and stained new access panels for the stairwells which will allow me to get at the one location I have not been able to figure out (and where I need to mount the control block for the spinnaker.) Luke is coming tomorrow so spent a bit cleaning up the boat.

Saturday, March 28. Lucas came to visit his Sea Gypsy parents. Wind was blowing like stink from the South (varying SE - SW) so we decided not to go sailing and instead walked the beach. The waves were amazing and the 'tide' was high all day due to the wind blowing water in and overcoming the moon. Luke got to do some body surfing and he and Deb collected shells. Back at the boat we enjoyed the Dolphins, tried (in vain) to catch some snook, enjoyed raw oysters in the cockpit, walked back to the beach for sunset, and finally had fresh snapper for dinner.